This was the same day.....after a trip into the pharmacy to see everyone : ) We decided to try another dog park.......by the ocean again. When the sun is out, it is SO beautiful here.....and it was just so peaceful here too. The kids loved running around in the tall grass and picking flowers

Can you see them hiding?

Ahhhh, beautiful view of the bay.

So much green, I love it!

Gotta love blue skies : )

I love this picture of her!

Carter didn't really feel like hiding with Sidney, but he found her.

This was supposed to be an area for the dogs to run free.......these kids just love animals and have to be always carrying any that are available : )

Cameron's off to explore a new area.

The Beach Park

The kids really like this park too......we usually go here A LOT while we're visiting my Dad. I have fond memories of this park too, watching the sunset & walking around. It has a great walking path that goes over a bridge and to a dock. We bring the kids plasma cars down there & the path by the grass is nice and smooth.....just perfect for them to ride on. Boulevard Park also has a playground for the kids & a coffee shop there too : )

The first thing when we got there the kids saw that the tide was out and wanted to go down and turn rocks over to find crabs.

They found some other kids to play with too that had actually found a little eel. I didn't even know that there were eels in the water there!

You can see the bridge here and way down there is the dock that links up with the shore at another spot.

Here's the shoreline the other way. We lucked out, and the sun came out right as we got to the park : )

We also had a bit of excitement/scare too........as I made multiple trips to car to get the kids plasma cars (one at a time of course.......they didn't want them when I asked them), then their shoes (they have to wear certain shoes on their plasma cars because the toes of the shoes get destroyed by being drug on the ground.) Then I went to get something else......the kite and the ribbon to twirl around.........anyway, I kept hearing a baby whimper/cry.......and wondered where it was coming from. Was it coming from one of the condos up on the hill? It sounded closer than that to me......so finally I went to investigate. It didn't take long, for two cars over there she was, probably about a year old, strapped in a car seat in the back seat with no parents in sight.......I looked around and looked around and waited for someone to respond. Well, no one did......I felt hesitant to interfere, but I went up the to coffee shop and asked them to call the police because someone had left their child in the car unattended, and yes, I checked to see if the door was locked. I went back to the car and again was hesitant, but I thought, "I just can't let this little girl suffer in the hot car. She had a sweatshirt on too and the sun was hitting her through both the side and the back windows, so I knew she was hot. Children die in cars in AZ because it gets so much hotter in the car than the air temp. There was only one window cracked a little bit. I thought, "I've never going to be able to fit my arm in there", but I tried anyway. My arm got stuck just before my elbow. I thought "I'm so close", so I pushed hard and got it in a little farther. Then the problem was that there wasn't really enough room to get my arm to bend backwards.......but somehow I did. Luckily, it was the old style of lock that sticks up and I could just barely reach it with the very backside tip of my fingers and was able to pull the lock up. I'm telling you, I had a little help from above I think. Up until that point I felt like I was doing something wrong, breaking into their car, but he little girl stopped fussing as soon as I came to the side of the car. Now that I was in, I felt like a weight had lifted. I noticed that she wasn't buckled in properly, her arms weren't even through the straps.....but never mind that, I just wanted to get her out. I unbuckled her and brought her over the the shade, to the coffee shop to get her some water. She was just staring at the crowd that was now hanging out and wouldn't drink the water. The staff at the coffee shop was still on the phone with the police and another gal offered her a lollipop. I thought she was too young for a sucker, but if she would suck on it while I was holding her, then that was ok. She went right into unwrapping it. Her parents actually showed up just a few minutes later and were staring in shock at their empty car. Someone steered them over to where I was and they came over. I handed her back right away and told that it's illegal to leave her in the car by herself and that she had been crying for over 10 minutes and it was very hot in the car, she was sweating. My Dad, who was right beside me told that also that it only takes about 15 minutes in a hot car for a child to die. The mom did not say anything. The dad just said, still stunned, "Well.........thank you" and they walked off. The police showed up just a few minutes later and my Dad and I gave them a description of couple & the baby. I did not see what happened after that. The police officer drove down the other end of the park to try and find the couple, and my dad said he saw him drive back by awhile later. The car was still parked there when we left. Who knows how long that poor little girl had been in the car. We had been at the park a couple of hours and I had seen the couple earlier and didn't remember them having a child with them. At least she was safe now : )

The Kids' Favorite Park

The kids LOVE Hovander Homestead Park........I have fond memories there from growing up too : )

The kids love feeding the ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys the dried corn kernels that you can purchase there. Unfortunately, I forgot to round up some quarters to buy the feed.....we did have one though, so we got a little bit to feed the birds...........We really had to hold Daisy back, away from the fence.......she SO wanted to get in there and chase the birds.....especially these turkeys, who weren't afraid of her AT ALL!

Sidney was trying to get it going around how Carter had done it earlier.......which he couldn't really repeat either. He had it spinning around & around, without getting tangled........Can you see Daisy in the corner? She wanted to get a hold of the rabbits too : )

We brought the kite out and it was the perfect area for them to run around with it without being too windy. I made the mistake of letting Daisy off the leash to run around.......she had done so well at my Aunt's, but we had to chase her down for quite awhile......she ran all the way over into another field and was being her usual playful self, not wanting to be caught.


The kids were fascinated by the goats and loved that they had climbed up on this platform.

They were pretty friendly, and Sidney could have stayed there for hours feeding and petting them.

Well, Hello little goat :)

I thought it was so cute.....Carter climbed up here with the ribbon to wave it around.

The kids all love my Dad's dog, Sarah.........Sarah has gotten better at tolerating them : )

I hadn't ever noticed this before, but we saw it as we were leaving, so we went over to check it out.

It was so cute! I think a group of kids got to dress up the scarecrows & they had fruits, veggies & spices growing there too.......the kids loved to see those!

I had taken a picture of my Dad with this guy too, he is HUGE, but I took it with my cell phone & I forgot the adapter to put the SD card in my computer & if I e-mail it myself the pictures aren't really clear and are poor quality : (

Then Grandpa Jo took us all out for ice cream BEFORE dinner : ) (this is Cameron)

And afterwards Grandpa could see why Mommy didn't want the kids eating the ice cream in the car : ) (this is Carter)

Even Miss Sidney can't resist getting it all over her face : )

Fun for Everyone

Ugh, posting these is going quite slow : ( I'm not sure if it's my Dad's dial-up connection, or if the photo files are too large, but I can usually only upload one picture at a time......plus, the kids won't leave me alone for a second. It's hard to type, or do anything with one of them sitting on my arm, or needing me in another room. That's why I've been staying up so late to work on them.
Anyway.......I had asked a few local peeps about dog parks & got a lot of feedback. We've been to a couple so far. This is the one at Lake Padden. It's HUGE and Daisy and the kids LOVED it! : )

The kids loved this mound with the tunnel going through it. The dogs weren't going through the tunnel, but would occasionally go up on the mound. The kids weren't afraid of any of the dogs & they actually could go in the where the dogs were : )

Carter says "look over here guys!"

"Hello" at one point Cameron (here in the red), was laying on the ground, dragging himself across the dirt......amazingly, his shirt didn't get too dirty : )

The best part????........the dirt of course!

Ha, ha.....I didn't get pics of the dog I just realized.

Going up to Visit Grandpa

Ok, so now I'm only a week behind.......we're up at my Dad's and the kids LOVE going down Grandpa's big hill & into the cul de sac on their plasma cars.....they don't care that it's cool & cloudy out : )

Of course, they like to ride in the middle of the street, so someone has to stand at the bottom of the hill to make sure that there aren't any cars coming.

Faster, faster! This year I let them go up a little higher.....and boy does it make me nervous! I should have brought their helmets......but they managed the top speeds no problem.


Weee!

Daddy's Project

After mini-golf we drove up to see the project that Roman has been working on for the past 6 months. He's building a fish hatchery next to this dam. They were spilling the dam too, so that was neat to see. We had a picnic right by it & it was so peaceful : )

I'm not sure what's going on with my camera.......a lot of the pics are coming out so dark & I have to try & fix them with the program I store my pictures in, so the color is a little off too. Roman helped the kids get up on the ledge so they could see the dam up close.

The water is just gushing out, it was beautiful.


This tank was at the little park right by the dam.

This is the name of the dam & the fish hatchery is just on the shoreline next to it.

a view of the whole area

There was a little park on the road up to the dam, so we stopped here to let the kids play. Sidney wanted to take my picture.

The had this Labyrinth there & we stayed here for quite awhile chasing each other and going around and around.

Sidney REALLY wanted one the flowers off of the lily pads, but they were just out of reach and I wouldn't let her go out in the water.

It was a great family day : ) We even stopped to get ice cream near the site & ran into one of Roman's co-workers.

A Day of Fun

At the park that is really close to our condo they have everything........go carts, boat rentals, basketball, beach volleyball and mini golf : ) We decided to play some mini golf in the morning.

The first time we went to the park I saw this fountain and loved it, but wondered why it was behind a fence.....then I figured out it was part of the golf course.

The kids didn't want Roman to take the flag out of the whole.....here Cameron's tipping it in.

The boys are excited to head to the next hole. They wanted to explore everything!


Carter was wanting to do his own thing and go ahead of us......so he was getting a little frustrated.

Sidney says, "Look out Cameron!"

Then it was one to see where Daddy has been working the past six months : )

Around the Condo

The kids are having fun and enjoying the time with their Dad and the cooler sunshine : )

As you can see, Tommy is not lacking for attention at all......if he does manage to get away and nap, the kids will usually go find him.......they want to hold him ALL the time!

Daisy and Tommy are fast becoming best buds. Daisy is such a gentle soul, she even lets Tommy eat her food without growling or anything. She just goes along with anything.

One night we had one of Roman's friends/co-workers over for dinner & Roman had said he was great with the kids......and after dinner he was wrestling with the kids and they were giggling non-stop : )

This was so uncharacteristic for Sidney......I went in to check on them one night and she was all curled up on the floor, covered in blankets. Normally she would just come crawl in bed with us. I asked her about it and she couldn't really explain why she was on the floor. Anyway, it was just TOO CUTE!

Back to the pets......they are definitely keeping the kids entertained......Tommy was crawling up this table during one of his little rants where he runs around and just makes us laugh.

Awwww.......they love each other : )