4th of July

It started with a beautiful sky. 

Eventually the show started. They do this down at the park but our house is situated where we get most of it from home, and don't have to brave the crowds. I took a few pictures. 

Rebekah took a few pictures as well.

 

That weekend we were invited to a friend's house from church; their neighbor does his own firework show. 

But first, the fireflies had an impressive show of their own. 

The neighbor's show. It's amazing what people put into these things! 

Air Show

We also went to the local air show. It was fun to walk around and see all the planes. 

Including this helicopter. Rebekah and Don got to get inside and explore. 

Eventually the airplanes went off to get ready for the air show.

And we made our way there too. But not before one more photo op: 

I was having a rough time with my back so I went to the car at this point. Don and Rebekah stayed to watch the airplanes take off. I got them from the car (was laying down in the back) once they took off. 

Pretty amazing to watch! 

Model Museum

The local model museum had a free to the public day, so Don decided we should attend. We spent the first part of the day inside looking at the model airplanes. Some were very intricate. 

Next we went outside to the area where some models were being flown. Rebekah got to practice her flying skills on a computer first. 

Then she went out to try it in the air. It was somewhat windy and so harder to keep the plane in line, but she did great. 

After she built a rubber band plane. I was somewhat jealous. 

Afterwards they went over to sample the model cars. She did quite well. I was totally impressed by the patience of those who were over each exhibit - as people tried, and crashed their cars. 

But my favorite was the last, the model boats. 

Don and Rebekah got to play around with them as well. I think they had little tug boats. I suppose I should have forced my way in there too, but then who would take pictures? 

They had some pretty fun models. 

Including this huge one! 

The tiny details were amazing. 

Upon Our Return

Once we got home I checked on our plants. Yes, it was somewhere around 1 in the morning, but I wanted to see it. It had grown so much! 

And the garden did pretty well. 

And nothing like a good Indy sunset to welcome us home. 

June Books

I was looking for something different from what I usually read so I picked up this dystopian apocalyptic book that happened to be set up in the UP. Since I have been fascinating with the UP and Lake Superior for some time I jumped right in. It was pretty good. Solar flares knock out the internet and all things technological. I enough it enough I decided I'd use two more of my borrows on the rest of the series. More on that later.  

I think I picked up this title through another book I read. It's an interesting book. Very different plot. Kind of a who done it but with a game show like twist. It wasn't my favorite but not bad. 

A time travel book about a gene that pulls certain people back in time. Main character is a teenage girl. I had high hopes but it's mediocre at best. 

History about famous females throughout medieval history. It started out okay but then veered into an LGBTQ thing and I was less interested. 

Not sure how this one got on my to read list but it was one of the most gripping books I read this month - maybe even this year. Kind of mystery, kind of romance, kind of what's really going on... It's relatively clean as well. 

More basic Shakespeare lecture. There are better lecture series out there though so I'd pass on this one. 

Fantasy fiction that was another page turner. Orphan boy, monks, libraries, city of the gods, gods - both evil and good - highly interesting. And then the end happened and I was frustrated. However, I may read the next one. We shall see. 

A book I found at my mom's public library. A quick chick-lit. Suppose to be a warm / feel good book. It was okay. Not sure I'd recommend. 

History / biography of a storm chaser Tim Samaras. I loved learning about him and his fascination of storms. The parts where he actually chased the storms were a little intense. So, if you're interested but don't want the intense feelings, maybe look him up to see if he lives or dies first. But it's incredible to learn about how they learned about tornadoes. 

Chinese sci-fi? Sure! I'm in! Except I didn't find it as fascinating as I wanted too. Apparently there's a creepy tv series based off the book. Not sure I care enough about it to watch it... but now I can say I read a Chinese sci-fi, so there's that. 

Brandon Sanderson. The plot of this was very fun. It's basically three short stories. Brandon Sanderson is a member of the church so one can trust him to not have unwanted things in his books. I feel very comfortable reading him. 

Adult fiction, coming of age stuff. It's not the easiest read - abusive father / mother killed, daughter mentally and emotionally abused, she runs away, etc and so on. 

Fascinating information about how the ocean works. I had to pause the audio book several times to look certain terms up and / or do more research into what the author was writing about. I love books like this! Highly recommendable. 

Fiction about a family in a small town, a murder, coming of age, etc. It was pretty good but I did have to increase the speed at the end because I already knew who did it and needed the author to get there faster. 

This was not what I hoped. There's certain books that take disasters and turn it into something to horrify or cause intense emotional responses in the reader, instead of educating and teaching about said disaster. This was more of horror and less about the Tsunami. 

I thought this was fiction but it's actually several historical stories of geniuses who loose their minds. Wasn't really enjoyable for me. 

I was hoping for more of the history of the manuscripts themselves but it was more about the people who collect them. Less intriguing.