Bringing the beach to our backyard

We have some really cool parks around us.  We don't have to travel far, as we have probably 7 or so parks within walking/hiking/biking distance.  That's a huge blessing for an outdoors-loving family like us.  We promised the kids one night to take them to one of these parks.  This particular park includes a small splash park, so they were pretty excited about that.

We put their swimsuits on and headed to the park.   However, when we arrived, we found the splash pad wasn't on.  (I recently found out that this particular one is only open on the weekends this year).  But, it really didn't matter to our kids when they remembered the HUGE, covered sand play area that is next to the splash pad.  When Luke went to the beach a couple of years ago, he really didn't care so much about the water.  He was mainly interested in building sand castles on the beach.  So, this was like a little trip to the beach for him.

Abbey is just getting acclimated to sand.  She has been in a "sand feels weird under my toes" stage for a while.  But, it was during this trip that she became fully acclimated and loved every bit of our time at the park.

Okay--I know--I probably took WAY too many photos.   But, the light was absolutely perfect and I just couldn't get enough of all the great photo opportunities.

There are also some other fun parts of the park.   Like these...

Although the beach is fun, I don't think our kids really care if we go on a fancy vacation to the beach.  I believe the moments they will remember and cherish are times like these.