Since today was Earth Day, the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to be stuck inside all day. Luckily, the weather co-operated with a lovely warm temperature and sunny skies. As soon as we finished lunch, we all hopped in the car and drove to a nearby nature park to enjoy the day and fresh air. My favorite thing about the park is the giant pond that they have. In the warmer months you can rent peddle boats and canoes.

Another big hit is the fact that aside from having plenty of farm animals, they also have a pen where you can go right in and pet the goats. Both girls were really enthused about that. Even though Breanna told me she thought it was a cat.

For Hayley, the highlight is definitely the huge play park they have. They have one section with sand and a lot of swings and some wooden climbing structures and they have another section with a spongy astroturf ground and a giant set of slides, climbing structures, a climbing wall, and other fun things. It’s crazy how big it is and how packed full of kids it is on a weekend. I’d like to see it one weekday morning just for fun. She was pretty good on the climbing wall.

Breanna went down some slides with me and then after a nice nap in the stroller she woke up and immediately pointed at the swings. She loves to swing. When I finally took her out (after a good ten minutes) I was met with a pretty ticked off, “Ma-MA!”

It may sound cheesy, but at one point I got a little sentimental. There are some days that are just hard and you wonder why it’s not legal to sell your kids on eBay and you can’t wait for bedtime so you can be alone with a bit of silence for more than 30 seconds. But after playing with goats with my kids, showing Hayley all the farm animals, running around the play park with Hayley, and just being out on a beautiful day, at one point I was pushing Breanna on the swing and I looked across to the other side of the park and saw George pushing Hayley, and both girls had giant smiles and I thought, “this is the kind of moment when I really, REALLY love being a parent.” Sappy but true.

We were there for a few hours and really had a great time. I love that park so much and we’re planning to go back one day soon with a picnic lunch and we’ll probably take the kites with us. In the middle of suburban city life, it’s so nice to have a little piece of nature to enjoy.

I took a ton of pictures, you can see the whole set right here.

Happy Earth Day!