Staying Cool

It has been hot lately. And since our trailer isn't exactly a nice cool place, we needed to go cool off somewhere. Wednesday we went to the city pool because it was free swim day...at $3 a person, it's best to go on those free days :) The boys just finished swimming lessons today, but they still wanted to go back. Besides the cost, my sunburned back still hasn't recovered from the pool. We'd had other plans for the afternoon (they weren't keeping cool plans), but they'd fallen through. So I told them to go to the bathroom, put on tennis shoes that could get wet, swim trunks if they wanted to and I had a surprise for them. Joshua figured it out before we got half way up Main Street because I'd said it involved water, but wasn't swimming. And we drove up Old Etna to Grease Flats and headed down to Etna Creek and had fun wading, splashing and throwing rocks for about an hour. Nathaniel told me it was "The Best Day Ever" (I love that kid...any day we do something fun is "The Best Day Ever"...makes me want to come up with something almost every day to hear him say that)  We will be going back (the kids hope Monday) with Brian so that we can explore upstream and downstream...I told the boys that carrying Grace and trying not to slip wasn't the best with me being the only adult. I could just see myself slipping and falling and Joshua trying to figure out how to get me back to the car :)

Heading down the forest service road to the ford in the creek...they were pretty excited.

I think he'd just been splashed in the face by a falling rock (courtesy of one of his younger siblings). After he slipped, fell and banged his knee on a rock within the first 5 minutes we were there, I realized that I hadn't had him put on his old taped together glasses. Not wanting him to do something to the two week old new glasses, I had him take them off. He could see well enough to get around, but was happy to see details again when he put them back on.

 I took this picture with my cell phone to send to Brian.  We'd gotten treats at the store on our way and Nathaniel was still finishing his.

She wasn't too sure at first about her crazy mom making her walk in cold water on slippery rocks...in fact, she kept asking for Daddy. (I don't think she thought I knew what I was doing). But once she discovered that I'd told her the truth about us going to a place with a lot of rocks, well, then she was happy. She threw lots and lots of rocks into the creek.
The obsession this girl has with rocks - I think she'll be a geologist someday.

Must always have big walking stick. I told him to smile for me, and he had to get posed first. Can't believe how big this kid is...the first time we took him here to wade...he was barely walking...time sure flies.

This was taken almost 9 years ago...July 26, 2003

Not his usual cheesy smile, but almost :) He was thrilled to get to stomp around in the creek, throw rocks and he even had a smaller version of Joshua's walking stick until I got tired of him trying to use it and almost knocking himself or someone else over, so I took it and chucked it downstream. Joshua was going to rescue it...I finally got him convinced to let it go!

As you can see, this tired her out pretty good (sadly this was about 4 pm she finally went to sleep around 10 tonight). I looked at the blog post I did in 2010 when we took the kids there the last time (why we don't go up there more often to cool off, I don't know. It's five minutes from the house and as Joshua said, "It's better than the pool 'cause it doesn't cost us a penny!")

Here is a flashback to August 2010...the kids sure have grown and changed...and in some ways, haven't changed a bit.

http://leehappenings.blogspot.com/2010/08/this-and-that.html