Parks, People, and Preparedness

This week I haven't had the best luck finding parks that aren't busy. Two days in a row, I ran into school aged children having what looked like a field day or something at the park we wanted to play at. I'm also learning it pays to be prepared and follow the little thoughts (aka promptings) that come to help you be prepared. And, sometimes you have rotten luck and you can choose to let it ruin your day or choose to move forward. 

Monday we walked pretty far to a cool park, and it was swarming with children. There were no other parks very close, so I decided to let the boys play for a little bit. Luckily, most of the kids were pretty nice and when they started to be less nice we left. I walked to another park and it was beautiful, and not busy at all. The walk was along this lake which made for gorgeous scenery to enjoy. It started to sprinkle while we were at this park. I had a thought before we left for the day to grab my rain coat, but it wasn't supposed to rain until the afternoon so I ignored the thought. I needed my rain coat! The sprinkling started to get harder, so we walked to another park hoping it would let up or we could find somewhere to hide out from the rain. The park had only a tiny place to get coverage and it was soaking wet, as were we at this point. I jumped on the zipline and enjoyed a ride, then hit the road to get to the nearest train station. We were pretty wet by the time we got in, but we were all grateful we could ride the train home. Don't ignore those simple thoughts, they are promptings from a loving Heavenly Father who wants you to be prepared even in the smallest ways! 

This play jeep was very fun! 

Jay and Hugh both trying to squeeze in a turn in the driver's seat

Determined little Hugh, climbing up on his own

Happy in his personal oasis

Hugh thought it was very fun to look at me, but refused to go down by himself

Jay thought this was very fun and it was cool to watch him do it! 

This mega teeter-totter was so fun!

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We were very sad to leave this park because of the rain, we may have to go back.

The beautiful lake!

Third park, it was raining pretty steady at that point, the zipline is not pictured.

Here's where I tried to hide out, I could barely fit

When we finally made it to the train station!

Mondays are the cleaning days, but this particular Monday they came right as we were putting the boys to bed. It was hopeless to try to make them go to bed while the ladies were downstairs, they were very intrigued! 

Both boys peeking and watching

Tuesday was another crazy park day. Luckily, the park I chose was right by another park. We went and played at the other park for over an hour and as we were wrapping up, the grade school kids were leaving the other park. We headed over there and Jay was so excited to see a tunnel slide. He climbed right up and we had a great time playing there I wasn't quite prepared for how cold it was so I didn't have jackets for any of us and when the sun was hiding we were chilly.

This was a very fun control center the boys liked

Snack time is the best time! 

This means "Have a good trip!" - it was on the back of all the day care children's vests and I thought it was funny.

Jay loved these claw toys that the day care kids brought to the park

Hugh was giving this little wooden animal a hut, and it was very sweet. 

Tunnel slide! You can see Jay's shoes poking out

Wednesday Matthew worked from home because we left for Paris that afternoon. In the morning, I took Matthew's brand new debit card from his German bank and went to the ATM to get cash. We thought we'd have enough for our trip, but wanted to be certain. It took me a bit to find the ATM, it was inside of a store. I put Matthew's card in and it didn't seem to register there was a card. I pushed the card in a little farther and then the machine wouldn't give it back and wouldn't respond to any of my touching or button pushing. I franticly asked a random worker in the store if I was doing something wrong, and she confirmed I'd done something correctly but she couldn't get my card back either. Jay kept saying, "Mama card in there." He's my witness! After waiting for 45 minutes to an hour with hopes of getting someone to come open the machine and give me my card back, we were hopeless. They told us we'd need to cancel the card and order a new one. So sad! Matthew's brand new card, and I let it get eaten by an ATM. I was so frustrated! The weather was super rainy, so we went to this tiny play place in the mall that was definitely too small for Jay and probably perfect for Hugh. I had to keep sharp eyes on them, so it wasn't really our relaxing play like usual. We came home and had lunch with Matthew and then took naps. 

"Mama card in there!" 

Hugh loved this size of slide, it gives me hope he'll learn to do big slides again!

I told Jay to go under, hoping it would make it more interesting for him. He thought it was fun and did it a few times.

I'll write more about our adventures of the remainder of Wednesday in the next post about Paris. A couple highlights from our week were we got to video call with Grandpa while he was at Bear Lake. Jay saw him on Steph's Marco Polo and he insisted we called him. Jay loved it! We also got to video call with Grandpa Great, which was also so fun! We got to see his beautiful yard, it's always gorgeous, green, and inviting. Talking to him helped me feel a little better about having to miss reunion this year. I have never not been to Idaho during the summer. When I worked for eBay in California, I came home and went to Grandpa and Grandma Great's house before the school year started. The Blaylock's also gathered together during this time at Bear Lake. They seemed to have a marvelous time together and enjoyed great weather and the view of Bear Lake! Not being able to visit Idaho, Grandpa Great, and see all the family was hard! I love them and I miss them. The wonderful thing is, families are forever! 

Jay and Hugh love to copy each other. Here they are spinning, and they recently realized this is very fun! Hugh will spin and spin until he's dizzy and falls over. He thinks it's very fun! I love time when I get to cuddle Jay after naps, it's a precious time where he's still and the whole world feels still. Hugh also loves helping! He really likes to carry the sand toys down to our park outside our apartment. 

Spinning fun

Cuddle time

Helper Hugh!