Park Adventures

Now that its getting warmer I've been trying to get the kids to the park more.  They don't have as many extracurricular activities going on now and I figure they need an hour of real physical activity each day...at least.  We've also been going to the pool more to get all that energy out - I don't have pictures of our pool trips.  Here is a park we went to in Saratoga Springs - this was about a 10 minutes drive from my parent's house.  They have a huge bungee pyramid to climb.  It reminded me of some parks in Japan (where climbing structures like this were common).  You can see Anna standing at the bottom there.  It was a big pyramid.

Matthew climbed to the top pretty quickly.

Anna took most of the hour and a half we were there to climb the structure.  She came down and did some other things in the middle.  But she made it to the top.  She was nervous but kept trying.

Meanwhile the three younger kids played on everything else.

A large view of the park (Neptune Park)

Here's a bungee climber by our old house in Okinawa.

At Wine's Park in Lehi.  We've been going there a lot to let the kids run.  Emma loves the slides.  She'll find one she likes and can manage and will go on it over and over.  She's pretty brave about big slides too.

Another day at Wine's Park.  I take the little guys while the older kids are at school.

Here is another park - Hunter's Park on the Lehi/American Fork border, a short drive from our house.

Emma worked hard to cross the wiggly bridge there.

There is also a big field (down a slope - so possibly good for sledding for younger kids).  We came back to this park another day with all five kids.  There are three of them running on the grass.

We went for a short exploratory hike in the creek bottom there.

And got worn out playing on the toys.  On school days the time I can take them to the park is usually when I would be making dinner, so I've been trying to get a little creative about getting dinner ready.  Lots of stuff done before hand.

I've been taking all the kids to Matthew's soccer games when I can too.  They don't have toys at the park he plays at, but lots of open grass to play on and some wild areas to explore.  On this day it was warm and the three middle kids wanted to hid under the blanket for part of the game.  I always bring a big bag of snacks and water bottles to the park, some balls and a blanket.  The bathroom has sometimes been a problem.  But we are learning to go before hand if at all possible, right kids?

Here we are (on a Scott weekend!!) at the playground of the kids school.  Just a block or so away.  Matthew and Anna and I practiced some soccer skills, while the other kids played on the toys or ran in the field with the other soccer balls.

On days when we get a good long play time at the park or swimming pool the kids are beat by the end of day.  And after a park trip, Grant and John will play quietly in the afternoon instead of harassing each other mercilessly.  They definitely sleep better when they've had a good exhausting park trip.  Mission accomplished.  Here's Emma ready for her nap time.  I think she broke these glasses soon after this.   But she looked cute.