Way down South where the black water flows...

I mean, Happy Fourth of July!

With a momentary reprieve from the rainy monsoon season that has settled upon us, we hurriedly festooned our Mule (no, not the HEEHAW kind) for our neighborhood's annual parade/picnic. Once the Freedom Wagon was ready to ride, we dashed off to the parade route. The kids enjoyed waving at the old folks and babies scattered along the route (I've read this post several times and with each reading I giggle as I imagine old people and babies SCATTERED along the roadside...which is sick...yet funny...er, well...nevermind), and one of our offspring was WAY too fond of ringing the blasted cow bell that was smuggled aboard. I still hear that stinking bell in my head....

Sadly, it did rain on our parade. Actually, it misted on our parade. We arrived back to the Picnic HQ house, set up the tables, munchies, hot dogs, etc. just in time for the skies to open up, and HELLO...we're back in Seattle again. THE RAIN IN SPAIN STAYS MAINLY IN THE PLAIN, but the rain in East Texas is DRIVING ME INSANE! Hahhaa. Actually, I love, love, love the rain. It could rain every day for all I care. Lucky for me, I may be getting my wish for the indefinite future. So, where was I? Oh yes. It rained. Luckily, Picnic HQ belongs to a super-nice family with an ENORMOUS house, drive, carport area. Several families (we weren't one of them) were graciously prepared with pop up tents, canopies, etc. Totally saved the day.

At some point, the monsoon turned into...well, hhhmm. What does a monsoon turn into when it gets angry? I dunno. All I know is that it was emptying buckets of rain. Thankfully there was no lightening or thunder, so the kids had a FIELD DAY playing in the rain. Somewhere after about an hour of hanging out, my fun-o-meter was at TILT, and I begged Mr. Pinkie to take us home. In the mule. The one with NO roof. In the downpour. It showed no signs of letting up you see. So, we bit the bullet and raced home in the pouring rain while our teeth chattered and the kids squealed. I won't tell you how many buckets of rainwater I was able to squeeze out of my underwear.

For now, we'll just think of the fun we had.