Thursday, March 29, 2012

Playgrounds, new friends, and turtles too!

   With a beautiful day of weather forecasted (and rain predicted tomorrow), I asked the boys if they wanted to go to Columbus to ride bikes.  They were excited with the idea.  So, we headed off mid-morning.
 
   First stop, a playground in downtown Hope on the way to Columbus.  The boys especially enjoyed a bouncy contraption for a good 20 minutes...laughing and giggling as they bounced to their hearts delight.




   Next stop, biking at Donner Park in Columbus.  We took a loop on the bikes and then planned to play a little on the empty playground before eating lunch. As the boys got to the playground, another couple of boys arrived with their mom as well.  Long story short, the mom introduced herself and we got to talking about our mutually-aged boys, homeschooling, teaching, parenting, church, and more.  An hour and a half later, we finally decided we had better head out to feed our hungry boys.  The boys hated to end their play as much as we hated to end our conversation as moms. But we hope to meet up again soon in Columbus.  It was an enjoyable surprise to the day for sure!
   We decided to drive over to Mill Race park for lunch because there are some spots along the water's edge that we could sit and eat.  We enjoyed lunch in the "perfect temperatured sunshine" out on a boat dock...with fish jumping to the surface constantly nearby. Then Joe wanted to venture down some paths so he could run (Jake couldn't stomach the idea of running right after lunch!).  As we got around to another side of the pond area, we realized there were about 20 turtles--big and small-- on various logs floating in the water.  So, we went back to the car for binoculars and came back for a look (just in time to catch a view of a train heading through downtown Columbus).   As one log floated closer and closer toward where we were standing, two turtles slipped carefully off into the water.  And one re-surfaced appearing to be pushing the log away from our direction (as Joe noted).  It was fun to watch the little guys for awhile.


   But...ice cream was calling.  So we headed to an old fashioned ice cream parlor in downtown Columbus and shared a banana split (which fortunately came with 3 cherries).  We sat on bar stools and got to watch the whole thing be put together right in front of us.  The boys really enjoyed the experience (and the ice cream).
   Since we were right across from the indoor climbing playground, we headed in there for a little bit.  The boys enjoyed playing with another boy...as Joe overcame his fear and Jake graciously and faithfully waited to help his fearful-of-heights brother through the journey.
   We were running short on time, so we headed back to Greensburg and went to the house where Daddy was finishing up work and was ready for us to grill dinner.  We enjoyed dinner in our garage at the picnic table.  Oh, and Josh showed the boys what he had rescued from George Wilson's dump truck as George was headed to the dump. :)





 

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