Nostalgic Afternoon

We took a super-long bike ride with the kids today in order to get to a pretty cool park.  During a snack break at one stop/park, Daddy got out the point-and-shoot.  I noticed that Emma doesn't appear in any of the pics, but I think it's because she was hanging out with us at the time.  Oops.
They had a blast and we enjoyed the fact that there is so much open space that they have a chance to explore a little before we need to ask them to stop wandering.  It's no fun being stifled by Mommy and Daddy telling you "no" all of the time.  This was an opportunity for them to get out and run, wander, look at pinecones and tree branches, dig up the dirt and sift tiny rocks through their hands.
Troy and I really enjoyed watching them play and explore and it made us kind of feel nostalgic about our own childhoods.  It's crazy how we used to be able to ride our bikes all over the place and today it's not quite as easy to allow kids to do so (of course ours aren't even old enough anyway).  We both remember riding up to a convenience store for Icees (I had Slurpees at 7-11...YUMMY!) and junk food.
When the kids were swinging on the swingset behind an elementary school, the squeaking noise it made reminded me of a neighborhood park (Plant Drive for those of you who know where I grew up).  I would ride up there and hang out for hours to watch games (yes, I could actually sit through an entire baseball game!), swing on the swings or ride on the see-saw, eat Pixie Sticks and drink Coke in those paper cups that were sold from the snack bar.  Aaaahhhh.  Those were the days!