Our 4th

Happy late 4th of July! We enjoyed ours so much!  The only drawback was that it fell on a Wednesday, so Luke just had 1 awkwardly placed day off in the middle of the week.  But we still loved it!  

We've spent the whole week just doing summery things, and it has been so much fun!  Here is what we did in a nutshell

• Went swimming with friends

• Church softball games
• Blizzards at Dairy Queen

• Cookout with Luke's family which included a bonfire and great food (pizza pies, lots of watermelon, hot dogs, chocolate covered strawberries, etc!)

• A campout with friends -- our friend Jesse's parents have a beautiful place with a lake and a lot of land, so we stayed there with friends.  The campout included:
• Burgers and fresh, fried curly fries

• Fun rides around the property on the Polaris 

• Chatting around the campfire
• Late night fishing for the guys
• The biggest storm we've had in years.  We heard tornado sirens from multiple towns
• A trip to Jesse's parents' house to wait out the storm in their basement.
• A second trip to Jesse's parents' house when a second wave of the storm hit.  But this time we sat on their beautiful patio and watched it, so that was pretty cool. 
• Going to bed at 2, everybody sleeping in the little lodge instead of our tents/popup since everything was soaked and we were afraid it would rain again! 
• Bacon and eggs over the campfire for breakfast

• Sitting by the lake while the guys fished

• Watching Little Man (the dog) discover swimming for the first time!  Multiple belly laughs ensued.

• A peaceful afternoon of sleeping at home after our wonderful, but tiring and somewhat adventure-filled camping trip!  
• Sitting out late-night on the 4th, enjoying another crazy storm on our porch.  the lightning show was better than fireworks.

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  I love celebrating our wonderful country and just enjoying summer! How did you spend your 4th?