4th of July

My long-time (i.e., 18.5 years) friend Douglas has been visiting us this week. Yesterday morning we kicked off the day by going tubing on the Platte River. There wasn't a whole lot of water in the river, but there was enough to float, if you sort of held your body semi-rigid and didn't let your bottom skim along the sandy river bed. :)

Noontime brought a picnic with my grandparents and far too much food, as usual. My mom made homemade vanilla ice cream and my grandmother made her traditional flag cake.

After lunch and a few rounds of "Othello," Douglas and I went to a friend's party and spent several hours playing lawn games and visiting with other friends. We declined to accompany them to a local concert and fireworks viewing, however, and went and purchased some "explosive devices" for ourselves. After watching the official city fireworks display, Dad and Douglas gleefully set off our own fireworks, thus ending a full but satisfying Fourth of July.

I hope you all had a happy time with family and friends, too!