Summer Fun: Horseshow, Park, and Bounce!

This post was just going to be about the local horse show we went to see, until I noticed that the flashback to the last time we went to the horse show also had pics of our favorite Hand-in-Hand park with Kim and Hannah, so it seems only appropriate to put the two sets of pictures together again!

The horse show was cancelled last year due to funding, but we were excited to hear that it was returning this summer. The only bummer was that it was an hour away. After asking the kids multiple times if they wanted to go (and make the drive worth it!) we decided to make the venture. It was a beautiful location that is only used for horse shows, so it seemed better fitted for the event compared to the previous location (partially in a parking lot!). We got to see a lot of jumping and warmups, as well as walking through where the horses are housed during the event. It might be more educational for the kiddos if their mama knew more of the correct terminology and rules!

We've enjoyed meeting Kim and the kids this summer! We've had a bit more flexibility in when and how often we can meet this summer since she's down to working just a couple days a month! We met at our favorite park one overcast morning and I actually had goosebumps!! We couldn't complain that it was too hot!

Hunter was all smiles here too!

Another fun morning getting together at an inflatable place:

The kids play in this hurricane simulator a lot, but we've never put money in to turn it on (they'd freak out!!!). Kim was curious though, and gave it a try. She was pretty underwhelmed but Hannah, on the other hand, was NOT a fan of that happening to her mother!!

Kim enjoys the big slide too!

More summer fun!

We've been having a busy week so far. Sunday when we went to the baseball game we saw them setting up for a horse show taking place this week. I looked at the schedule online and took the kids to see some of the horse jumping Monday morning. You can see from the empty stands that the daytime events weren't a sell-out event =)  There were probably only 12-15 other people watching and we were likely the only non-family members of the competitors. It was a great free event that was air conditioned, so overall success! 

Tuesday we went to storytime for both kids' age groups at the public library and Willow started her gymnastics class. We're hoping that it will replace ballet, but we'll see what she thinks:

Today we met Aunt Kim and cousin Hannah at an awesome park for the second time. I wish it were closer to us so we could go more often. Today was a pretty warm day but the wooded play area is surrounded by huge trees and was bearable with the shade and a bit of a breeze. Check out the 360 of the park here. 

I'm not sure who thought of this "rubber bridge" idea, but it's pretty awesome! Check out the action here.

Hannah just gets to watch from the sidelines for now:

The "best park ever" comes with a train too (check out Owen driving):

AND has an awesome "regular" playground too:

including that largest twisty slide ever:

Owen found a fun sandy area to play with his trucks that happened to be in the diaper bag (oh...um...I mean that was totally planned...). I love watching him play with his trucks!! Check him out here. 

Willow had a couple "hiccups" in her hearing and vision screenings at her 5-yr well visit. We had a full hearing evaluation at the audiologist today and she passed with flying colors (exhale #1). She did a great job during the evaluation and earned herself yogurt from Bloop (with whipped cream, as you can see):