Mud Monster Madness

Yesterday, August 2, 2008, we attended Mud Monster at Reid Park. It was a free event put on by the Tucson Parks and Rec. It was quite fun. They had different age appropriate muddy obstacle courses and mud puddles to play in. The fire department also had two trucks there spraying water off their truck to "wash off." We had to wait about 20 minutes in line to register, which was rather annoying but once that was done, we headed over to the mud puddles for the toddler age kids. The area consisted of several plastic wading pools filled with dirt and water, making a muddy mess. The point was for the children to get in and splash around and get dirt. Grant did not enjoy that concept and refused to get in. A picture is below of me trying to get Grant in the pool. He was more interested in eating his free watermelon flavored eegee (for non-Tucsonans an eegee is basically flavored shaved ice, but it is a classic around town).

We were at a loss as to what to do if Grant didn't want to play in the mud but then Chad found the mud tables. Grant had no problem with those. He stood at a table and played in really thick mud with various sand toys. He loved it. He even got his picture taken by a Parks an Rec photographer who commented on how cute he was. The problem was that Grant told the guy "no" and refused to cooperate for the photos. A picture of Grant making mud pies is below.

Once Chad and I got too hot standing there watching Grant, we headed over to the firetruck to cool off. This was Chad's favorite thing, as you can see from the pictures below. Grant, on the other hand, did not enjoy it. He did, however, after a little encouragement, enjoy sitting in the muddy run off puddles to dig around with his eegee spoon and cup. He threw a fit when we tried to leave.

It was a great family event. We were only sad we didn't bring Barry, our white lab, with us. He would have loved getting wet and running around in the mud. It's just his thing and there were tons of other dogs there. Poor Barry. Since we got Sooner and had kids, he hasn't gotten to go many places with us and we used to do lots of things with him and for him. I guess that's the price he pays for being the oldest child in the family.

Grant digging around in the mud with his eegee cup and spoon.

Lindsay and Grant in front of the firetruck after cooling off in the water.

Chad helping Grant get accustomed to the mud.

Chad cooling off in the water spray.

Chad in the crowd of people cooling off and washing off.

Lindsay trying to get Grant to try out the toddler mud puddles.

Grant enjoying himself, making mud pies.

I know Aunt Kitty and Oma are having a heart attack after reading this but what's childhood if you can't get good and muddy once in awhile right?