Turtles and Friends

Today we went to the Turtle Park with Jennifer, Renee, Kai, and Leilani.  We met there.  Right away, Kai, Nathan, and I went to see the turtles sunning themselves by the pond, while Jennifer, Renee, and Leilani got everything in the stroller.  The boys got a kick out of seeing the turtles go, "plop" into the water.  They laughed and laughed about it.  Then, when everybody was ready, we followed the tracks to the nature center to buy some turtle food.  We fed the turtles on both decks.  The turtles were hungry today :)

Then we walked around the pond and found an open area, where the boys played chase.  They said to one another, "I'm gonna get you!!!"  It was so cute to see boys being boys.  They found sticks and pinecones, too.  

After a brief break for snacks, we went to go see the boats.  The park is neat because it has different paths that lead to the overlook decks.  We followed one of the paths to the boardwalk, which led us right to the water.  I got to hold Leilani and give Jennifer a break.  She is such a good, happy, and sweet little girl.  She turned 6 months old today, in fact.  

When we made it to the outlook deck, we saw two guys fishing.  We were going to wait and see what he had pulling on his line, but he took forever to try and get it in, so we had to move on.  But we did wait for a little while.  We got to see one boat, jumping fish, and this beautiful bird, an egret, I think?

Here are some more pictures from our adventure on the outlook deck. 

In this one, Nathan was trying to give Kai a hug, but Kai needed his own space.  Nathan is still trying to understand this.  In fact, when he was asking Kai questions today, and Kai didn't respond right away, Nathan gets right up in his face and asks him again.  Not in a mean way, just as if maybe Kai didn't hear or understand me the first time.  It's cute because when Nathan does this, he cocks his little head to the side and asks his question again.  Kai was very patient with Nathan, though.  He's a very good and sweet natured boy, too.

In this one, the boys noticed a jumping fish.  And I think Nathan had thrown his half eaten apple slice into the water, which proved to be quite entertaining as it floated away.

The boys never get tired of the chasing game..."I'm gonna get you!!!"  :)

We decided to head back to our house for some lunch, but along the way back, we had to rest at this nice bench.  The boys were tired and in need of lunch, but they were troopers and made it back without any major meltdowns.

Since the fatigue factor was setting in, Nathan wanted to ride on my shoulders.  I like that.  :)  Thank you so much, Jennifer for taking these photos of us.  {all of the pictures, really, but especially of the shoulder riding.  These pictures are special to me.}

We made it back to our house for lunch and playtime.  Sweet Leilani played with some of Nathan's baby toys.  It was good to see them played with again.  I miss Nathan being that age, but still think that 2 years old is my favorite so far.  He is so fun, so sweet, so energetic, and so talkative.  I love his little grin  :)

Thank you, Jennifer, Renee, Kai, and Leilani for making our day extra fun and special.  I really enjoyed your company and look forward to next week :)