Zuanich Park ...again. (And a good Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker story.)

I think I've got more pictures of the boys at this park than at any other. It's just so pretty down there with the water and all the boats, and the view of Mt. Baker. It's got great paved paths for the boys to ride their bikes on, a nice little climbing structure, and while it's a fairly small park, it feels big and open. And it's never crowded, especially on a week day during the school year.

We got another gorgeous sunny weekend, and I extended mine an extra day because I have to work next Saturday. I took Kai and Shen down to the park to play and ride bikes, and to give Tina a "break" (she did housework and baked while we were gone, but at least she didn't have any of us boys under foot for a bit.) I brought a kite with us, but there was no wind to speak of, just plenty of sunshine!

Shen was done riding bikes before Kai was, but since the park is so open I could keep an eye on Kai while I stayed with Shen at the play structure. He had the whole place to himself for a bit, but eventually a few other kids came along. After a bit I heard Shen say to a little boy who looked about the same age, "I'll play with you!" The boy looked at him for a minute then said, "Let's play Star Wars, I'll be Darth Vader!"

"Oh boy," I thought, "I know where this is going!" Star Wars (episodes IV, V, VI, the first 3 movies) is about the only media of this genre that Kai and Shen have experienced and they are very into it. And of course, the single biggest moment of all three films to them is when Darth Vader cuts off Luke's hand at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Guess who always plays Luke?

I was really wondering how this little boy was going to react, when Shen promptly answered, "I'll be Luke, and Darth Vader cuts off Luke's hand." then started waving his handless arm in the boy's face. Cracked me up, the little guy was really not interested in limb differences though, he just wanted to get on with the game, and began wielding his invisible light sabre. Before long, Kai was back and the three of them proceeded to race around and argue about who was dead and who killed who.