The Fourth with some flair!

Arthur's parents called him the morning of the 4th of July wondering what he was doing.  Arthur had his hands full so I answered the phone and replied, "Oh, we are just butchering a sheep right now."  I think his dad was taken aback by our activities and I was frankly somewhat surprised that I had also found myself in a shed discussing the innards of a sheep.
We had gone back to my old stomping grounds to celebrate the weekend.  My younger brother was having several friends out and thought it would be fun to roast a lamb.  That morning he and my cousin had killed the lamb and we arrived in time to help skin it and butcher it.  It was an interesting crowd for animal butchering.  My brother and cousin both have ag degrees.  My sister-in-law and I are in the medical field and have quite a bit of cadaver dissection experience between us.  My sister-in-law's sister was also in attendance and she has a biology degree and works with the domestic animals at a zoo.  And Arthur is an engineer.  I wasn't going to participate but I just couldn't stay away from a good dissection.  I think the thing that was most intriguing for Arthur was seeing the lungs and heart and how the lungs could be inflated.
That afternoon we headed out to a friend's cattle pond.  It was originally a sand pit that we call the "Redneck Riviera".  The guys had set up a spit to roast the sheep.  We swam in the water, took the canoe for a swim, and even did a little bit of tubing behind a jet ski.  The lamb turned out to be pretty tasty.  We set off some fireworks and made s'mores (my favorite).
The next morning Arthur and I hit the county roads for a bike ride.  It was windy that morning so we were able to talk my dad into being our SAG wagon and coming to pick us up at the end of the ride.  Where I grew up is pretty flat and without the wind it was a good ride.  Some people were out harvesting and summer was in full swing.  Our final stop was at an overlook at a wildlife refuge which was a great ending to a 30 mile ride.
When we got home my mom had fixed a more traditional 4th of July lunch than lamb with BBQ and homemade ice cream (another favorite for me).  We enjoyed lounging around, napping, a reading for a good portion of the day.  That evening we did some star gazing and saw several shooting stars-- nature's own fireworks.  Omnia Vincit Amor.