SUCH a good day

Normally, I try VERY hard not to leave the house on Saturdays. Traffic is HORRIBLE on Saturdays and Sundays! But yesterday morning, I got an e-mail from the library that Joel's book was waiting for him, so I decided to make a whole fun day based on getting that book. I packed up drinks, fish crackers, and cookies and then stopped by Fred Meyer to let the kids pick out sandwiches (that wasn't my original plan, but it became part of the plan when I realized that I had no bread in the house). We drove to the library for a picnic, something we've wanted to do for a long time, but never seemed to have time to actually do. It was a BEAUTIFUL day -- sunny with a little breeze and a nice shade tree for those of us who get too hot in the sun.

Joel thoroughly enjoyed his sandwich:


Luke and Makenzie decided to eat in the sun:


Makenzie doesn't eat much, so she's not in many of these pictures. She made Joel hurry up and eat so that they could go on in the library.


Seth wanted his picture taken and even said "cheese" . . .


. . . and then posed :-)


Luke and Seth were talking and playing together. Yes, I kept Seth in that stroller the whole time. The library lawn is too close to a parking lot and a busy street -- if he decided to make a run for it, I might not be able to catch him before he got hurt. He has NO concept of danger! In the stroller, though, he was happy, comfortable, relatively clean, safe, AND he ate all his lunch :-)


These two boys, although quite challenging sometimes, are incredibly sweet!!!



Luke wanted to go into the library with Joel and Makenzie, but I knew that wouldn't end well. So I told him to go climb the big rock and pose for a picture:



Then he fell off, and I laughed and took this picture because it looked like the rock fell on him like the house fell on the wicked witch in "The Wizard of Oz":


The only negative of the whole picnic was that the giant fountain wasn't turned on. But that really wasn't too big a deal. We decided we'd just have to do this again and keep doing it until they turn the thing on and make our library picnic experience complete. We saw a huge kite flying across the park. It looked like a giant jelly fish or octopus:


The flowers around the library are GORGEOUS!! I made Luke pose for one more picture, even though a flower picture should've been reserved for my princess. He cooperated nicely :-)


Today, we had another adventure: eating lunch and shopping at Costco on a Sunday! Seth was again in his stroller so that he wouldn't get lost or cause trouble (the stroller is more comfortable than the shopping cart -- he recently started saying "ouch" after sitting in a shopping cart, so that's the end of that). We had a yummy lunch, tried on some glasses just in case they had something great, and got everything on our list plus some extra things that we had to have after trying the samples :-) We saw several friends, including Seth's friend who also has Down syndrome :-)

On our way home, it started to rain. We don't see much real rain in Alaska. It usually just drizzles and drips. But today, it's really raining.


One of my all-time favorite things to do is to sit outside (under the overhang or somewhere covered, of course) and watch the rain or listen to the rain while I read. This love started way back in the 1980's when my family lived in Arizona and rain was rare and sincerely appreciated. One place we lived had a covered entryway, just the right size for me to sit where no one could see me unless they came right up and knocked on our front door. Another place we lived had a huge screened-in back porch. Good memories!! Now I have a front deck (but no place to sit unseen there) and a back deck overlooking my own back yard and trees. And I have a good twenty minutes before I need to get everyone ready for church. Guess what I'm going to do :-)