Centennial Park Fountain

We had no plans for Memorial Day, other than enjoying a quiet family day. No traveling, no driving, no going where there are tons of people, or crowds, or noise. Just kidding. Before lunch, I spontaneously proposed the crazy idea to drive an hour to Hotlanta, go to Yeah! Burger, and go play in the fountain at Centennial. So we did. And we took fun pictures. So there ya have it!

Are we sure about this? How about no.

 I anticipated a lot of fun, water, getting wet. I did not anticipate how loud hundreds of screaming children (and their parents) would be, how big the fountain was relative to my small kids, or that they would not be 100% in on my grand last-minute plans.

It took many minutes to get this far.

So, since my kids weren't going in by themselves, I decided to join the fun. Without a change of clothes, but it's ok, because I can handle it.

Going in

We made it! (aka she's not panicking about it)

Yeah, um, still no.

Getting better

Holding on tight

Once I held Maddox and took him to the middle of the fountain, he definitely seemed to warm up to the idea. By "idea" I don't mean getting wet. I just mean actually being near the fountains whatsoever. Hey, it was progress, and we were having some fun.

Thanks to Davey for taking pictures! (Don't be too proud of him. Notice HE IS NOT GETTING WET. No sir.)

We must kill the water! Fight the water! Hit it!
Okay, he's into it now.

I got this, Mama.

Now we kick the water! Hi-ya!

Pure fun

 After 30 minutes or so of me getting wet and goofing off, encouraging bravery in my children, I guess Davey finally decided to go in. Yes, he was going to try to play in a giant fountain without getting wet. (shaking my head)

What? Is that Davey-who-refuses-to-get-wet in the lower left-hand corner??

Apparently Maddox didn't want to cross over the fountain by himself, so in one super act of bravery Davey attempted to clear the fountain without getting wet. I won't tell you that I was wishing SO HARD that he would get blasted. Check out the determination in that face! I laugh every time I zoom in to look at their faces! And despite the appearance that Maddox got poked in the face, he was fine. Didn't even phase him.

Ready...get set...

WHEEEEEE! It's a flying Maddox!

Davey really dislikes getting his clothes wet.

Before I end this story, let me start over at the beginning. When we found a place to park, I had to get sunscreen on the kids before crossing a busy street to the park. Then a woman asked us for gas money for her car "over there." After telling her we didn't have cash, Davey kindly offered to take her to go get gas, even offering to buy a gas can. She quickly declined and started backing away (good sign that this was a scam) despite his insistance that he would do it. Oh well. Sunscreen on, everyone accounted for, cross busy road holding on tightly to children in downtown Atlanta...

And completely forget to put money in the box to park.

Ugh. Our 45-minute fountain trip cost us a whopping $75. It would have been $5 had we remembered to pay. We were kind to the parking guy, despite him not letting us off the hook (rules are rules), and we were able to explain to Lailey (who often uses the "I forgot" excuse) that even Mommy and Daddy have to suffer consequences when we "forget." We won't be doing that again!