Fourth of July!

This Fourth of July was in short, a very memorable one :) The best way to celebrate your country is with foreigners who have a completely different perspective of your country (if you ask me).

The day started off with my family getting into our America themed outfits and putting america themed tattoos on ourselves to get into spirit. We then waited for Neele's parents to get to our house. After they arrived, her mom got started on making the German Potato Salad for our American celebration. Overall, I have to say I did enjoy their German Potato salad, but I still do enjoy my own family's version.

After Neele's mom was done, I rode with their family to the lake to go spend time with everyone who was already there. After everyone's arrival, we had to take pictures of our festive holiday outfits...

L to R: Mason, Me, Neele, and Sydney

 

Rotary Youth Exchange Student Coni (from Chile)

Us ladies are strong Germans and Americans :)

Boating picture with my girls :)

After pictures we all decided we would go on a relaxing kayak ride...or a not so relaxing ride. Coni and I decided to ride the two person kayak, while everyone else was in single kayaks. My Aunt's lake cottage is on an island, so we were simply going to go around the island as a large group. However, we had only made it a short way around before Mason (my younger brother) discovered his kayak was sinking under his weight. So we decided that he would join Coni and I on our kayak (bad plan). If it hadn't been the 4th of July it might have worked, but because the lake was so busy and the waves were choppy, we didn't last long. We had made it a little ways before we flipped over the first time, and after we got back on, we promptly flipped back over again. Might I add we were struggling in front of a crowd, who were all laughing at us. Eventually, we all decided that Coni and I would swim back, and the others would continue on with the kayaks. It was all in all, a very memorable ride. 

After our ride, we had lunch and swam around with the rest of my family. Neele and I also got a ride on the Jet Ski from Sydney, as did Mason later on. I spent as much time with Coni and Neele as I could, as both were leaving me the next day. Coni left the lake house at around 3 and my family left shortly after. Once we got home, Neele and I went on a bike ride to go get her a 44 ounce pop from the gas station one last time. After our bike ride, we sat on the grass near the hammock at my house and talked about various things. This included our views on America as a country, our views on religion, our views on the LGBT community, and abortion. Needless to say it was a memorable conversation.

After our talk, Neele and I went to go get Mason who was mowing the lot so that we could all go get ice cream. Neele got to go for a spin on the lawn mower as Mason and I let her drive it back to the house. Just another thing to check off her list of things to do in America. 

After we got home, Mason, Neele, and I got in the car with my parents and drove to Auburn to go get ice cream at Bowls. It was tasty as expected, and as soon as we got home, Neele and I went to go catch fire flies while we waited for the sun to set. After that, Mason and my dad went and set off fireworks for Neele, Kendall (friend of the family that came to say goodbye to Neele), and I. We all played around with sparklers and poppers. The fourth of July was needless to say, a boat load of fun.