Live Oak Park

Oh how I love Live Oak Park.  I have so many fond memories of days spent at that park.  From the time I was very little, I can recall many happy times there.  Trips there with my dad and him pushing us as fast as he could on the merry go round: spinning us until we could hardly walk.  I remember park days there with the home school group, church picnics,fishing in the creek for crawdads, softball games, vacation Bible school trips, and even walks there with Aaron when I was all grown up.  It is a beautiful park.  It is a peaceful park.  It is a great park for playing.  I try to take the kids there as often as I can, and every time I do, I fell like I am living a part of my childhood all over again. 

My sister and sister-in-law and I met there one morning a month (OK 2) ago with the kids and had a great time.  It was a beautiful day.  No one was there except us and the birds.  We were there for hours and could have stayed longer, except the kids were all starving, wet and William was injured.  Still, it was another great day at the park.  One for the books, really.  Or at least one for the blog.

William loved having Veronica pushing him on the swings.  Sometimes he does not want to be the big boy and relishes the chance to be the baby.  He'll even say, "I'm a baby and my baby name is Lilly."  At Christmas, Veronica kept trying to get him to sit on her lap, but of course he didn't want to be the baby then.  So I think she was happy to push him on the swings too.  She picked him up and buckled him in the swing.  I love a little girl who already knows how to be a momma.After swinging, we did some fishing.  Auntie Kristen came prepared with hot dogs, hooks and string to catch some crawdads, but they weren't biting.  The kids didn't care.  They loved holding their sticks and strings in the creek and bobbing them up and down until the hot dog came off and they could get another one. That creek has a bunch of hot dog pieces floating in it now.

The best part of the day, though, was when we finally gave in and let the kids climb down into the creek.  That was my favorite place to play when I was little.  There was nothing better than tramping around in the cold water, sending sticks downstream, climbing over rocks, jumping the "waterfalls" and building dams.  

Some things don't change.  For a while, the kids just marched up and down stream, splashing and jumping and getting soaked.  They were having a blast.  Then one of them got the grand idea to build a dam, so the stick collecting began. Luckily there had just been a storm, so there were lots of sticks. 

 

By the time we were done (they of course would have stayed all day) they had built a pretty impressive pile of sticks. Kristen, Kelly and I were climbing up and down the slippery bank to keep an eye on the kids while they played in the water and we were the ones getting cold and hungry.  I also had Lilly in my arms and my camera around my neck.  By the time I took this last picture, I had baby poop on my shirt from Lilly's leaky diaper, Lilly had no pants on because of said diaper, and while I was helping William over a rock with Lilly in my arms, I pulled his elbow out of joint.  I heard a loud pop, felt a rock in my stomach because I knew what had happened, knelt down to comfort him, got this shot of the kids and we headed up the bank, and to the emergency room. 

Live Oak Park.  It's always fun.