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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Don't Get Wet

Three little words to which my children seem morally opposed.

We went to Bull Run today with some friends. There were no plans to go down to the creek. Inch upon inch of rain in the past few weeks have flooded just about everything in our area and we knew getting down to the creek would probably be impossible. The playground seemed like a nice, um maybe dry alternative.

Not quite. I could see as I pulled up the huge pools of standing water in the sand filled playground. I could see the marsh-like state of the grass around the picnic tables.

Let's just sit an eat the moms say. They'll just run around on the hill and the mostly dry grass for a bit. I sighed with relief that we would not be wading in the creek today.

More friends joined us.

But then the sirens began calling to the children. I suppose its possible that mermaids can call out from brown pools of playground water. I'm sure none of them meant to get wet. Isn't it always an accident? Kay went down the "wrong" slide. The teeter-totter "just happened" to be over a big pool of water. I'm not sure how they can explain the countdown as children took turns swinging and then flinging themselves in the water as an accident. No doubt they didn't really "mean" to land in the water. I will sum up by saying I took home at least five very wet children.

And the moms? Perhaps we fell under the same spell as the children. Perhaps it was the horror of what they were doing. We were powerless to stop it. We pleaded with them not to put their heads in and begged them to not use a straw as a snorkel.

And now I'm laughing because I can see my dear friends have already posted about our day. Are we crazy or what?

I'm sorry Maryan.

2 comments:

Elizabeth Foss said...

I had forgotten the snorkel straw. That WAS pretty funny. I'm so glad we did it even if it wasn't the quick, mellow trip I had in mind. And Karoline took a three and a half hour nap. Imagine how tired she would have been if she'd been the one fending off Luke instead of Agnes:-).

Maryan said...

We just finished our McDonald's dinner and were discussing the "snorkel" as we sipped lemonade from straws: "Dad... do you know what you can do with a straw when you..."

They're in the tub now. And yes, I forgive you both. The boys had way too much fun for me to hold it against you... I think.

And poor Agnes... she's just too cute. :)