The Spray Park- a little more wet than you'd think!

Rexburg's Porter Park just got a "spray park" this summer, where kids can go play on a water playground. I have taken the girls a few times with other friends, and with Neil. Kortney loves the park, but not the water. If it's not a hot tub, it's just too cold for her. So, she walks around the perimeter and steps through the little bubblers and things, splashing, but not getting soaked. Well, the other day in the evening, we were in Rexburg with Dad and Uncle Marc, riding the park carousel, eating ice cream on the benches surrounding the spray park. We noticed it was already shady at the spray park, so the girls weren't too disappointed that we didn't strip them down to their swimsuits to play in it. We sat down and watched the huge bucket at the top fill up with gallons of water and dump it all over the roof, and flood onto the ground. Uncle Marc decided to bribe Kortney with all the change in his pocket to run up and touch the yellow slide and get back before the water dumped out all over her. She was so excited to earn some money, but nervous, too, since she didn't know how to time the dump. Marc held her hand and ran with her a few times (more like dragged her), until she felt pretty confident she could do it on her own. Taylor, of course, followed, with little fear since she didn't understand what the danger really was. Half the time Neil or Marc had to run out and grab Taylor back before she got wet, since she took so long getting to the slide. There was a little mist that sprayed near the slide, and when she got near enough to almost touch it, she would stop and back away like it was some invisible force field. She would turn her head away, reach her hand out, and unknowingly start walking sideways, inching along, waiting to feel her fingers touch. Sometimes it just took too long for her to find her way, and sometimes we could only laugh and then suddenly yell to her to run back to us when we saw the bucket start to tip. Well, Kortney ran so fast to the slide one time that I told her to hurry and run back to touch it once more. That's where I earned my Awesome Mom award. She had just touched the slide when the bucket dumped, and she had no idea what she was in for. She got drenched, screamed (the water IS cold), and ran right to Dad. I felt terrible, and ran to the car for a towel. While Kortney sat wrapped up in Daddy's arms, Taylor became the new target. Others at the park were watching us and laughing at the girls (probably they were really laughing because they couldn't believe what we were doing to these poor children). Taylor, bless her sweet little heart, took just a little bit too much time making it to the slide, and, on her zig-zag run back to us, she got splashed from behind. Her eyes went as big as golf balls when she heard the water splash behind her, and her short little legs went faster, but not any quicker. She screamed when it hit her back side. That ended our fun at the park. We had no more dry kids. Emmrie had already gotten wet after I walked her through a bubbler fountain 3 or 4 times (SHE liked the water- I couldn't keep her away from it). It really was quite the fun park trip. For the dry adults. If you're ever out in Rexburg with the kids during a hot summer day, just remember there's always something for them to do at Porter Park- swimsuit or not!