Our new favorite park

Asheville boasts a fantastic number of city parks and recreation centers that all exist within a fifteen-minute drive from our front door. Which has always been an awesome feature of this city, but even more so this spring as Taylor has finally reached an age where she can just tear into the park equipment by herself, and I’m not holding her hand and guiding her through the steps, slides and swings. And other then the bizarre 40-degree, 90-minute snowstorm we had Monday, the weather has been just gorgeous out. So we have been taking advantage of any chance to be outside and enjoy the sunshing. And the other day our outside time included a picnic at the park with Paige and Elliot.

And while we and the Scully girls have been to lots of parks together, it was the first time we had ever staged a Taylor-Elliot play date at Avery’s Corner, a park in the Woodfin area. My friend Kelley told me about the new-to-us park a few weeks ago, and after three visits T and I are hooked. Unlike the wooden playground equipment that most parks hold, Avery’s Corner is full of gigantic, plastic Little Tykes-style castles and play-yards. And the ground is covered in a thick, blue, bouncy rubber which somehow makes it almost impossible for kids to fall and hurt themselves on. It’s pretty much the coolest park we’ve ever been to.

And Taylor and Elliot went absolutely bananas while playing there together. It wasn’t that crowded, which helped allow them to hog all of the equipment.

And T’s most favorite part of the park has to be climbing the plastic-rock wall. The first time she scurried up it I just sat there, dumb-faced and totally shocked that, 1. She even knew what it was, and 2. She could pull those thunder thighs up that wall with such grace. It was amazing. And every time we go she keeps getting better and better at it. And that makes me super-proud of her.

Good job, sweetheart.