If nothing else, summer is short...
...so, when the evening is warm, the thunder and lightning and rain have passed...
...and the light out there is just right...
...why not head out into the wide open field...
...a-la-hoop?...
...and then when the sky opens up revealing a full-blown arc and they ask if they can go get a shovel and run to the end of the rainbow to dig for gold, through the field and the fence, and on through the neighbor's field across to the trees a quarter mile or so away...
...you might say, "No." for any number of reasons:
"It's already past your bedtime.",
"You'll get soaked through to the skin by the next round of clouds.",
"The fencing is barbed wire.",
"This is Montana and that is technically trespassing.",
"It's wet and marshy between here and there.",
"What about bears?",
not to mention, "You'll never reach the end of the rainbow."
but you don't,
instead finding yourself saying, "Sure. Why not?"
yet, half-way expecting they'll turn back as soon as they reach the fenceline anyways...
...but they don't...
...and you drop your hoop and follow, now lagging far behind, through fencelines and marshy wet spots, trespassing through fields of grass and gone-to-seed pepperweed and blooming mustard weeds to just this side of the trees, until you can just barely catch a glimpse of them there when you slow down to zoom way in, standing right there, under what looks to be where the rainbow's end falls (can you see them there?!)...
...but it isn't, because the rainbow has moved on of course, and when you catch up with them they want to continue 0n and so you do too, into the woods until you reach the irrigation ditch which is too deep and fast and cold to ford, coming straight out of the mountains as it does...
...but you're glad you're here because you've been meaning to take them up here for some time to show them this (by means of public forest service lands) except you keep forgetting about it or finding yourselves too busy to do so, and so instead here you are now, walking along the ditch, still following that rainbow...
...but now you're all starting to get a little chilled because the sun is setting and you really are pretty well soaked by another wave of rain that's passed through as well as all the wet grass and water you've been traipsing through...
...and so, even with that rainbow still taunting you from behind the hills, you all decide to turn back by way of the road, past where they're working putting in a new bridge (another thing you've been meaning to do but haven't: go sit by the river and watch the work being done here)...
...alongside the field you've just crossed...
...with goosebumps, treasure (not gold) in your hands, and pink in your cheeks...
...towards home...
... for a quick, warming cup of hot cocoa before bedtime...
...with a story of your adventures to share with Papa who somehow missed all this and was probably wondering what on earth you all could be up to...
... and glad for not having said "No" followed by any number of excuses....
