Muddin'

Today we completed another activity on our summer bucket list. We met some friends at the dirt (MUD!) park at Shelby Bottoms Greenway. It's an area in a nature preserve with big dirt piles, trails, a water pump to make mud, and a big sand box. We strategically planned to get there as early as possible (7:30 AM) to beat the heat and I'm glad we did. By the time we left, around 9:30, it was getting pretty hot, probably around 95 degrees. As soon as we got there, Carolina got the front of her bubble suit completely soaked. She doesn't look thrilled here but she was actually pretty happy about it.

 Seeing Maggie climb a tree made me feel like I'm doing a good job as a mom, whether I actually am or not! (Two side notes - my mom was an infamous tree climber as a child, breaking at least one arm while climbing a tree, and I'm pretty sure there was a second limb broken. Secondly, some time ago we were hanging out with someone from Grant's childhood who brought up a story from when Grant was a kid. The friend said, "Hey! Remember that time we were climbing that fence and you fell off of it and broke your wrist?" Grant said, "Yeah, I remember. Except I didn't fall. I jumped."
That's right. My husband is tough.)

Maggie got some climbing lessons from her buddy Liam, who is practically a professional tree climber.

 On one of the little trails there was a cool structure made out of twigs, which was almost shaped like an igloo. Carolina thought it was pretty great.

My friend Jenna (Liam's mom) and I were talking while the kids were playing and suddenly she said, "Oh! Those are blackberries growing wild right there!" So we spent some time picking blackberries.

 Carolina had a big time picking blueberries. She didn't let the thorns stop her. As Grant and I often say about Carolina, "honey badger don't care." (If you aren't familiar with that reference, you might not want to google it while there are kids around.)

When we went blueberry picking over the weekend (blog post to come soon), she had a hard time distinguishing between ripe and unripe blueberries, but this time she was expertly picking the black ones and leaving the unripe red ones, as you can see by the black one she is enjoying below.

 It's possible Finn got a tart blackberry here, or he might have been crying because he wanted Callum's Mystery Machine.

  I thought this photo showed off my pretty redhead. That hair! Those eyelashes! That profile!

 And then, about an hour later, she looked like this:

 And then, ten minutes, a good hosing off, and a change of clothes later, they were all clean again, and holding hands. Does it get any sweeter than that? I dread the day when they decide they are too cool for holding hands with friends.

It was a fun morning, well worth the mess. I'm so thankful there are so many fun things to do in Nashville.