First Trip to the Park!

I don’t think there’s a whole lot more kids like than getting to go to the park. I know as a kid sure I loved going. Especially to Copperfield Park and Easton Park (or as most kids know it by Rainbow Park due to the massive rainbow sprinkler). It was always a blast playing tag or playing probably the most popular game “Grounders”. We would spend hours running around; just being kids. Those long summer days are some of my favourite childhood memories.

So about three and a half years ago when Kurt and I were moving out of his tiny 2 bed 1 bath home and into our first home together, finding a house close to good schools and a park were a must for me. I always knew I wanted to have kids and I wanted to make sure they lived as close as possible to a park so they would grow up having a place to play and run around. After looking at what seemed like countless houses, our realtor took us to our current home. As we drove up, she pointed out that directly across the street from the house was a park with two playgrounds (one for smaller kids and one for bigger ones), the park also had swings, a basketball court, tennis courts, and a soccer field. From the moment I saw the park, I knew regardless of what the house looked like this was where I wanted to be. Thankfully, the house was beautiful too so making the decision to purchase it was a no brainer.

While Kurt and I were struggling for those two years to conceive, every time I looked across the street at the park, I would think to myself “One day I will be taking our children there. That will be our park!” And the moment I discovered we were expecting, going to the park had been number 1 on my list of things I wanted to do with Nate. Since he was born in late October I knew I’d have to wait a while to take him. So all winter I’ve been longingly starring out of the house anticipating the day we’d go over there.

Well, today was that day! After having a wonderful brunch with a co-worker and her son, I wasn’t ready to let go of the wonderful spring-like weather. Nate was getting fairly grumpy in the afternoon (which is a usual for him) so instead of staying inside and forcing him to play with his toys, I bundled him up and we walked across the street. He loved looking around and listening to me explain what each thing was. I held him while he slid down the baby slide and made funny faces at him while he was in the baby swing. But I think what my absolute favourite moment was, was when I held him on my lap and took him on the big kid swing. Sitting there looking around the park, holding my baby, and seeing my house across the street, I started tearing up. Three and a half years ago this is exactly what I had pictured and for two years we didn’t know if this day would ever happen. But luckily it did! And even though in all my pictures Nate looks like he wasn’t enjoying it (since the wind was picking up) I will always remember his smile that grew and grew every time I pushed the swing higher and higher and the look in his eyes as he took it all in. Today was a magical day and I’m so grateful for it.