park day

So the last day we had with Emalie was Thursday... and that morning was supposed to be the first play-group/mom's day for our ward... it was a little overcast (aka, sprinkling all morning), so the playground was thoroughly wet, but it was a nice big playground, and there was a little farm area too (and a nature center, that we didn't get a chance to see), so we didn't mind the long drive. We were a little disappointed that we were the only people to show up :(, but the kids had a blast on some of the fun 'new' playground equipment.

Malachi loved this roller slide, and he quickly learned his lesson about trying to climb UP the slide

Rayna liked it too, though I think her main concern at first was that it wasn't as wet as the other slides

Afton found a zip-line thing... it was hard for her to reach it, but she figured a few tricks out.

and a see-saw is always a good idea!

Malachi was thrilled to be the center of attention, unlike the last few times I got the camera out. He was begging me to take more and more pictures of him!

After we played for an hour or so we had our picnic lunch (by this time the rain had completely stopped, but the play area was still pretty damp), and we headed over to the farm-area. As we passed the parking lot another family from our ward showed up! hooray! ready-made friends! They were planning on starting at the farm too, so it was a perfect transition time for us all (and they'd been at a well-check, so they'd planned on coming late, I was just glad someone else planned on coming at all!). Interestingly and convienently enough, the other family that came has a little girl Afton's age, another Rayna's age, and a little boy Malachi's age, (plus an older girl and a baby boy that's clearly just a bit older than ours will be).

watching the peacocks. there were 4-5, and three of them had their tails up at various times, you can see one fan here behind the tallest girl, and 2 others--one up high hanging down, and one off to the left

Malachi was fascinated with the chickens.

I think the girls were trying to see what was so exciting about chickens :)

As you can tell from the picture, these girls became fast friends!

and when they were 'threatened' by another late-comer from the ward, they were able to circle up and protect themselves from him :) --he thought that was pretty funny

Hooray for meeting new people! and hooray that they made it before we had to leave to take Emalie to the airport!