The 4th of July!

Okay so now I will start this... I probly won't finish, though. The 4th of July was so fun! Heather and I, along with about 12 pesticide boys (one with his wife) and 2 other girls we had never met before, went to DC to see the fireworks at the National Mall. Believe it or not, having lived very close to DC every single year of my life on the 4th of July (excluding maybe one year when I was at a family reunion in Utah), I have never ever gone to DC to see the fireworks. We always went to the Laurel or maybe the Columbia or Baltimore ones? I don't even know, I just tagged along to wherever my family decided to go. I was even hesitant about going this year, but when Heather and I were asked by about 4 different groups of people, I decided there must be something to it, so we planned on it.

First of all, there was a breakfast at the home of the bishop of the singles ward. Jordan, Josh, Troy, TJ, Heather, and I squished in Jordans 5 passenger and off we went! There we met a girl named Mary, who knew one of the pest control guys. She was going to DC, and offered to let us park at her house so we wouldn't have to pay for parking at the metro station. So, we left the breakfast (it was wonderful, btw), and went to Shoppers to get some food. Mary and the boys bought a ton of food: huge subs, chips, cherries, grapes, gatorade... it was lovely. Then we went to the metro and I figured out our route to DC. We got a really great spot by the Washington Monument, and ate our food.

Then, about half of our group (Me, Heather, TJ, Joshua, Kyle, and probably one other boy) decided to go see some museums. We only actually went into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural history, and it was very fun. We took lots of pictures :) We then walked all the way back to our original spot, which took about a half hour. When we got back to our spot, everyone else in our group had left. When we called them, we were informed that they had moved to the Capitol building, so we walked about 40 minutes back to there. When we got there, they had just been informed that they would not be able to see the fireworks from where they were sitting, so we all walked back to the National Mall. It was a hecka lotta walking. I was helped along by Troy and Joshua, however, who both gave me piggy back rides. My favorite was when Troy gave Joshua a ride however, and I heard him say "Dude, stop digging your knees into my kidneys! I'm gonna be spittin' blood for the rest of my life!" It was certainly not directed at me, and Troy didn't even know I was within earshot, but I thought it was one of the funniest things everr. I told Heather, and we both thought it was so funny we almost peed our pants all night. When we got back to our spot, we sat and played cards and talked until finally the fireworks started. It was an AMAZING show. They did a spectacular job!

Then, it was time to go home. However, before we could, one of the boys (I can't remember who), decided that he had to pee. Badly. The boys thought it was a fantastic idea to put a blanket around him, and let him pee into old gatorade bottles. They then decided to leave his pee on the ground, which was probably one of the grossest things ever. I felt so bad for the person who had to clean it up, but I certainly wasn't going to do it, so I just let him leave it.

The actual getting home was far easier said than done. If you think about it logistically, most people who went to see the fireworks took the metro at different times throughout the day, and usually ended at one of about three stops. Once the fireworks were over, everyone wanted to go home. At the same time. From the same three stops. Walking through that huge crowd of people during the mass exodus was quite an adventure. Our group was pretty huge, so getting separated and lost was a very real risk, so a bunch of us ended up holding hands in a long line of people. We waited in line for probably 1 1/2 hours? I'm not exactly sure. But it took forever... . We finally all met back at Mary's, only two people got left far behind us (Jordan and Mary's friend whose name is escaping me), but we were happily reunited. Mary and her friend stayed at her house while the rest of us went to ihop, which was pretty fun. Highlights include the straw eatiing contest, for lack of a better description, and Garrett's amazing storytelling skills.

The straw eating contest is where everyone tries to put a whole straw in their mouth, and they can't use their hands. It takes skill. I promise :) Try it. I dare you. It's a fun group activity. Garrett also told us a riveting tale about how he heard the radio turn on by itself in the middle of the night, and woke up all of his roomies holding a bat in his boxers, looking for the intruder who did it.

At long last, we went back to to car, where me, Heather, and Joshua all tried to cuddle comfortably in the back seat. Just when I was about to fall asleep, Jordan got pulled over and we all had to sit up, buckle our seatbelts, and look presentable. Finally, we got home maybe around 3? I honestly can't remember. But I'm pretty sure it was one of the funnest days of the whole summer. I was in amazing company; with Heather, the girls, and some of my favorite boys in the whole world, along with a lot of other boys who I didn't know, but in general I do love men, so the odds were pretty amazing in my opinion.We had a picnic, went to a museum, watched fireworks, laughed, talked, took a tonnn of pictures. Although some parts of the day I was annoyed (like when we walked a bajillion miles across the whole district), I was always having a good time. It was a really fun experience. I'm so glad we decided to do it :)