Mud puddle or cool pool? Easy choice

We have a swimming pool in our back yard.
This spring, my husband spent the better part of a week hooking up hoses, going to the pool store and making adjustments to get the pool up and running.
I, too, have spent time at the pool store buying chemicals and discussing problems. I check the water every day and add chemicals a couple of times a week. Hours and hours have been spent skimming and sweeping the surface.
I was thrilled this past weekend when the gray clouds finally left and the sun was shining bright.
"I am putting on my bathing suit and going out to the pool for the whole day!" I announced at breakfast.
The boys thought that sounded like a good idea. They and couple of their friends, along with my niece, put on their bathing suits and headed outside.
They never made it to the pool.
They spent the entire afternoon playing in the mud puddle that the rain had made at the bottom of our yard.
I sat in total, utter disbelief, sunning myself on the deck.
Unbelievable
When I first heard them over by the puddle, I opened one eye and peered out. They were timidly sticking their toes in the water.
After chasing a frog through the puddle, all hesitance was gone. They started stomping through the muddy water, racing each other from side to side. They kicked, screamed, laughed and splashed, each one trying to outdo the other's water antics.
Then came the ultimate, double-dog-dare challenge: Run and slide face first into the puddle.
"Go get the video camera!" they yelled over to me, hoping to save this moment for posterity.
I wanted to tell them what I was going to do with that video camera. I didn't. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. They would never have heard me over all the cheers and hollers as the first daredevil's face slid into the water.
One by one, they slammed their bodies onto the ground and smashed into the mud. Rising out of the water from their feat, they each looked like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. But they wiped the mud from their eyes and got in line to do it again.
When my niece stood poised, ready to run head first into the puddle, I knew the mud puddle had created an uncontrollable crazed frenzy.
Meanwhile, I sat by the nice, clear, chemically balanced water in the pool and wondered why I had wasted my time keeping it that way. If they liked brown, muddy water, surely a green, algae-infested pool would be a blast.
Easily entertained
It reminded me of the year we bought the boys bikes for Christmas.
In an effort to heighten the suspense of the gifts, I made three trips to a local appliance store to get refrigerator boxes to hide the bikes. Christmas morning, the boys couldn't wait to see what was inside the big boxes, but we made them open their other gifts first.
Turns out, it didn't matter what was inside the boxes. The bikes sat by the tree until -- two weeks later -- the boxes had been worn out by the boys.
I remember my husband and me sitting by the tree, looking at all the presents that were being ignored while the boys played in, around, over and under the boxes. We wondered why we had spent a dime on any of it.
That's how I felt as I sat by the pool this day. I refused to let myself add up the cost to run this bucket of water. My mind started calculating anyway.
Luckily, the kids came running up to the deck and interrupted my thoughts.
"Whoa! You're not jumping into this pool like that!" I yelled just in time as one of the mud-laden lagoon monsters was about to jump into my crystal clear water.
"Go wash off with the hose!" I ordered all of them.
That was the closest they got to the pool that day. The rest of the afternoon was spent running and squirting each other with our $10 hose.
gwhite@vindy.com