Rebecca's Date Night

This cutie of ours is the only one home for a few days this week. Corrine's off riding horses at Girl Scout Camp and the boys are with the Smith Grandparents. When Rebecca realized that it would just be the 3 of us she started planning a "date night". She talked about our date night for days and all day long today, asking when it was time to go. She was so excited!

On the schedule was dinner and walking around the main lake at Kent Park.

We decided on Noodles & Company for dinner. We'd tried going there once before but ended up going somewhere else. Tonight we were determined to give a try. We ended up really liking it. The 100 choice soda machine didn't disappoint and neither did the mac n cheese.

After dinner we went to Kent Park for our walk. We stopped by the trees planted for Grandma & Grandpa Riddle (Rebecca's great grandparents on Johann's side) and Grandma & Grandpa Clifford (Rebecca's great great grandparents again on Johann's side.)

Rebecca the photographer taking mom & dad's picture.

 I just love this picture of her wearing my hat. 

 The bridges here are awesome. 

They have a rich history to each of them, 

they make amazing backdrops for pictures, 

and their fun to play on!

All night she kept pulling up her shorts under her dress because they just wouldn't stay up! At the end of our walk we learned it was her underwear and shorts that were too big and they would have been down around her ankles if she hadn't hiked them up a hundred time tonight!

Kent Park is so beautiful. Along the path are beautiful flowers in full bloom, ripe delicious raspberries and fun critters to check out. We saw 2 daddy long leg spiders covered in tiny little red hitch hiking bugs.

The serenity of the park is wonderful. Even with all the people we met on the path, it was still quiet and peaceful. It's a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle of life and enjoy some quiet nature time. I think I know why our sweet girl wanted to come here tonight and I'm greatful for that.

 Speaking of Rebecca she was in the playful mood the entire time and a posing for pictures mood part of the time. Towards the end of out walk she wanted her picture taken. She'd pose for me, then change her pose and ask for another picture to be taken. She can be such a photogenic girl when she wants to be, and can make getting a picture of her hard at other times.

Bath house and beach 

Rebecca and the drinking fountain. 

Thank you Rebecca for planning such a fun date to go on with your mom & dad.

A Beach in Iowa

Some friends invited us to go to Kent Park to swim with them today. The kids had a great time playing in the water and the sand. This is an Iowa Beach, not a San Diego beach like I grew up on, but it will do.

Ammon wasn't so sure about going into the water at first. He preferred burying himself in the sand instead. He wasn't so sure about it being clean and the bacteria in it. He soon warmed up to the water and was going under having a great time.

 The boys saw their friends doing "chicken fights" and wanted to give it a try. Without anyone to fight Ammon really just for a piggy back ride! Rebecca was pretty excited she could go in so far with the boys.

 The swimming area in surrounded in these thick yellow tubes. The lake stays fairly shallow up to the 1st tube, then gets pretty deep out to the 2nd one. Ammon liked to sit and then stand and balance on the 1st tube.

Sand Castle building 

The kids started building a castle with their friends until they left. The boys kept working on it until they had 4 pools and a good sized castle. Rebecca decided that instead of building the castle she wanted to bury her legs. She spent a good 20 minutes putting wet sand on her legs. She asked me to get dry sand to put on top and the final touch. She was so proud of her buried legs.

While Rebecca buried her legs the boys started racing. They'd start at the back on the beach area run down into the water, swim all the way to the 2nd yellow tube and back. They did this a good 6 times and laughed the entire time.

 This has got to be one of the favorite pictures of the day. I was brave and took the camera out in the lake. Ammon was floating on his back and I snapped a few pictures of him. He was calm, the water rippled just enough to show movement and his lips stand out so pink. He thinks it looks like he's drowning, but I think it looks like relaxation.

Simeon, Rebecca and Ammon had such a great time playing and swimming. I had to eventually drag them to the van to go home. All that was missing was big sister Corrine and dad. Corrine's off riding horses at Girl Scout Camp this week and dad was at work.

This is a must do again activity. This time with Corrine and maybe even dad.

Fishing @ Kent Park

We started the night with the youth from church fishing with a Park Ranger. Johann was the only one to catch anything. The kids didn't want to leave the pond and eat dinner they just wanted to fish. After eating dinner we headed down to the main lake where they'd recently built a new dock.

We were the only one's there so we had the area all to ourselves. The new dock was really nice. It got you out into the water away from the rocks. There was even a center area that you could fish in. We had much better luck at this lake.

It got late and dark, but the kids still didn't want to stop fishing and playing. Corrine caught a crayfish, Ammon caught a good sized large mouth bass, Simeon caught a little bluegill/sunfish and Johann also caught a small bluegill. Rebecca busied herself with throwing rocks into the lake.

This was our 2nd fishing trip of the summer and marked another thing off our summer bucket list.