Nantucket Red - The Official Partay, Pt 1

Saturday dawned and Geoff and I did wake up to find a tent in the yard. Not out of necessity, as there was plenty of space to sleep, but just because Evan wanted to. Sure, why not? The morning consisted of deck time and partaking in Kristyn's gift to Clay - The Morning After Basket (complete with Bloody Mary fixins)and I learned that Clay can make a mean bloody mary. I hadn't even had one that I liked up until this point. But Dang. And Yum. I think pickles are the secret. After at least partially recovering from their late nite birthday festivities (in which I think Kevin may have been nearly mistakenly arrested - but wasn't, as they literally had indeed mistaken him for someone else), most folks hopped on Clay's boat and headed for the beach. Alison, Geoff and I stuck close to home, chilled on the deck and helped with last minute party prep.

Mom clipped new hydrangeas. Very patriotic with her fun hat.



Alison = pretty

Alison and I chopped stuff to make this pasta salad. Tomato, basil, mozzerella, yellow peppers, and a mustard balsamic vinagrette. Pretty Yum.


Then it was party time....Check out Clay's pants. Those are sailboats, and all things nautical I believe.


Me & Alison


Kim & Kristyn - who just ARE Nantucket at all times. Amazing.


Rupert snuggled up with Alison


On the deck with a margarita. Ahhhhhhhhh.....


More classic Clay & Alison (I really love this picture)


Hayley with football, wondering why no one will play with her. She didn't know she'd been benched after cutting her foot and splattering the deck with blood earlier in the day.


Clay teases Hayley


The family


The full crew - I actually think I have one of the best outfits. There, I said it. Best, as in, true to appropriate style. Besides Clay, of course.


Love this series - The four of us.... (normal)


Clay starts making his Stupid Face....Mom senses something is happening...


Mom checks to see what he's doing...


She doesn't like it. :-)


After the BBQ portion, we move to the backyard for some "Fun & Games".... coming soon.

Nantucket Red - The Actual Birthday

OK, this is gonna go a lot faster as a photo montage....Too much to tell. Basically, there were friends, laughs, cocktails, pizza, jokes, photos, presents, cake, and fireworks to celebrate Clay's 30th birthday. And a late night party scene at The Squire, a bar downtown, which I barely made it through 30 minutes of as I am old and lame. But the cool kids seemed to have a blast. And the sun even came out for us briefly.

The Tobe - just as the guests start to arrive....


Dad & the Ladies


The View


Photo Mantle...Clay in his youth


Hayley & Her Fancy Collar


Partay on the Deck


The Birf'day boy


Kim & Clay check themselves out


Kristen & Kim make the boys laugh...


Geoff - Chillaxin'


Mom, the Boys, & bacon wrapped scallops


Classic Clay & Alison


Turtle Time - Alison shows off her turtle necklace (I have a matching one and know its secret meaning and also at this point and am super grateful she's my best friend)


Clay showed us a fun new trick - Relax all the muscles in your face, shake your head back and forth real fast, and have someone take a picture. If you're lucky, you too can capture yourself on film looking like this:


The big 3-0 (Texas Sheet Cake "3" & a cheesecake "0")


Contemplating a MASSIVE amount of Candles


Clay's present from Alison - for the dash of his fancy new car.


Sparklers on the deck


Yay for Clay and the big 3-0. I was super glad we could be there to celebrate. Even if my celebrating didn't make it all the way into the wee hours of the morning, it was no less genuine. Love you Claybo!

Now onto the official partay the next day.....

Nantucket Red - The Calm Before the Storm

Well. It was quite the Fourth of July weekend.

We drove up Wednesday night - leaving the city at 9pm - far later than anticipated. BUT, this proved to be a good thing, as there was zero traffic and it made for a shorter trip. We got in around 1:30am I believe.

Thursday dawned damp and foggy. This was the only day we had as a family before the Par-tay descended and it was lovely. Clay arrived bearing pizza - Upper Crust Pizza (certainly the best on the Cape. And possibly the world.) We helped mom get ready for the party, and generally enjoyed ourselves.

Dad had brought lobsters down from Maine the day before, so the 6 of us (Mom, Dad, Clay, Alison, me & Geoff) enjoyed lobster, corn on the cob and Cape Cod Salt & Vinegar potato chips. Along with several bottles of Savingon Blanc. Amazing.


Clay had a wardrobe for the whole weekend, not just the party. It was only Thursday and he was already outdoing us.


Here he is in full effect, with Alison's dog, Rupert.


The Hayley


Alison and I needed a bit of coaching on how to do Lobster - as this was only my second time ever.


After dinner us kids went to see Public Enemies (Johnny Depp, Christian Bale). The Savignon Blanc and the fact that I didn't have any characters to care about within the first 15 minutes, caused me to sleep though most of it. Never done that before.

Friday breakfast -


Hydrangeas from the bush on the side of the house. Yes, these are real. And, in the spirit of the weekend, in a Nantucket Basket.


Toby likes to lay in a hole of his own digging just below the back porch. It's cool, shady, and gets him some Alone Time.



Hayley - so pretty!


Toby - in his standard meal time position


As the guests started to roll in, Alison made a homemade sour cherry pie. Which started out like this:


And ended up like this:



A woman of many talents. No Doubt.
More to come...