Pullen Park has a miniature train, kiddie boats and a carousel on the Historic Register (a place after my own heart). We stopped at a swanky grocery store and got lunch. Sawyer looked at the salad bar and proclaimed, "I LOVE FRUIT!" so we picked some strawberries, pineapple, grapes and melon. He chose lemonade. I had tasty chicken salad. And we both got cookies.
We wound our through the campus of N.C. State and found the park. Finding a parking place was more difficult though; the place was packed with parents, grandparents and children. We pulled out lunch and sat in the grass to eat. Sawyer wouldn't eat much, and he spilled a lot of his lemonade and fruit, so I gave up on getting him full before we went to the park.
I grabbed my camera and cash, and we headed to the amusement area. My heart sank when we got to the ticket window. There was a sign saying the train was down for maintenance. I was mad. I had called at the halfway point to make SURE the train was running, and the staffer said it was. The girl in the ticket booth said it had broken about 15 minutes earlier ... probably while I was struggling to get Sawyer to eat lunch. She said it was possible they'd get it working before the park closed.
I had been telling Sawyer all day that we were going to ride the train, so I expected him to be upset. But he accepted my explanation that it was broken and the men were trying to fix it. It helped that we could see them working on it.
So we set off to explore the other activities there.
We started by riding the carousel. Sawyer chose a pig to ride, and he seemed a little nervous about it. He's ridden merry-go-rounds before, but it's been almost eight months since the last time. He held on tight and didn't try to climb off or jump into my arms, so I considered it a success.
We walked through the real caboose.
The playground was awesome. It had separate sides for big kids and little kids, though Sawyer continues to think he can do anything he sees the 7-year-olds doing.
You twirled the musical notes to clang the bells. The whole time we were eating lunch I though these bells ringing were surely the train.
Sawyer got his toes in the sand.
He wanted his shoes back on to go down the slide.
He didn't want to get off the swings.
Sawyer rode the kiddie boats twice ... early on and right before we left. He loved that the boats were actually in water. Remarkably he never stood up and tried to reach the water like many of the other children were doing. I know he had fun, but he never really smiled. He was concentrating on driving and ringing the bell over and over again.
We walked around a bit to see some other areas of the park. It's a huge park with a lake, many paths and gorgeous old trees. Near the water fountain, Sawyer made the best find of the day: a wooly worm. I helped him pick it up, and he giggled as it crawled all over his arm. Watching him was maybe the highlight of my day.
Then we wandered back over to the amusements area. I was hoping the train would be fixed, but they never got it back up. Sawyer spotted some older kids playing with a soccer ball and took off for them. He inserted himself into the game, and thankfully they did not trample him. The older kids found a beach ball and went off to play with it, but the youngest boy, Ezra, who was probably 6 or 7, very sweetly played with Sawyer. He was very gentle and patient, and he crawled around like a dog and rolled the ball to him to make Sawyer laugh. It was very amusing to watch. His mother kept telling him how great he was being to the little boy, and he really was. I couldn't have asked for a nicer friend for Sawyer to have made.
Sawyer also enjoyed kicking a soccer ball around the field. The boys' mother and grandmother were amazed that a boy that young could do it so well.
I lured him away with a snack and a drink. He loved that boy and that ball so much he surely would've gone home with them.
The day was winding down, and I knew we had a long drive ahead of us. Sawyer was amazingly good all day. There was very minimal whining and fussing over stuff. The worst of it was when I wanted him to sit down for a picture of the two of us. It was a nice change from much of the normal Terrible Two-ness we experience at home.
I had bought enough tickets for us to ride the carousel once more. Sawyer chose another pig to ride. I stood back and didn't hold onto him this time, and he did great. He watched the mechanism that moves the animals up and down the whole time. And he kept saying, "Go up. Go down." When I stepped back and tried to put him arm around him, he threw it off, like "Don't hold me. I can do it by myself."
He did so well that I decided we'd go one more time and I'd ride this time, instead of just standing beside him. We bought two more tickets.
I tried my best to convince Sawyer to ride a different animal. A horse? No. A cat? No. An ostrich? No. What do you want to ride? Piggy.
That meant I had to ride a piggy, too. Not the easiest place to take photos from, but I did try to get some different angles and more artsy shots that go-round. It was fun for both of us.
It was a very long day. Sawyer was asleep before we go to the first stoplight. I was tired, but it was a good tired. It was truly one of the best days I've had in a long, long time. It was great just having fun together instead of butting heads. I have always loved going somewhere new. I hope that's a trait that Sawyer has inherited from us. And I hope there are many more adventures like this in our future.
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