Agua Caliente park

Kirsten loves to take the boys to Agua Caliente (hot water) park just a few miles from our house. See, there is a little bit of water in Tucson ;) The boys love it!

Kirsten and I had our commitment ceremony on this very shore in April 2000. I think those are the same ducks our lab, Jasman, was chasing during the vows!

Easter picnic

We attended a very fun Easter picnic at Jaycee Park in Cape Coral yesterday. A group of families that met through an impromptu play group all came. The kids made, hid, and found easter eggs filled with treats ranging from chocolate candies to spring themed erasers and plastic bugs! Each family brought a picnic lunch and ate under the pine trees, while watching the Gulf of Mexico. What a lovely day, 82 degrees with a wonderful sea breeze. This is a rare photo of our entire family, taken by another mom in attendance (thanks Michelle, great pics!). And thanks to Brooke for organizing such a great event!

Thanks Craigslist...

We got the best, new (to us) playground set from Craigslist in November. The set would cost $3000 to $4000 new, but Kirsten found it for $200, what a deal! Huge thanks to Julie and Doug for helping us dismantle, transport, and rebuild the set in our backyard. That endeavor ended up taking hours longer than we all anticipated, but we got it done.

While Grandma and Papa were here visiting, and I had time off work, we decided to work on refurbishing the set a bit. We restained the wood, replaced the chains on the swings, laid some sod in the backyard, and built a mulch playground area under the swings. The mulch is even made of recycled tires, very eco-friendly and low maintenance. Now the playground is like our own little park. Great job everybody!

Four Mile Cove

We took Grandma and Papa on a walking tour of a preserve in Cape Coral called Four Mile Cove. It was pretty warm despite the fact that we went in the morning in December. But we had a great time and learned about mangroves and wetland species in the area. If you look closely at the second picture, you will see a water bird drying his wings in the sun so he can fly away after his breakfast. So awesome.

At the park with Papa

Grandma and Papa came to stay with us for Christmas 2007. This is a great example of how much fun we had one morning at a Pine Island park.

Harrison at the Park

Emmett's preschool is an affiliate of our local parks and recreation, and is located in a building that shares a campus with a great neighborhood park, Four Freedoms. When Kirsten takes Emmett to school, the boys usually have some park time before school.

Here's a picture of Harrison from yesterday. He really is starting to look like a little boy rather than a baby... I can't believe he is 18 months old now! He is a happy guy who loves to do exactly what his brother does. He waves at everybody, including passing cars and pets :) He loves watching birds, getting very exciting when he sees them.

The lump on his head is a result of his misplaced bravery on our swingset at home. He jumped for the monkey bars, missed, and fell about 5 feet to the ground, hitting his head on a piece of wood at the bottom of the swingset. Poor baby... unfortunately it didn't deter him from other climbing and jumping forays!