Monday morning I went over to Laura's to help her plant some things in her yard so it doesn't look so bare. She's trying to get her house on the market to sell, so I became her self-appointed landscaper. I spent a couple hours sweating and digging, with one planter bed looking much nicer, then Luke and I headed home to zip on over to the coast.
This time we went to Honeyman park just north of Florence. The weather was perfect! Not too hot, not too windy, and the sun came out every now and then... enough to give me a slight sunburn on my face and ears and Brian go a slight burn on his knees. The kids were slathered in sunscreen so they were OK.
We rented a pedal-boat for an hour and went around the lake. I love Honeyman lake. It is so warm, peaceful, and quiet. The bottom of it is covered in weeds, so I've never enjoyed swimming in it (just thinking of all the odd things living or dropped into that water makes me shudder) so we just pedaled around, taking lots of great photos. AnnaMae was so excited to be on a boat. She couldn't stop talking about getting on the boat, and was giggling the whole time we were on the lake.
Luke kept trying to fall over. No matter how many times we told him to stay put, he just couldn't keep his feet in the boat. Then, he noticed that he had splashed a bunch of water into the boat so he grabbed our DRY towel and began sopping up the water. Aaggh! We tried to explain to him that it was OK for there to be water in the bottom of the boat. I should have just thrown him overboard...We haven't gone to Honeyman in years. i think the last time we went was on a campout with the single's Ward before we got married. That was the night that Brian and his buddies got lost on the dunes with only an LED light to lead them back to HWY 101 while I sat back at the campground wondering where the heck they could have gone.
This time we didn't get lost, we just palyed and laughed. Here I am with AM and her big, happy smile. She really didn't stop giggling until we went back to the beach. Luke just wanted to talk to the nice park workers at the dock, and kept trying to run onto other boats while we were getting our stuff off our boat. Brian was pretty sore after pedalling for an hour - I wasn't too bad, as I do that regularly on my way to work (though with all my trips I really need to get back into the habit of riding again.
After boating we headed back to the lodge to gather our plans and figure out what we wanted to do next. AnnaMae just wanted to play in the old stone drinking fountain - check out that tongue! We got a ton of photos of her with the fountain becuase she liked it so much. Too bad she's too small to turn it on AND drink from it at the same time.
Then we drove around to the dune-side of the park to play. here's AM next to the sand castle I built. It doesn't take me much to have fun at the beach, just a quiet spot to build my castles and a little helper to try and knock them down (this time it wasn't my own kids knocking it down but some other little boy).
Luke followed daddy wherever Brian went. There really is no seperating those two. It's great when your best friend is your dad. here they are attacking each other with noodles they borrowed from some kids. I think Luke ended up the winner, as he had snagged a sliding disk and was using it as a sheild. Way to go Luke! After a few hours of intense playing we were getting tired and hungry so we decided to head home.We couldn't think of anywhere in Florence we wanted to eat, and it was still a little early for dinner, so we headed for home. We picked up a pizza then went to have a small picnic at the Rose Garden.
Here I am trying to catch a bit of a nap. I was worn out even if the kids had plenty of energy. I think I needed a vaction from my vacation! The roses were beautiful, and all the floweres were so pretty around teh gazebo and walk area. It was a perfect time of day too, as the heat had already left the valley as well. We even bumped into one of my co-workers as she biked home from an appointment (I know I had more fun than she did that day!)
The maze of roses are a great place for kids to run and hide. Anna Mae had so much fun darting between the plants. Luke was tired and he kept doing little things to get him in trouble, so he was kept on a tight leash, so to speak. Then we walked over to Skinner Butte Park for some final water and sand play time before we finished off a very long vacation day.I don't know if I have the energy to do too many more vacation days like that, but that was the perfect summer day with family!
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