Summer Fun 2012

WOW, it is October.  We were so busy enjoying the fabulous weather of July, August & September that I never published a single one of the nine blog posts I started to write over the summer. So I'm going to cut and paste to catch our digital scrapbook up to date. 

 

It was completely true this year; Summer started on July first.  The weather for July and August was beautiful and cooperative for a ton of outside fun and adventures. Issac & Josie love being outside; wither they are digging in the dirt in the back yard, making sand castles at the beach or simply going on a walk around the neighborhood.  Most weeks we would take 3-4 adventures out of the house while Tyler was at work. 

 I have realized that some days, I just need to get out of the house and during these warm summer months there is an endless possibilities of FREE adventure locations.  We are so blessed to live in south King County where there are a plethora of communities that plan provide and maintain healthy and safe playgrounds and splash parks for our young children.   Although we also frequented a few other parks, here are the adventure locations that TOPPED our SIPRESS FUN IN THE SUN list this Summer. 

1- Les Grove Park in Auburn has a play area designed and aimed at younger children. The kids love the unique equipment. But their favorite part of Les Grove is the Splash Park. I would say that les grove is one of my children’s favorite spots of the Summer. We made multiple trips to the park with Cousin Jack and Dad plus made many visits just the kids & myself.

 

2- Celebration Park in Federal Way is close by and defiantly one of our most frequented parks of the summer. Josie loves the swings and Issac enjoys the climbing equipment. We often go to the library and then have a picnic at Celebration Park. Over the Summer we also enjoyed a few playdates wtih cousin Jackson at Celebration Park. 

 

3- Some of my favorite Summer memories as a kid are of summer are swimming trips to various lakes with my Mom and Grandma. When those extremely hot days hit us this summer, we took a few lake trips as well. Staying close to home our family enjoyed cooling off at Steel lake, Angle Lake & Five Mile Lake. 

 

 

4- Kent Station has a fountain Park designed for young children to cool off. This park is across the street from a Library so it is an easy second stop for us without having to reload & re-unload the kids out of the car. 

 

 

5- Norpoint Center in NE Tacoma has a newly remodeled playground and splash park. I do get a tiny annoyed when we go to this park because there is only one slide!!!! One tiny little slide that my kids always end up fighting over with another (slow moving) child. On the plus side, there is a big grass field that the kids can kick the ball around, 4 infant and 4 big kid swings plus a splash park.  This park is also near my Cousin erin's house, so it makes for an easy meet up location for a playdate.   

 

6-       Wright Park is in the Hill Top neighborhood of Tacoma.  I sometimes have things to do in Tacoma or a friend to meet up with and this park is a great spot for that.  There are a ton of walking paths and garden areas to explore.  Plus an amazing tree house playground equipment and a fun splash park that both our kids enjoy.

 

7-       Tukwila Splash Park is not my favorite.  Reasons- first is is close to a busy road, second there is ALWAYS mud and third it is always way too many children for the small space.  None the less, we still went there a couple of times to have play dates with our friends who live near it.  The kids love it, I hate it.

 

8-       Museum of Flight-  I had a friend give us some FREE PASSES to the Seattle Museum of Flight earlier this summer.  With the weather being cloudy, Tyler & I packed up a picnic and adventured there with the kids on July 15th.  It was tough at first to get Issac to realize he couldn’t cross the barrier and touch every single item on display, but he did eventually catch on that some items we can touch & others we can’t.  Both kids enjoyed the kid’s area and all the different airplanes they could climb in and out of.  However,  When we went outside where there is about 7 planes, including an old Air Force One, Issac got super excited & slide out of my hand & began to run up to a plane where he slipped and hit his front tooth on the medal stair.  There was blood and pain and an extra large breakdown.  We hurried though Air Force One and headed home.  The dentist says you can tell that he had an impact but that there doesn't appear to be permanent damage.  So It appears that his mouth is fine now but jeez, what a scary experience.

 

9-       The zoo-  We put our zoo membership to goo use this summer going to the zoo six times.  It is only about a 30 minute car ride each way and our kids love it!!! One Saturday we asked Issac what he wanted to do and he replied, "Go to the Zoo".  I love that my children can identify each animal and their sounds. 

 

10) Backyard Fun-  One of the biggest perks to having a house is having a fenced in back yard for the children to freely play.  This Summer there were days that it was 70*+ at seven in the morning and my kids were eating breakfast outside!!!  This Summer we created a ton of memories in our back yard.  Even though our children are young we found plenty of fun activities to do from water balloon and squirt gun fights,  Slip and Slide, pool time, barbecues and even a few backyard camping trips.