Loud rainbows...

This year's 4th of July celebration was out of the norm for me. Generally my family gets together every year as a sort of mini-reunion type of event. We eat, give each other a hard time, watch fireworks and then join the many other families creeping through late night traffic on the one road going north out of town to get home. However, this year my grandparents had made other plans, my aunt, who usually hostesses the event, had made alternate plans, my sister had flown back to Florida and my parents would likely be exhausted from flood clean-up around their property to really want to celebrate the holiday. My brother, consequently, would have made plans with his girlfriend so....I was at a loss. What did I want to do with my three-day weekend? Hrm....

I ended up in Cedar Rapids for the holiday. Initially the plan was going to be bleaching Becky's basement (at her bf's and now new residence) for the third and final time before moving on to insulating and replacing dry wall. At the time we made the plans, her bf was likely going to be working all day and therefore unable to assist Becky. It wasn't until the 3rd that I learned he would be working a half shift and they would have the basement done before I'd get there. Not a problem for me! I still headed up for a visit to watch fireworks, help Becky with some errands (including moving her son's clothing to the new house) and then help prepare food for the dinner party she and bf had decided to have. I met one of the bf's friends, some of Becky's coworkers and then their neighbors who brought their 3.5-year old daughter. She was a cutie!

The food was good and plentiful, the weather was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out on the screened-in porch. Soon it was dark and you could hear the popping of firecrackers going off down the street. Savannah was quite disturbed by that and kept her ears covered with her hands, scared of the noise. She knew we'd be watching fireworks over the tree line but I don't think she fully understood what that meant. When the first of the exploding colors appeared in the sky, she nearly climbed her dad's leg from fear. She was absolutely certain those fireworks were going to come through the window to get her. It took some talking to convince her that they were too far away for that and weren't they pretty? Like rainbow colors. After the fireworks were over, she was completely focused on the association of fireworks with rainbows and loud noises. She finally declared that they were "loud rainbows" which made me crack up. If she remembers very little about the holiday, it will be that there were loud rainbows.