Our 4th of July

I've been wanting to take the kids to Clemyjontri Park for a while.  We tried to go a few months ago on a Sunday morning, but the parking lot was packed and we didn't have time to park and walk (we were on our way to mass).  Weekdays seem tricky because of traffic, but Andrew suggested that we go Monday morning after an early mass, which seems to be the way to go.  We got there around 9:30 and actually found a parking spot (although there were only a few left, even that early). 

So, was it all it's cracked up to be?

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

This picture of a very sweaty John Paul about sums up the experience.

Imagine opening a playground catalog and ordering...  Everything.  That's kind of what this place is like.

About a trillion different ride-on bouncy toys, including cars on a "race track"

An ENORMOUS play structure connected by ramps (some steps) with tons of slides, as well as quite a few smaller structures scattered throughout.

Swings, of course.  It's a special playground for children with disabilities too, so there were quite a few specialized swings for disabled children (even a special wheelchair swing!). 

Of course, he went straight to the numbers...

And a rather annoying non-functional "xylophone" that he was into because of the letters.

There was a pretty cool 4-way seesaw on springs.

And somehow he managed to find the only woodchips in the whole place...

Oh yeah, Cecilia and I were there too.  She didn't seem to care much about the fact that we were at the most amazing playground ever.

She had a lot more fun later at Grandpa's house.

I think we could have stayed here for HOURS and not exhausted the options.  There was a maze, a carousel, tons of benches for parents, as well as plenty of slides and play structures.  It's far enough away that it's not going to be a frequent stop for us, but I'm definitely looking forward to going back.  I just can't imagine what it would be like trying to keep track of more than one kid there - the place is HUGE and I kept losing John Paul just on the first big jungle gym!

The rest of our day was low-key - a cookout at Grandpa's house and then home to bed at a reasonable hour.  No fireworks, and both kids slept through the commotion outdoors, thank goodness!  Maybe next year...