The other day we traveled to visit family and I have recently discovered that visiting family takes on a whole new meaning when you have kids. Yes...you still enjoy visiting and "telling lies" to each other; however, when you add kids to the mix, it's a whole new ballgame.
Since it is still 95 degrees or so outside, we decide that we should get out the big blowup water slide / pool. I really have no idea how to describe it except that there is a hose hooked up to it and it shoots water from the top of the slide into this shallow pool-like area. There are foot holes so that you can climb up to the top of a slide. So as I stood watching the kids go down this slide, laughing and giggling like there was nothing better in the world, I couldn't help but wish I was a kid again enjoying the simplist things in life and taking it all in. Your biggest worry is that bedtime is in 10 minutes. Your greatest obstacle is how you are going to eat dessert without first finishing the food on your plate. You wish the phrase "take a couple more bites first" didn't exist. And you worry about what game or toy you are going to play with tomorrow.
I watch Libby's eyes light up as the cold water hits her face. Her cousin, Jack, slides down the slide before she is out of the pool area and in the bottom is an entaglement of legs, feet, arms, and heads. I continue to watch as Libby gets up and laughs as if it's no big deal. The only thing she is thinking about is getting back to the ladder and climbing to the top of the slide only to do it all over and over again. I can't help but notice that I have just witnessed true happiness, and to think it came from something so simple.
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