Day at the Park

Tuesday was a gorgeous day! Temps in the 70's here! Sunny...beautiful! The slight breeze kept us from actually getting hot! So, we played hookie Tuesday afternoon and went to the park. We packed the soccer ball, volleyball, baseball, basketball, tennis balls, baseball bat, ball gloves, and tennis racquets (water and of course, chocolate chip cookies). Oh, and we took our dog, Suzi along with us. Unfortunately she's not a dog we can just let loose and she'll run along by our side. Oh, she'd run along by our side ... for about 3 seconds as she whizzed past us on the way to her next destination! So, she was on a leash, and she did a lot of whining and pooping. What is it with that anyway? Do they hold some back so that when they smell something good they can poop on it? Is that a way of saying "I like this place?" If so, I wish she'd like the park a little less! She pooped three times while we were there! At least Ben got to find out that he likes living in an area where we have lots of land and he doesn't have to scoop poop all the time!

We started out playing soccer. Phew...nothing like running around a soccer field to find out how out of shape you are! Our rule was, if you got the ball past the goalie, you were the new goalie. At first I didn't think I'd want to be the goalie, but after running on the field for 10 seconds I realized goalie was a good idea!

After playing soccer for 20 to 30 minutes we moved on to baseball. I LOVE playing baseball! Ben was a pretty good pitcher, and fortunately I can hit just about anything that doesn't hit me, so we did all right. Unfortunately, I am not a good pitcher, so Ben didn't have as much luck hitting the ball. He did get a few hits in after he convinced me to throw it to him overhand. After we batted, we passed the ball around in a triangle. Our rules were this: if you dropped the ball you got a point (points are bad). The first person to get to 10 lost. Then the final two went to "sudden death." (picture Ann from The Weakest Link saying that.) Ben and I were the ones to always go to "sudden death." I have to brag here a minute and tell you that I did not drop even one ball until the final "sudden death." And then it was just like it dropped out of my glove. I was like "huh?" The kids thought it was funny.

After baseball we made our way to the basketball courts. Beth wasn't interested so Ben and I goofed around shooting the ball and then we got serious and played a game of HORSE....and he seriously beat me!

After basketball, the kids and Suzi played on the playground. Suzi discovered the slide and after she was dragged down slid down a few times she loved it! Too bad I can't get the video feature to work on here or I'd share that!

We had a great afternoon, that went by way too quickly!

The Blue Ridge Mountains were kind of hazy on Tuesday, but you can still get an idea of the beauty that surrounds us.


Here's Ben seeing what it would be like to have a dog in the city. (Perri -- I thought Jacob might enjoy this picture since he seems to like the word pictured here. ;o)

Here's Suzi after she did her first "deed." She's a happy dog!

This is one of Suzi's first trips down the slide. She really did start to enjoy going down it. Now if I could just get her to walk across the bridge near our house!

This picture kind of makes me sad. If you're a parent of a toddler, you'll understand one day. I can still picture my little toddler going toward the slide and wanting to climb all over it. I'd stand behind him with my hands outstretched -- just in case. Now he stands on top of it with his hands outstretched. :::sigh:::