111. Brickwood Park, Maple Ridge

Today we found ourselves in Maple Ridge, off to visit our friends Andy, Khanh, Avery and Kayden - to celebrate Kayden's first birthday!  We headed out a little early so that we would have time to discover a new playground at Brickwood Park and hopefully unearth the nearby geocache, "Fruit Salad: Lime".  Charlotte played for a while before we went off to find the cache; it was at the bottom of a steep grassy hill and I managed to stay upright while I retrieved the cache, but planted my hands and knees in the mud as I tried to scramble back up the steep, muddy hillside.  Charlotte and Dad did some more playing while mum had a go on the swings and then we were off to the party.  The playground is located at N 49.12.729 W 122.35.966 and is point no. 111 on the map at the bottom of home page.

110. Robert Burnaby Park, Burnaby

It's been a while since we visited a new playground, so the first weekend of spring seemed like a good time to go and try a new one!  The weather wasn't supposed to be good at all today, but it started clearing up in the early afternoon, showering on and off.  We "parked at the park" to Charlotte's complete amusement and she ran down the hill to the playground while I sorted out Theo.  Another little girl came by with her parents, but they both stuck so close to their daughter that there was no chance there for making a new friend.  Shortly after they left, another mum showed up with her two kids, one older and one younger than Charlotte.  Charlotte played nicely with them and all was well.  The little boy, Donovan, climbed up on a piece of equipment and couldn't get down again.  While his mum was helping him down, little Capri took off like a shot.  She didn't look much older than a year and she probably didn't need to be high up on the equipment on her own, so I ran down and stuck close to her until her mum was ready to turn her attention back to her.  It was really nice - she thanked me for helping and it was pretty awesome - just a couple of mums looking out for each other at the playground, just like it should be.  I played pirates with Donovan for a couple of minutes and then Charlotte said she was ready to leave.  Only she didn't want to go back to the car, she wanted to go over to the nearby hill to go roly poly, roly poly!  The hill is a steep one, perfect for tobogganing on the rare days when there's enough snow to do so.  Charlotte tipple-tailed all the way down it - four times!  It took about a dozen tipple-tails to get to the bottom, so she probably did about 50 tipple-tails in a row and I don't know how she didn't get dizzy!  She would have gone again if I hadn't convinced her it was time to head home and change out of her wet clothes - the grass was still soaking wet from all the rain we've had lately.  There are a dozen geocaches in this park, but none of them showed up in the GPS today; we've already cached out the park!  The playground is located at N 49.13.907 W 122.55.728 and is point no. 110 on the map at the bottom of home page.

109. Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford

We came out to Abbotsford today to do a little geocaching for our 122 Degree Challenge.  Charlotte absolutely refused to allow me to take her picture, so I pulled up this old one taken when we were last at this park for a geocaching event in September 2013.  She has changed so much since then!

There were lots of kids there when we first arrived in the late afternoon and Charlotte ran off to join them, periodically returning to me to joyfully tell me that she had "made a new friend" or to report something funny that one of them had said.  She scaled the climbing mountain like a monkey and generally had the time of her life.

I perched on the curb around the edge of the playground and watched her run and play and make friends.  It was all exactly as it should be and I was happy to see her having so much fun.  So I was more than a little surprised when one of the other mums fixed me with an evil eye, staring at me so intently, and with no reason that I could think of, that I turned around to see if there was someone behind me.  She asked "Is that your daughter?" so coldly that I was taken by surprise.  When I simply said "yes", she turned away unsmilingly with a grunt of disapproval.  How can two mums at a playground see a situation so differently?  I truly don't know what her problem was!  Whatever to her because Charlotte had the time of her life.  The playground is located at N 49.02.549 W122.18.605 and is point no. 109 on the map at the bottom of home page.