Park x2

Today was a beautiful day, a perfect day after a long week.  Clare and I loaded up early and headed for the park.  I decided we wouldn’t run any errands today and we would simply enjoy each other and the world around us, it was wonderful.

Clare was in a great mood and happily played for more than an hour running from slide to slide, climbing every step at the park, pushing her Baby down the slide, swinging, and climbing some huge steps that made me pretty nervous.  Clare insisted on playing with her Baby the entire time, she even let another little girl hold her baby as they took turns going down the slide.  

When we arrived we were one of three groups there, it was nice and quiet.  As the morning went on the park filled up, it was a busy place when we finally left.  At one point I was calling Clare’s name and another woman asked me if my child’s name was Clare, apparently her granddaughter’s name was also Claire, although spelled with an ‘I.’ Not 5 minutes later Clare decided she wanted to swing and began running towards the big swings, as I called her name to stop (she was going to run right in the path of the little boy swinging) another woman asked me if her name was Clare.  I guess it was Clare day at the park; there were three of them!   I asked the second mother if her daughter spelled her name with an ‘I,’ we both thought it was great that our Clare’s didn’t have an I in their name. 

Finally after playing for more than an hour Clare said she wanted lunch, so we picked up our things and headed for the car.  While walking to the car she decided she wanted to walk over and see the dinosaur, so off to see the dinosaur we went.  On the way home we talked about what to have for lunch, she announced that she wanted yogurt, cheese and PB&J. 

I was hoping she would take a long nap after such an active morning, but I heard her talking to her baby after only 2 hours.  When I walked in her room she was jumping in her bed and holding her baby, she was ready and rearing to go again.  

After feeding her baby we loaded up again to head down the hill to see Jeff before his Softball game.  We’ve been to Cornerstone park a few times, it’s a fairly large park and typically isn’t that busy, apparently it hadn’t been that busy because the spray ground hadn’t been on, today it was packed!  I wasn’t as excited about this park with so many people, especially since there was a large group of ‘big kids’ running around with HGUE squirt guns shooting everything and anything in their way.  Clare wasn’t thrilled either; she just stood there and watched the people.  I tried to convince her to go to another park, but she wasn’t having it.  While waiting for Jeff two little boys, maybe 3 and 18 months, came up to her and proceeded to be not so nice.  After a few minutes of my having to tell the older boy that he couldn’t tell her what to do and that he needed to move so she could walk on the bridge a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth came over and said in some not so nice words that it was time to get some sunscreen (the younger boy was bright red – I think it was a little late for sunscreen) and then took them by the arms and led them away.  Thankfully they were gone, but that wasn’t the best part!  We walked over to the little play structure when Jeff finally showed up, Clare walked a few more steps towards the playground while I was looking at Jeff, when I looked back another little girl had taken Clare’s Baby!! I immediately walked over to the other little girl and asked for the Baby back, to which the little girl said ‘she gave it to me’.  Um, no I’m pretty sure she didn’t.  Needless to say we immediately left and I have no desire to go back to that park. 

Jeff and I both agreed we should just go to dinner and be done with the park so we loaded up and headed for dinner at the South Platte Bar and Grill.  Sitting on the patio was the perfect way to end the evening.  Clare enjoyed some chicken fingers with lots of ranch while Jeff and I ate some chips and quac. 

I’m so happy we had such a great day, it made the long days recently a little more bearable, and I’m already looking forward to next Monday.