Expedition Island

 

 I decided to take the kids to the park this evening after dinner... not a great idea. That's the peak of mosquito time. In just the time it took to get kids and bikes unloaded from the car, and find the bug spray and get the kids sprayed, I already had three bites. We only stayed about ten minutes until Andrew started crying that the mosquitoes were eating him, then we turned around and left.

We go to this park fairly often, although not since we started going to other parks instead. I've never been here for a playgroup, and I don't think it would be great for that sort of thing, but it's great to just come with the boys and let them ride bikes, swing, run around, and throw rocks in the river. Every time we come we do almost the same exact thing in the same order, and it works, and the boys love it. 

I love this park for bringing my boys to bike. It's got a flat relatively smooth path that is really good for little kids who don't do great on hills. Andrew is loving his new bike that he got from Grandma, and loves to show off that he can ride as fast as Deano now!

After they ride down the first stretch, they always stop off to swing. They almost never ride the normal swings, but they love these saucer swings. It was at this point that Andrew decided it was time to go home,

but Deano had to make a stop to look at these plaques. If you're interested in some of the history of Green River, this is a good place to get it. 

 

Because we left so quickly today, I was debating between coming back tomorrow in hopes that there will be fewer mosquitoes, or just digging through some old pictures. I really hate mosquitoes, and I'm afraid in order to avoid them I'll have to wait a couple months, so this evening, I went digging. 

We had a picnic at this park back in April. It was finally getting a little warm, and it was just wonderful to be outside. 

The geese were just starting to come back, and we saw this little family of geese. So much fun!

The boys always stop on this little beach to throw rocks in the water. This was from when we went in August last year. If we want to go throw rocks in the river, this is my favorite place to do it. As opposed to over by the splash park just across the river, or at Edgewater park, or even Riverside park to an extent, this makes me a lot less nervous. There is no climb to get down to the river, and if they do accidentally fall in, it's just a few inches deep right here and they can easily get back out. They're not coming from the splash park, so they're not in swim suits expecting to go swimming, so for the most part, they are happy to stay out of the water. They just like to throw rocks.

I always forget how much my kids have grown until I come across things like this. Andrew was just figuring out this little trike last August, and Deano wasn't fabulous on his bike either. Today Andrew and Deano were racing on big bikes and Andrew was winning. 

 

This was one of the first parks we came to when we came to Green River two years ago. On that first trip I saw a snake in the middle of the grass. It scared me silly and I grabbed my kids and we ran to the car. I haven't seen a snake here since, but I'm always a little cautious walking through the middle of the grass since then. 

There's not a lot to this park, mostly just the path, the swings, and the river. There are also benches, and a couple pavilions with picnic tables, and today there were portable bathrooms here, although I don't know if they're usually here. The path brings a lot of walkers, runners, bikers, and people walking dogs. My kids used to be kinda scared of the dogs that would pass by, but since Grandma got a dog a bit ago, they do a lot better. I'll often see people walking/running/biking this loop and then continuing on across the bridge and down the green belt. Usually though, after swinging on the swings and stopping to throw some rocks in the river, by the time we make it around the loop once the kids are ready to go. Unless the mosquitoes are attacking and we leave much quicker.

Evers Park

 Evers Park, more commonly called the Splash Park. Its a little surprising how few people know that this park isn't actually called the splash park. There are a lot of other events that get held at this park throughout the year and whenever I see Evers Park, it always takes me a minute to figure out that it is the splash park. 

During the summer months, this is frequently the most crowded park around, but I very rarely see anyone here in the winter months. It just doesn't have quite the same appeal without the water I guess, although there is a nice playground, pavilion, bathrooms, and lots of good trees including a couple that have some good potential as climbing trees. It was very crowded today. When we first got here, there was a huge bus load of kids that left a while later, but even after that there were way more kids there that I would have preferred.

 Last year, Andrew spent much of the summer staring at the water wanting to go play, but he just couldn't bring himself to get in. He did some of that today,

 but he did eventually make it in!

 

 Deano went right into the water, played for quite a while, then eventually moved on to the playground. This thing always makes me nervous when they're climbing up it after being wet and slippery, but they've never fallen yet, so maybe I should just get over it.

 They always seem to prefer to swing on the bar above instead of just sliding down.

 They both love this zipline thing. I wish they didn't always need help getting up though. It's getting hard to lift them up with one arm while holding Isaac with the other arm. Today this random little girl decided that she needed to help push Deano along.

 I think Andrew was just as overwhelmed with all the people as I was. Everywhere he went there were people in his way, or he was getting in his way. A couple of times I wondered if he was intentionally blocking the paths.

 This little cave underneath attracts a lot of kids. I peaked in at one point and saw at least seven kids crowded into this small cave. I wonder if they're maybe trying to escape the heat? or if it's just a fun place to be?

 I thought this was kinda funny. Kids were literally climbing over eachother on this playground. It was a bit ridiculously crowded today. I guess that's what happens when we go to the splash park on a nice day after a cold spell. I guess everybody was eager to get out.

 The kids normally spend quite a bit of time climbing on and playing around this train, but they didn't much today. It's normally a favorite attraction. Deano kept gathering rocks into a water bottle he found, then climbing up and dumping the rocks back down. I don't know why that is so fascinating. When Andrew did eventually make his way over to the train he jumped off of it, and a little girl probably about the same age as him tried to catch him... it didn't end well, and we left shortly after. 

 Easily my least favorite part of this park (besides the crowds today... it's not always this crowded) is the river. Again, the river brings mosquitoes, but it also draws kids to it. One time last year on another crowded day like today, Andrew lost interest in the splash park (since he was too scared to get in the water anyways) and he wandered off. I eventually found him down by the river. It was terrifying and could easily have been tragic. Today I heard several kids today asking their parents if they could go down to the river. Most said no, but I did see several kids heading that direction some with parents, and many without. It's not so scary when there aren't a lot of people here because it's easier to keep my eyes on my kids, but when there are a lot of people, I always worry. A couple of times last year when Daddy came with us, we did take the boys down to the river and skipped rocks and caught crawfish. It is a fun little river to play in, it's easy to forget how dangerous it can be too, especially for my little non-swimmers. Gratefully though, today the boys seemed to have forgotten about the river, and I am perfectly okay with that.

Centennial Park - Rock Springs

Is there a Centennial park in every city? Anyways, this is the only park in Rock Springs that I have ever been to, and I love it! It's an awesome park. It looks like the type of park that I would have absolutely loved when I was 8-12 years old. It just fuels the imagination so much. I mean, seriously, just look at it! And what made this trip to the park even better was that Daddy and Grandma came with us!

The boys were calling this a castle, and it pretty much is. You have to climb up three levels to get to the slides, but the slides are super long, so it makes the climb totally worth it. Plus little boys just like to climb, so they never need a reason.

 

The first time we came to this park, I think the boys were a little scared of the super long slides, but they are so much fun! and they definitely weren't scared this time. 

 

IDidn't get many picures of Deano this trip, he was just climbing up and down and was all over the place, and wouldn't stay in one place for long enough to catch a picture. Here he is climbing up,

 

and here he is back down.

 I think even Grandma had fun.

Isaac got to do a little rock climbing,

And all of the kids love these things,

even Isaac.

This was fun. Andrew is a little bit obsessed with letters right now, so he enjoyed telling me what each of the letters were. On the other side is a tic-tac-toe game. 

More things to climb on.. and this is one of many different paths to climb up to the slides

Andrew finally came away from the castle to check out the other toys. I tried to get Deano down, but he wouldn't have it, so most of my pictures are of Andrew. Here he is turning the pirate wheel,

and talking through the tunnel phone,

and playing the drums. He also swung on some monkey bars, but I didn't get a picture of that. I like that there are some monkey bars here that are lower, so he doesn't have to have me hovering under him constantly. If he falls, it's not too bad of a drop.

Deano did come down from the castle to climb some trees. These trees hang low to the ground, this one had a bigger opening under it than most. At one point when Daddy came over, Deano said "welcome to my home!" It would have made the perfect play house. 

One of the best things about Daddy coming to the park with us is that he gets the kids really running to burn off some energy. He was chasing Andrew all over the park for a while, up and down slides, across the grass, all over,

 and then he tried to get the boys to run with him on the path back to the car. This park has a path that meanders all over the park. I initially thought that it might be fun to bring bikes or something, but for these little guys it wouldn't work very well because it's pretty overgrown and broken up in places, but it makes a great footpath.

This park has several different pavilions with picnic tables, one of which quite large. It would be good for a group thing. There are also bathrooms, several horseshoe pits, and a volleyball court. I just wish it were closer to home, I think it would be a favorite!

Edgewater Park

This is a park that we have gone to fairly often. It's a good one for large group things. Part of Dean's high school reunion was here, I've been to an Easter egg hunt here, I've been to playgroups here, and today we ended up leaving after only half an hour because a ton of people were showing up, I'm guessing maybe for a family reunion of sorts. Last summer there was much at this park that were too advanced for my little ones, but this year they're doing much better with everything.

holding hands was entirely their idea :) 

I've never been a fan of this particular toy, and my kids are really too young for it anyways. Deano tried today, but it was mostly just a big source of frustration.

 

This was a big hit today, I don't think they've ever been down a pole like this before, but once they figured it out, they wanted to go down it again and again. 

Of course there has got to be things to climb on

 

and Andrew loves any park with a bouncy bridge 

 

and a few different slides

There is this little slide for littler kids, but Andrew learned last year that it goes kinda fast, and then it's a long drop at the end, so now he refuses to slide down it, but has lots of fun walking down it. 

It has a nice pavilion with several picnic tables

I love the view, but honestly, this might just be my least favorite thing about the park. First off, it brings mosquitoes, and of course I never think to bring bug spray. And then, just the name of the park, "Edge water" makes my kids think that they're going to get to go down to the river and throw rocks in... which for some reason is one of their favorite things to do, but isn't really an option at this park. It's not so bad when we're here with other people, but when we go alone, all they want to do is go down to the river. There is a path down to the green belt, but it does not go anywhere near the river, so then my kids always want to try go down and try and throw rocks off the cliff and get far too near, and scare me silly. When other kids are around though, they are so distracted by friends, that it isn't usually too much of an issue. 

Today though in order to pacify my whiny kids (they were in a really bad mood today for some reason) we just had to go down anyways. I tried to keep them off the slope and just have them sit on the swing down there. They weren't too happy about that.

Nothing cheers up grumpy kids more than dirt to play in. This is in the volleyball court, and it seems more often than not they end up here before too long. 

There are also Tennis courts, and a basketball court, as well as bathrooms, and a nice path that my kids like to bike on sometimes. I do like this park, but between my super grouchy kids, and then a ton of people showing up after only a half hour, I think we were all happy to leave today.