Yesterday was absolutely beautiful - a perfect fall day, all sunny and warm, such a great day that it screamed for an outing to the park with the furry ones. One of Lilly's favorite parks is Barfield-Crescent in Murfreesboro, so that was our destination yesterday afternoon. Maks had never been to the park before, so this was his very first trip. It probably seems strange that he's nine months old and only now going to the park for the first time, especially when I take Lilly all the time. But, Maks hasn't been up for a park trip until now. He just hasn't had the stamina (he is still a puppy after all) to keep up with Lilly and I for more than a two mile walk through our neighborhood. Which means that he definitely could not manage the four mile up & down hill off road hikes that Lilly and I head out on. With the day being absolutely perfect, I decided that he could probably manage the shorter easier loop at the park that is just about 2 1/2 miles long. So, into the car we all got and off to the park we went.
Driving into the park, I noticed signs saying there was a Halloween event and saw some bounce houses over by the softball fields. I really didn't think much of it since we were headed to the other side of the park. I probably should have paid a bit more attention. We parked the car and headed up the trail. All was going great, Lilly was overjoyed to be out hiking again and Maks was having a great time sniffing everything in sight. Until... we came around a corner and met a GIANT turtle sitting on the side of the road reading a book. Miss Social Butterfly (Lilly) got all excited and went over to inspect the person and costume and had a grand time making a new friend. Maks hid between my knees and refused to walk past the turtle. Just when Lilly and I had managed to convince him that it was safe to continue on the trail... a GIANT frog came walking up the path toward us. Lilly busied herself making yet another friend, while Maks did his best to become invisible by hiding behind me. Maks finally decided he'd trust me enough to follow Lilly and I further down the trail and we didn't run into any more characters for over a mile. Unfortunately, on the last half of our hike all characters were in place and poor Maks was repeatedly spooked. First it was the fairies with flapping wings, then the lights across the trail that were off until he went to step over them and someone plugged them in just at that moment, then the trombone and tuba playing lobsters, the singing raccoon, the bubble machine, and the fog machine. At each of these Miss Lilly Ann stopped to make new friends and socialize while Maks hid behind me yet again and refused to move past the scary monster. Lilly was quite fascinated with the singing raccoon and even got a tummy rub at that spot - it was the only place where Maks even attempted to be social, he let the raccoon talk to him and got close enough for the raccoon to pat him once on the head. I was quite glad to be done with that portion of the trail and decided to head back to the car a different way to avoid more characters. If you haven't figured it out by now, we walked through a children's Halloween hay ride exhibit (thus the toddler - not Maks - friendly characters).
The trail I chose to take back to the car is a gravel service road that goes past the frisbee golf section of the park. OOPS!!! I had unwittingly chosen the Haunted Halloween trail for teenagers and grown-ups. Again Lilly was fascinated by the characters - gory, bloody, moaning corpses and all. Maks however was less than appreciative. I was afraid I was going to have to carry him past all of them. Evidently moaning corpses are a lot scarier than trombone playing lobsters! We finally managed to get off the service road and onto the frisbee golf course where thankfully there were no more scary characters and Maks was able to relax and enjoy the rest of our walk to the car. Lilly, on the other hand, had so much fun making friends with all of the characters that she wanted to head back to the haunted hay ride and visit some more. I told her we had tormented Maks enough and judging by how fast he was trotting AWAY from the goblins I was pretty sure we weren't going to be able to convince him to turn around.
I wonder if Maks will ever want to go to the park again?
