Slip-N-Slide

Remember the good 'ol days when we used to lay the Slip-N-Slide on the front lawn and either hook the hose to it or turn on the sprinklers? Doesn't this picture just scream summer? I remember playing on the Slip-N-Slide at the Mendoza's house and wishing it were about 3 times as long as it was. It was bright yellow and when you got to the end you just stopped, as you did a face plant into the grass. What fun memories. Well, today I got to re-live one of my favorite childhood memories...minus the face plant, thankfully. We had a Primary activity at the church this afternoon. When I got there with my kids and Vicki's, there were these two humongous yellow pieces of plastic laying down the side of the grassy hill and someone running a hose down them. At first I thought, "Wow, how cool, the kids are gonna have a blast!" And they did! And so did all of us adults! What a sight we must've been to behold. The kids played until we had lunch, then they did water balloons, and then straight back to the Slip-N-Slide. In the meantime, us adults are sneaking around trying to surprise eachother with a water balloon in the back, or face, or trying to dump water onto each other. It was 100 degrees today, so we didn't mind getting a little wet. Uh-huh...we were soaked!! Completely! The next thing I know, I find myself and 4 other ladies going head first down the Slip-N-Slide and straight into the muddy water at the bottom of the hill. How did this happen? An hour earlier I was trying desperately to avoid any child with any amount of water on themselves or in a cup. Once we got up off the ground, we noticed the looks on all the kids faces...they were delighted!! They were hystarical with laughter! Thier Mom's/Leaders soaking wet...clothes, hair, all of it! It made me think of how often we don't enjoy life like they do. The unabashedly, full-on, who cares how we look kind of fun. We had so much fun today...I want to say we adults had more fun than the kids. Not possible. Even today, nothing compares to the memories of childhood. When you're a kid, it's a first time experience with everything. My kids have never seen a Slip-N-Slide, I don't think. Watching them enjoy one of my favorite memories was priceless.