Why 4th of July in East Tennessee is so great...

Seriously people, the fourth of July is possibly my favorite holiday: blowing things up, eating food, enjoying summer, hanging out with friends and family. This year I continued my hot streak of never working on the 4th: major bonus points, America. And here in Tennessee, you can embrace your inner redneck. Which is why it is so great.

We started off our holiday weekend with some shooting. The guys brought all their guns out and shot them at targets and clay pigeons and loved every second of it. I even participated. And got a very lovely sunburn out of the experience. But don't worry, it only adds to the southern appeal.

We are obviously pros by now.

Sunday night we headed out to our friend Michael Durbin's homestead to shoot off a few fireworks. Once all the guys had compiled their loot, this is what it looked like.

Tonight's gonna be a good, good night.

We shot off fireworks from 9-midnight, non stop. We had all kinds of goodness going on and I'm actually kinda surprised no one got hurt. (There may have been a few minor mishaps, but don't you worry.)

On Monday(after suffering minor hearing loss from all the guns and fireworks and smelling like delicious smoke mixed with bug spray) we headed to a pig roast. I don't know what kind of horrible blogger I am but I do not have a picture of the pig being roasted. But it was kinda windy and spitting outside so I left the camera in the car and just stared in awe at the pig on the smoker. I didn't eat any of it. Its head was still on there. Just sayin'.

After the pig roast, we headed back from some quality Kingsport celebrating with our friends Stephanie, Logan, Tess, and Nate. Kingsport really does it up right, our street is lined with food vendors and bouncy houses and they set up a stage and have lots of bands come and serenade the Kingsportians. (One band was called the Westbound Rangers. Quality.) We got our fill of funnel cakes, kettle corn, hot dogs, and lemonade. Then we took the par-tay out on our rooftop to watch fireworks. Which was actually pretty cool because you could see all the other cities fireworks shows from up there. Gorgeous.

Nice fireworks photos thanks to Caleb

We ended the night with some sparklers in the alley, because that's how we do it.

Perfect 4th of July weekend! Channeling our inner redneck and the American spirit. Perfect.

I look tense on the roof because standing that close to the edge makes me nauseated.

This is how I prefer to remember Tennessee: smelling funnel cakes, getting a perfect view of a fireworks show, and cuddling up to my honey.