Splash Pad

We just discovered the joy that is "splash pads." There are a handful around the Cities, and a friend of mine invited Emma and me to join her and her son at the one near her house last week. Honestly, our first trip there was kind of a flop. Ok, a big, fat flop. Emma didn't want out of my arms for a minute. Everyone and their pet goose was there (borrowed that line from my Grandma!). Traffic was pretty bad both to and from. I was so disappointed because I just knew, knew, knew she'd love it.

Well, everything's worth a second shot, so I decided to take her there again on a different day. The weather was great and it was a weekday afternoon, so it wasn't overcrowded. Lo and behold, we had a blast.

So, now we go there a lot :)

At this point, you might be wondering, "What the heck is a splash pad?" I probably should have told you before now. Basically, it's a place where kids can run around and play with stuff like bubbling hoses, water nozzles, and sprinkler arches. This splash park, in particular, is really toddler-friendly.

Here's Emma in her water shoes, ready to get in the water.

And, if I could put a caption on this one, it would read something like, "Can we go? Like, right now? Because I'm totally ready, and you're still taking pictures of me." :)

Finally, in we go!

She ran around in the spouts of water for a bit, and then we pulled out some of her toys (i.e., tupperware from our kitchen and her bath toys!).

A couple of little dudes thought her toys looked pretty fun, and wanted to play with them, too.

This little girl was just a few months younger than Emma. They kind of followed each other around. It was cuteness overload seeing two tutus within a three foot radius.

Da-da took Emma to play with a couple of the bigger kid things,

and she thought that was pretty neat-o.



Although our girl was content for some of the time to run around by herself and explore,

she definitely let us know when she wanted us to join her.