A Parade of Parks

C-ville Park:
What is Lydia so excited about? Ah, yes, an outing in the park! Or, as the case may be, several park outings. In the spirit of that classic July 2011 Muffin News post "Tales from two and a half parks," we now present "A Parade of Parks," summarizing our recent adventures exploring the parks in our new locale. We begin with C-ville park. Mom and Dad had unknowingly passed this park dozens of times back when we used to live here, which made it all the more fun to discover it. The boys are in this picture of the playground there, in a "Where's Waldo?" sort of way.
We've probably spent more time at this park than any other. It's got a couple of pavilions, a quarter mile paved loop path, and real bathrooms! (Actually, pretty much all the parks seem to have bathrooms here, but it's still a pleasant surprise after our Wyoming outhouse adventure.) We've even taken Grandma and Grandpa there for a picnic dinner. By far, though, the most interesting item at this park is the zip line. Here's Amanda using it.

L's Park:
The day after we found C-ville park, we had a chance to go to L's park. We didn't spend quite as much time playing there as at C-ville, but the kids still loved seeing the little river/canal anyway. It was definitely topped the playground in their opinion.
Our reason for visiting the park was a very nice one: a yummy dinner! Here are some Muffins enjoying:

Bc Park:
The next park we discovered was Bc park. Mom loved that the playground was set up so that you could easily see the whole thing from any of the benches around it. The kids liked the playground for awhile, too.
However, the park is also very close to the base of the mountains, and there were some highly intriguing hills behind the playground. Jared and Curtis made several trips to the edge of the trees and back. And, as you can see, their idea was rather popular. (The Muffins are somewhere in there; Curtis is the whitish figure.)
Lydia didn't hit the hills, but she did enjoy checking out the mulch and the sidewalk:

RC Park:
Our next park was RC park, located on the side of a hill/base of a mountain. We went there right after Mom had found some fun marshmallow "ice cream" cones for 50 cents. Here are the boys enjoying.
Lydia liked the cone part best.
One of the main features of the park was a large assortment of very large rocks. Here's Jared trying to climb one.
He had better luck with this one.
There were also lots of acorns at the park, which Jared collected and brought home. Dad and Amanda weren't there the first time we visited RC park, but they did get to go another day when there was a party to attend there. Actually, there were several parties there that evening. We saw a sign saying ours was at the top pavilion. So, we headed to the highest pavilion we could see, and there we found hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. As we ate, Dad searched the crowd. Finally he said, "I don't know anyone here." Mom didn't recognize anyone either, so Dad headed farther up the hill and found our "real" group. We were full by then, though, and the Construction Management club didn't seem too upset that we crashed their BBQ and let the kids play in their blow-up bouncy house.

R park:
It's a little funny that our next park took as long for us to get to as it did. After all, R park is right next to Amanda's school! (Probably helps that Amanda rides the bus and the rest of us don't get over there much.) Here's Amanda gracefully descending the "stairs":
Jared and Lydia enjoyed snacking at the park.
On our way home, we found the end of the sidewalk.
Jared took a picture of Mom helping to make sure a reluctant Curtis got home, too.

NG:
And, last but not least, we have our most recent park discovery, NG. It used to be private property, with a small house and large grounds. After changing hands a few times, the city bought the place and restored it to approximate its original grandeur. It really is a VERY nice park, and the kids enjoyed it right along with Mom. Best part, though: the ducks!
Here's Lydia watching the ducks while munching a snack and holding the Elmo ball, on loan from Curtis while he was busy duck watching.
We brought a lunch with us to the park, and of course we ended up sharing with the ducks. The second in line duck (after the leader heading for the pond) was especially fond of Mom's sandwich and took pieces right from her hand.
The boys also found some dogs to play with at the park. Well, there you have it. Six parks down, many more to go.