Fourth of July

The Fourth of July has always been a fun holiday for me. My grandma's birthday is on the 4th, so we always have had family get-togethers. Yesterday I was 480 miles away, so I was a little homesick. I called back to my aunts to talk to family and tell my grandma happy birthday, but I ended up very homesick for the first time that we moved to Iowa. Originally, we were to have friends visit, but their plans were changed. The day ended up being great though as the Fourth of July is huge in Clear Lake.

Small towns have a great way of putting on a parade. Tuesday night the grass near the street was getting saved by chairs and tarps. By Thursday night every available grassy area from the sidewalk to the street on Main Ave was taken up. We had never seen anything like this. The parade was great. There is a family from our church who live on Main Ave just a block from us who host a party during the parade every year. We had a wonderful time watching the parade, eating, and fellowshipping with a lot of people from church.

In the afternoon Kirsten and Mitchell and I went boating with another friend. The lake was a little busy, but as it is fairly large, it was fine. We went swimming for a while. What a gorgeous day! We really enjoyed this as we would have been out on the boat at Aunt Marlene's house.

The fireworks in Clear Lake are quite the occasion. People start putting chairs up down by the sea wall around 5 for the 10 o'clock show. We were able to sit with a group of people from the church. We had a lot of fun sitting down there eating and talking until it was time. They were great! Clear Lake has been a little bit more crowded this past week, but it has been a neat experience.