Playing in the Rain...

Shilo's last home soccer game was this afternoon and in true Pacific Northwest fashion, it poured the entire game. Actually we have had a fairly dry fall, so this was really the first rainy game. Shilo has always liked to play in the rain, soccer, mud puddle splashing, long walks, what have you. In fact, several years ago when we were still in Wyoming, I received a paniced phone call at work from Brittany. It was during the years that Riff and I both worked two jobs. We were both at our night job at the "Proud Cut Saloon" where I waitressed and Riff tended bar several nights a week. Anyway, It was the middle of summer, the days were long and hot and we happened to have a big thunder storm that dumped a lot of rain, which is very unusual for Wyoming where the average annual rainfall is 3 inches. Brittany was 15 and in charge of Shilo and Dustin that evening who were then 12 and 9. The rain started and the two younger kids went out to play in the front yard. After a 1/2 hour or so had passed, Brittany decided to call them in, but they were no where to be found. She called me at work finally, (after an hour), panicked-her voice high and squeaky. "Mom, I can't find Shilo and Dustin. They went out to play in the rain an hour ago and never came back!" It was still thundering, lightning and raining pretty hard. Some of the streets were flooded, because they aren't equipped with the storm drains to handle that kind of a rain. I tore off my apron, jumped in the car and raced home. Right down the street I spotted two kids tromping through puddles. They were happily soaked to the skin, splashing in every puddle they could possibly find around the neighborhood. They received a sound scolding about venturing away from home without permision and I headed back to work. The next day, who should be on the front page of the local newspaper but my two "lost" children, delighted smiles on their faces as they splashed in a giant puddle.
As you can see by the smile on Shilo's face, she still likes to play in the rain...