At the park...

Today was the kind of day that reminds me why I live in Seattle.  Spring and Summer here are astounding.  The cherry trees, the smell of the ocean, the sunshine ... it's gorgeous.  I don't work on Fridays.  My co-worker and dear friend Heather doesn't work on Fridays.  Our sons are best buddies.  So, we typically spend, at least, part of Friday together.

Today, we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island.  I love Bainbridge.  It's quite populated, but it's mostly covered in forests.  It's just loverly.  If I had the money, I'd live there.  Great schools, slow paced lifestyle, surrounded by water:  my dream.  

We were pointed in the direction of this park that we'd never heard of.  After getting lost, backtracking, laughing, boys sleeping, grabbing a bottle of wine that we'd drink out of a coffee cup (we're serious about enjoying time at the park!), we found IT.  I kid you not ... THIS WAS THE MOST ASTOUNDING PARK I'VE EVER SEEN.  The entire play structure was huge.  It's built of wood and is massive.  The kids climb up and they follow trails that lead to towers, tunnels, slides, ropes, games, huge xylophones, mirrors ... it's nuts!  We also found amazing structures that happened to be art.  I'll post the pictures that Heather and I took of those when I can figure out how to download them - Kevin's asleep.  We took it upon ourselves to pose, provocatively, with the art.  We had a ball.  I wish the other parents could have enjoyed the park as much as us.

Then, we walked over to the soccer field.  No one was there.  I brought a bunch of Silas' balls for the boys.  After playing for a bit, Marco (Heather's son) said to me, "I wanna get nekkid!"  He said this to ME, as my house tends to be the house where all the kids end up naked and blowing bubbles and eating nachos and watching Madagascar.  So, we took his clothes off.  By that time, Silas, who was half-naked anyway (in only a diaper and tee-shirt), came over to take HIS clothes off.   The boys begin running around the soccer field - naked and screaming.   Meanwhile, we realize that there is a path for walkers that loops around the whole park.  So, as walkers go by, the boys are running around, peeing (and peeing, and peeing), screaming, kicking balls, and laughing-HARD.  Heather and I are sipping our "coffee" and doing gymnastics, as we'd just learned that we both had done that for years as girls.  We've been friends for so long and we NEVER knew that.  So, after a few hand stands and back walk-overs, we notice that the boys are squatting.  Well, apparently, as we were bonding over hand stands, the boys were trying to bond over bowel movements.   Fortunately, they don't have strong enough diaphragms to do this on cue.  We collected them and made it back to car, caught the ferry, came back home, met up with Kevin, and shared a pizza and some more wine at my house ... Marco, again, ended up coming to me and saying, "hey Anna, I wanna get nekkid."  Okay.

It was a great day.  It was a beautiful day.

   I also got my Mother's Day gift.  Silas and Kevin got me a gorgeous ring that is a marquee cut. It's Silas' birthstone: aquamarine.  It's so light and dainty and perfect.  A gorgeous Mother's Day ring from my boys  ...  EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN OUR DAY AT THE PARK!