Last weekend, the boys of the neighborhood had a man-cave day of daddy activities. This has been an event in the making for quite some time: lunch at a local brewery, a little gambling at the local boats, grilling, back yard games, poker, rock band etc. The moms got together, took the kids to a bounce-town-type place (airtastic) in the afternoon and then joined together at our house for movies and Jimmy John’s that evening.

The next day, we all felt kinda lazy. It had rained something fierce the night before so daddy suggested we go check out the river to see how high it was. We ended up having quite a little adventure…camera in tow in front of Brian’s face so…lots of picures!

 

Here’s the kid crew enjoying several different movies, popcorn, candy, piles of blankets and lounging in PJs.

The first stop on our Sunday tour was a little park that’s more of a path by a tributary that feeds into the Fox River. We saw lots of cool nature stuff…including a monarch butterfly, lots of spiders, cool plants and lots of different trees. I ended up throwing away several samples of wildlife (branches, leaves etc) that were in my van most of this past week.

The boys exploring nature

Next, we went to their favorite local park. They call it “the Fox River park”. We stood on a bridge and threw lots of stuff over the edge into the water to see it all swept away by the current

1. sticks

 

2. some weird fruit/nut thing from some trees hanging over the bridge (Brian said hickory….)

…and a couple damp logs that Aiden managed to scavenge. Mom helped throw those in. It was actually really cool. I would throw them over one side of the bridge where they would break into lots of pieces. We would watch them wash under our feet, then run and peek over the other side as they sped away. Note Brady’s lack of shoes…what’s new.

After we threw stuff in the water, we went to the park. This spinning thing is clearly only for children because it makes me sick every time I try it! Probably not meant for three riders at a time, but so cute!

Brian wants to know why our kids have lame tee-ter-tot-ers….what about the old school ones that let you go like UP and DOWN as opposed to just bounce a little? Dumb law suits!

Look close…Logan is glowing like Edward Cullen in the sun (thank you Twilight Fans). His hair, face, lashes, everything, looked so cool after he stood under the park’s water mister a couple times.

Blurry, but adorable shot of Aiden on the swings

Boy oh boy…they were certainly due for hair cuts that day (we just got them on Tuesday so check out the major shag!)

After the park, we headed south to check out a small local dam farther down the river. It was a really cool area. The building in the distance is a kayak shop. The kayakers would start up near that building, go down the river and then climb out to do it all again.

kayaker

 

cool shot of bird

excited boy.

We ended our little adventure with a walk across the street from the river and the dam where we checked out a little local Mexican place. Name not to be mentioned because it wasn’t so great and Brian had to um…take a small personal break…before we even left to drive home. The day ended later that evening in PJs with a movie and pizza. All in all….a very fun, do-nothing day.