We met up with our friends, Jessie and Luke, this morning to play in the creek and have a picnic lunch outside. The boys had a great time splashing around and throwing rocks in the water. Jessie caught some salamanders, and Jonah got to touch and try to hold them, and he learned a new word. I don’t think he’s ever seen salamanders before.

“That water is pretty cold!”

“That rock made a biiiig splaaaaaash!!”

This part of the creek had a flatter bottom, so Jonah got a little braver wandering around on his own to find rocks to throw.

When it was time to head to the blanket for lunch, Luke really wanted to hold Jonah’s hand for the walk. It was very sweet. :)

Then the boys sat together and threw rocks into the water. Good times.

Shortly after this last picture was taken (in Jonah’s words): “Jonah was sitting next to Luke on rock. Then bend over and fell in creek. Got creek on face and hair and mouth. Mom picked Jonah out of water.  Yup.” He talked about this episode for most of the ride home. Happily, he doesn’t seem too upset about the whole thing, and I think he’ll still be very willing to go back in any creek. Fun morning!

Today we met up with Jonah’s buddy, Luke, at the park. They had lots of fun on the wobbly bridge…

…driving the boat…

..and playing in the tires.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a nice enough day to really enjoy the park, so Jonah and I headed up there this morning. He loves to go on the swings!

I realized that it’s been just over a year since the first time Jonah tried these swings…

He’s also getting better at climbing around on the play structure. He asks to go on the ‘blue stairs.’

In the afternoon, we went over to watch Luke, and the boys played in the yard together (kind of). They both liked finding big sticks to carry around, and the whole thing really struck me – just seeing them growing up into these funny kids. They’re not the little babies they used to be…