Sleigh rides in the rain.

After getting back from Smithville today, where I took my not-so-little brother to for staff training for a camp he's working at this summer, I had a most lovely afternoon. And it was completely unexpected, which made it that much better.

I decided that I wanted to wash my flip flops. Nothing intense, just kinda scrub them a little bit and see if it was possible to make them look even the slightest degree less dirty. I also decided that it was probably best done outside with the water hose. I asked my littlest brother if he was interested in joining me. I figured the water would excite him. It did. And he also decided that he wanted to wash off some of his shoes. He brought out two pairs, as opposed to my twenty. So needless to say, even with factoring in how much slower he was than me, his took much less time.

When I walked out there, there was no rain around. But before I could finish going over all twenty pairs, I heard thunder, and pretty soon the water started falling. I was already wet anyway, as were my shoes, so I finished what I was doing. I was actually happy to have an excuse to stand in the rain, because I don't have one very often. My brother stayed out there with me. As soon as I was finished with my shoes, and before it started really pouring, I told my brother we should go to the porch and we could watch the rain from there. So we left our shoes out in the wet, because I was not about to try to carry 20 pairs of drenched shoes back into the house, and set off for the porch.

It was so nice being out there. I usually watch storms from the inside, so it's always a treat when I can see and hear the rain up close and feel what little of it the wind blows in under my covering. My brother was not content with that, though. He kept stepping out into the rain to the point that he was eventually drenched from head to toe. It made me smile.

We did many other things that made me smile. The rain had put us in a good mood, so we were having all kinds of fun out there on the porch. I don't know why, but we sang "Sleigh Ride." He's the one who started it, and of course, I know all of the words, so we finished it together and managed to make it through a couple more times. It was rather funny to be saying the words, "it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride" in the middle of a rain storm in May. We also danced all kinds of different dances. Out on the front porch for the whole world to see. And once he was soaking wet, my brother started getting a kick out of hugging me. Apparently I wasn't wet enough. We did a lot of remembering and reminiscing, too. I reminded him of some things that happened very early on in his life. He has a pretty good memory. It's hard to believe he's going to be eleven in about a month and a half. I still remember rocking him to sleep and feeding him and giving him baths and all that fun baby stuff. Time passes so quickly.

And I'm glad I took time this afternoon to enjoy the rain and my brother's company. I let many moments like this slip by all too frequently.