Double Dose of Fun

Our normal routine is to have one "play" outing per day. That entertains the kids and leaves time to do whatever errands and/or domestic chores need to be done (grocery store, library, cooking, laundry, nap, etc). Yesterday the planets were aligned just right so that we had 2 fun activities planned.

First stop was Carkeek Park. We've had an unseasonably warm and sunny stretch lately so I sent a last minute email to the usual playdate characters regarding a trip to Carkeek Park. Most people had other stuff going. We met up at the park with Mad, Clem and their respective parents.

I failed to get any pics of Mad or Taylor but did get this one of Eric playing ball with Anza while the 8-month-olds took turns grabbing that green bucket from each other.

Anyone who's been to Carkeek with kids knows that the highpoint of the Carkeek experience is watching a long freight train go by from the bridge over the tracks. Because of the shape of the shoreline you can see and hear the train from a ways off. Typically what happens is some parent with keen ears hears the distant whistle or the rumble of rolling steel and tells their kids "the train's coming." That sets off a chain reaction of kids abandoning whatever slide, swing or monkey bars they're playing on and sends them sprinting toward the tracks. It's sort of like a stampede of kidlings. Usually the trains are carrying some variety of freight. Today's train was a little different. It had a couple locomotives, a crane/shovel, about 20-30 side-dump cars full of dirt, 2 cabooses and a locomotive at the rear.

We went home and had lunch and a nap then played in the yard a bit. Anza is getting pretty good at pushing Jave in the swing. She tries to give him underdogs, that's what she likes, but doesn't quite have the strength to get him over her head. She has figured out to get out of the way of the swing before it swings back. She used to just stand and wait after she let it go and it would swing back and clobber her.

When mom came home in the evening we loaded into the station wagon and headed to the Everett Children's Museum to meet the Andersons. Anza and Scott have always played together really well. It only took a moment for them to re-connect and they were all over the place. I didn't get many pics because the place was a bit crowded and I didn't feel comfortable taking pics with other people's kids in them. (I don't really want people taking pics of my kids.)

I had concerns that the "museum" would be limited on interactive exhibits. But it was ALL interactive. They had some really fun stuff... water tables, trains, mini-theater, tree house, veterinary office, TV studio, airplane, neon glow room, building room with big foam blocks, and some other stuff that I can't think of right now. The crowd started to thin at about 8pm. That made the last hour much more enjoyable 'cause Anza and Scott didn't have to compete to get into some of the more popular areas... like to drive the bus.