Happy Fourth of July, America! I cannot believe the day has come - this marks approximately halfway through our trip! This morning, a small group from my team ran the 'Firecracker 5K' this morning that benefits the Arapahoe women's highschool basketball team. We ran it for Jamie, knowing full well that she would have done the same thing considering her love of basketball and coaching. We were definitely a little out of our element running instead of biking but it woke us up and we had lots of fun running with the basketball girls and the community. The race started and finished at the local John Deere store so of course we got a picture on a gigantic tractor after we finished running.
After the race we opened up some more packages before we headed off to the town parade at 10 AM. We were all decked out in our Fourth of July gear and flags and had fun watching the parade and chasing after the candy that was thrown our way. Following the parade, we headed to the park where there was lots of food booths and activities. We had lunch and hung out there for a while, and some of us even helped our host church sell and serve their homemade ice cream!
Dinner that night was a cookout at one of the host family's homes. The weather was beatiful and their backyard, in typical Nebraska fashion, was a cornfield! We sang to Katie for her birthay and had her blow out the candles on her cakes. We've had so many birthdays on this trip! Following dinner, one of the host dads took us out to a friend's land where he kept three horses, and allowed us to each have a chance to ride them! The horses were gorgeous, and I got to ride one for the first time! Finally we headed off to the fireworks show and afterwards we set off our own fireworks as well as sparklers. It was such a fun day and my team and I definitely don't want to have to leave! We can all agree this has been one of our favorite hosts and we are so thankful for all of the activities that they allowed us to do these past two days. But we have to keep riding on so we can get to Portland!