Poor Man's Water Park

The kids have been passing around a nasty little virus recently, and unfortunately, Izzy's battled more than her fair share of it for a solid week now. She's felt rotten. Rotten.

How bad has she felt?


The saddest part is that this shot could have been taken just about anytime over the past seven days, because she's cried a good bit of each day and most of each night (or at least it feels that way).

On a side note, our air conditioner went out again yesterday, and apparently it was still a bit warm in Izzy's room...hence the scary hair.

And to add to that side note, Josh "helped" Iz with her hair when he got home from work.


Sad.

Izzy wants to eat, but everytime she tries anything more than yogurt, she cries out in pain. So last night I held our poor, crying baby in my lap and fed her yet another cup of yogurt while the rest of us woofed down our dinner. We were really needing to get out of the house, so we went for our regular post-dinner stroll and then decided to hit the water park.

Well, sort of.

We, along with several of our neighbors, were watering our grass last night, and the kids had been catching the overflow from everyone's sprinklers and splashing in the puddles on the street.


So when we got home, we decided we might as well just do it right. Besides, playing in the sprinkler is just the same as taking a bath, right?

Right?!?

At first, they held back and just let the "rain" from the sprinkler fall down on them.



But then the big two got a bit more daring and decided to get closer. Maybe a little too close.



Not wanting Izzy to miss out on the fun, Abigail came and got her and took her over to where all the action was.


Not to worry, though, she was kind enough to shield Izzy's little face from the water. (Ignore the fact that she's got her hand placed more like she's catching drool than protecting her from the water!)


Josh had a flashback to his early days in the sprinkler, and he kept telling Jack and Abby to jump over the water rather than just stand under the rain. But I don't think they quite got the concept.


So Josh felt he was left with no choice. He had to go in. (BLOGGER DISCLAIMER: I told Josh this might be a terrible idea. But he reminded me that he was released from physical therapy a couple of weeks ago and that he was fine. I reminded him that I might need large doses of Xanax if he were to break his ankle again.)


Other than seeing Josh jump through a thin stream of water like Jack Bauer would through a heavy gunfire attack, my favorite part of these photos are the kids' reactions. Josh had convinced them to follow right behind him and do what he did. Abby was all for it, and she stayed on his heels...until she saw him go through the sprinkler. Then she slammed on the brakes. And Jack was just laughing so hard that he could barely run at all.

Abby did eventually take a step over the water (although it was in her best girly-girl fashion).


Jack, on the other hand, was quite content with the closeness he had already experienced with the water. No further action needed.


Not one to be left out of family fun, I decided to do a running leap through the water myself. And since Izzy had attached herself firmly to my hip, she had the pleasure of going with me. Now that I've seen these photos, I'll no longer be commenting on Abby's girly-girlness.


And if you're worried about my poor little one being forced to race through the yard and jump through a cold, wet sprinkler with me, take a look at this (making sure to remember the opening picture for this post):


She loved it! Or maybe she was just saying "Aaahhhhh" like I've had her do twenty-thousand times over the past week.

What she might not have cared for was the surprise shower we got when we were posing for a picture.


Once Josh and I realized that our yard was becoming more muddy than it was grassy, we turned the water off and rounded the little ones up to head inside. Just a few more splashes in the driveway, and it was off to the showers (I was just kidding about that bath-substitution thing. Or was I?).



Make sure to stay tuned for the weekend update (I know...I'm doing things a little out of order. Between photography sessions and plain, old family fun photography, I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the photos I've got to edit right now). And remember, anytime you need an afternoon of fun, you're welcome to head on over to our house.

We know of a great little water park.