yesterday we met up with our good friends, the mcgarveys for a day of playing outside and political discussion and club penguin and burritos.
we all gathered our bathing suits and towels (hoping that maybe it would warm enough to hit up the beach-it sorrily did not), some presents from thailand, and jumped into the car.
i slide in and mckenna tells me:
“mom! uniqua is safe in her seatbelt like MEEEEEE!!!” so full of herself and proud as can be of her trick, it made me want to burst. ‘pretending’ isnt something kenna knows how to do naturally, so when she does, it is celebrated. for her to be thinking of uniqua as a person or relating to her as a friend that is just like her and would need a seatbelt is AWESOME.
after a nice afternoon containing what was listed above, they took us to “crawdad park” the famous crawdad park! the one the boys talk about and want to go to ALL. THE. TIME.
where lisa and i sat and waited for someone to fall in.
this beautiful boy of mine! this face takes my breath away.
when suddenly, all at the same exact time, mckenna, seamus, AND uniqua fell into the murky depths. luckily they all had good attitudes about it, even uniqua, who had to get fished out with a crawdad net. mckenna watched, worried, until drew had her safe. she took her into her arms and cooed, “its okay uniqua, we will get you a towel so you can get all dry and warm. its okay, dont worry uniqua.” which is what i would have been saying to mckenna if she hadnt been distracted. (and she knew it, has heard it so many times before, that she quoted me easily.)
since pink stuffed animals were the only things getting caught in our nets, we took off to another park with a creek.
and when i took mckenna to the bathroom, my eye caught on something and i photographed it. as we walked back up the hill to where everyone else was, i saw a dripping soggy anna trying not to cry as she climbed up to get me, and i couldnt help but laugh in my head as she politely allowed me to take a photo of her so i could make this.
i love how her bangles match her discarded net.
Tara, you have the most beautiful children!
I am constantly getting into trouble like this. I still feel guilty for walking up on a beach in Homer and taking pictures of some eagles, as I walked away I noticed a big sign that said “Stay Back!”, oops.
I had to laugh because my Seamus has a Uniqua just like that. And he has to sleep with his Uniqua (on his pirate sheets) every night.
YAY mckenna! Keep pretending and and sharing your stories – I love to hear them! Tara – your kids (besides being so beautiful) all have the grooviest fashion sense – I LOVE it!
Thanks for sharing your day and your fab images!
Ha! Those are great. My kids would totally want to go there all the time too!
oh man, that mckenna!
i could just take her right on home
and keep her! she’s PRECIOUS i tell yOU!
not that you don’t already know that being her
momma and all! LOL!
gorgeous FUN pictures tara!
tara
I love getting to live your moments with you.
Too cute!
Where is that cool place? My boys would love it there! Fun pics and day…thanks for sharing! :)
so sweet. love your posts. :)
glad all is well. my 4 year old son LOVES uniqua – personally, I like Tasha! :-)
We all have our ‘Backyardigan’ moments.
i love this post, i love kenna and uniqua, i love the pictures of drew and I just want to hold him tight and squeeze him… I just love everything about this post right now, thanks for bringing me along today on your adventure. :-)
That is so awesome that McKenna was pretending! And I’m glad that Uniqua was safe, along with the other ones that got wet.
And what is disturbing grass? Is it fuchsia? or maybe it pokes people and disturbs them?
wow. WOW. not quite a repressed memory but when I read “crawdad park” I knew what it would look like, and I scrolled down for the pic and it did! I have stood in that exact same water on those same rocks. I haven’t been to Calif. since I lived there in 3rd grade and your post just made crawdad park come flooding back! Thank you – what an awesome little memory.
you are such a great storyteller!
beautiful.
i love how you love your kids.
Okay, I’m usually just lurking about but I *had* to comment this time because of the crawdads…
I didn’t take as many pictures this year, but here’s a link to last year when we let our creek/lake out. We literally caught hundreds of crawdads: http://mks.typepad.com/stories_about_us/2007/10/busyis-my-middl.html#comments. If you’re ever in the area (not bloody likely as we live out in the middle of nowhere in Northern Cal.), your kids are welcome to come explore! :)
Have a great weekend!
It is why you are so grand…you have such a quick mind for even the tiniest details that bring a story full circle…..
Aww. I was reading this and thinking.. come on. show us the photo of when Anna fell in the water and you laughed. ha. CHECK.
oh woman! I’m SO coming out to shoot you all. Sorry we missed summer but I promise that I’ll get there eventually….and we’ll par-tay! when i do.
xo