Attack of the Killer Fireworks

Hello Blog Friends,

Sorry I've been gone for a while.  I've had a really crazy past month.  Here's how I spent the last four weeks:

Week 1:  Big Bear Lake hiking trip with my husband and dog.
Weeks 2 and 3:  Home to Michigan to spend some time with family and friends.
Week 4: Had a "staycation" in Las Vegas because our friends Josh and Charissa came out and we got to show them all around.

Wait a second - when you see a blog post title such as "Attack of the Killer Fireworks," I suppose you didn't click on this link to read about what I've been doing for the past few weeks, now did you?   You clicked because you want to read about killer fireworks!  Okay, here we go:

The Fourth of July is always fun in Las Vegas.  The city of Henderson (which is where Rex and I live...it's right next to Vegas) puts on a free fireworks show every year.  Thousands of people attend - it's really fun!  Rex and I went last year and were excited about taking our friends Josh and Charissa with us this year.  After a delicious and patriotic barbeque (we had blueberry/strawberry shortcake with whipped cream for dessert - red, white, and blue!), we headed down to the park to watch the fireworks.

We staked out a good spot in the grass where we could sit and watch the fireworks.  We were a bit early, so we sat and talked for a while.  It was pretty normal other than the frantic search of a mom looking for her five-year-old named Candance (she found her) and the disturbing-ness of watching a couple of forty-somethings rolling around making out on the blanket next to ours (um, EW).

Finally the fireworks started - hooray!  They were huge!  I leaned in to Rex and said, "They look like they're right over our heads and super close!  Wow!"  Rex leaned back to me and said, "Umm...I think that is because they are."  I got my first inkling that something was wrong when one of those sparkly willow tree looking fireworks sent a shower of sparks toward the earth that went out a little too close for comfort.  We were showered with ashes.

It all went down hill from there.  The fireworks kept exploding closer and closer to the ground until the sparks started hitting the ground while they were still burning.  Some fireworks only partially exploded, and then the fireballs would smash into the ground like some sort of patriotic apocalypse.  People started running around and screaming.  A mom grabbed her two children and sprinted away, leaving all of their stuff in the park.  Rex gave me his hat to try to shield my eyes, saying that his glasses would keep his eyes safe.  I really wanted to watch the fireworks, but I think I spent more time watching the burning embers fall and trying to dodge them.  A kid sitting behind me got hit.  He screamed, "Ahhhh!  It BURNS!" and ran over to his mom to get ice.

At this point I was getting nervous.  I thought maybe we should go.  I turned to express this sentiment to Rex, but the excitement in his eyes glowed brighter than the embers.  He exclaimed, "This is the best fireworks show EVER!"  I smiled weakly and replied, "...but it's kind of dangerous..."  Rex either didn't catch my trepidation or didn't care, because he said, "I KNOW! HENCE THE FUN!"

A piece of flaming firework landed behind Charissa.  Josh was looking out for her and pushed her forward so that it wouldn't hit her, and then he put it out when it hit the grass so that it wouldn't start a fire.  While he was doing that, another piece landed in Charissa's hair.  Luckily that one wasn't on fire, but when she picked it out, the clump of ash was probably as wide as a golf ball.

A man to our right had a cloth cooler on his blanket.  A semi-exploded firework hurdled towards his blanket and landed on top of his cooler.  It was all flame-y and looked as if the man had spontaneously started a campfire on top of his cooler.  At first he looked very startled, then he looked around as if he didn't know what to do.  It was almost like he was waiting for a firetruck to rumble through the thousands of people and put out his flaming cooler.  When he realized that no firetrucks were coming, he turned and attacked his cooler with his shoe to put out the fire.  Luckily, he was successful.  I'm not sure how the cooler fared, but alas.  We can count it among the casualties of the firework attack.

The fireworks FINALLY ended after around a half an hour of terror.  I looked around and saw lots of people hiding under the blankets they brought to sit on.  They peeked out apprehensively as if to say, "Is it really over?  Have we survived?  Can we go home now?"  Moms hugged their children to celebrate that they were finally safe.  Friends checked each other for bits of ash and embers.  Rex turned to me and said, "Okay, that was AWESOME!"  What a weirdo.

Anyway, I'm glad we survived the Henderson fireworks of 2012.  I hope for the Fourth of July in 2013 we will be safely back at McCamley Field in Portage, where the fireworks never attack anyone.