Slip and Slide Billboard Style

Each of the past couple of summers we've been invited to join the family billboard-size slip-and-slide party. It's fun for all ages, and doesn't have to be limited to just family. Here's how to make it happen:

What You'll Need 

people (family, friends, neighbors, ...)

food
sunscreen

1 billboard-size tarp (you may be able to score one from a billboard company)

4+ stakes

1 water source (irrigation water works)

hose(s)
other toys

How Long You'll Be There

4 hours (has been known to last 6 to 8 hours)

Getting Ready

Pick a date and invite people to the party. Have them bring some food. Exact mixture of people is not as important as ensuring you get enough of them. The more the merrier. It is the people, relatives or otherwise, that make this recipe for a fun Saturday in Davis County work.

Participating

Head to your favorite pasture with a gradually sloping hill. Release the cows into the next pasture over. Clean up as much cow dung as you feel necessary. You'll be running around in bare feet, so keep that in mind when you think you've removed enough dung. Lay out billboard-sized tarp. Stake tarp to the ground, a stake on each corner of the uphill side, and a stake further down (10-20 feet) on each side. Attach hose to water source, turn water on, spray tarp. From the uphill side, get a running start and jump onto the wet tarp. Slip. Slide. Splash. Laugh.

After an hour or two, set food out and let people eat, visit, rest. Return to the pasture for a game of baseball. Use slide as third base line. Don't keep score.

My Favorite Part

• 4-year Old: "When I was on the other side, when you wanted to try." 
• 6-year Old: "I just liked...I liked like every part."
• Mom: "Watching the kids enjoy themselves."
• Dad: "Getting to play with the boys, especially helping them get a little more speed on the slide."

Things to Watch Out For

Cow dung. And dehydration. On a hot summer day your chances of becoming dehydrated are high. Even though you're in the water, make sure you drink extra water to stay hydrated.

Extras

The boys really liked having their Dad fling them down the slide. We'd run to the slide together and then, once we were both sliding, I'd throw them down the slide. A good transfer of momentum allowed them to get to the bottom of the slide. They typically wouldn't be able to get that far down. This is what the 4-year old was referring to in his favorite part comment above. Typically I had the boys on my right side, but he kept asking me to do it from the other side. I finally gave in, it didn't work very well, and so we went back to the original way of doing it. The 6-year old went down with me a couple times, but he's too grown up for that now.

And of course there was a lot of group slides, tricks from the older sliders, and some spectacular crashes. Be careful and have fun.