Hillbilly Playground

I think there is a little bit of hillbilly in each of us. There's something simple about sitting on a resin chair in the shade of a huge tree, watching your kids swim in a murky pond, whilst sipping ice cold lemonade and eating homemade oatmeal cookies. That's exactly what we got to do (minus the lemonade - I added that for effect) a few days before school started. It was a new and exciting adventure that our cool neighbors let us be a part of. Every so often, the Bird family fills up their little retaining pond with either irrigation water or water from their personal well to service their big garden. But before sending it to the plants, it provides hours of entertainment for the kids. This particular day, the water came from the irrigation ditch, so it was a little muddy (I prefer that word to dirty), but not as freezing as the water out of the well would be.

Even though it was chilly and dirty, the girls had such a fun time playing. I had to take photos of my little hillbillies, of course. One of my favorite shots is of Oakley wading in the water with her head tucked down, looking between her legs. Dakota didn't swim as much. She was probably busy munching on the cookies. Brooklyn and Makenna had fun with their friends floating on boogie boards and swimming with Take, the family's dog. (His name is Take because he "takes" everything and runs off with it.) He had fun chasing the ball and/or plastic water bottle that the girls were throwing to him. At one point, Take grabbed one of our towels that was lying next to me and ran all around the yard with it. It wasn't until we were getting ready to go, that we realized Brooklyn's glasses were missing. They had been put down on that towel that Take had dragged all over the yard. Good luck finding them in the acre of grass. Luckily, after several personal quick prayers from various people, I found them on one of the berms, in one piece. We were so worried that Take had them, because there'd be nothing left of them. One of Brooklyn's shoes suffered that exact fate on that day.

It's times like this that I love where we live. The girls have thoroughly enjoyed exploring their surroundings, catching bugs, finding snakes (yuck!), fishing for minnows, and visiting the neighbors' horses, cows, goats, ducks, geese, turkeys, and donkeys. The world is a beautiful place and Mapleton is no exception. Although I often miss the neighborhood we came from, with dear friends so close and tight-knit (I haven't found that here yet), I'm grateful that my girls have been able to experience this semi-rural playground, all the while becoming better friends with each other.

Hillbillies don't have it so bad!