Happy Fourth!

 So, this was possibly the BEST 4th of July yet. We packed a lot into one day. Luke (my boyfriend) and I ran in the Americana 5k bright and early! It was a lot of fun. They even had parfaits from First Watch afterwards! Also, in an unexpected turn of events--I placed third place in my age group! Wohooo. Being 20 and old has the plus side of being out of that crazy 15-19 age group. Those girls are fast. 

 Then we rushed home (scarfed down an egg white delight in the car on the way home from Mickey D's) and changed for our 50 MILE bike ride. It was me, Luke, and both of our dads. Every girl does does back-to-back sporty activities with her boyfriend and dad right? It was so much fun! Luke's dad could only join us for the first 14 miles then he had to head back for a party. This was my first time clicking in (wearing the shoes that attach to the pedals) on the bike and it wasn't so bad! I struggled at first with stopping and restarting, but then got the hang of it.

Almost halfway through the bike ride we stopped at this cute coffee shop called Stoney Creek Roasters in Cedarville! I took lots of pictures and you can see Luke in this one posing very nicely for me. 

Could we have picked a more festive coffee shop on the fourth of July? I don't think so. 

I had an iced mocha and shared a chocolate chip cookie with my dad. Luke and I were a little worried about how ours sugary drinks would affect our stomachs for the next 25ish miles, but we were fine! I would bike just about any distance for a latte. 

WE MADE IT!

Luke did great! It was only his second time road biking. He made it look easy. Me and my dad are convinced that Luke could be a professional triathlete. He TOTALLY has the look. As you can see we picked up some diet coke (nectar of the gods) at the gas station right outside the lake house neighborhood. I just think it looks hilarious in my bike cup holder. 

We've been coming to the lake for several years now. Our family friend's the Porter's own a lake house on Lake Choctaw. It's so much fun and they are the best hosts! The house is covered in the cutest lake/sailor-themed decor and filled with delicious food! Now I'm going to rewind to the night of July 3rd when the food prep took place. 

So Lindsay (my younger sister) is quite creative and talented when it comes to the baking/cooking department. She has a lot more patience for that type of thing than I do. She saw a flag cake on Pinterest and decided to make one herself for the lake. It took her 3-4 hours and I helped by licking the spatula and eating cake crumbs. (a picture of the final product will come later) 

I made the bean dip! It was sooo good. I chopped up a lot of stuff and mixed it together. Here's the recipe! (I believe my mom got this from a friend) 

1 cup of oil

1/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of vinegar-white wine or red wine

boil all of that together

3 different beans

some celery stalks chopped up small

white corn (we used yellow)

onion chopped small

3 colored peppers chopped small

(we also added some garlic salt, etc.)

Lindsay's cake turned out quite nicely!

Later on my mom and I took Zoe for a walk. She's a cutie. You'll be seeing a lot of her on here. 

I also painted my nails different shades of blue. Festive. 

Ok so back to the lake. I hope you don't have whip lash after reading this. My bean dip made it onto a delicious scoop chip. And you can see Lindsay's cake turned out beautifully! I'm pretty sure she said it wasn't worth the time spent making it. I disagree. I loved that thing. 

The Porter's also have an adorable fluffy dog named Tebow. I don't know if he likes me or not--he's probably seen the recent pic of Zoe on my Instagram wearing my Americana 5k shirt.

SUNNY!

We swam in the pool. We rode on the boat. We went of a gold cart ride. We played corn hole. It was glorious.

Then, we watched fireworks. It was SUCH a fun day and we were pretty tired at the end of it!

Thank you Porter's for another fabulous 4th at the lake!

Saturday it was back to reality and Linds and I went to Panera to work on our online classes. 

Saturday night we went to the Greene like cliche Daytonians and went to Cheesecake Factory--one of our favorites. This was my food after I devoured. 

And of course I had to throw in this pic of Luke and I after church this morning. There aren't many things cuter than a handsome boy holding a Bible! Am I right? 

Love haley