No Walk in the Park

Mauri and I were invited to spend the day at the park with our friends, the Rices.  We were going to Wash (short for Washington) Park in the city.  Big shade trees, walking and biking paths, ponds with paddle boats, and ducks.  The good old fashioned park I remember from my youth.

We picnicked under a huge tree near the playground.  During lunch, the girls noticed a few squirrels nearby, and fed them a yummy snack of nuts.

I bet that little fellow has a tummy ache tonight.

Mauri gave me a tour of the playground (her clever way of getting me to play).

No, I didn't crawl through the tight little metal tunnels.  But they sure made for fun pictures.

I had to get a picture of her on this playground attraction because I clearly remembered a picture I had taken of her big brother at a similar age on a similar toy:

Which reminded me that he didn't write yesterday.  (Imagine my fingers tapping right now.)  Sigh.

Mauri snapped a picture of me navigating the slide.  (Isn't that girl clever?)

After the tire swing (are you sick yet?),

we took a little ride in the surrey (with the fringe on top).

Can I just say, this was no walk in the park.

My goodness, most of that bike path around the park is uphill, and Steph and I have the exhausted calf and butt muscles (pardon my language) to prove it.  I had imagined a nice, leisurely ride, wind blowing my hair, birds singing, the voices of happy children drifting across the vast open expanse of the park.  Nope.  I think we hit 3 short-lived downhill spots where we could just coast, but they were few and far between.  Other surreys would pass, then fade out of sight in the distance.  Was our brake on?  And those sweet little girls could hardly reach the bike pedals, so their help was limited.  

Truthfully, it wasn't that bad, but we did work up a sweat.

Afterwards, we thought about the paddle boats, but decided they would have to wait for another day.  Our legs couldn't take another self-propelled device.  Instead, we agreed a nice Slurpee would satisfy us and soothe the disgruntle lone boy who dreamed only of paddle boats.  Sorry Landon.  Delayed gratification is a hard lesson for a 4 year old.  

Thanks, Steph, for helping me squash some of that I-never-do-anything-fun-with-my-youngest-child-like-I-used-to-with-the-older-kids guilt.

Post post:  Mauri has been waiting patiently to get on the computer, because, you know, she NEVER gets to use it because someone else is ALWAYS using it.  She read over my post, and said, "Yeah, you NEVER do stuff with me."  WHAT?  Didn't we just get back from the park??  But the subject quickly changed as she told me about how WHEN we get a dog, we NEED to buy Plaque-Attack.  Because, you would KNOW if you paid close attention to the commercial, if you accidentally sprayed it into your OWN mouth, it's perfectly safe.  Good to know.  AND she would like me to invite you to view her blog if you are someone who we personally know.  So please send your email, and we will send you an invitation.  That girl wears me out.