Where the Kids Play

For about 3 months we lived in a small condo on the water while we were finding a new place to live. The biggest problem we had was the lack of outside places for the kids to just play. We were surrounded by steep drop offs down to the water.

Not to mention living on the 5th floor.

So... one beautiful day after school,

we took a drive down to the river/dam like we so often do almost daily,

to a wide open spot we call our backyard away from home,

and played...

and played.... and played... for just over 3 hours! I didn't plan it, it just happened. They were so happy the whole time! (besides the one time Hayden accidentaly running into Brandon's face with a branch bigger than himself...) Alyssa and Brandon dug in the dirt with sticks for almost 2 hours while Hayden played with his trains in the dirt and walked and ran around with me. Then, I said it is just about time to go... Let's just go for a short walk up a road behind the pond... Well, that turned into just over an hour. It was fun to explore a fort, tons of tiny frogs, deer, ducks, foot prints. Our favorite part was getting just about to the end and realizing the water went over the path so we could not cross. I was not turning back at this point! So we worked together to build a bridge across. We all found the biggest rocks and branches/logs we could find and I put them in place. (the first part was only about a foot and the next was only 5".) Everyone agreed that was the best part. The camera was left in the car for safety sake, and I really did not plan on that big walk or anything interesting happening. We even saw a Blue Heron playing with it's dinner, throwing it around, stabbing it repeatedly, then after about 5-8 minutes of doing this, finally gulped it all down in one piece. Alyssa didn't much care for watching it. Of course the boys thought it was cool. I loved this day with the kids.