Not Just A Walk in the Park

When Jason is gone during the week, it isn't the best because we miss him and it's tiring for me to have to do everything, but it's very doable. Since he has a job, he's gone all day anyway even when he's in town so it's just a little different. However, when he is gone on the weekend, it's much different than normal and it is definitely a hardship. Besides my selfish problems of never getting any kind of break ever and not having another grownup to talk to, it's hard to make the weekend special because without Jason it feels like just another weekday. So I decided we should try to do something fun and today that meant going to a new park.I was a little intimidated to take all three kids out on my own in an unenclosed place, but I decided to just do it because I hate not doing things just because they might be hard. I feel like letting fear control your actions feels worse than any stress of actually doing it, plus not doing something fun just because it's easier to stay home is not the kind of mom I want to be, so off we went.

This was a great park and we had a lot of fun and I am really glad we went. They had several play areas including one that was sized for toddlers, though we didn't stay on it that long because it was not shaded and it was hot.

The best thing about this park was definitely the water feature, which was kind of like a little super shallow creek for wading. It had a little water fall as the source, allowing Joshua to realize his lifelong dream of touching a waterfall. Peg and Ron have a beautiful entrance to their subdivision with a waterfall and everytime we talk about it (which is every single time we go to their house because he really likes it), Joshua and I talk about what it would feel like if we could touch it and what it would taste like if he could drink it. He couldn't drink this, but both kids really enjoyed it. If this weren't my first time to the park, we definitely would have done the water last, because it was hard to get them out of it, but I didn't plan our circuit with that in mind.

Joshua really wanted to play in the sand next, but Clara freaks out in sand so we couldn't do that. Sometime we'll come here as a family and let Joshua play in the sand box while Clara does something else. They also had a natural play area with stumps and logs. I thought the kids would be really into it, but they weren't all that thrilled with it. Joshua liked it for awhile and somewhat enjoyed walking on the logs and Clara jumped off stumps a few times, so I think maybe they would have enjoyed it more if it were before the water. Finally, we went back to the car and enjoyed some cold water and a snack. Hannah was with us too, but I was wearing her so she isn't in any pictures.

This park is only about ten minutes from our house, so I think we will come back again for sure. Especially in the summer when the water is on. It would be a great place to have a picnic because there is another part of the park with a bunch of picnic shelters with views of the lake.