Peacock Park

There's a really great picture hanging on one of the walls in my grandmother's house.  She has many walls full of many pictures.  One wall is dedicated to my daddy and his siblings. Another is home to pictures of my grandfather throughout his life.  Still another is dedicated to family members from generations ago. There's a wall of photos in the stairwell dedicated to all eleven of us grandbabes, we each have pictures taken at specific ages and stages in our lives.  And one wall hosts group pictures of all of us cousins as we were coming up.  The brood grows as the photos become more recent.  About half-way through is a photo with nine of the grandkids, yes, back in my heyday as youngest cousin.  Youngest, most tattle-tellin', board-game earthquaking, cousin.  The Montana cousins must have been in town for a few weeks that summer.  We're all sitting in Angel's same front lawn in Northwest Hills, hair sticking to our foreheads, and clothes sticking to our bodies.  We'd just been to Mayfield Park (fondly referred to as "Peacock Park" by the Flanagan cousins) for an afternoon with my daring grandmother, bless her heart, and I've got a trophy to prove it.  I doubt I found the peacock feather that I'm wielding in the picture, but there's no doubt in my mind that I threw the biggest fit and was allowed to hold the prize as my own for the photo op.  Did I mention that I have a lot of hell coming my way in this whole parenting gig?

Last week on a whim, we took Piercy Joye to Mayfield Park for a picnic and her first peacock sightings.  It's only a mile down the road, and has proven to be one of the biggest hits of her young life.

One of my favorite parts of being a parent has been re-discovering the simplicities of life, from  the lifecycle of a butterfly, to the enchanting beauty of a peacock.

Is this thing even real?

Seriously?

Piercy Joye loved their loud squawks, vibrating dances, and showy feathers.

Oh, AND, Mayfield Park is home to some of the most beautiful ponds in town.  Cue Photo Montage...

Dragonfly Friend

Turtle hiding under a lilypad

Somebody loves her Daddy!

Reflections....

Girls' Shot

Sweet face

Mommy Turtle and Baby Turtle

Learning

In the Trees

Rapunzel Bird

During a lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches and granny smith apples under the trees (yes, even for Little Miss, who is all about sandwiches right now), I realized for the umpteenth time how thankful I am for this beautifully simply life we have, the privilege of raising our daughter in this city we adore, and sharing memories with her in places where we have separate, beautiful first memories of our own.

For the record, we didn't find any spare peacock feathers, which has me wondering which of my wild boy cousins snagged a feather from a peacock's behind that hot, summer day.