God Bless "Merica".

Red, White, and Bruce. This 4th of July was fun in the sunny sun sun. Yep. We got up on the 4th and headed down to be in the 11am South Bend parade! I will admit, ever since Bruce came along Adam has expanding his horizon a lottttt more (you will see what I'm referring to when you glance down to the second picture- ha! I LOVEEEE LOVE LOVE IT!) Patriotic Bruce rode on the back of the golf cart to spread the USA spirit as Adam kept saying "Mmerica" (ha..he's so funny, I just love the husband). My dad and George Mink drove us on this 2 mile adventure around the lake. MacKenzie and Mallory rode the tandem bike nicely in front of us along with my uncle Keith and aunt Ardith (and their dogs attached to their bikes...*Adam and I realize this is not something Bruce will ever be able to do- walking is just not a great "strength" for him ;)...)

All day we just hung out around the lake. Relaxed, played some games, grilled, ate, boated, and Adam and TL even got us to trek over (cough: take the pontoon) to Beer Bottle Beach and play some sand volleyball. The sand was incredibly incredibly hot hot...we got through it by tossing the sand around and digging our feet into the layer of sand beneath as we played. I thought for sure I would wake up this morning with blisters!

TL and the Mink boys flipped.

while Al and Ash performed...I think the last one should be in the wedding video guys! You're welcome for that amazing shot;)

 

Perfect day. The weather was uhhhmazing and there were tons of family friends around to enjoy the holiday with!

All of us "kids" took off around 8 and Adam, Bruce, and I headed back to Omaha. Bruce fell asleep and Adam and I thought we should go get blizzards..you know, add just a few more unhealthy calories to the day. Totally necessary I feel. So, we took his "doorless jeep" (he took the doors off this last week and I haven't been able to ride in it much...so yeah!) and went to DQ. We were feeling kinda crazy and decided we would buy the order for the minivan behind us....if you haven't done this, TRY IT! It's super fun. Adam and I first joked around hoping they didn't order like 5 DQ ice cream cakes or complete meals for a huge family at home, I mean we are not made of money here...risky, that's what we were! ha...big risk-takers. We then made sure that we had a fast "get-away" plan...you know, we couldn't get caught! Rebelsssss! Anyways, that was fun, again TRY IT! We pulled into a close Super Target parking lot and devoured our ice cream and fries while watching the fireworks. So classy, we know. 

 Hope you had a great 4th! We know that some years are not going to be this memorable and enjoyable (because that's life, right?)...so we are just sooo thankful that this one was! 

**Thanks God for family friends! They are fun and great and stuff:) And of course, thanks for our freedom! We don't even realize how lucky we truly are!