There's a lovely park less than a block from Nic and Karla's house. I took the kids there immediately after arriving. They needed to run, and I needed to breathe. There is beach sand and all of the play structure is accessible to the little tykes which is perfect for Kolton. They have a little push car that I walked him over in which impressed him immensely. He was in "caa" heaven. They buried each other in sand, swung like Tarzan from the swings, played tag and chase, flew helicopters, made friends with the other kids there, and pretty much reveled in the -I'm-finally-out-of-the-car-in-beautiful-weather-haze. I love being able to walk over here. When we got back to their house, they have a little pond in the yard that had filled up with rain water and moss. I told Kolton many times to stay away from it. Once, when he ventured too close, I carried him in kicking and screaming and explained to him that if he couldn't stay away from the water he would have to stay inside. I let him back out, and he sat on the bench right next to the pond showing me that he was not going in, but he was going to push it to the closest limits. I walked inside and asked Karla if she minded coming outside and visiting with me because I didn't trust Kolton out there with the pond. No sooner did she say yes than Jared ran inside screaming, "Kolton's in the bleach water!" I tore outside to find that in approximately five seconds, he had jumped, shoes, jacket and all, into the pond. I eventually had to put his tennis in the dryer because with the moisture in the air, they would never have dried. I swear that kid is a non stop thrill. It was a successful deterrent however, because he stayed clear of the pond the rest of the trip! Xiana was ecstatic to be there with her Eva and all was well again in the world.
