homeofthebudds

Most of the last several days have been pretty darn nice weather wise. We thought we'd take advantage of the sun and take some school work outside to the park.

We packed up some clipboards and did a little data collection on a few of Mt. Tabor's rocks.

And we thought, really it's more fun to play at the park with friends, so we found some to join us.

The little people occupied themselves playing in the big trees,

while the bigger little people occupied themselves talking (or perhaps yelling)

and listening.

I'm fairly certain there was a fair amount of Star Wars discussion.

*sigh* That was a fun morning.

And now it's started to get rather rainy again. But I am certain, certain, the sun will be returning any moment.

At least it will if it knows what's good for it.

park play

Some of yesterday's 200

After church we went to the farmer's market,

where a hopeful someone counted their change, hoping, hoping

for a mermaid.

Mermaids, it turns out, are rather expensive. So a pink poodle was approved as a replacement.

Later we went to the park for some peace and quiet.

This picture makes me want to holler "SERENITY NOW!" I don't know why. One should not holler when someone else is having some peace and quiet.

Instead of peace and quiet, I opted for the humiliating experience of showing everyone my arms are like spaghetti and I can barely hold myself up. That was fun.

Maddie and Megan came to join us. Well, really we were joining them.

Brennan looks kinda like a doll to me in this one. I'm not sure why. It's a little disconcerting.

Have you ever noticed his eyelashes? They're rather long.

Playing at the park

We went to the park yesterday hoping to try out the lens I rented. Unfortunately, after walking around with it for a minute I realized it's just too big to take on park trips with the kids. It's heavy, you really need to hold it all the time (there's no way you can sling it over your shoulder) and it's obviously expensive. I felt like I had a big sign "Come take this from me! It's expensive!!" So we packed it back up in the car and played with the manual setting with my lovely little lens.

It's hot here , so after an attempt at feeding the geese (Insanity I know. I must have been crazy to try that without Dave around. Those geese are freaky. Especially when you're trying to hold a big huge lens and defend your children.) we found some shade and some close by play equipment.

Brennan got some good duck pictures.

See?

The kids hung out mainly at the merry-go-round, probably cause no other park we go to has one.

I was trying to get one of those sweet 'everything's a round blur behind the person' pictures,

But that is not easy to do in the sort of light you get in the middle of the day.

Especially when the photographer is crazy susceptible to motion sickness.

After all that crazy hot fun-ness, we decided a small rest was in order.

(Notice Isaiah putting grass down Brennan's shirt? Such brothers.)

Under this tree was a much better place to be.

Much better.

Ellen and Isaiah wanted one of all three kids, but Brennan wasn't so sure.

He thought maybe it should just be him

Or maybe him and Ellen. He was probably still remembering that grass down the shirt from a little earlier.

Dancing in the park

*There's a church in our neighborhood that has been hosting concerts on Wednesday nights this month. I've been meaning to go all month and we finally made it to the last one they hosted.

There was much dancing.

And watching.

*And dancing.

And watching.

And giggling.

*Brennan is actually quite the dancer on his own two feet. I never managed to get it on film (or memory card as the case may be) as he seemed to prefer dancing between the trees and in dirt patches - and all alone, thankyou. When he'd see me point the camera at him, he'd stop and grin and cross his arms and listen to the music in a stationary sort of way.

*Picture by Dave.

Even more of the park

Look at his little broody self.

Doesn't he look proud of himself?

Tricks were repeated,

and expanded upon (one footed leap anyone?)

The challenge was given,

..annnnnd...

met.

Nicely done Jeff.

Dang it. I'm just gonna go out of order. (AKA the frog park)

Sometimes I have a hard time blogging thing when I have a full week's worth of pictures.

I feel like they should be in order and then I get overwhelmed with the full huge set of everything. But. I've decided not to this time.

I'm just gonna go in whatever order I feel like. You won't care. Will you?

You might notice this is the second time I've posted this particular picture. But I told you I was gonna do whatever I felt like. And I feel like putting it in context here.

Thanks for your patience.

I'm a little obstinate tonight. Apparently.

But then you probably never even noticed anything out of the ordinary any way.

Ah well.

Water parks are a good thing. (Just so you know)

Jeff and Wendy and their kiddos are here visiting for a bit. One of the first things we did, of course, was show them the RV.

They, of course, think it's wicked awesome and want their own so they can travel the country in caravan with us.

Maybe. If that whole pesky "job" thing didn't get in the way like it so often does.

But just imagine how many glorious sunsets we could chase in this bad boy.

Anyway.

On Saturday we went to a park with a water feature. Since it's been hot enough to melt cement. Or at least us.

It was pretty great.

The one downside was the kids kept slipping and falling.

So we outlawed running and made them put their shoes on for some traction control.

Chris and her girls came too. Emily was the first to take a tumble and she and Dave decided to watch the action for a bit before jumping back into the fray.

Ellen looooooooves to hold Kaia. Looooves it loves it. If Kaia is awake, Ellen is asking to hold her.

Kaia liked the water. Doesn't she look like she's enjoying herself?

Brennan wasn't too sure...

But he was brave!

I'm sure it was funny to the other families there to see Wendy, Chris and I all have these beautiful big black cameras out just about the whole time.

But dang it, it's what we do.

(Double dang it! I thought I had one of Chris! Sorry Chris!)

Emily scoped out the waterways for a bit, went and had a play,

...and then settled down for a cracker, princess-style.

Ellen (S.) thought we were all nuts, and really the only sane thing to do in this heat was sleep.

Brennan decided that Emily's sparkly pink sandals were the bomb and he walked around in them for quite a bit, pleased as punch.

That's the first time we've been to that particular park, and I'm fairly certain we'll be back. A lot.

ellen's little frog

little cricket