Spring 2018: Adventures

YMCA Healthy Kids' Day

The 3rd Saturday of April is YMCA's annual Healthy Kids' Day. Oscar had a 10K run in Silverlake that day, so it was just me with both kids taking them around in the crowds. There are lots of little activities to fill out your passport, and you get little freebies at each place. One was Seattle photo booths where we had three pictures taken. My favorite was the bottom one. I was rubbing my nose in the top one because I thought the picture had already been taken, but I like the side view of the zebra head. I should have put it to the side for the others. Tyler wanted me to wear the head, but it made me feel claustrophobic.

The kids were really excited to meet and play with Captain America. The love characters, even when they don't know who they are.

There was a little obstace course in the small workout room. Tyler loves obstacle courses!

There were some booths outside too, including a bounce house.

Tyler had fun on the harness run. Allison was a bit too little for it, but luckily she wasn't really interested in it anyway.

Tyler loved meeting Marshall even though he's in an "I hate Paw Patrol" stage right now. and Allison loved meeting and petting a real pony.

Imagine Children's Museum 

I try to bring the kids to the museum every week or so. For me it's easiet to take them up to the rooftop playground. There's a lot of space for them to run around in, and since it's enclosed, I don't have to worry about losing them. I often lose track of them, but I know they're in there somewhere.

 Allison's hair is longer, but it still gets that dandelion static look.

 

The kids always want to play with the chess pieces, but they want to take them all over the playground and up the play structure.

 

Playing in the barn, bus, and airplane.

Downstairs in the Art Studio and Construction room. Tyler could stay in the art studio all day, but it doesn't hold Allison's attention very long. She's getting a bit better at it though. She really liked doing stamps that day.

Kids in the toddler play area and climbing on the dog statue just outside the museum.

And here's Allison playing on the indoor instruments and in the indoor glow rooms. The water play area keeps them entertained too. I usually have extra clothes just in case they get really wet there, but now that the weather's warming up they can just dry off upstairs on the rooftop playground.

Howarth Park Beach and Edgewater Beach

We had a random 76 degree day in April, so we hit the beach! Howarth park beach is great for high tide. Low tide has too much sinky sand, which makes it terrifying for me, but medium to high tide is fun. The waves are just right for the kids to play in, and there's still plenty of non rocky sand.

 Allie likes her little watering can

They were having lots of fun until Tyler knocked Allison over on her bum right before she got hit in the face with a wave. That was when she was done, so we crossed the caged bridge over the train tracks and blew some dandelions before heading home.

Edgewater, as we learned this day, is not great at high tide. It's a bit scary. Edgewater is best at lowish tide when there's lots of sand. They didn't do much in the water, but they really liked the sandy patch that's not connected to the water. They made sand angels.

Tyler also played with his new garbage truck, and they befriended a dog. Tyler always wants a picture with the dogs we find.

Local Play Areas

Paine Field Park

Everett Mall

We had our annual ward Picnic at Kasch Park, which we'd never visited before. Allison had plenty of junk food. I tried getting her to eat fruit, but she wasn't interested with all the other tasty yumminess surrounding it.

 I love watching them play on playground equipment together

Forest Park waterpark and playground. Too bad it's always crowded and super difficult to keep a eye on the kids.

 Daleway playground and splashpark

We have a new playground only 1.5 miles away at Lake Stickney park. We'd visited it a few years ago when it was just a dog park. This is a nice addition, though I wish there were a bit more play equipment for little ones like Allison. 

 Highlands park near the Mill Creek town center. This was a new park to us.

It gives us some variety from our usual NorthCreek park (middle picture) where we usually go when we're in the area.

And our most popular playground, the one at our local YMCA. We spend a lot of time here since we visit the facility so regularly and since it's fenced in.

Allison is thrilled to be able to climb up to the top level on her own now.

Allison often just hangs out up on the top level. I have to encourage her to go down the slide.

Talking in the speakers. They didn't care about this much last year, but they love it now.

For awhile she was afraid of the slides, but once she got going down them, she realized they were fun. She says they're hot when there's sun on them, but she'll say that even if it's only 60 degrees out, so I know it's not scalding.

We've also recently discovered a playground at the Northshore YMCA in Bothell. We'll be exploring this more this summer now that we've started visiting on Friday. It's not too far from his weekly OT appointment at the Mill Creek town center (only a couple minutes more of a drive than the Mill Creek YMCA), and they do crafts in their adventure zone, which Tyler really likes.

Camping Fathers Sons

Oscar and Tyler went camping for the stake's annual Fathers' and Sons' campout the first weekend of May. Tyler had lots of fun with daddy.

He really liked the teeter totter at the camp playground

Touch a Truck

Oscar took the kids to Touch a Truck while I worked the day before Mother's Day. I haven't been able to go the past two years, but I did take Tyler two years ago when they held it the Saturday after Mother's Day. 

He couldn't take many pics since he had both kids to keep track of around dangerous things (a life I'm well familiar with).

Ty had a fall and got hurt, but at least he got to be bandaged up by the ambulance truck.

Woodland Park Zoo

A few days before Tyler's 5th birthday, we met up with our friend Julia at the zoo. We arrived first, so we played on the playground until she arrived.

Sleeing gorillas, including a baby gorilla.

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures since we've come to the zoo plenty of times before, but I did get a few of them at the petting zoo and viewing the penguins.

We also tried the Carousel for the first time. Guess how my horse/pony loving girl feels about Carousels?

Wild Waves

Wild Waves allowed us to bring guests on opening weekend, so we got to bring Oscar along, and Allison is free since she's under 4 years old. We drove down right after Oscar and Tyler got back from their camping trip. There was a LONG wait to activate our season passes that ended up being pointless. Sometimes they were quick, but there was at least one time that it took 20 minutes for 1 customer. All they did could have easily been figured out digitally and mailed. If we do season passes again, next time we'll come around 2 when those lines died down. We were waiting around an hour.

 "Wanna spin round and round fast!" Allison ran to the paratrooper when she saw it. Good thing she's 36 inches and can go on it! I didn't know her current height until we got there. She's just barely tall enough.

Kids on the train

Scrambler with mommy and daddy. This also requires 36 inches.

Gambler and wagon train. Only Ty could do Gambler since it requires 42 inches.

Allison did the planes while Ty and I were on Gambler. It's better when she goes with him, though, because she can't figure out how to fly the plane up.

Oscar took Allison back to the car to get lunch while Ty and I did the Kangajump, another 42 inch ride. I changed her clothes when she got back since she got orange juice all over herself. She was getting pretty tired, but she perked right up on the next ride, Froghopper, which instantly became her favorite.

Just watch her constant smiles and giggles in these videos and pictures

They really liked going with daddy

Especially when he'd say "ribbit."

Tyler likes having someone to go with him on the kids' rides, and he can fly up the ones that Allison can't figure out.

And we finished up on the Carousel. "Ride the horsey! Go up and down and round and round!"

 They slept well in the car and at home that night.

On June 3rd I took Ty for a fun afternoon doing waterslides at Wild Waves. It was a sunny Saturday, so we didn't get there until 4 when the crowds reduce. I don't have any pictures since we were always in the waterpark, but it was super fun. I really liked going down in double tubes with him.

And before Tyler got out of school I took Allison down for her own day as well. 

They opened at 9am that day for school field trips. We met people from as far away as central Oregon.

Jeeps and Ferris Wheel with my girl. I love her smile!

It would have been nice for her to have a friend to do the rides with, but hard for me to keep track of two little ones, especially in the water.

My little train conductor! Several teenagers wanted to go with her on the train (and were sad to be too tall). Some on the paratrooper were watching her on the train and kept saying how cute she was.

The sun was predicted to come out around 1pm, so I took Allie out for lunch at Olive Garden before we got in the water.  This was a good choice since the sun did come out as much as it was going to that day, and the water was pretty warm (which is unusual). She did a couple slides, but wasn't terribly interested and just wanted to wade in the children's area and hot tube. She zonked out in the car immediately on our way home.