Go to the Park

It was such a beautiful day today and we spent the morning at our neighborhood park, and, I think, it went really well. I made the mistake of telling Anna that we were going to the park this morning before we were actually 100% ready to go. Toddlers have no real ability to wait. Now, now, NOW! My second mistake was thinking it would be okay to drive to the park. Anna is used to walking/riding in the stroller to the park and freaked when we started to get in the car, because surely this meant we were not going to the park, but to some other horrible place, like the doctor's or Target. It took me all of five minutes to calm her down enough so that she would actually hear that were driving to the park...yes, we're still going to the park.

We met up with some friends there, the Allen Family. Erin is the mommy and she has two kids; Camrynne (3) and Levi (1). They played nicely together, sort of. They ate their snack together, sort of. I keep thinking we're into that stage where Anna will actually play with the other kids, but she really still does her own thing; especially at the park...but maybe that's just what kids do at the park. I kind of remember being in my own little world at the park, at the playground, in the cafeteria...pretty much everywhere...okay, bad example.

It was really difficult to keep an eye on everyone and I tried to keep them at the "baby" park; which, technically is still where Anna is meant to be, but everyone wanted to go to the big-kid park with the scary high climbing stuff and slides. It wasn't too bad. Abby is fearless but slower than the other kids who thought she was going to change her mind when she got to the top of the slide. Nope. It may take her a long time to get to the top of the slide, but she sure as anything is going to go down it...again and again and again.

The most adrenaline pumping moment? Abby was playing in a slide and then got out when I had my back turned and started walking down the trail through the park and away from the park. AAAAHHHH!!! My heart almost stopped until I saw her again...like being hit by a bus.

Other than that, it went really pretty well and I think we could make that more of a regular outing. Speaking of outings, we're going to the children's museum this Friday. We're trying to get a couple of times out this week, since we're going to be doing a lot of prep-work next week for our trip to Arkansas to visit my sister's family and will be home-bound.

A side note, last night the temps dipped down to below our air conditioners set and I have turned off the air. I believe that Fall is now officially upon us. Goodbye Summer. Happy and sad to see it go. I know we're looking forward to Fall stuff. Aaron and I have already talked three or four times about caramel apples from the Conner Prairie Apple Store. Mmmm.