4th of July

 We had a great 4th of July weekend in Akron (up until Hank started puking on the actual 4th, but that's a story for another post). We used to travel on the 4th of July and have spent many 4th's at friend's or family memeber's lake cabins. For a while I was sad we didn't have a lake to visit, but this year I was super excited just to be home. At this point in the summer we hadn't had many weekends at home and there are a lot of fun 4th of July activities in Akron that we look forward to each year now. It feels nice to have something to look forward to here in Akron. (I actually can remember our first year or so living here when I kept telling Ben one of the hardest things about moving was not having anything I was really looking forward to, so this is really a huge praise!)

We started our weekend by heading to get donuts at a town about 25 minutes away. I had heard good things about these donuts and figured it was worth making the drive at least once. The donuts did not disappoint! The store is called Peace. Love and Little Donuts and we got a dozen little custom donuts that were made right before our eyes. Flavors like cookies and cream, raspberry truffle and birthday cake. They were delicious!

Randomly, the town we were in ended up having a festival that day, making the donut trip even more worthwhile! We had fun having an impromptu festival day: checking out fire trucks, old time cars, bounce houses, festival food, dancing and rock walls.

 Note: the above picture is Saturday, July 2nd - Hank was in full spirits! Climbing rocks, eating donuts and corn dogs and being his usual self. Little did we know a few days later he would be rushed in for surgery.

On Sunday we did some chores and had our 2nd annual neighbor night were we invited friends from all around our neighborhood to cook out out in front of our houses. And on Monday we road bikes in the 50th annual Braewick parade, hung out with neighbors afterward and went to a 4th of July party at a friend Kate's parents house.

We had a great weekend - but the above picture was about where most of the fun ended. We went home and Hank started complaining of a stomach ache and started throwing up shortly after. More on that in the next post...