Reader photo: Oh, kids

It would be easy to take the cynical route with this photo and wag our fingers at these boys. We could talk about how there’s a drought in California (there is), how we shouldn’t have lawns (we know) or how we shouldn’t play with water hoses (double no-no), but ... this scene is still pure magic.

Rachelle Mendez took her boys outdoors to take some photos of them during the “golden hour” — that oh-so-magical time of day sacred to photographers who are fanatic about natural lighting — when, “next thing I know,” Mendez wrote, “my 2-year-old son had the gardenhose and my 4-year-old son was happily running through it like it was the middle of summer.”

The enjoyment and apparent fun captured in this photo is enough to put cynicism aside ... for a moment.

Mendez shot this photo with her Canon 6D.

Each week, we’re featuring photos of Southern California submitted by readers. Share your photos on our Flickr page or reader submission gallery. Follow us on Twitter or visit latimes.com/socalmoments for more on this photo series.