One day my little family of four was walking to the donut shop in our neighborhood, and the conversation turned to cars. A bright orange car drove by and my youngest kiddo, Brae, asked if you could paint your car any color you wanted to. As in: are there rules? So we told him no, that people paint their cars any color they like.
Then he and Pace started to watch every car that drove by and determined that most of them were gray or white or black or the occasional red. They talked about how both Wooch and I have white cars. Why on earth would they all be so plain when you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT!? Why is it that the popular colors for cars are neutrals? The conversation immediately made me feel old and boring. I mean if I were 8 years old, I would not pick white for the color of my car if I could literally choose any color in the world because there are no rules. They continued to talk about what they would want and settled on a rainbow car for our family of four imaginary world. Then wait, what if you had a rainbow FLAME car, like a Hot Wheels?! Wooch and I kept looking at each other smirking because we were both thinking the same thing. We sure can have a rainbow Hot Wheels car. So we planned and schemed and saved. I asked my dear friend Jimmy to do the flame graphic because he’s edgy like that and I knew he would nail it. We found a car wrap company, sent them the artwork and about a year after our donut walk conversation, I drove out of the garage in our very own rainbow Hot Wheels!
My car is 9 years old and not a race car, but STILL. It’s exactly what we talked about and it couldn’t have turned out better. I love it. It makes me so happy. But the part I didn’t expect is how much joy it brings to other people. Every time I drive down the street, there are kids pointing and smiling. I see people snapping photos. I feel like I want to be the nicest driver ever and never cut anyone off, but have you driven in Houston traffic?! Just kidding, people let me in when I want over on the freeway now! Friends call me to tell me they just saw me on the road. It’s definitely not discreet. I’ve been asked more than once if it is permanent, haha. It is a huge joy bringer, and I’m so happy we walked to get donuts that day. Something ordinary turned into something extraordinary. By letting our kiddos imaginations run wild they dreamed up something we didn’t know our own family or apparently complete strangers needed. It will permanently be a happy story in my head—even more permanent than those silly rainbow flames.
Photography by Rebecca Sanabria and car sweetly washed prior to shooting by Wooch and our kiddos.
