It's Sunday, the 4th of July. Um... Tuesday night I came to New Sweden from Bangor (I have the week off, Wednesday thru Tuesday, but also had the preceding Tuesday off). Went to bed as soon as I got here. Wednesday, I don't think I did much of anything. All those days there was a fair bit of rain, anyway. Thursday I think it also rained some, but at least... I did some stuff. I think. The days are all blurring together because my memory sucks. But anyway, I've been staying with my parents and sister, Beth, but it must be Thursday that I got a chance to see my cousins from Ohio (and their parents), and my cousin Luke's girlfriend Erin, who I met for the first time (she's cool). Anyway, we all watched some of Avatar: The Last Airbender book 3. Friday we watched some more of that, and went to see the movie "The Last Airbender." (Also saw my cousin Josh there.) And then watched a bit more of the series. And Saturday morning was a pancake breakfast. Went with Beth earlier than the rest of the family, who got there as we were leaving. And... I wrote up my review of The Last Airbender (it was disappointing, but I still loved getting to watch it with my cousins), and maybe got a little sleep after writing that (since I hardly got any at night). And went back to the lake, where my cousins always stay in the summer, and hey... watched some more Avatar, and at night went to the Conroys' camp to sit by the campfire.

And that's been my week so far. Today is the big day, of course, and I woke up to find my sister and mother have been looking for one of our cats, Jet, who seems to be missing. I'm sure he'll turn up, I'm not worried, but of course they're pretty much unable to think of anything else. Sigh. Anyway, there's still 10 more episodes of Avatar that need watching. And maybe we should go to church. And there'll be a cookout for lunch. Then maybe I'll actually do some swimming, as the rain is gone and it's finally warm. And... we've got sparklers for tonight. Dunno what else. I'll update this later.

Update: My sister didn't go to church with us, she was too worried about Jet. But awhile after Mom and I got home, Beth found him. Hey, like I said... no worries from me. But she was still in a bad mood, and wasn't sure if she'd go to the cookout/potluck at our cousin Eileen's camp. She did, though. Lots of good food there, and I got to talk to Josh, which is always fun. Then she went home, instead of going with us to the two camps right next to each other, that of our grandmother and that of Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kris, and their kids, Luke, Torry, Matty, and Britta (Karsten wasn't there this year; he's in Australia). Anyway, been lots of fun hanging with them, and as I mentioned before, Luke's girlfriend. Um... well, I did a bit of swimming, which I hadn't done in at least 2 years. Later we decorated their boat (along with a girl named Elsa) and joined the boat parade on the lake. Then when we got back it was time to watch fireworks set off at other camps (the display from a nearby camp, Elsa's I guess, was so frickin' amazing, it must have cost well more than I make in a year, it seemed to me). Then we lit some sparklers. Then had more food. Then watched several more episodes of Avatar. Just four to go, which we should get to tomorrow. Can you feel the excitement building? I sure can. I gotta say... best vacation ever, at least for me. Usually it's so much harder to find time to do what I want with my cousins, but this year it's been easy. Kinda sad I just have one more day left, but... nah, mostly I'm just really happy....

Update, July 5: Mom, Dad, Beth and I went to the Jade Palace for lunch. Then Mom and I went to the lake, where I watched the final four eps of Avatar with my cousins & Erin. That was awesome. I guess if I ever get to hang with my Ohio cousins again, I'll have to find some other awesome thing to get them into, now that we're done with that. Um, also went swimming again, and did a bit of reading, and went over to Uncle Alan and Aunt Brenda's camp with everyone for a clam supper. While there played some Euchre (which I've never done before, but I clearly suck at it) with Luke and Erin and um... embarrassingly enough, I have trouble remembering if the fourth player was Matty or Torry. But anyway... later, back at my Ohio cousins' camp, I said good bye to them all. They got me into a group hug like one we'd seen in Avatar today. Ah, yes, so much fun I've had with them. Gonna miss them all. And now I'm ready to head to bed, hopefully I sleep well. Gotta get up early so Beth can drive me into Caribou to catch the bus at 7am. And then... spend my final vacation day in Bangor. Maybe see my friend Meghan, since it'll be her birthday tomorrow.... But anyway, I think this ends my journal for this Independence Week, or whatever...