Wednesday

[chochiyo_sama]

first, the most recent adorable picture of Peaches who is enjoying the big very very soft dog pillow i got for the kitties.



she was really snoozing peacefully.  I had to take a picture of her because that level of Cute must be eternally immortalized.

Jim and DeAnn had invited me to go to Winona with them for the day.  It's been YEARS since I've been to Winona, so it was a real treat

While waiting for them to come and pick me up, I sat on the front steps and took some pictures of my tomato plants.  I am enjoying watching them grow.  I'll miss them once the frost comes.

I also took pictures of my tiger lillies.  They are really pretty.  I got them from my sister Kim several years ago.





I always have to bring a doll or two along--this time, it was Grace and Annalee.  I dressed them in their Raggedy Ann and Andy shorts outfits.  I love the fabric.  Using careful cutting which wastes fabric, but makes prettier outfits, i made sure Ann was centered on one halter top and Andy was centered on the other.  You can see the faces of the raggedies very clearly in the second picture.








We took the scenic route on the road to Winona.  Poor little Swayze was fussy and cried for quite a while.  Then, near Douglas, he threw up.  We had to pull over and clean him up, and DeAnn got in the back seat with him to help him calm down and cuddle and play with him a little bit.  We stopped in Elgin so Swayze could get out and tear around on a playground.  It was a very nice playground.  Lots of day care people were there and kids climbing all over everything.  Swayze was a little shy at first, but he loved everything and climbed all over the place.  He was so cute.

Here he is at the top of the big orange slide.



And here is mommy DeAnn climbing up the groovy stairway to block the young'un from plunging off.



And here are DeAnn and Swayze going down the slide.



And here is Daddy Jim helping Swayze off the slide. 



And here is the wee lad talking to Mommy about how much fun it was going down the  big slide.



This may be the grooviest kids' play set I have ever seen.



Here is mommy encouraging Swayze to go down the slide on his own and daddy  ready to catch him at the bottom.



Here's daddy helping the wee lad.



Some bigger kids were leaping from that open spot to the yellow fireman's pole and sliding down.  Swayze so that and was giving serious thought to leaping. 



There is mommy disuading the lad from leaping to his certain doom.



Meanwhile daddy comes up behind to rescue the boy--even if he doesn't feel he needs rescuing.



And here are daddy and Swayze going down the cool twisty slide.



This is a view of another part of the playground.  That side was more for the little ones, Swayze's size.  But HE preferred to be in the big kids' area.  the little "rock" wall was so cute.  I wanted to take my dolls over there and take their picture on it, but there were so many little kids running around that I decided against it.



It was just a beautiful shady playground. 



There's the little squirts' jungle gym.



And another shot of mommy and Swayze going down the slide.



Here are mommy and Swayze hitting the bottom of the slide.



Here's Swayze checking out the climbing wall.



The first thing we did when we got to Winona was stop at Shopko to get Swayze some new shirts.  As he had thrown up over his extra sets of clothes.  The last bout of vomiting was pretty nasty.  The car didn't smell very good for a while.  But, it got aired out before we left Winona.

The next thing we did was go up to Garvin Heights.  i only went as far as the small look-out spot.  The big one just seemed to far away for my poor old knees.  I took a picture of the girls sitting on the picnic table.



Here is the view of beautiful Lake Winona.



We saw these little tugboats along the side of the Mississippi River. 



Closer  view of the tugs.



There is an aquatic machine that fascinated Swayze.  I suppose it reminded him of Bob the Builder's equipment.  Bob's the MAN in Swayze's eyes.



After we ate lunch, we drove around a while then went down to the park by the band shell.  Since I had last been there, they had erected a massive children's playground.  While Jim and DeAnn played with Swayze, I sat at a picnic table and read my book.  I also took a few more pictures.

This is the view of the lake from my picnic table.



another view of Lake Winona from the kiddie park



Here's the backside of the bandshell.  it is old.  It was there long before I went to school there.



Here is a part of the huge playground set that was in the kiddie park.  If I were skinnier and not so crippled up, i would SOOOO be up in that tower.  I could see that they even had little benches up there.  Again, would I ever have loved to take pictures of the dolls up in there.  Sigh.  It sucks to be old.

Comments

[i-beckygardens.livejournal.com]

awww cutie kitty!

the tiger lilies really are gorgeous

the slide looks like fun!