Awesome Park Equipment

Last weekend, we went to my SILs for the weekend to dogsit and relax. While there, we went to a park where she lives. (This is the SIL who lives at the farm and you have to drive 15 minutes to get to any businesses in the town.) We drove to a Dairy Queen (fast food restaurant that has burgers and ice cream) to get the boys an ice cream cone and planned on driving around until we found a playground for them to play. I thought I had seen on before while driving through but wasn't sure.

We found one quickly! It was an old style playground with very tall slides, nice swings. the kind of monkey bars that I grew up climbing (built with metal bars in squares) and these two cool things! When I first saw this ferris wheel type toy, it seemed magical! There was boy rolling the wheel on the side to help his friends (or relatives?) go up and down. My youngest son and I practically sprinted over to them while my older son kinda followed back a long way (he was feeling shy.) I said some cool things about the thing and asked the boy if my kids could get on. He was nice and he (along with his friend) stopped it so that my boys could get on. My oldest seemed unsure but I insisted he have to get on because of the weight (needed another person.) It was awesome watching them! If I were a kid, I would have loved to have ridden that!



And then the merry-go-round...they were taking turns pushing their brother around on it! Of course with all this fun play in the fresh air, they had nice long naps afterwards...while I read on my Kindle.



And I recorded a few seconds of them going around on it! (My hubby was talking in the background...oops!)


I just love playing at playgrounds! I loved going to them growing up! When I was 10 and 11 my mom had two more kids (my brothers) and I grew up looking for great playgrounds to let them play (of course, to get them tired so they could sleep great naps, lol!) And, then when my kiddos were born, the habit continued. I'm so grateful my kids are young enough to want to go to them still (as I remember when my girls got 'too old' to want to go.) Hopefully, there'll be many more years of seeking great playgrounds!

It's been a year...grandbaby's one!

How stressful this past year has been! Looking back, it could have been so much worse! I was in a totally different place a year ago, grieving and trudging through each day, kinda feeling sorry for myself and hurting for my daughter. Now, I am more proactive, don't feel alone in the Apert Syndrome community and know there's a bright and wonderful future ahead! We are incredibly blessed by having so few issues with our granddaughter! Our older daughter and her boyfriend take the best care of Olivia and she's thriving! We are supposed to be having surgeries coming up but are still trying to work out insurance issues. Hopefully, they'll be fixed within a few months. A one year party was celebrated a couple of weeks ago and Olivia fell asleep half way through it. I was able to get a couple of decent pictures though.



And this is a great picture of Olivia and my youngest daughter (who always hides from the camera!) It's awesome I got both of them smiling at once!

ABCZ

ABCZ is a name, not an acronym. It's the name of my kiddo's cat that he got for Christmas, a stuffed cat, that is. He had asked for it when he was talking to my SIL who gave it for him. He was so excited when he opened his gift and saw it!


It has gone with us lots of places lately! It is a girl and he 'married' her. His brother officiated the ceremony. He now calls ABCZ his wife and wears a wedding ring (a little ring like thing from my scarf.) At the 'ceremony,' I was supposed to be the wedding photographer. I told him to smile. He gave me a left side pose, then a ride side pose, then a front one. So cute!


He shared his meal with her at a local buffet place.



And she went on a trip out of town to see another SIL (grocery store elephant ride.) While we drive, she likes to jump from little brother to little brother in the back seat while listening to them giggle and make cute kid sounds to each other!


...and he sleeps with her too. She's warm and soft! Perfect fuzzy friend! Of course, she keeps him company too when he's watching tv. All day today, she's been there for him as he's segregated from the rest of us...with the flu.