7 Kids, 4 Mommies, a Creek, and a Missing Bridge

What do you get when you combine 7 kids, 4 mommies, a creek, and a missing bridge?  One fun day! 

Last week was my Spring Break, so I had a whole lot of nothing planned.  I hate going on vacation during Spring Break because you usually need a vacation from your vacation and there was no time for that, so we just stayed home.  Luckily for me I was able to spend a day with some of my favorite ladies!  Three of my dearest teenage-hood friends (yes it's a word, I looked it up in the urban dictionary) and I met for the ultimate playdate at my friend Jamie's house.  She has a gorgeous home on lots of land and the best part of it is the creek that is now full of water due to the lovely rain we've had lately.

Bailey's awesome outfit

The highlight of our playdate was playing in the creek. I dressed Bailey in the clothes that her daddy likes to put her in because I knew she'd get soaking wet and I didn't feel like dirtying up any of her cute clothes.  As you can see from this pic, her daddy enjoys dressing her in camouflage and boyish shirts, but I tried to girly her up a little by putting her hair in pigtails.  How'd I do?  

Bailey and Cade splashing each other

Anyway, enough about Bailey's wardrobe...that was the last thing she cared about.  As you know from my last post she definitely could care less about her clothing. 

Bailey and Caleb

Bailey, being the water baby that she is, absolutely had a blast playing in the creek.  The funniest part was that she was wearing rain boots and she kept going so deep in the creek that she submerged her boots and had to keep coming to me to empty out the water.  Oh, and of course, her shorts were too big, so her pants were sagging the whole day. She was soaking wet by the end and the water was cold, but she didn't show it one bit.


 

The tiny bridge

After getting our fill of the creek, Jamie suggested we head to the bridge.  I was thinking it would be a rather wide bridge that we would all hold hands and skip across together as a whole group.  Okay, maybe not the hold hands and skip part, but something big and sturdy enough to take children across.  Well, I forgot this was Jamie we were talking about.  Things are always an adventure with Jamie around!  That's why I'm friends with her!  So, our whole group, including a sleeping baby, headed to the place where this so-called bridge is located.  We get there and Jamie tells us that the bridge is gone.  I'm thinking, "How does a whole bridge disappear?".  Well, Jamie goes looking for it and finds it some 40 yards away.  The bridge had to be less than 2 feet wide.  You can see it in the picture above.  So Jamie, Jess, and I lug the "bridge" over to the creek.  It takes us a couple of minutes to figure out how to get this "bridge" across the creek because none of us wanted to get in the mucky water.  But, of course, that is exactly what happened.  Poor Jess slipped into the water as we were trying to hurl the bridge over the creek. 

After the laughter died down our whole posse crossed the "bridge", even the sleeping baby (shhh...don't call CPS on us) and continued our trek.  Soon we came upon a real bridge.  This one we definitely could have skipped across and held hands.  Okay, maybe it wasn't that wide, but close.  The photographer in me wanted to stop and take more pictures on the bridge, but by then my toddler had turned into a diva and wouldn't let me put her down.  And yes she was still soaking wet, so now I was too. 

 
We headed back to the house where we enjoyed some delicious popsicles.  I believe this was Bailey's first popsicle.  I'm not much of a popsicle fan.  Now, gummy bears, Girl Scout cookies, I'm there, and so is Bailey.  So she's definitely had her fair share of goodies, but not yet a popsicle.  Do you think she liked it?




That night when I got home I tried to persuade my husband that we should buy lots of land by a creek to build a house on.   And of course, I would need to have a tiny bridge across my creek, too.  I could get used to making memories like this every day! 

The best pics are not planned

My poor husband and daughter are probably sick of seeing me pull my shiny, black camera out of my bag.  I know they are also tired of hearing, "Can we take some pictures?".  Recently, I found a new beautiful park to take pictures of my family.  The park is kind of a dream for someone like me that LOVES to take pictures.  The trees create a canopy effect over the walking path that leads to a picturesque bridge over a creek.   So, of course, on our day off together I suggested we go check out this park and take pictures.  We could just drive over to the park, walk the trail, and take some great father-daughter pictures of the two of them.  I wish it were that easy!

Just a short side note-my daughter hates wearing shirts.  Whenever she's at home she asks us to take her shirt off of her.  For now it's not a problem, she's only two, but of course some day soon this trend better stop.  Like say, when she goes to kindergarten, but we've got three more years until that happens, so we're probably okay.  Anyway, she would not get into the car to go to the park with her shirt on.  So...I got her packed into the car assuming that Scott was bringing her shirt.  Well, we get to the park, which is a 10 minute drive from our house and realize we left her shirt at the house.  Luckily, there was a red zip-up jacket in the car, which I figured would do for our father-daughter pictures.  They were just for fun anyway, right?

As we start our walk down this fairy tale of a path, Bailey starts to whine about her jacket and we (actually her father) obligingly let her take it off.  So much for cute father-daughter pictures, but you gotta pick your battles. 

Well, the no shirt look actually worked out for pictures.  I got some amazing pictures of her even without her shirt on.  Ha!

  It just goes to show that some of the best pictures are not planned!