INDEPENDENCE DAY!

The birthday's galore! First Cole reaching the heights of 22, he's growing up right before our eyes! Now Matt, almost as if he's insulted by the idea of sharing the same age as Cole jumps ahead to 23. He's our little man. And now AMERICA! This country is getting older and more beautiful just like our mothers. So what did we do celebrate? We shot guns! In Bend our time was spent relaxing, early to bed early to rise. The farmers life, just like our hosts, Gordon and Jeff. But on July 3rd, Matt's big day we woke up and set out to shoot guns to celebrate both Matt's birthday but also the impending freedom of INDEPENDENCE DAY. 12 Gauge Shotgun, .357 Magnum Hand-Gun, and 22... lots of clay pigeons and an intact abandoned TV Set. The only member of the car that had shot guns before was Kate, we all agreed that was wonderfully ironic.
On to Portland, hours after lighting up that TV and pumping clay pigeons full of lead we headed up to Portland to stay with our beautiful friend Sarah. We went out to nice little out door bar called Roadside Attraction and slept soundly on the comfortable futon or couches respectivley.
July 4 Tamale Cookout. Ping Pong, Margaritas and Kiddie Pool. 91 degrees here, bet you wish it was that nice on Lake Michigan. We hung out all day in Sarah's yard meeting many friends and waited til night fell. On to see the Dirty Projectors, front row, great view, bad sound, awesome nonetheless. After that finished around 12:30 we headed back to Sarah's just a three block walk and got back just in time for a screening of 16 candles projected onto the garage. Phew that was a good day!

Missed you all for this years 4th of July celebration.
On to Seattle via Mt. St. Helens.