4th of July

I love fireworks.

I remember when I lived in Colorado Springs, my dad and I would climb on the roof and watch the fireworks shows from all around the city.

I missed my dad this year.

I WAS able to spend the 4th with my dearest friends here in Portland, though, so - it was great. Mark and Jake found a spot on Skylane Road. Tracy and Rachel tried to stay warm in the cool night air. Cary, Jeannea and Amy joined us. Alli and Maddy had their fill of sparklers... We could see fireworks all over Portland and Vancouver. Was probably the most fireworks I've ever seen. Pretty amazing. We lit off some of our own fireworks as well. The grand finale was to be the "Leapin' Lizards" fountain, a three stage fountain firework! It was awesome!

Was a great night, when we were finished we cleaned up all the leftover firework debris, but the Leapin' Lizards fountain was still a little smoky. Well, we couldn't put it in the trunk with the rest of the trash. And I couldn't keep it inside the car because of the smoke. So, the most logical thing to do was to just hold the thing outside the car window as we drove home. Right? Makes sense? Well, it did. Until the embers were fanned by the wind from the moving car. Tracy says from the backseat, "There are flames shooting out of the top!"

Now, keep in mind - we are driving home through a fairly heavily wooded area. I couldn't just drop the flaming piece of pyrotechnics.... Not only that, there was a bit of traffic. I still wonder what the guy behind us must have thought. Ha ha ha!!

Anyway, we got down the road a bit, and pulled into a parking lot which is where we found a nice puddle to throw the still smoking fountain...and all was well.