The Good Years: Clemenjontri Park

Since it was such a balmy weekend we went to the park, but not just any park. We went to Cleminjontri Park, which is built especially for handicapped and disabled kids access as well as other kids. The seats are wider, the spaces are more open, the playground stuff is made with an eye towards all kids being able to use the facility. The park land was donated by a wealthy citizen who only requested that the facility be open to all kinds of kids, no matter their physical limitations. The park is a spectacular example of a private/civic partnership. The name is a mixture of all the names of the kids of the person that donated the land.

We met Aunt Lisa, Joe and Beckett there at about 10am and got one of the last parking spaces available before overflow parking opened. The boys had lots of room to run around and discover all the stuff at that park, it was really amazing. There is a carousel in the middle of the park, but it wasn't running since its still early March.

Jack liked to run on the track, he must have run back and forth about 30 times, didn't care of he won or not, just liked the feeling of running and crossing the finish line. I ran a few times with him and he wore me out. He can run just fast enough so that you have to break out into a jog or do a fast walk, which is not a good look.

Beckett and Joe meandered about and probably went to only 50% of the stuff that was available at the park. Joe liked anything with a wheel on it, turned it and turned it. He was turning the wheel on the school bus when another kid a third his age got on the bus, nudged him and then tried to take the wheel. His father intervened and tried to get him away, but this kid had super-strength and super-determination. The funny thing is that the other wheel was wide open and the father was trying desperately trying to get him to hold on to that wheel, but he wanted to turn Joe's wheel. Hilarious to watch cause Joe didn't back down and that other kid was just so determined to use THAT wheel. Hardest-headed kid I have ever seen, with the exception of myself.

There was a maze and the boys liked to go through that. Jack figured out that you could crawl under the dividers if you squeezed low enough and took advantage of that. I lost track of him for a minute because there were so many kids at this park. There must have been 300 kids there and one and a half parent for each kid. All armed with cameras and a coffee in the other hand. If I hear one more "Dylan, Ashley, Harley or other pretentious kids name I am going to snap.

Beckett misbehaved and was thrown on "kid jail". His stay was short (haha), but he is now out on good behavior and is trying to mainstream himself back into society. He is in counseling and house arrest to keep him off the bottle (literally).

I caught a nice moment between Joe and Beckett and got it on my camera. Lisa was so happy because she doesn't have a decent picture of them together. I got Joe to put his arm around his brother and look happy about it. This is the picture I snapped a few seconds later. I will call this one, "Frick and Frack".