They Day We Tried to Start Summer

In an attempt to start summer off on the right foot, we planned to go to a park and have a picnic with some friends right after school got out. The kids were really excited and so were the moms since we planned to get some sun while the kids played. This particular park has a merry-go round which is something you do not find very often anymore, so I knew they would love it and I hoped no one would end up in the ER.

As we were driving to the park, it started to rain and by the time we got there it was pouring. We had hopes of it stopping so we got everyone and everything out of car and ran to the pavilion for shelter. The kids started eating and the rain came down even harder. The good thing was that the kids didn’t care. In fact, they embraced the rain for the most part and we all tried to ignore how cold and wet we were with hopes that it would clear up and warm up soon.

When they were done eating, we decided to pile them all into Stacey’s car and let them watch a movie while the mom’s ate in my van hoping it would clear up.

The funny thing was that by the time we got them all settled, the rain had stopped, but it had come down so fast that the parking lots was like a wading pool.

After the mom’s finished a nice peaceful lunch and the sun was shinning, we decided to free the children from the Suburban that now smelled fantastic after being filled with 9 rain-soaked sweaty kids.

The kids loved the merry-go round and everyone dried out quickly. It turned into such a beautiful day it was hard to believe how wet things had started out. That is one of the nice things about Spokane’s bi-polar weather – the good weather is so good it makes you forget the bad weather. Plus we were just glad it was rain and not snow.

The kids also loved feeding the ducks and playing by the water. Posing for a photo on the Karate kid tree stump was also popular. We had such a great time and even though it didn’t turn out exactly as we had planned, we had a blast. I am certain that it was a last day of school the kids will never forget and I know that Stacey’s car will never be the same.