When I was planning out our summer of weekend trips, I mostly picked out new places to visit, but the one repeat was Homer. We came here last year while I was still on maternity leave and really enjoyed hanging out with the boys. It's a very chill little town that seems to encourage relaxing and enjoying the scenery. Plus since the boys are now a year older, I figured it might not take us 7 hours to make the 4 hour trip this time... ;)
We hit the road after a late breakfast with the hope that the boys would take a nap and let us get far enough down the road for a lunch stop. And we managed to make it all the way to Soldotna before everyone was ready to eat - awesome! It took us a few u-turns to find a suitable picnic spot, but we ended up at the city park. (Matt actually knew what he was looking for, I think he and Duncan tried to fish from this spot last July - I was the one causing problems...)
It was a sunny and grassy spot for lunch, but the bigger draw was the playground right next to the picnic area. We managed to convince Thomas to eat by promising he was going to get to play as long as he would just eat first! The two of them took off once they had finished up, Matt and I took turns following each kid. Of course, I did have to snap a few photos of them having fun!
Henry mostly stayed on the 2-5 year old side of the playground, but Thomas was constantly running back and forth between the two sides. He graciously decided to slide with his little brother a few times to show him how to do it. Henry loves the slides - he's just not got quite enough balance to go down on his butt without falling over. (At daycare they teach the young ones to go down on their belly, feet first - which I have seen him do several times at our neighborhood park.)
I tried so hard to get Thomas to stick his face in this animal cutout for a cute photo. And this is what I get. He was even making animal noises (although I think he was howling...), but he would not be convinced to run around to the other side. He wanted to be on the "pretty side". Just a fair warning for whoever is thinking 3 year olds are cooperative models.
We got to Homer after another stretch in the car with super happy guys - a little playground time works wonders! We dropped all of our stuff off at the house we are renting for the weekend and then headed down to the spit for dinner. We loved Captain Pattie's so much last time that we decided to go there again. Unfortunately, there was quite the line, so I had to wait to even put our names on the list...
Matt wandered off with the kids while I was waiting and I come out to see my boys down the boardwalk with a crowd of people all staring at something exciting. What's everyone staring at? Only a big halibut getting filleted on the deck. Wouldn't have been my first choice for pre-dinner entertainment...
The wait for Captain Pattie's ended up being too long for two boys that were hungry and past their bedtime, so we ended up across the street. I was worried when we first sat down that they may not even make it to dinner before melting down. Luckily there was enough activity outside the windows that they were mostly entertained. And when that was losing it's appeal, I pulled out the camera to take photos of them (surprisingly, they like it as long as I show them the photos as soon as I take them).
This was one of my favorite photos of Henry because I just love his pretty blue eyes.
Not surprisingly considering they are almost a perfect match for his dad. No genetic tests needed for the youngest! ;)
And for the record, Matt didn't actually need distracting with photos, I just wanted a photo of him too. :)
Thomas was, by far, the most entertained with the camera. He was certainly in a mood to ham it up for the camera. He was lunging at me in this one, but I thought he just looked so happy and silly in my sunglasses. There's not much that can beat a happy kid photo!
The next morning we went to Duncan's Diner for breakfast. I ordered the boys "Bear Pancakes" and they loved their smiling faces! Thomas also loved the fact all of the breakfast plates had a slice of watermelon on them. I, on the other hand, couldn't get it off my plate fast enough. I think he had three slices before even touching his pancake - he was dripping watermelon juice all over me. Ugh - so gross... ;)
Speaking of which - I let both of them have a few of my breakfast potatoes since their pancakes didn't come with any sides. Shortly after Henry finished the pile I gave him, I look over to see him grabbing them off of my plate. Is nothing sacred anymore?!? You just know that wet toddler hand is covered in thousands (probably millions!), of germs. That whole part of the plate was all his after that contamination. Luckily, they gave me way more food than I needed so I didn't starve.
After breakfast, we decided to walk down to Bishop's Beach to have some fun in the sun! It didn't occur to us to bring the Minion kite like last time, but luckily our route to the beach took us right by the toy store! And of course they had kites for sale - there were so many to choose from I fretted over picking the right one.
Hahaha - as soon as I saw there was a T-Rex kite though, the hunt was over. How could I resist a kite that looks like a ferociously attacking dinosaur?!? And it's feet would flap in the breeze so it really looked like it was running! Unfortunately, the kite was super into it's persona and may have actually dive bombed some poor lady who was walking by...
We had tied it off to walk down to the water and it was fluttering way up in the sky until she got under it and *bam* it went right for her! We were so embarrassed! I don't think he actually hit her, but he came after us a few times before we decided to reel him in. I know I should be ashamed of him, but he honestly made me a little proud. Go T-Rex!
Is anyone surprised by the first activity of the boys? Not me! Apparently this is the new favorite thing to do when confronted with rocks and a nearby body of water. The only reason Matt isn't in this photo is probably because he is off trying to corral T-Rex. ;)
Thomas flew the kite for a little while, but he wasn't nearly as interested in the kite as he was with throwing rocks. One of these days he will appreciate the ferocious T-Rex kite as much as his momma does. But I can't be too disappointed because - he likes rocks! :)
Soon they were both a little chilly and ready to leave, but when I mentioned that I had brought their construction toys, they were suddenly still up for more play time - ha! I vacated this position right after taking this photo because someone (no names mentioned, but the spoon might be a give-away) was flinging sand up in the air and the wind blew it all over me and my camera.
Thanks...
After a drive east to the end of the roads, we headed to the town park for a late picnic lunch and playtime. According to the owner of the house we stayed at, the town put it together in a group effort over a week and it is one of the best playgrounds in the US. With an endorsement like that, we had to go check it out! Thomas loved the boats at the playground in Soldtona, so guess where he bee-lined to as soon as we finished lunch?
Personally, I was most intrigued by this water sluice set-up. There was a hand pump at the top and a series of rock bowls and carved out logs to direct the water downhill. It looked so fun and he ran right by it! As you can probably tell from the photo - it was by far the most populated park of the playground. Of course, that might be why he avoided it.
It was the most entertaining group effort though! They were damming up the water in the first rock bowl until it was almost overflowing and then flooding the rest of the course. It took several minutes to fill it up, but they patiently (mostly) waited until it was full before trying to knock down their cobbled together rock dams. As you can tell, it was a huge splash when the gates where open and the shrieks of excitement and laughter were well worth the wait!
Back to the rest of the playground! There were house shaped buildings with slides.
There were trains! (Although the steering wheel for this train was way too high for the 2-5 year old target audience. Odd!)
This awesome excavator! Also too big for this side of the park. Details, details...
As a side note - I don't think I've ever been to a playground with such an impressive view. I might be behind the whole "Best playground in the US" moniker with that taken into consideration.
A wooden xylophone - the boys (all three of them) banged on this one for quite a while. Matt is already plotting on how he can build one at home...
Thomas even went down the enclosed slide (with some encouragement)! You can tell he is *super* thrilled about it... Ha!
In his defense, it was a pretty huge slide! We even got Henry to slide down it once his older brother did it. But no pictures - I was too busy trying to catch him at the bottom!
We stayed so long that the bulk of the other kids had gone home and the boys finally went to check out the water sluice. Henry had a blast catching water in this little toy and dumping it all over his pants and shoes.
Thomas finally wandered up to the water pump at the top. He wanted to get water in his toy too, but he was a little concerned about being splashed. In his defense, his loving mother may or may not have splashed him right before this photo.
I know nothing... ;)
On the drive back this morning, we decided to stop and play in the playground again in Soldotna. We weren't in any hurry, plus they have so much fun running around and tend to fall asleep longer once we get back in the car. Win-win!
After playing for a little while, we wandered down to the Kenai River to see all of the people fishing. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be. We were hoping to see some fish being caught, but no such luck. (Probably why it wasn't too crowded!) The water was flowing pretty fast in the main part of the river, so we didn't let the boys get too close. But the end of the path was in a side shoot that was pretty calm, so I let Thomas walk on the dock and check out the boats and seagulls in the river.
Matt decided Henry was safer on his shoulders, but thought he would wander in to check out the water. As you might be able to tell, it was a little chilly. Ha - honestly, I think he was trying to photobomb Thomas and I, but Thomas wasn't having anything to do with me at the moment, so I caught Matt instead. :)
We finally made it home and the boys immediately went a little crazy pulling out all of their toys and running around the house. Matt decided to Skype with his parents and sometime in the process of getting them online, the boys both put their easter buckets on their heads and were running around giggling like crazy. But they managed to have somewhat of a conversation with Grannie and Papa - Henry was proudly showing off his new words of "Please" and "Yeah" in context. Woo!
All-in-all it was a great weekend! The boys obviously had a blast and it was pretty awesome weather. We may have spent the bulk of our time on playgrounds, but after the weekend in Seattle, I am convinced that playgrounds are a gift to parents. Free and so much fun - what more could you ask for??