4th of July...Pancakes...Awesome Beverage

This post is so late!  It has to do with the 4th of July.  *nervous whistle...avoiding eye contact*  Hey, at least I'm getting it done before the month of July is over.  :) 

The Friday before the 4th I had a couple of couch surfers from Colorado surf my guest room.  Surfer season is in full swing!  Anyway, the morning they left I made them some patriotic pancakes.  I'm pretty good at dyeing pancake batter, now I need to try the pancake art that I've seen around the internet.  The pancakes were delicious thanks to Bisquick.  :) 

On the 4th of July my family and I went to Crawford as we do pretty much every year.  This year was slightly different though.  Actually, in our family it was a huge change!  There is an annual 5k run/walk from Ft. Robinson to Crawford and my dad has run it every year for I don't know how long.  This year he didn't!  HE DID NOT RUN THE 5K!  Not only were we, his family, in shock over this, but there were numerous people that asked me where he was and why he wasn't participating.  You see, dad not only runs in this event every year, he also kicks butt every year.  He typically comes in 1st in his age group and he's usually in the top three to five overall finishers!  There are a lot of people who run this event so that is saying something considering my dad is in his mid-fifties.  He whoops my ass every year!  This year though, I set my personal best 5k time with 26:10!  Yay, me!  Even though my dad didn't participate, he was at the finish line with my mom and Pacen, cheering me on.  Maybe next year he'll get back into it. 

After the 5k we wandered to Main Street to watch the parade.  Just like every year.  Except this year Quinn, me, and our friend, Mika, sat on the other side of the street from where our family normally sits.  It was too hot to be in the full sun.  We needed shade, especially since Mika and I ran the 5k and we were HOT!  The Crawford 4th of July parade is...well...let's just say it is "something".  It is LONG!  It has quite the array of floats and participants.  It has too many "gaps"!  Pacen, Mika, and I left the parade about a half hour early (it lasted over an hour) to find a nice shady spot in the park where we would be spending the afternoon listening to local bands and pigging out on junk food. 

Aaron, LJ, and Jared aka Cheap Date.  Love them!

After listening to my friends' band we decided to head on up the hill to Harrison.  We shot off fireworks the rest of the afternoon and evening and then I headed home cause I had to work the next day.  I did do something somewhat special for Pacen this year.  I found a fun recipe on Family Fun's website.  It is simply called "Patriotic Drink".  All you need to make it are the following ingredients:

• Ice cubes
• Cranberry Juice
• Diet 7-Up
• Blue Gatorade
• Blue food coloring (if you can only find the light blue Gatorade)

Fill a glass all the way with ice.  First pour in the Cranberry Juice.  Next, slowly pour in the Gatorade, making sure to pour it directly onto an ice cube.  Finally, slowly pour in the Diet 7-Up, again making sure to pour it directly onto an ice cube. 

 Since each drink has a different sugar content (Cranberry Juice having the most sugar and Diet 7-Up having the least) the drinks are able to "stack".  They will eventually mix, but I think it is so cool to see them stacked up.  Pacen thought it was pretty cool too, and even though he's not a big fan of Cranberry Juice he drank many glasses of the "Patriotic Drink". 

"I love my freedom.  I love my America." ~ Jessie Lane Adams