Charlestowne Landing

After seeing George Strait in his tight fittin' Wranglers on Saturday night, David and Jenny ended up spending the night with us, since Henry was happily snoozing away in the guest room anyway. The boys had a great time playing together, and we all enjoy watching them. Their personalities are very different, and it's fun to watch each learn from the other. I know this trend will continue throughout their lives. Not sure why, perhaps Jenny and I were still in a trance from the Wranglers, but neither of us pulled out a camera. Oh well, maybe next time.
So, since Reeves had not had a chance to tire himself out by wailing his way through being abandoned at the church nursery, we headed to the playground. While there, Jodie called to see if we could join them if they came to Charlestowne Landing.

I took it as a sign that while I was on the phone with her, Reeves climbed into the wagon. This was significant since he is normally content to stay at the playground all day, but climbing into the wagon clearly indicated he was ready to leave. 10:30? That's not too early for a nap! Perfect! He could sleep for the two hours that it would take them to get here, and we would meet them ready to go. And, believe it or not, my plan worked. He actually went right down when we got home and woke up as I was going in to get him.

Charlestowne Landing is a real jewel right in the middle of town. I barely recognized it.

We went through the animal forest - quite disappointing as there were no animals in sight. Well, there were the turtles, but even the children weren't very impressed with them. But then we turned around for our trek back and we inadvertently ended up behind the zoo keepers. This is the ticket. We followed them from enclosure to enclosure, and at each stop the animals came out - elk, puma, bears. It was great! I don't have any pictures of this bit of the trip since Bryant was not meeting us until picnictime, and there was no way I was dealing with Reeves, the heavily laden stroller, and the SLR camera. From now on, I'm bringing the camera which requires only one hand to use.
Reeves had his first bologna sandwich as we picnic-ed in the shelter. I bought him some soy mayonnaise, which is utterly reprehensible, but he doesn't know the heavenly bliss that is Hellmann's, so he enjoyed it. He looked like such a big boy!

He and Davis lasted for about 10 minutes at the picnic tables before they were up and chasing each other around.
From there we explored the rest of the park. One nice thing about it is that you can lock up the children if they misbehave. Although, it doesn't do much good if they can slip their feet out of the holes! And maybe Van will be a better boy next time as well.

It is great. I can't wait until the boat is finished.

Looks like it will be quite a while, but we'll be sure to stop by often to check up on the progress. As the day wore down, the boys actually got tired of running. Since Guerin was almost asleep in the double stroller, we came up with a solution.

At the end of our walk, we were rewarded with the museum in the visitor's center. They have done a great job to build a place that involves every member of the family. There are interesting things for us parents and great interactive displays for the children.

I really enjoy things like visiting Charlestown Landing with Reeves because I know that it is something he will only enjoy more and more the older he gets. He may be a bit young for some of the things we take him to, but I think it's good to familarize him with as many adventures as possible. I also want to do as many of these things with him as possible because I know that in the not too distant future, he won't get excited by family outings. Secretly, in the depths of his teenage being, he'll be happy to be spending time with the family, but he'll never let us know, and I'm OK with that because I was the same way.