Blue Skies and a Pink Ball

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so we had a family picnic at a nearby park. We found a perfect spot under a shady tree and right next to the lake. Collin and Jack brought their scooters, and Mary wore her roller skates, and the kids had a good time riding around the park. Collin also brought his football and tossed it around with Jay for a while. It was absolutely beautiful, and we hated to leave.

Collin lay down in the grass next to me and said, "Mom, we should do this every day." And I thought, yeah, that would be nice. It's too bad our lives are so busy that we can't find time every day to stop, eat a meal outside, and just relax and enjoy being together. My response to Collin was, "Well, we probably can't do this every day, but let's definitely do it more often."

At least while the weather is nice.

One of the many other families at the park was a young couple with their toddler... she looked to be about 18 months old. She was carrying a pink ball... it was just one of those cheap little balls that you can get for a couple of bucks at the grocery in those big bins, but you could tell she was very attached to it.

As they made their way closer to the lake, her attentive parents warned her not to get too close, but sure enough, she did... and dropped her ball and it rolled into the lake and began floating further and further away from the bank. Of course, the little girl was distressed. Like I said, it was a cheap ball, and I'm sure her parents could have easily replaced it.

However, another man and his son were driving a remote-controlled boat around in the lake. When they saw the little girl's predicament, they immediately sent their boat out to rescue the ball. It wasn't an easy task to get a pointy-nosed boat to push a ball much bigger than it, and in the right direction, but they didn't give up.

By this time, a small crowd had gathered to watch. When the ball finally got close enough to shore, the little girl's daddy grabbed the ball, and everyone cheered! He thanked the stranger for his kindness, and returned the ball to his delighted daughter. It was a sweet moment.