Play date

Today we went to an area park that was about halfway between us and a friend who lives far enough away that we don't meet up very often. She has a little girl who is almost a year old. The weather was perfect, almost a little too warm but not quite.

Luke had a blast. The playground structure in this picture is only about 1/10 of what is there - it is huge. It was hard for me to play with him since I had Erin, but he seemed to enjoy it. Maybe when Auntie Beth is here we can go back and take turns playing with him and watching Erin (and hopefully there won't be as many bees in a few weeks when it's cooler - it was pretty bad).



He was so excited to be playing that he had a bit of a rocky start. See the steps he's going down? He didn't realize (and neither did I) how big that last step was and he fell down it. Then he went down the slide . . .



and didn't realize that it was wavy (even though I told him - I don't think he understood) and hung on too hard to the railing and flipped (sideways, not front over). THEN, when he got to the bottom (after going the rest of the way on his belly), he was in such a rush to get up and go do it again that he fell over the side of the slide because he didn't walk forward first before turning! Of course, by then he was covered in dirt and rubbed it into his eye so we had to take a break to collect ourselves and get out the wipes. Hooray for travel packs.



There were about 5 or 6 of these little cars, some with tops like safari cars. He had fun driving and joined a few other little kids that were there.

Erin had a good time cooing to my friend's daughter, who is very friendly herself and kept wanting to hold Erin's hand. It was pretty cute.





The highlight of the day for Luke was riding the park's 1915 carousel and minature train. When I checked the website earlier this week I was disappointed because the season for the carousel and train was just over and I knew Luke would have liked to ride them. However, when we got there today they were running and there was a sign that said they were giving free rides today!

I wish I could have taken better pictures, but this one pretty much tells how excited he was right before the train got started. It's really neat - about a 10 minute ride through the park's woods and near a lake. We even saw a deer.



Needless to say both kids were pooped when we got home. Erin fell asleep in her carseat and then of course had trouble falling back to sleep in her crib. She finally got to sleep and then Luke said he didn't want a nap. I told him he could lay down in his book corner and look at books but that he had to rest for an hour and I would come up and get him when it was time. There are 20 minutes left on my timer but I don't hear anything up there anymore so he's probably asleep. I'm afraid to go check though - the quiet is nice!

Side note trivia: I went to college with this friend and even took education classes with her but we didn't become friends until she moved here with her husband. She took over my job when I quit 3 years ago and then we started a book club every month. Strange, huh?