July 4th Family Fun

This year for the actual "day" of the 4th, we decided as a family to go on a fun outing together. I had originally looked for a park that had a sprayground that the kids could play in as I thought it would be fun for them to run through the water on a hot day. We went to a park in Tacoma and discovered that the sprayground didn't start working until 11am and we arrived around 10am. We waited for a bit and then a little bit before 11, some maintenance men came and put up a sign saying that the sprayground wasn't working due to mechanical problems. Ugh. So, with that we packed up and decided to try another park as this one really had not much shade and we didn't want to be stuck in the hot sun without any water relief. This picture above is actually at the second park we went to which is over by Tacoma General Hospital. We had seen this park many times as we drove by it to go and visit the twins when they were there for 20 days. There was a man near the pond feeding the ducks with some stale bread and he kindly gave some to us to throw as well. The babies thought it was food to eat and tried to eat it rather than throw it, but oh well....a little stale bread never hurt anyone, right?

Josiah really enjoyed this twirling toy at the first park. It was at such an angle that when you sat in it and put your weight in it, the thing pretty much was self-perpetuating and kept going around and around until you would sit very still and then it would slow and stop enough so you could get out.

Josiah also enjoyed the swings at the second park. It was much more shady here and it felt good to be under the trees as we watched the boys play.

Here is sweet Caleb-bee at the first park. He had fun exploring the whole area and in this shot was sitting on the railing of the stairs like it was a pony ride.

Daniel enjoyed trying to swing himself as well. He and Daddy also went on an exploring adventure of the area and he kept finding various "treasures" that he insisted upon Daddy holding. They were a variety of pine cones and twigs as it turned out. They were very important though and David found that if he didn't take them that Daniel would insist upon him holding them each time. After their walk, David lined up all the "treasures" on a bench and we took a picture of them.

At the first park, Daniel and Caleb found a puddle of water that they enjoyed splashing and sitting in. It was hard to tear them away from this area and they kept trying to sneak back to it after we lured them away.

Daniel and Caleb were fading a bit by this point at the second park. Shortly after this was taken, we trekked back to the car and then went to McDonalds for lunch where the kiddos played on the indoor equipment there as well. Overall, it was a fun day and it was nice to have a quiet holiday as a family.