Simple things

Today I went to the park with Cade and Cami.  Kirk has another board exam coming up and we needed to get out of the house so he could study.  There was an Earth Day celebration at a park I had never been to about 30 minutes away.  We drove out there, but ended up at the playground the whole time instead of the Earth Day thing. 
Have you ever spent a couple of hours outside with a toddler, with no agenda or time frame?  Cade is awesome!  We started at the swings and and he just laughed and laughed as I pushed him.  He thought it was so cool when I was swinging next to him. 
We made our way over to the slides.  The park had 3 slides that all started at the top of a bowl and went down into it.  They were rather steep and I was going down with Cade.  Each time we got to the bottom he would jump up and down and drag me back up to the top to do it again. 
As the playground got more crowded, we walked down to look at the pond.  He spent time drawing in the dirt/gravel with sticks. He wanted to pick up every pine cone.  Every bug got pointed out.  He loved to watch the ducks on the water and kept imitating the geese.  We stopped walking whenever a dog was near so he could see it.  We found dandilions and blew the seeds off of them.  Towards the end, Cade finished drawing in the gravel and grabbed a rock and showed me, excitedly saying "rock, rock." 
Everything we saw and did was so cool for him.  I loved watching him explore and learn new things.  It is the simple things in life that make it great. 

Cami slept in her carseat the whole time.  Also a simple thing that all moms are grateful for--sleeping babies!