Columbus Day with Amelia

A couple of days every year that my office is closed for federal holidays, our daycare is also closed for professional development days. In other words, I get a day off from work, but I still have to work.

YES, I SAID IT.

Luckily, my coworkers on those days have historically been cuter than my coworkers on regular workdays. Whinier -- though only marginally -- but much cuter.

I may or may not have been hoping that Columbus Day would dawn rainy and mopey so that Amelia and I could loaf around the house all day in our PJs, watching SuperWhy! on a loop and eating dry cereal on the couch.

Not only did that not happen, but it turned out to be possibly the most beautiful morning we'd had in MONTHS. So my conscience literally drove us out of the house and downtown to Railroad Park by 9:30. (Ironically, I work in one of the buildings in this picture.)

But seriously. How could we NOT visit this jewel of a park and its paved walking trail on this gorgeous day? At first, Amelia seemed to question the wisdom of my decision.

But then she and Wyatt (SuperWhy) had a confab about it and decided it was A-OK, after all.

I mean, really. These pictures are from my PHONE. And they aren't retouched.

And they aren't from Instagram.

Or any other app.

They're just straight out of the plain old camera. It was just one of those days where you're happy to be alive. So happy that you don't even notice that your index finger is hanging over the right edge of the plain old camera lens.

Bygones. Because THIS.

Amelia, Wyatt and I walked two miles around the picturesque park.

Every time I stopped to take a picture of the gorgeous skyline, she kicked her legs and screamed, "GO!" at me.

 I know you'd never guess from looking at her that she has an attitude. But yeah.

It's either buried deep in there or right beneath the surface. Not sure which. You decide.

On Columbus Day if someone told you they saw a crazy lady throwing Smarties into the grass at Railroad Park trying to get her daughter to turn around and look at the Birmingham skyline so she could get a picture of her, I'd have to tell you I have no idea who that crazy lady was.

But I'd also tell you that the crazy lady was probably S-O-L because the kid crawled and walked around everywhere looking for those Smarties but NEVER ONCE JUST TURNED AROUND AND LOOKED AT THE DADGUM SKYLINE ON THAT PERFECT DAY SO THAT A GORGEOUS PICTURE COULD BE TAKEN.

And she knew it.

SHE. KNEW. IT.