Simple

We took the kids to a park along the Willamette yesterday.  It didn't have a playground or a sprayground to play in.  It didn't have any climbing structures or a sandbox, it didn't have anything really, other than a pretty view of the river and a big grassy area.  There was a "water feature" that had a sign posted saying it wasn't an official "wading pool" and not meant for children to play in.  Of course the kids play in it anyway. The way the feature is, it's just a depression filled with water, maybe 6 inches deep, a glorified puddle really.  There's no barrier keeping the kids out and it's basically irresitable to kids to splash in. 

So anyway, we went to this park, mostly to get out of the house and into the sun and fresh air. It was a saturday evening and I was worried about taking the boys and dog to one of the bigger, funner parks because they'd be packed and I wasn't in the mood to deal with a lot of people.  I chose this park because it's out of the way and boring.  Figured it would be fairly deserted.  And it was.

What was surprising is we really enjoyed ourselves.  I left the boys with John and took the dog for a walk along the river, walking almost all the way to George Rogers park (I call it the "River beach" because there's a sandy beach at that park and the boys and dog love to play in the water right there.) and back.  While Fancy and I were gone the boys splashed in the not-a-wading-pool, then we all took a little walk on this pier-thing and took in a view of the river which is AMAZING!  Seriously, I wouldn't mind being poor if we could live in our mini van down by the river. haha.

Even though the park doesn't have a playground the boys didn't mind, they found a nice big hill and John taught them how to roll down real fast (while making himself sick in the process) and they spent the rest of our time there just going up and down the hill.

A lot of weekends I spend a lot of time and energy (and sometimes money we don't have) trying to create "memories" and "experiences" trying to make the most out of the time we have together as a family.  I pack us all up and go to museums or to the zoo, out to dinner, to the coast, movies, sometimes I have a big detailed itenerary of activities for the weekend.  Sometimes these big plans go off without a hitch and we all have a great time, most times it's a fight getting out of the house, we get started getting ready late, John and I argue, the boys throw tantrums...we end up flustered and worn out..  Yesterday we didn't spend any money and didn't have a set plan and we had a wonderful time.

I need to keep in mind to keep it simple. The boys don't need big elaborate weekends to have fun.  We just need to be together.