fun in montevallo

After a big celebration service at church this morning, we went out for lunch and brought home a sleepy little tot. While he napped, we tried to decide what to do with our day. We spent time considering a visit to a farm but there were some time constraints involved with that, and then we considered a hike at our favorite state park. We ended up going to Orr Park in Montevallo, and it turned out to be a great day.

Orr Park is home to a creek, a long walking path, a very big open grassy field with a gentle slope to it and scattered shade trees, and a big Little Tikes playground. Dennis loved the smaller play structure designed for 2 year olds. It had stairs he could walk up instead of crawling up, and it had three different slides and a tube he could crawl through. He and another (slightly older) boy took turns climbing up and then walking over to the slide and sliding down, over and over and over again. He played on the big (5 year and up) structure as well, and since it was so tall, Daddy and I played on this one, too. We played until his little face got red from the exertion, and then we spread out the picnic blanket and had a juice break. He ran around and around in the grass and, to our chagrin, explored an ant hill up close and personal (only 3 bites, I think). We looked at the figures carved on the trees, a special feature at this park. I think Dennis' favorite tree was one with a big wizard face carved in it--he pointed out the eyes, nose, and mouth on it.

David's uncle and his family and also his grandmother live in Montevallo and we had a nice visit with them after the time at the park. He wanted to play with their cats, but the cats weren't baby-proof and it didn't work out so well. Let me clarify that no cats were harmed during this visit. They pretty much took a look at Dennis, hissed, and made themselves scarce.

We went for a bit of a Sunday drive to look at the land and farms near our home and we took a little longer than we anticipated. Instead of cooking dinner, we went out so that Dennis wouldn't have to wait so long to eat. He was so tired that he got silly in the car and he entertained us with his sounds and giggles. We worked on our animal sounds on the way home, and this is what our conversation was like:

Me: "What does the cow say?"

Dennis: "mbooooooo"

Me: "What does the sheep say?"

Dennis: "Baaaaaaaaaa"

Me: "What does the snake say?"

Dennis: "Sssssssssss"

Me: "What does the dog say?"

Dennis: "Ruff ruff"

Me: "What does the horse say?"

Dennis: "YAAAAYYYYY" (I suppose this is babyspeak for 'neigh')

Me: "What does Daddy say?"

Dennis: "No no no no no no" (David gave me the Death Glare when he heard this)

Me: "What does Mommy say?"

Dennis: "Yeah yeah yeah yeah"

It was a good day!