September 17, Part I

Yesterday was one of the most wonderful days of my life. And it was a COMPLETE surprise! I had no idea that adventure was in the air. . .

but it was!

Even as I sat down to breakfast, which Pat made (menu: eggs (sunny-side up), bacon, and waffles), I still did not suspect that Pat had anything up his sleeve.

but he did!

Not even when he picked out outfits for each kiddo did I think anything was going on.

but it was!

Pat told me he wanted to get a "Then and Now" shot~ a photo of our family today to compare with the photo of the two of us taken three years ago when he proposed.

So I figured we were going to quickly drive over to my parents house to ask them to snap a quick shot, and then we would head back home and Pat would head in to work.

We all jumped in the car, and when Pat brought a few water bottles out to the car, I began to SUSPECT something.

And he confirmed it!

YES!

He took the entire day off!!!  He had the whole day planned, stroller ready, picnic packed. We were on our way to Black Water Falls, the gorgeous park in West Virginia where Pat proposed.



Wearing the same EXACT outfit he wore three years ago!

 

The whole morning felt like a dream, a good dream, and we never woke up (best part!). The drive was so much fun, the kiddos behaved really well, and it gave Pat and I a great opportunity to talk about all sorts of things from future kids names (yes, we have it all planned out) to the state of the world to homemade candles.

The first place we stopped was this Park:

 

 

And we instantly fell in love with it! This park has everything!

 

A river for fishing and swimming . . . although you could tell it was much more shallow then normal right now.

 



Even so, there was a fisherman there. . . though from what we saw he wasn't having any luck.

There are all sorts of things for little kiddos

So Kateri had a blast.

Of course, she had to hit the play ground as well.

Kateri thoughtfully invited Papa-Bear to go down the slide with her.

They even had the old fashioned slides which I remember loving as a kid in CO, but I don't remember seeing them much around VA.

They got some serious momentum going down this one.



And Kateri's shoe was lost at the top of the slide!

One of the most moving things I saw on this trip was how much Kateri really loves and looks up to her Daddy. She wants to show him everything, tell him everything, and share her experiences with him. 

I cannot get over how grown up she looks!

And Pat makes an extra effort to communicate and talk with Kateri. She knows how much he loves her and she knows he will do anything to make her happy.

 Which is why Kateri ended up holding many different flowers throughout the day . . . Papa-Bear always got them for her!

There were fun bridges to cross. . .

In Pat's eyes, no park would be complete without a baseball field.




Sebastian looks like he's also excited at the thought of baseball!

Which of course made Pat daydream about future days when we can come play baseball as a family on this field. . .

We also walked around a track.

And we met someone who had a boy and a girl who were ten months apart. She said the first year was rough, but after that it was much easier and they were always great friends. Makes me excited~ after all we are already over three months in. . . not constantly playing body guard does sound pretty nice!

She kindly took a photo for us :)

And from there we continued our journey! But it is 5:30 and dinner hasn't even been started so I better get to it :) To be continued . . .