Double the Celebration: The Birthday Weekend

Barton Turns 40...Surprise! Fun on 2 birthdays...Me & Barton. You know surprise parties are the hardest to "pull off", however, Andrea started working on this one months before July 5th. Barton's 40th had been on all of our calendars for months, and he truly had NO IDEA! (for those of you who maybe have not read posts below, Barton is one of my partners in Freezer Locker Films, the Executive Director of EC2055, and one of my greatest friends!) As the day drew closer, we were all struggling with the "foot in the mouth" disease, but we all made it and managed not to spoil the surprise. Barton's party was on Sunday night at Kyma and Whiskey Blue. The next day Brad and I moved to Barton and Andrea's house to hang out for the next two days. Monday night, for my birthday, we went to Stoney River for dinner and on Tuesday we spent the day at Six Flags. I don't think any of us had been to Six Flags in about 20 years....so that was interesting to say the least!

So now for a little explanation of the pictures...below, the gathering of Barton's friends as we are waiting for him to walk in. Barton thought that it was going to be just a few friends for dinner. Because of a minor slip up in our "story", he knew Brad and I were coming to Atlanta and going to dinner with them, so we took a cab out to their house and rode back to the party with them in the stretch Hummer, another little fun thing for a birthday!

Barton greeting all his unexpected guests!
Dinner at Kyma

Barton thanking everyone for being there and for their friendship...

Brad and "Miss" Catherine (Barton's mom)...

A toast from mom...with a little singing..

The Early Co. 2055 crew just before moving the party to Whiskey Blue...

L to R - Brad, Me, Barton, Andrea, Lisa & Georgina

Me and Barton's wife, Andrea, before dinner

Me, Barton & Brad at Whiskey Blue

Me, Barton, Brad & Kim Wall. Kim was in our second movie, SAVAGE,

and has been a friend of Barton's, literally, since they were born. A little

Blakely connection that Kim has....Dr. Wall was her grandaddy.

This was on Monday, just hangin' with the Rice's :-)

Me and John Patrick

On Tuesday, Brad and Nicholas getting a little rest

on the way to Six Flags....

Under this Six Flags sign should hang another sign that says "If you are

30 or older, keep your butt on the bench and watch...you are OLD and

will regret this in the morning".... I think that is self explanatory!

I don't know why it is that normal, intelligent people get the "oh we're gonna

get wet anyway" mentality....."so let's just get it over and ride them all first".

So our FIRST RIDE was the water logs...and as we rode ALL of the water rides,

Nicholas would absolutely fall in love with them and immediately say "let's ride it

again". Since Six Flags truly is for kids, we would promptly step back

in line. The picture below is of us after our 1st ride on Thunder River.

For those of you who have not been on that in a while,

you NO LONGER get damp, you get SOAKED.

Everybody on the boat....every time. You have been warned.

Brad & Andrea....Believe me...these pictures do not do the "wet factor"

justice. It was no problem to ring a bucket of water out of our shirts....

Me, Nicholas & Brad waiting in line for our SECOND RIDE of

Splash River Falls. Shoes squeaking, jeans soaked....but all still fun.

Andrea had funnel cakes on her mind all day, so as we tried to find

some dry clothes to buy or dry out the ones we had...we stopped

for a snack....the funnel cakes. Here is Brad

as he almost got face down in it!

This is THE DEMON of Six Flags, formerly known as The Scream Machine....

I had forgotten how incredibly ROUGH wooden roller coaster tracks are. After

a 5 minute ride of being snatched and slung in every direction and having

the crap beat out of our legs....Praise the Lord...we survived.

Nicholas still smiling as the day was coming

to a close on the Merry Go Round....

And who says Merry Go Rounds are just for kids....

More like kids of all ages! Notice the birthday boy's change

to dry clothes...sporting his new Six Flags t-shirt!

Happy 40th, again, Barton! What a terrific weekend celebrating

your birthday and my birthday too! You and Andrea are great

friends and your boys are amazing! So glad we could be with you

to celebrate such a great occasion in your life!