Summer Fun???

Well, as life would have it, our swamp cooler is out of commission ...again. It really is our own fault. Last summer the ducting (which is nothing more than a very large tube made of plastic sheeting) came off from where it is attached in the crawl space/attic. Byron and I climbed up there to wade through the insulation material very early one Saturday morning - the area where the tube needs to be connected is, of course, way to small to make this a convenient job. We discussed getting it professional fixed during the winter ... oops.

In the meantime, I had picked up a very small inflatable pool for the kids but had not yet had the courage/energy to set up. Having no cooler yesterday made that more of a priority. It turned out to be pretty fun! Josh and Tess loved it. Ben was more interested in the squirting trunk of the elephant than anything else. The elephant is supposed to be a slide but since it too is inflatable it is more like jumping on a balloon - so the kids kind of bounce into the pool rather than slide in. Ginny found the water too cold and managed to slip and fall so that she was all wet at once - that ended the fun for her. She spent most of the time running around the back yard. She managed to get onto Ben/Josh's tricycle, which was fine and cute, but when she tried to get off it tipped with her and I didn't reach out fast enough to prevent her from plowing her face into the gravel of the back yard. It didn't break the skin anywhere but she has some lovely bruises across her nose and forehead - poor thing! Bryce spent a very long time blowing up the elephant while I worked on the pool but when it was all done he didn't want anything to do with it because it was too small. It might have had something to do with the Nintendo magazine that his mother sent him in the mail ... hmmmmm.