A day at the beach - Las Vegas Style

When you live in Las Vegas and you want a little water - beach style water - you can either go to Lake Mead, which doesn't have real sand on their beaches, or to the local splash park. When you have young children and you don't want to spend all-day in the car the splash park makes a perfect beach. Centennial Hills park is about 30 minutes from our house and there are 2 water playgrounds on site (only 1 of which is featured here) plus there are 2 great playgrounds - and lots of shade. It is the favorite playground of 2 of our families with young children. I'll let the photos tell the story.

The entrance to the playground is spectacular. It makes the kids want to come in. Our grandchildren could see if from a distance and were so excited. Once they got out of the car it was a straight line run to the playground. Note the variety of slides and other play devices. They are all fun and creative.

The playground also has lots of shade structures that are unique - representing flowers and butterflies.

This is all warmup stuff so that when you get hot you will run over to the water playground (or splash park). It is very inviting and the water rotates among the different devices with several being on at the same time.

Of course it's not really a beach unless you have a place to sit, shades (sun glasses), drinks, a shade hat, and a telephone. It looks good to me and now everyone can have fun.

That's right - she has everything the well prepared beach
grandma needs.

But the real fun is for the kids while they are playing in the water, even if they are a little reticent to get too wet - they are still young, but will learn.

Chas hard at work redirecting the water.

The frogs are just too cute not to climb on. Bonnie thinks so, at least.

Sally is trying to show Charlotte how to get wet without
getting wet herself. It almost worked.

And when it's all done we do what we do best - stop at Dairy Queen for a little light (okay, heavy) refreshment. It was sure fun and good and a great morning. The kids crashed all afternoon.

The Joy of Play

JoAnn and I love watching our grandchildren play - together and alone. Of course their play is sometimes loud and other times quiet and it is usually the latter that parents worry about. When you have 15 children together ranging in age from 16 to 2 years of age there is a lot of diversity in what is considered play. For the teens it is texting, texting, and yes, more texting interspersed along with a few video games. For the younger children it verges on a lot more spontaneity and physical play. Joshua had a brand new play structure in the backyard that immediately captured everyone's attention who was under the age of 12. I would go out on the upstairs patio and see the youngest ones playing on the structure, running around the house exterior, and having a wonderful time. No one was in charge, but everyone was together. The photo shows six grandchildren from 3 families having a great time - each one of them individually engaged in active play and using their imagination.

The above photo, while only showing Joshua, shows how engaged he (along with his cousins) were with his Thomas the Train set. The train set usually had 3 to 5 children gathered around it, all engaged in a different form of plan. It was amazing how they were all individually engaged and yet didn't seem to get frustrated with the others. There wasn't a lot of space for 3 to 5 children, but they made the most of it each time. They were all pretty much at the age where playing together is still a novel idea.

Playing with Grandma is also very important. All of the kids enjoy playing, and learning from, Grandma. Joshua and Chas loved having Grandma working with them on a puzzle and teaching them to work together. I'm not so sure the "working together" idea was fully grasped. Grandma also found time to eat a little dinner out at the farm with Lexi and Meagan. They are both at an age where food is more important than it used to be, but fun is even more important. Finally, there is the first grandchild with a "driving permit." I personally find that scary, but while we were in downtown Des Moines and found an Italian festival she found the car of her dreams. Of course Grandma was there to share it with her.

It's all about play and fun. It's about practicing for life. It's about learning to work with others, but in the end, it's about family and joy and love. I could have talked about adult play too, but this one is for the kids.

Family Reunion: SquirtGunslingers (Wordless Wednesday)

A Day at the Zoo

One of the fun things of being a grandparent is taking the kids to the zoo. In this case it was all 8 of them. Had we not brought the mothers (and our daughters) along I'm not just sure how it would have turned out. As it was we had a great time.

When you are a child you never tire of going to the zoo. It is a place of adventure, of seeing old friends, of seeing new and exotic friends, and of having new experiences. On this day as we walked in the zoo, a zoo volunteer was walking around with a king snake, which of course the kids had to explore.

Zoos have learned they need to create fun experiences for children. It is the experiences that bring families back. The Boise Zoo has play areas spread throughout the zoo, and the kids absolutely love them. The play areas have representations of animals, and the areas expand the children's opportunity for imagination, resulting in a lot more fun.

The days of the petting zoo are not gone, but are approached differently at many zoos. Boise lets you feed the goats. The kids love lining up to get food for the goats and then feeding them. I think there is more of a feeding frenzy lining up than there is of the goats competing for the food. It's interesting to see the grandchildren feeding the goats, but ignoring the ones they have at home. I guess zoo goats are better than home goats.

Everyone in our little group had a great time at the zoo, on the play devices, feeding the goats, looking at the Tiger, running ahead of mom who couldn't catch up, and playing with their siblings and cousins. The final photos show various aspects of all of the fun we had. It was a great day!

The Golden Eagle nest is just the right size for a gaggle of Eaglets.

Did I mention its more fun sometimes to
watch the feeding frenzy at the goat food
dispenser for the grandchildren and mother?

Chas is all about knowing just how cool
that hat is, especially when standing
next to a penguin (sort of penguin).

Calvin Published

First off, anyone who has seen Calvin write would say, "Calvin published?" Actually, he wasn'ta bad writer - got that from his Mom. And yes he is published, but not in the sense one normally thinks of. In the last edition of my textbook I asked daughter 2 to take some photos at a water playground close to their home. I knew Calvin, his brother, and 2 cousins would all be there and I was pretty sure she could get a good photo. Two of the photos appear below. I used them in a textbook on introduction to recreation and leisure for university programs and also on a poster at a previous institution advertising degrees in recreation and park management. I am particularly fond of the photos because the capture the playfulness of our grandchildren and depict how much they did and do enjoy each other.

Calvin points to what is clearly the object of everyone's attention - where the water is coming up NEXT!

Sure enoug, that was the spot - plus a couple others they didn't anticipate.