In Just-spring when the world is mud-luscious

The weather forecast on Saturday was calling for cloudy/rainy skies with a high in the mid-50s. So imagine my surprise when I woke up to a sunny day. And imagine my even greater surprise when I let the dogs out and discovered it was really warm outside. So we took full advantage of the unexpected weather and spent some time outside with Ari. This girl just loves being outside, and I'm glad the weather is finally getting warm enough that I don't mind being out there with her. The cold weather in winter never seemed to faze her, but I sure wasn't a fan of it. Anyway, we took her to the playground, and I brought my camera, so brace yourself.

I tried to get her to play on the playground first, but she insisted on the swings first. I know she looks a little distressed in this picture, but I think she was just squinting in the sun.



Here's a short video of her enjoying the swings. I swear you can hear her say "Faster" and "She's high."



Once she was done with the swings (which she let us know by declaring, "All done"), we hit the playground. She loves playing with this steering wheel, and calls it a car. I have no clue where she got that from, because neither of us have told her it's a car.



I think she was pointing toward the slide in this shot.



On her way to the slide, she got distracted by these climbing bars. Every time she goes near them, she has to pause and say "boo boo" because Tony told her she would get hurt if she tried to go down them. It's nice to know she's paying attention. (I love her eyelashes and her windswept hair in this picture.)



But Tony decided that today would be a good day to show her how to climb the bars. And Ari was more than happy to learn.



The steps were a little far apart for her, so Tony had to help her lift her leg high enough.



Once she got to the top, she was thrilled with herself, and immediately said "Hep me" ("help me"), wanting Tony to help her again.



So Tony helped her up again, but this time, from the top.



She's getting the hang of climbing...



See the tongue hanging out? She does that when she's concentrating on something--it cracks me up.



She's quite the pro at going down the slide (all by herself, too), as you can see in this video. She momentarily freaks out about the dirt on her shoe (yeh, I don't know), and then hesitates as though she's purposely posing for the camera.



Then she decided to try something new with the slide--climbing up it.



But she didn't get very far.



So she decided to just go ahead and slide down on her belly, like that was her plan all along.



Then Tony had to join the fun. (I love this shot--look at their faces.)



She stood up on the end of the slide, and was quite pleased with herself.



Tony's been trying to teach her to jump into his arms, but she still needs a little persuading, so he holds her hands while she sorta-kinda jumps.



She likes to sit on the edge of the playground (there's the tongue thing again)...



She loves all the trees and bushes, and constantly wants to touch them--and she really does touch them now, the brave little thing. She'll yell, "I touch!" or "I touch it!" then walk over the bush, swat the branches just once, and be done. She spent several minutes walking around touching all the bushes in sight. She was especially thrilled when Tony lifted her up to touch this tree.



Tony taught her how to ride piggyback, and now she constantly asks him for a ride.



How sweet is this?



She was good and worn out from all the playing, so while she napped, I grabbed the iPod and went for a nice, long walk. I love having the iPod--walking alone, in the same loop around the apartment complex, can be so boring, but with the iPod to listen to, the time just flies. I walked for 45 minutes and even broke a decent sweat, that's how warm it was. I love being able to walk outside again--not that I don't love my Gazelle, but that's a pretty monotonous workout routine. It's nice to change things up by doing some real walking.

When I got home, Tony was hard at work in the kitchen making chili. He made some for our church's men's fellowship a couple weeks ago, and decided to encore it for our church's potluck dinner (which was today). I didn't get to try his chili last time, so I sneaked a small bowl of it for supper, and it was delicious. I told him he definitely needs to make it more often.

We were supposed to get together with Matt, Kristin and Nick in the afternoon, but Nick woke up with a stomach bug, so they had to cancel. So we got to spend the whole day together as a family. We all slept in until 10, Tony and I did some laundry, we spent plenty of time outside in the gorgeous weather, and then Tony and I watched a movie after Ari went to bed.

It was a good day.