Time for a park stop

My quest to take the kids to lots of local parks this summer continued tonight with a stop at Tipton Park after karate.  If you are counting, this is the third park we've been to this summer.  A far cry from the "go to a new park every week" dream that I had in June.  

The weather was perfect.  The kids had a blast.  The older three bolted out of the van as soon as it stopped to get to the giant hamster wheel first.  

Liam was immediately drawn to the climbing rock.  He scaled it like a champ, followed quickly by Kella.

Ewan thought the rock made an excellent seat.  "I'm the king of the world!" is what he was saying.

This park was great for us because I could be in one area with the littles and still have eyes on the big three.  Of course, we had to do Kinley's favorite thing...swing.  That is one way to get a smile on her face.

Time well spent tonight.  We love parks!

a morning in the park

Way back in June, while Marcus and Andy were at Boy Scout camp, I took the rest of the troops to Cool Creek Park.  I took them there specifically because there is a nature center at the park I thought they would like.  And, they did like the nature center.  They also had fun on the playground for about 15 minutes until some of the small folk needed to use the bathroom.  After a small hike to the bathroom, I was ready to call it a morning, and go home.  But, a shady, forest path caught our eye and we had to go explore.  How fun to discover that the path went down to the creek!  The kids had fun wading in the water.  We have plans to go back, this time with Marcus.

This princess was terribly excited to play in the water.

The boys weren't sure about getting their shoes wet at first, but the water felt so good, that soon, they were all in.

Park #3

This week we went to another nearby park. This one is right on the reservoir/lake near where we live.  The breeze coming off the water was relaxing.  I really liked sitting in the swing and watching the water. We didn't stay too long, since it was pretty warm out and we had to get back for lunch.