4th of July

Waiting for the train
Lisa and Andrew
The calm before the storm
Josh and Andrew
The crowd
The fireworks! (notice the street light in lower left corner)
The burning bush (or Death Fire 2008 that almost killed us all)

We went to Andrew and Lisa's for dinner. Then, they took us on an adventure in Atlanta! We took the MARTA (public transportation) to the Lenox Mall for fireworks. We walked down a little and ended up sitting in the middle of what is normally a very busy intersection (Peachtree and Lenox for you Atlantans...Atlantians...Atlantanians...whatever). Anyway, Stella was playing with Chef Mike (Lisa's dad) and Andrew when BOOM! The first firecracker exploded-and it was deafening. She was climbing over everyone to get to me and literally tried to climb inside of me. She was burrowing her head into my chest and grabbing frantically for her blanket and bunny. I could feel her crying, but couldn't hear her. I kept talking in her ear telling her it was o.k. No help-probably because she couldn't hear me! So I kept looking around to see if anyone else was feeling things hitting them. Josh said he saw something fly through the air. Then, Andrew turned around and showed us a large piece of firework debris. Lisa said she was thinking "This is really cool and close, but kind of dangerous!" We looked over to our right and saw smoke...then flames....then people jumping up and gathering their blankets/food/coolers/etc. and running (o.k., walking quickly) toward us. I jump up and start off in the direction of the train, clutching Stella like we were running for dear life. At this point, I didn't know what was on fire-I just knew it was big and I was praying that it wasn't a firework that was about to shoot flaming balls at our backs. (I know...a tad dramatic) By the time we all made it back to the train station, we found out that the hedges along the street had caught on fire. We're having a drought here, if you didn't know. So-Stella's first fireworks experience was exciting, frightening, and short lived. What fun!