A Day at the Park

Last Thursday, we were able to go to Hermann Park in downtown Houston and have a picnic with our good friends, Caitlin and Jared. Caitlin and I are good friends from my single days in New Orleans, and are fortunate enough to have husbands that work in similar lines of work and get along great as well. To start off the afternoon, we had a picnic in the Japanese Garden in Hermann park. It was a nice sunny day with a slight breeze (a few wild gusts as well, so we had to hold on to our plates at times!). After a light lunch and casual conversation, we headed off to do the fun stuff (well, us adults had fun conversing, but Jordyn wasn't too excited with all the small talk).

So we went to feed the ducks! But before we could feed the ducks, we had to successfully chase all the pigeons away (thank goodness we had Jordyn with us). She had a blast running across the grass and watching the birds scatter. When that job was done, it was time to get to business, and feed the ducks. So she climbed to the waters edge and would throw the bread as hard as she could (with it usually landing behind her). Daddy decided she might need a bit of help so he sat down beside her and together they feed the ducks. This took a lot of serious concentration. So she was easily upset when I wanted her to look so I could get a picture. We were able to meet some other wild friends as well. The turtles swam up from the bottom of the pond to eat our bread, and a blue jay graced us with a song. Jordyn was also able to get up close and personal with none other than a LARGE nutria (Caitlin actually got a picture of Jordyn's shoe on the nutria's nose, my camera was acting funny so I wasn't able to get that picture, but I'm expecting a copy soon). For those of you who don't know, a nutria, is pretty much a giant rat with large yellow beaver-like teeth. They live in the ponds and waterways of the south, and are very disgusting. After the bread was gone, we headed to the park to play, Jordyn soon forgot about the swings and the slides when she saw the water park. So we stripped her down as much as we dare to do in public (we weren't prepared to get wet), and we let her have fun. It was the perfect ending to a hot day at the park.