A Day At The Park With Cousins

The day before NHL’s birthday, we decided to spend some time with Nana, Papa, Uncle I and Cousins S & B.  First, though, we needed to return some Netflix DVDs.  So NHL and JSL walked with me to the mailbox.  Along the way, we spotted some mushrooms growing in someone’s yard. Given the boys’ recent obsession with certain little blue characters, I joked that Smurfs might be living in there.  Luckily, I didn’t see anything come out of the mushrooms as I took photos of them.

With the Netflix DVDs mailed, we piled into the car and went to meet B’s family.  We were meeting them at a local park that hosts a farmer’s market every Saturday.  The boys were a bit annoyed at having to walk through the market since the playground was so close.  Still, we made the best of it and looked at all of the interesting vendors.  Sadly, I didn’t take many photos since I was trying to keep and eye on the little ones while looking at the wares for sale.  At one stand, though, there was a sunflower for sale that a bee had landed on.  I took out my camera and showed JSL and S just how I take bee macro photos.

We returned to the cars to get a quick drink and then off we went to play.  We had taken our Aerobie Sprint Flying Ring, Z-Curve Bow, and Zing-Shot Launcher so we broke those out.  The kids loved tossing the Aerobie or shooting the bow and arrow across the grass.  (The slingshot had a few misfires so I put it away lest it frustrate the younger kids.)

Uncle I had two really good bow-and-arrow shots.  In one, he hit JSL (by accident) from about 50 feet away.   We all laughed about the good shot while JSL proclaimed that he wasn’t hurt because the arrow’s made of soft foam.  The second shot was later on and rocketed a good 150 feet.  It was quite amazing to behold.

     

At one point, we stopped by a veteran’s memorial in the park.  I’ve been to this park many times and, for some reason, I hadn’t visited this before.  It’s quite impressive (even if the lack of wind kept the flags from unfurling properly).

NHL used the benches at the memorial to show his love for his cousin.

Then, it was on to the park’s pond where we got to see ducks and fishes.

At some point, Uncle I took NHL away.  You see, there’s one thing NHL loves more than anything about this park: the hedge maze.  He was dying to show it to Uncle I.  After a few more minutes admiring the ducks and fish, JSL wanted to show Cousin S the maze also so I walked them over.

Once at the maze, we all went crazy running through it.  JSL even got brave enough to allow himself to be separated from me a few times.

Park play is hungry work, so we all went out to lunch.  Well, we all went to go out to dinner.  Unfortunately, B fell asleep in the car.  (He had skipped an earlier nap so we were expecting this.)  Nana and Papa took him back to their house for some much needed rest while the rest of us ate in the Cheesecake Factory.

Finally, it was time to go back to Nana and Papa’s house to play and (later on) eat dinner with more family.