America the Beautiful!!!

I had so much fun this 4th of July! Last year's was pretty fun too, but I was starting to stress out about going back home to Japan in a few days.

(above: Tashi, Eden, Gina, and Jessica M.)

But this year, I might have had a little bit too much fun! The night before we stayed up playing night games. I love hanging out with my friends. My mom's baby sister Micaela and her husband and 2 daughters came to stay over because Mic had her 5th year high school reunion down here.

(above: clock wise from Tashi: Jessica M., Sam, Noah, Gina, me, and Eden)

So me and Tashi woke up early and saved our seats for the parade. The rest of our family got here including Mic, and we all watched the parade. It wasn't as good as last year. We got to sit with the Kershisniks for part of it, inside the dance studio with air conditioning! Ahhhhhh...(sigh on contentment)

(above: the jugglers and their screaming fans: me, Noah, Gina, and Sam)

After the parade, we all went to the booths in the park. I didn't play any games, but I bought a lot of Foooooood! Navajo tacos, Texas Twisters, and Funnel Cakes. I get them every year. It's not the 4th of July without a Texas Twister!!! So we just laid around on the grass eating and talking.

(above: everybody in the hotub: Kelton, me, Jessica W., Eden, Tashi, Cortney, Sam, Noah)

Then they were going to make a rounders team (pioneer baseball). But I had to go to work for 3 hours. So I didn't get to be part of the Cheeky Monkeys team! But it did get me out of the sun. After work, we had a special 4th of July dinner with just our family (Mic went back up north for the party at my mom's younger brother's house).

But after dinner we were invited over to Kelton's house to swim in his pool. That was fun because everybody was there, and lots of people had their cousins. My cousins ditched me and didn't come down this year haha. They funny thing is, we mostly just hung out in the hot tub. We got 11 people in there! I think we broke the world record!!! No, JK. But I wanted to, though. Cortney drove me and Tash home, but we didn't have time for a shower before the fireworks. Cortney came and picked me up. Because my parents HAD to give the cellphone to Tashi, (she ended up not using it), but because I didn't have it, I wasn't able to watch the fireworks with Sam, Noah, and Eden. But I got to watch them with Cortney, Cody, Josh, Liza, and Kelsey. I was a little bit onry at the fireworks because it had been nonstop since the morning, I hadn't taken a shower so I felt gross, and the chlorine made my bady all itchy. The itchy grass that I was laying on didn't really help much either.