One day, during the summer a few years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to take my kids up the canyon to a small pond and take their pictures as they floated paper boats on the water. Of course I envisioned really cute pictures of them playing together with the perfect sunset behind them.
I only had three boys at the time and dressed them in nice clothes (including one child in white pants). I grabbed my camera, a water bottle, and we loaded up the Silver Bullet (this was what we called our mini van). When we got to the pond, my oldest son placed his paper boat in the shallow water. I took a few pictures of them walking around the pond and looking at the water. This peaceful playing lasted only about seven minutes before one of my boys got mud on another brother’s pants.
Que massive mud fight!
I tried to stop the madness and then realized there wasn’t anything I could do to change the situation in regards to mud being on their clothes. I decided to live in the moment and let my boys be boys. With my camera in video mode and a good distance between me and the mud, I documented what is now one of my very favorite and memorable videos of my kids!
They had the time of their life throwing mud at each other, running around the pond, and jumping in the water!
The bad news is- we didn’t think about how we were going to get back into the van to come home with all the mud. I had NOTHING to clean them off with. Not even a baby wipe! I stripped them down to their underwear, threw their clothes in the back of the van, and told them to carefully put their seat belts on without getting mud everywhere!
When we got back to our humble home I sprayed them off with the only hose we had at our house. The hose was out front and our house was directly across from the police station. Needless to say- I am sure my neighbors and the police officers wondered what kind of a mother I was that day!
Moral of the story is…I am so grateful I let my boys be boys that day!
