"Staying in is the new going out" is pretty much my Friday night motto for summer. I'm typically exhausted by Friday closing time, so it's an easy dinner, movie with a relax on the couch, and bedtimes. On this particular Friday night I made sure to go to bed at a decent hour because I had a super fun day planned with the minis. Cut to Saturday morning when they begged to stay home for the day.
I wasn't thrilled about it since I had purposefully woken up early to take Hubs to work and start our day adventuring. But I caved. We stayed home, they played, and I got book work done, articles written, papers signed, lesson planning for daycare, groceries ordered. You get the picture. While I'm happy the minis love our 'hood and asked to spend the day playing with their neighborhood friends, I made sure we got out and about on Sunday.
I did have some questions when I went outside after hearing a questionable conversation through the open window. I was convinced these two had trapped some kind of animal in the pool and were using the paddles to move it around. Luckily they didn't! They also had no idea that it was raining on them as they played.
Since the minis insisted on staying home, I insisted on getting take out from our favorite local Chinese spot for lunch.
Sunday we had a family lunch at my aunt's house, followed by a special open house to Jester Park's new Nature Lodge. Sunday was truly our Sunday Family Fun Day!
The minis have become expert corn shuckers this summer.
We haven't been out to Jester Park at all this year. I have been keeping tabs on all of the changes, but it was interesting to see for ourselves. This well marked sign will get you where you're looking to go once you get to the outside of the park. If you haven't been to Jester in a while, you'll definitely need the sign because it looks completely different!
This nature lodge is amazing! So many learning opportunities for kids, as well as plenty of recreational outdoor activities right at your fingertips. The Lodge reminded me a bit of Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge. There's already quite a few activities and events planned for fall at the Lodge that look really fun. The outdoor patio area is great for events.
My three (ages 6 - 10) really enjoyed the magnetic wall.
I was bummed to see that archery is for 12+ year olds. My kids love archery, but there's very few places that allow children to shoot too. We'll continue to go to Archery Field and Sports for that, but we'll definitely be trying out snowshoes this winter.
It was a nice walk from the Lodge to the pond area, where there were free canoe rides (you had to paddle, which made Elizabeth nervous and she refused to go on the boat) and a pond study. Elizabeth and I chose to walk around the pond while the boys paddled around the pond.
The best family selfie we've ever managed!
The ONLY thing I didn't like about Jester Park's Nature Lodge is it's not well connected hiking trail wise to the rest of the park. I hope to see easy to take pathways to the bison and nature playscape. Yes, it could be fairly easy to walk alongside of the road, but not the safest route with kids. Regardless, we easily hoped in our car and drove to the playscape area so the kids could take a dip in the water (we were soooo hot on this 90+ degree day) and hike our favorite trail.
Dipping my feet in the water.
I can't wait to try out the new mini golf course here!
As we left the park sweating and sticky from being outdoors for several hours, I quickly looked up availability for the cabins at Jester Park. I can easily see us spending an enter weekend (or more) here enjoying the outdoor activities. Unfortunately, those cabins seem to be booked two years out! So it may be tent camping for us if we want to do something like that. I'm so excited to have so many great activities so close to home!