SOAKED!
After Jared's swim lesson, we went to the neighboring park. The promise of the playground is all that keeps Zach from jumping in the pool himself. He's so jealous! Anyway, the sky started getting dark in the West, so the boys graciously allowed me to go to a nearby Thrift Store (aka shelter). Of course, right as we were checking out, a Phoenician Monsoon-like storm hit. It was almost shocking how hard it was raining! I had to make three trips running into the parking lot. First, with our purchases, when I opened the tailgate of Jeep. Thank goodness for that! It has served as a temporary shelter many, many times. Then I ran back to get Zach, and set him in the back of the Jeep. He crawled over the seat while I ran back to get Jared. I'd learned on the previous trips that flip flops get quite slippery when you're running through an inch of standing water (that's how fast it was coming down!), so we ran Jared to the tailgate barefoot. I braved the rain again to shut the tailgate and get in the driver's seat. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I looked like I was the one who'd just had a swim lesson!
Then came the fun part. Every intersection in downtown Meridian was flooded, and we made spectacular water formations as we whomped through them. Wahoo!
Then we got to our neighborhood. It had stopped raining, but there were big puddles in the valley gutters. We decided that we were so wet already, why not explore?
WOW. A nearby cul-de-sac has some serious drainage issues! Water was backed up over sidewalks, onto people's lawns, up their driveways, etc. Apparently it happens every time there's a big storm, so it's nothing new and exciting to them. But it sure was fun to splash in! Zach even decided to crawl through it, crazy kid!
See (too many) pictures here.