Memorial Day

I'm trying to catch up a bit on all the activities of the weekend. It really was such an enjoyable weekend. I don't think we could have asked for better weather -- every day was sunny, warm & dry. We spent a lot of time outside either playing with Em or, while she was sleeping, working on the yard. Our backyard is the challenge for this summer. We've neglected it the last few years, and are trying to get things cleaned up and in a state that is easier to maintain. The new retaining wall is in and the back side of the house has been painted. Todd spent a lot of time getting one side of the porch painted & repaired. This is the next area to plant and hopefully we'll get everything in this next weekend -- especially since we already went and got a couple of new bushes and plants! So, with all the work that was done, we decided to take Memorial Day as a no work day. We went down to Todd's parent's church for their annual roast chicken lunch. Emerson was such a little "entertainer". Part of the area where the lunch seating was set up also had a stage-like area. Emerson thought this was a great area to explore. She ran all around totally unaware of all the people watching. After lunch as we headed home, we found a park in Portage that we had seen a picture of in the paper the day before. The picture made it look pretty good, but the reality was so much better. It was described as a park intended for younger kids, ages 2-10. It had a huge area that had really nice play equipment designed for the younger ages and the entire "floor" was covered in outdoor carpet, which was so nice to let Em just run and not worry about her falling. It was all super clean, really well kept, bright and colorful. Emerson had a blast. She was all over the place, climbing on and into everything. I don't know how many times I lifted her up to go down one of the slides. She was full of giggles and wanted to go down again and again. The other nice thing about the park is that it was right on Long Lake with a really nice beach area and boardwalk. I think during the summer months there is even an ice cream stand that is open. I definitely see this as a place we will frequent quite often. I'm so glad we took the day off and found this spot. Of course, I took a few pictures of Em playing, not too many as I was chasing after her a lot. It was really windy so Em's hair and mine were a bit out of control...