Lake Meridian!

I was looking through my pictures the other day I realized I never blogged about our first trip to Lake Meridian. It was actually Owen's first official day of summer vacation since The Summer Learning Program got out. 

Side Note: He did fabulously at the SLP! I think it really was perfect for him to have some sort of structure for a good chunk of his vacation. He thrives on structure. My only disappointment was from what I understood his teacher was wanting him to attend due to his poor handwriting and spelling skills. They were supposed to focus on literacy and all that entails and instead it seems like they just focused on the reading aspect. Owen is a fabulous reader...I mean this kid will sit for hours and read and read and read. It's funny that his spelling is so off since he can read so well. Anyways it was great for him, but I was a little bummed that they didn't really help him in an area I think he truly needs it. 

For some reason on this Friday we were all in a funk! Grumpy and tired I guess...plus the weather was gray so that probably didn't help either. In an attempt to lighten our moods I decided to take the kids to Lake Meridian for the first time. I don't remember ever going there before, but I do know it's a pretty busy park so it must be good. We loaded up the scooters and headed out that afternoon. 

There was a fantastic playarea for the kids. 

Things to make music on...

Things to climb...

Things to conquer!!! 

A while after we got there I heard the all too familiar music of the ice cream man and decided to go take a look. This ice cream man had one of those little carts that rides on 3 wheels so he drove all the way down to the playarea on the sidewalk....later the parks & recreation people told him he couldn't do that. Anyways I told the kids we would see how expensive it was. We've already had this chat about how much a rip off the ice cream man is and they do understand, but I also need to be the fun mom ever now and again. This ice cream was awesome! He had 4 options that were only one dollar! I got the three older kids cotton candy Popsicles and I got a fudge pop to share with Zeke. Thank you not a rip off ice cream man!!! 

As I'm sure you noticed in the above park pictures Zeke was no where to be seen on the playground. That's because he was crying his head off most of the time because he wanted to go back to the big sidewalk to ride scooters. This kid loves his scooter! Well...it's not really his scooter it's Jack's and later on in the summer the dilemma of us only have 3 scooters and 4 kids was solved by Ga-Ga. She actually ordered a new scooter and had it sent to my Aunt Linda's house so it would be waiting for us when we got there. That way all 4 kiddos could have their own scooters! 

This little area was quite fun....it was in the shape of a triangle and the kids would go round and round.

Of course the fun part was coming down from the hill! 

That was a bit too scary for Zeke though so he would just go back and forth up at the top. Also for a time there were some people sitting down and they had a dog with them so there was no way he was going to ride pass that dog! Thankfully there were two dogs at Aunt Linda's house and he actually really got quite comfortable with Nala and he loved to play fetch with her. We are pet-free house, but honestly if I could clone Nala I'd might reconsider that stance! 

I wanted to go explore more of the park so we headed over to the beach area. Like I said it was gray and not really warm at all so I didn't bring their swimsuits. 

The beach area is nice looking, but the sand isn't really sand it's more like tons of tiny rocks. I definitely still think that Coulon in Renton is better. 

Of course the kids wanted to throw rocks in the water. I explained that I didn't bring a change of clothes for them and if they got wet they were going to have to live with it. 

Of course that went in one ear and out of the other. Live in the moment right! 

They were having so much fun! 

At one point Zeke was laying on his stomach and crawling around. This kid! Of course packing up and walking back to the van was an adventure. First I had to deal with wet kids that can't put their shoes on and don't want to go, they have scooters and helmets to deal with and walking across the grass to get to the sidewalk was a total landmine riddled with tons of goose poop. Ewww! We were grumpy when we got there and we were grumpy AND tired when we left, but the in-between fun time made up for all that. Plus Michael went and got Red Robin that night for dinner so I didn't have to cook! YAHOO!