Park it in the rain

Morgan went with Diane this morning to have "special time" and to buy a present for Meridith's birthday. Audrey and I met them at lunch time for a bite to eat before Audrey's nap. Morgan was excited about what she had chosen for her aunt and was ready to be home to wrap it all by herself. We gathered what she needed and Audrey and went downstairs for a little siesta.
When I got up, Morgan cleaned up and wanted to make cards for everyone who has a birthday this month. She told me what to look for on the internet and we printed some pictures for the cards.
Though the clouds were rolling in, we decided that it would be fun to go to the park for awhile. Audrey got a baby doll (which we hardly leave home without) and we were off. As soon as we arrived, we could see Morgan's friend, Selena, across the park. Morgan could not get out of her seat fast enough. She ran across the lawn shouting her friend's name. When I released Audrey, she did the same. She broke into an awkward run, with her baby in arms, shouting "eena, eena." It was absolutely precious.
While Morgan played with the children on the playground, Audrey enjoyed sliding down the slides over and over. She climbed the rock wall sort of thing to slide down the big slides. There were 2 boys around 5 or 6 years old that would shout, "baby alert," every time Audrey came their way. She seemed to think it was funny and got excited each time they said it.
When we arrived at the park it was already thundering, yet there were many children playing. We were there for about 30 minutes before the sky got darker, the thunder became louder, and the other parents began moving their children toward their cars. I was about to do the same thing when Morgan said, "lets just go to the stage and we can wait until the rain is done." "No" was about to fall out of my mouth when I realized I had no good reason to go and she seemed to have a wonderful reason to stay. So, she quickly hopped the fence and I handed Audrey over to her before hopping the fence myself. We crossed the field and went to dance on the stage. Morgan was in a world of her own and pretended to go to "school" and "work" and fly on planes. Audrey joined right in and they had a blast. Morgan found a forgotten pair of "ip ops" (flip-flops) that were about Audrey's size. She was ecstatic! The world melts away for a pair of shoes. She insisted on wearing them until we left and actually walked fairly well in them.
The rain began to fall and the girls ran around getting wet. I sat taking pictures of my beautiful children and truly enjoying the moment. It was absolutely perfect. I had nowhere else I wished to be. I am so thankful that Morgan had the idea to stick around for the rain AND that I stopped myself from just saying, "no."