"Geese, get back in the water!"

Jackson is borderline obsessed with geese.  All week he's been asking me to feed the geese.  On Monday we went to a park a bit farther away that I swore had a pond with geese.  We brought the bread with us.  Apparently I made that up.  Jackson just kept calling out, "Geese!  Where are you?"  I'm sure the other moms thought he was insane, but I thought it was cute.

 

Tuesday was storytime, so we made no attempts to find any geese.  Wednesday morning I decided to take the tribe to a different park closer to uptown that I knew for sure had geese.  I fed and changed everyone, pumped, and loaded us in the van by 10:30.  There were a few clouds in the sky, but I didn't think anything of it.  About 10 minutes away from the park it started to downpour.  I tried to wait it out but the rain just kept coming.  Knowing that we would have to alter our plans and Jackson would be once again disappointed, I decided we would go to a McDonalds that had an indoor playground.  Jack always asks to go inside, but I never want to take the babies out just so he can get a $1 cheeseburger.  Not knowing that part of town as well, I drove around trying to find anywhere that had an indoor playground.  By this point it was almost 11:30 and I was getting irritated, so we went through the drive-thru, ordered a cheeseburger, and ate in the car.  Our happy Jack was perfectly content playing in the glove compartment and eating while the babies slept in their carseats. 

 

 

At last, the weather was perfect today and we loaded up first thing this morning on the hunt for some geese.  There is something so genuine and endearing about seeing his excitement over something as simple as geese.  He was shouting and pointing, "Geese, Mommy!  We found 'em!" 

 

Slight rant: This particular park is where all the skinny stay-at-home moms with one child in their jogging strollers flock.  One little boy passing by asked his mother what we were doing.  She said in an unnecessarily loud voice, "They are feeding the ducks bread.  It's very bad for the geese. They shouldn't do that."  [Insert eye roll here]  Thanks for the public service announcement, lady!

 

While Jackson fed the geese, I laid the babies down on a blanket.  I had no clue that they would come so close to people!  They just kept following Jackson and walked right up to the babies.  I had to put the babies back in the stroller because the geese were just a few feet from James.  Jackson kept yelling, "Geese, get back in the water!"

 

 

 

I had planned ahead and brought our lunches and a fancy picnic set that we received as a wedding present.  (It was the first time we used it in 6 years.)  We scarfed down our sandwiches.  Jack played while I fed the babies. 

 

As always, we were stopped numerous times by strangers.  People always feel the need to ask overly personal questions and/or elaborate on their life story.  As long as I'm not in a hurry, I really do enjoy it.  Afterall, it's the only adult interaction I get during the day!  One couple (Kathleen and Mike) were especially pleasant and talked to us for quite some time.  I asked them to snap a picture of us. 

This is how we travel when Jackson gets too tired to walk.

 

The weather was beautiful and we had a nice, relaxing afternoon.  It's always nice to not have any set agenda.  Each of us were able to do our favorite things: Jackson enjoyed feeding the geese, eating, and running around.  The babies got to eat, sleep, and look around.  I had the opportunity to talk to other people, walk in the perfect 75 degree weather, and take pictures of my kids.