The Park & the Bus

Our friends the Long's were back for a visit during most of July, and we loved spending time with them. One pretty day we headed to the local park with Emily, Kaya and Ash, as well as our friend Sam and her boys Louis and Axel. AJ recently decided he likes the swings again (in the beginning of the summer all he wanted to do was run around and climb on everything!) which I think is pretty cool. He likes to swing "higher!" and "faster!" and has so much fun! So all of our kids -minus the babies- got on the swings together and they were so cute! Here is a shot of everyone on the swings, including Sam at the far end! We took turns pushing since there are now more kids than moms...oooh, that sounds scary!

Then, here are 2 pictures of AJ. He was being a real ham, so the first picture is a cute smile on my happy little guy, and then in the second shot he was doing his big fake laugh. You know, as in, "HA, HA, HA!!!". I'll have to try and get that on video soon too, since it cracks me up!

This is a video of all the kids swinging. It kind of gives me vertigo to watch it, but it gives you the perfect feel for how much fun they were having! AJ is talking about a big garbage truck that was stopped across the street as I was filming. And then when I ask him who he's swinging with, it's hard to hear but he says, "Ash, Louis and Kaya".

Afterward we all went to lunch at a new Cuban place that opened about a block from the park. It's called 90 Miles, and has all these great murals on the building. It's pretty kid-friendly, and I like that the food is good and the prices are low. We had a really nice time!

Recently, Andy and I took both kids to a park in Lincoln Park to meet some friends. This park is worth the trip because it has a really fun splash park area, as well as a lot of playground equipment and a huge sandbox with lots of communal toys.

We decided to take the bus since parking in that neighborhood can be pretty tough, and we took pictures to commemorate Elizabeth's first bus ride, and AJ's first time sitting on the bus seat like a big boy (I have always had him on the bus in his stroller, but look how he is sitting with his Daddy like such a big boy!)