Over the Hump to Pahrump

Yes, it’s that time of year again where your kids stay up way past their bedtime, your dogs hide and whimper all night, and you eat so many hotdogs that you think you might be the next firework to explode. The 4th of July, a totally American holiday at it’s finest. On this day in 1776 a group of guys got together and passed the Declaration of Independence through Congress. On September 17, 1787 however, our Constitution as we know it is established. So why is it that we celebrate the birth of our Country on July 4th? Do our parents celebrate our birth on the day they thought about having us or when we were actually born? Anyway, just something my husband got me thinking about. I think July 4th has a much better ring to it than September 17. Yesterday we started our 4th of July celebration a little early by going to a friend’s pool and swimming for about 3 or 4 hours. Then after the kids were very worn out I get the bright idea to go get some fireworks. I find great joy in fireworks somewhere in between seeing our hard earned money going up in smoke and the look of wonderment in our kid’s eyes. Since I can remember we always had quite the bash on the 4th, whether it was at my grandparent’s lake house or on our farm in Texas. My brother’s birthday is the 3rd of July so we usually had at least two days of excitement. My grandfather would often give us some money to go to the firework stand and let us pick out our own fireworks. I always picked out the colorful ones and Jason would get the loud and annoying ones. This year was no different, I still like the cutesy ones however, instead of the little firework stand I wanted to go to the giant firework stores in Pahrump. I’m a big fan of the classics and a bigger fan of buying in bulk; you should see our supply of toilet paper. I wasn’t going to Pahrump to buy the ever popular illegal fireworks but rather a boat load of cute ones. So at about 9:30 at night (an hour and a half past the kid’s bedtime) we start pilling tanks, lanterns, snakes, jumping jacks, pagodas, smoke bombs, hen laying eggs, magic dragons, ground blooms, and of course colored sparklers into our cart. Then as we are checking out the lady at the counter says you may want to go the longer way back to Las Vegas because the police are pulling over everyone and taking their fireworks on the main road. My reply was that we don’t have anything to worry about because we didn’t buy anything illegal; everything had the safe and sane stamp on it. She then says they are taking those too. We still buy our fireworks and then search for a gas station. Ronnie drove out there and I was driving back because the poor guy had been up since 3:00am and was very tired. So as he is pumping gas I start thinking. Can the police pull me over even if I’m not speeding or doing anything wrong, I mean I know they can set up a check point and pull everyone over, but can they just decided to stop you for the heck of it? Is it illegal to buy fireworks in Pahrump and take them to Las Vegas? I didn’t think it was illegal unless you bought illegal ones (the ones that go higher than 3 feet in the air, yadda yadda yadda), but maybe I’m wrong. The whole time I’m asking these questions Ronnie is just sitting there laughing at me. I did not think anything was humorous since I still have my Colorado driver license. I know I’m so bad, but the DMV is just such a horrid place I can’t bring myself to go there and get my license switched over. I have been there a couple times 4 years ago after moving back to Las Vegas and did try to get my license switched over but I each time I went I had to have different paper work. Now I think they want every report card from kindergarten on. Anyway, my Colorado license doesn’t expire until 2011, so maybe then I’ll consider going back to the DMV, or maybe we’ll just move back to Colorado…lol. I was just glad we had a car with cruise control so I could make sure I wasn’t speeding. I actually drove all the way with both hands on the wheel! We did pass a few people that were being pulled over but we made it without a hitch. It was 11:30 when we made it back to Vegas and our kids were still awake. I’ve heard stories of kids falling asleep in mid sentence or while watching TV but I have never seen that happen to my kids. Never have they fallen asleep without Ronnie or me telling them to. We were 5 minutes away from home and I look back at Lana while at a stoplight and got to see her nod off to sleep. Ronnie then saw Kyle fall asleep and then we pulled in the driveway. However short their slumber was it still happened. Our kids actually fell asleep on their own without any promptings from anyone. It does happen, it’s not just a myth. However, Lana was awake enough by the time she made it to her room to request which pajamas she wanted and she was not going back to sleep until there was a bedtime story. Kyle was happy there was no shower and jump in bed without night hugs on the other hand. They both still managed to wake up at 6:30 this morning…kids…amazing little creatures aren’t they? Here are some photos from the next day.
BEFORE

AFTER

Kyle with his favorite shirt...it says Future President.