Another Day at the Park

The park has become a pretty regular hang out for the Cortez clan. It's a great way to get out and enjoy the Hawaii sunshine and it's nice and breezy on that side of the base so we're not covered with sweat when it's time to go home.

Éva loves the slide and will go up and down over and over again while Paul catches her every move with the camera, and Izzy and I usually hang out at the picnic tables in the shade and watch.

Yesterday was a particularly nice day and there were a few families at the park. Éva always brings Daddy's soccer ball to kick around with him and it was noticeable that some of the other kids were eye-ing the ball. Éva is usually pretty good when it comes to sharing, but for some reason, she was not interested in sharing her soccer ball and chose to carry it around with her to be sure that no other kid got their hands on it. It was quite a sight to watch her traipse around the park with Lumpy in one hand the soccer ball in the other.

One little boy, however, did not share Éva's possessiveness. At one point during our visit, Éva decided that Lumpy too needed a turn on the slide and so she would stomp up the slide, (thank goodness for Crocs and their tendency to adhere to plastic play ground equipment)turn around and drop Lumpy down the slide only to follow him shortly thereafter. Lumpy usually came down the slide so swiftly that he would fly off at the end and onto the rubber surface of the playground. Paul and I watched as a sweet little boy consistently waited there, at the bottom of the slide. He would pick Lumpy up and hand him back to Éva as soon as she got to the bottom and she would give him a chipper, "Thanks!" This innocent interaction between two instant friends took place in that same order about 4 times.