Playing in Sprinklers

I played in a sprinkler in my backyard yesterday, for the first time in roughly 13 years.

It. was. AWESOME!

My sister Abby has been here the past week, and her two oldest kids, a girl and a boy, spent a couple minutes each of the first few days playing in the fountain on our back patio, so we decided a fun afternoon of playing in sprinklers and running around our tiny backyard would be a total hit.

And it was a hit. Just not as much with the people we were expecting it to be a hit with.

My niece hadn't been feeling her very best all morning and was rather lethargic, so she spent most of the time sitting grumpily on a chair in the shade. When she did venture out to the water, we'd get a smile for a second, and then some crying or stomping off about something that wasn't how she wanted it. It's hard being 4 with a stomach ache.

My nephew loved playing in the sprinkler, but quickly got distracted by another hose that had a jet stream of water poring from it. He kept trying to fill a little cup full of water, which would be knocked out of his hand when the jet hit it squarely at the bottom of it. He'd make a fussy noise, pick it up, and start trying again. All the rest of the world around him did not exist, and nothing else mattered. The only time we even existed for him was when we'd try to help him - he didn't much care for any help - or when we had to yell at him not to drink the water - he only kind of listened to that, but Weber water is not really what you want a child drinking. But he had fun, and eventually remembered the fountain and went to play with that, soon realizing how fun it was to dump cups of water on sitting adults' legs. He's a goof, that little one.

But the sprinkler was mainly a hit for me. And Abby. But more for me. While Abby and mom sat on the patio, I was running through the sprinkler with the kids, then with myself when they stopped playing with it. Soon Abby and I started doing leaps over it as well (side note: when I was 6 and in ballet class, we practiced our leaps by saying, "Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jump over the candlestick" and leaping over an imaginary candlestick that got higher and higher as we went on. I don't know how we knew where it actually was at when we couldn't see it getting higher, but I'm pretty sure I got burned a few times...).

Our leaps were pretty. Our hurdle practice was a little shaky at first - I haven't actually hurdled since high school track times, so my form was a little weak. But we worked on it until I eventually cleared the hurdle, without clipping my heel on the water hurdle at all. Then I moved on to tornadoes.

Tornadoes are a weather phenomenon I don't appreciate studying very often, but the technique of water tornadoes is rather simple. Just jump over the sprinkler, spinning your body in a cyclone-like manner through the water. The tricky part is keeping your eye on your target landing, so you land cleanly, without any injury. But the trickiness isn't even really tricky, which is why it's such a great resource to go to when you're playing in sprinklers. The best part is that you can choose how to use your arms - you can tuck them to your chest, holding them in, or you can twirl with them out, letting them fly with the motion of the cyclone twist. They feel free and get a kiss of water droplets with this alternative, but you get a stronger cyclone motion with the arms tucked. It's really up to how you want to execute this fun maneuver.

While our tricks and games were fun, I have to admit that I spent most of my time just standing in the sprinkler's wake, letting the water splash on me, looking down at it, watching the individual droplets come up, just to fall down again (we had the water pressure set low for the kids to enjoy it a little more), seeing how the water settled on my legs and hands when I stood in different places. Just being in the water on a hot Summer day was enough for me. I stood with my back to the water most of the time, talking with Mom and Abby, watching for bees and other flying monsters.

Mom was the only one not in her swimsuit, so she stayed relatively distanced from my nephew and the sprinklers, but her legs got some good water from the fountain as well, as my nephew couldn't help but target anyone sitting. But she eventually joined in the fun as she got up to water the plants. She sprayed me once or twice when Abby and I tried to flick water at her from the sprinkler. Then she came back to sit down and stay clear of the water fun...but quickly jumped back out of her seat when she found herself more wet sitting down on the patio than standing in the yard.

I booby-trapped her seat. I was really proud of the idea. Abby and I laughed for a good 5 minutes about that one. As soon as she had first gotten up, I quickly sat down on her seat, my swimsuit and shorts rather soaking wet, and then Abby and I kept making sure the seat stayed wet by sitting there for a few seconds when Mom's back was turned every couple of minutes. Even now, I'm still laughing at the perfect plan and execution of that one! I was glad that we could all be in on the water fun on such a hot afternoon.

Abby and her kids left today, but I considered pulling out the sprinkler anyway and running through it - I didn't really need the kids to play in it with me yesterday, so why today? But there's something about being all by yourself that makes it a little less exciting.

So, anyone want to come play in the sprinklers with me?