There are those times...

Dear Zac,

By now, no doubt, you have realised that your Mummy is very silly. And that she loves and trusts your Daddy to distraction. So today, when Daddy said "let's go to the park" I got very excited.

It was the first day that it was over 20 degrees and I thought it would be a lovely day for a stoll in the park. Thinking that we might want to take a family photo I wore nice jeans, a pretty white t-shirt, and sandals (I had just had a pedicure so my toes were happy). I blow dried my hair, and while I stopped short of painting a full face of make up, I did add a bit of volume to my eyes and some gloss to my lips. I looked great! Even your daddy said so!

We packed the car up (bottle warmer, oxygen, pram, nappy bag, iPad, camera) and set out on our adventure. The mountains looked picturque, the sky was perfectly clear, and I was with my boys - I couldn't have been happier. We drove down the highway. And we drove a little further (you were peacefully asleep in the backseat and missed it). The mountains got closer and eventually we left suburbia and hit "rural" Denver.

It was about here that I asked what park we were going to. I thought it must be a very special park given we had driven this far. I was thinking beautiful manicured gardens, perhaps a decorative pond, lovely green grass, and paved paths that would wind through the park passing playgrounds, children laughing and ducks (a good park will always have ducks).

However it seems I made a stupid assumption - we weren't going to the park: we were going to a state park. After taking a moment to call myself several nasty names(stupidmbeing the kindest)I thought a bit more about it. Your Daddy and I have been to a few very nice state parks, and while there probably wouldn't be any ducks or green grass, we would stil get to take a nice family stroll.

I started to get worried when we had to drive along a dirt track to get into the park. And then we had to walk up a mountain (ok - not a "mountain" but a serious hill considering we had the pram) to the visitors centre - which had a desk and a coke machine...

Don't get me wrong - it was beautiful. There were these enormous red limestone rocks just popping up from the ground in the middle of no where. There was sunshine and birds singing. It was like a postcard.

We(read: Daddy) decided that we would take you on a walk around one of those big red rocks. It was a dirt track, but the man at the gate said it would be suitable for a stroller. It was a 3.5 mile walk, which I thought could be a nice hour or so walk as a family...

But there was still snow on the ground. And slush where that beautiful sunshine had melted the snow. And there was mud where that slush had hit the dirt. And I was wearing SANDELS!!!! To top it off, there were strong wind gusts that blew my hair everywhere!!! My lips were chapped, my toes were wet and muddy and there more hills to climb!!!

My glamourous park adventure with my family had turned into a farcical event where I could barely keep my balance (or my language) as I slipped, skidded and slided around the "path". To his credit, I didn't hear your daddy laugh at me once - or maybe the wind just blew the sound away... But he did have to contend with the elements and push your pram around. He was huffing and puffing in some parts. I laughed at that.

Thank goodness your daddy didn't suggest a family photo at the end. I was muddy, sweaty, disheveled and seriously unimpressed. But the glint in your Daddy's eye made it hard for me to be (too) mad at him.

It was a beautiful walk (I'm sure...) and I would love to go back and do a different trail, but it was just not what I had expected. It was one of those times when making an assumption had made me look like a complete fool. Sigh

Your Daddy is wonderful man, and loves to go on family adventures, but it will be the last time (at least for a while) that I don't get more details about where we are going.... Sigh.

And you - you seemed to have loved the entire ordeal. You slept, wiggled to avoid any sunlight, and didn't fuss once. You seem to like the off road (won't that make your Uncle Jonny happy). Sigh.

And now, while you sleep off your big day out, I'm off to wash my feet!

Lots of love

Mummy