And what colour is your neck?

Finally sitting down to blog about last weekend's getaway to the East Kootenay. Every year, a whole whack of our friends and family, and their friends and families, get together for a 24-hour par-tay, the likes of which you just don't see in the Big City. There's singing, swimming, camping, potlucking, singing, visiting, star-gazing, singing, occasional skinny-dipping (it was too cold this year!), some mosquito-swatting, pancake-breakfasting, and more singing.

In other words, it's one heck of a good time! (Did I mention the singing?)

We started out with some Cabo Wabo on my parents' deck - please note the very classy A&W mini-mug:

(Even better was the swig of Don Julio a friend shared with me, right out of the bottle! How's that for getting in touch with latent redneck tendencies? High-end tequila, no glass required.)

Then, out to the festivities - a friend's property a ways out of town. There was playtime with the kidlets, who were most excited to see Mr.Q. There was running and chasing and tickling, and some scrambling around on old farm equipment:

I'm not actually sure who had more fun with it all, the kids or Mr.Q.

Then, there was playing with the grown-ups: music, and lots of it, well into the night (and a good part of the early morning, as well!) My baby sister & I got together onstage with our pal Beth, in our "Mad Cows" incarnation (I love, love, looove Beth's hat!)

Mr.Q and I did a set, too, but I gots no good pics of that one. There was further quality time with fambly:

That there is my baby sister on the left. Can you tell? No family resemblance at all, nosiree. What cracks me up about the pic is that neither of us knew the other was sticking out her tongue. A class act, we are!

After hours of singing, and enjoying a lot of fantastic music well into the wee small hours, I had to crash. Not wanting to haul a lot of camping gear, we went for the minimalist approach:

It was a mite cold when the dew settled...thank FSM I'd packed my Malabrigo toque and some hand-knit socks! But it was delicious, laying in the sleeping bag, listening to the music from the stage bounce off the mountain behind me. Watching shooting stars and satellites.

(Oh! Oh! Oh! And we saw the ISS go over - waaay cool!)

Though the early sunrise was very...bright. And my back is still a bit achey after sleeping on the air mattress. Still, it was worth it. And my very clever and resourceful parents had coffee on first thing in the morning:

(Again, with the high-class setup! Spiked liberally with Baileys, it was nectar of the gods, it was.)

And somewhere between coffee and breakfast and "omgifIdon'tgetoutofthesunI'mgoingtomelt" and really, really wanting a shower, there were a few more tunes:

That's me on the left, in the blue T-shirt, desperately clutching my coffee mug. My sister is sitting on the far right, and between us are 3 very dear friends. Does life get much better than that?

Nope, I don't think so either.

(For the record, the gal with the guitar is the one who started me knitting. It's all her fault. And gosh I love her for it!)