lindsay + willieville + america

{warning: lots of pictures, mostly for my mama :)}

a weekend for the books. 
one that was over the top good, 
needed, 
and not soon forgotten.

we started with a birthday party for my bff Lindsay at Arrington Vineyards.  
aside from the 187 degree heat, it was damn near the cutest thing ever.  
Wynne and I took the reigns and had a ball planning the thing {in about 3 days!}.  
we had most of the food catered and I made/gathered every single bit of the "decor" from my house...easy enough!
it had the birthday girls' name written all over it.

there was live music, we drank wine from the vineyard, partied with kix brooks {kidding!}

convinced ourselves we were sweating off every calorie and alcohol absorbed 

and loved all over each other,

celebrating the good life we're livin.

after a night out on the town, a rocky cab ride home, 

and me, 

somehow being dragged outta bed at 6:30 am to cook my people a full on country breakfast...

we hit the road.  

headed just a little bit north. 

to the bluegrass state.

seven of us, our little family {most of us!}, 

three dogs, two trucks, $100 worth of meat, 

six cases of natural light, a guitar, tambourine, our redneck everyday clothes 

and an extra pair of jorts and tootbrush packed....we headed to Russellville, KY.

to my other bff Willie's home and farm. aka: Willieville.

my heart sank and fluttered and leaped as we drove through miles and miles of

wheat fields, corn fields, amish farm land, 

passing beautiful barns & precious town squares 

it made me homesick 

and thankful.

thankful for the 24 hours i could already tell were going to be perfect

perfectly needed.

w's sweet sweet sweet angel mama, "Red", greeted us with giant hugs, chocolate chip cookies 

and pride 

as she showed off her beautiful new farm home that willie built entirely with his own two hands, just a year ago.

not even kidding.

we shot skeet all afternoon, played with the pups

visited with family & friends, told lies and good stories

while ribs and a boston butt simmered in the smoker.

we stuffed our faces with bbq and the trimmings. 

had a sing-a-long. poured whiskey drinks.

built a fire that was too hot to get within a gajillion feet from

but just felt right.

oh and we may or may not have made our second "music city bush hogger" video.

in a wheat field.

we started at midnight. 

{take a moment to consider the side effects/results}

it took 13 takes. that's about 42 less than the first video.

Red made coffee around Take 7 and brought it out to us.

we had magical lighting from my truck headlights, mastered by daniel.

wynne was the videographer using a broken iphone.

with Taylor singing, Willie {THE music city bushhogger} doing whatever he does

Lindsay, Colby and me as back up dancers/singers.

magical {and ridiculous}, i tell ya.  

{FYI:  it's spoofed off of luke bryan's latest hit "drunk on you". the first song/video is a rip off of a brantley gilbert song}

many an hour later....

as usual we all piled up together, slept for a few hours 

and woke up to the smell of biscuits, gravy, red links, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, etc..etc.. 

that's right.

we sat around the big farm table, drank coffee 

and talked about 

America.

then we gathered our things, picked up no less than 4,289 beer cans and 2,137 busted clay pigeons

loaded up the trucks and hugged Red goodbye.

with a stop at the dairy dip, windows rolled down, greasy hair, dogs in our laps, donning our MCB hats...

happy, fulfilled and refreshed.

we headed home.

{these three pics are my favorite. lindsay captured all of this from the back seat, while Gunner slept in my lap}

we got home, promptly took naps, showers 

and reunited 

for 

grilled hot dogs

the hatfields & mccoys

and solid porch time.

happy birthday lindsay.

thank you kentucky.

god bless america, our dads and grandfathers.

amen.