To Grandmother's House We Go: Playing at the Park

After putting up the lights and after naptime, we decided to go ahead to the park to play. While waiting, Payden played with the new puzzle that Nana and Papa got. Payden has one like this except it's fish, and she absolutely loves it, so of course she loved playing with this one too.


Lately Taylor's been really scared to go down slides, so it was nice to see her go down every slide on the play equipment.

Shelby really enjoyed swinging, and even Tom decided to give it a try.

Taylor decided she was going to give Shelby a push. You can see she really enjoyed it. It didn't really get Shelby going any faster, but it certainly was cute watching her try.

Taylor finally decided she'd swing, too, but lost her shoe. I thought this was a sweet picture of her and Tom.

Then she was ready to get swinging.

After swinging a bit, we headed back to the play equipment.

At first Payden just wanted to climb up and down the stairs.

Taylor decided she was going to try to climb up the different ways to get on the equipment, which was a first. She's usually super cautious and just uses the stairs.

Payden finally decided she wanted to slide, but only if Papa would slide with her. He's 6' 4", so it was funny seeing him try to squeeze through this tunnel or go down the loopy slide.

Shelby decided she was gonna be brave, too, and climbed up this ladder. (She is probably my most cautious child . . . always has been.)

Declan got to chill with me in the sling.

Shelby wanted to try this and Papa even came over to help, but she ended up chickening out.

At about this point, Taylor told us she had to go to the bathroom. Haha!! We'd even gone before we'd left. Oh well. Tom took her back to go potty while the rest of us stayed to play. Shelby decided it was fun to slide behind Papa and Payden and crash into Papa's back. She giggled every time.

She definitely had the giggles while sliding behind Papa.

Payden also enjoyed playing in the dirt.

Then we decided to head back over to the swings. This time Nana and Papa joined in. Payden, who HATES swinging, decided that, if Papa was doing it, she would too.

Nana and Payden decided to take a walk on the levee. On the other side of this levee is the Top 40 Ranch, where ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard lives (he's the only band member without a beard).

Papa started pushing Shelby SUPER high. She was so excited and yet so nervous to be so high. There were lots of giggles as he pushed her. At one point, he told her she almost kicked him in the kisser. At first she didn't understand what he meant, but then she thought that was silly.

Declan got tired and decided to take a nap.

Behind the swingset, I noticed this. I'm pretty sure it's the result of Hurricane Ike. My thought is . . . why wouldn't just tear the gate down too?

Tom and Taylor finally returned, so we did a bit more swinging.

I still don't think Payden really likes swinging, but at least she wasn't screaming and crying.

After getting home and eating dinner, we ended the day with some hot chocolate. Can you tell Payden enjoyed it?

Thanks for playing with us at the park Nana and Papa. We had a lot of fun.