POtD #7 Williamsburg Park

The BEST by far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As only God could have aligned, most of my siblings ended up in town all at the same time.  Kristin and Jora came up from Kansas to tile our shower, Hilary and Timmy happened to be coming to town to manage their rental, Dominic came over for dinner, Kellan and Damaris were here visiting.  TRULY, siblings are the BEST gift you can give to your children.  We have cooked and baked since Monday.  We have eaten 24 gallons of ice cream and solved all the world's problems through our constant discussions.
Aside from that, we had to hit up a park while everybody was in town.

Williamsburg Park
rating: 10++++

Everything is always a contest.

We had contests to see who could jump the highest, longest, and funniest out of the swing.  These four landed in the top four slots.
We looked like quite the parade walking to the park.

The park parade.

I look over and see Dominic mount the horse only 1 second later to see...

Dom bucked off the horse.

Then, we look over to see Truman sitting by herself claiming she was "sweaty."

Everything is a contest.

Dominic and John playing touch football. Maria and Andrew, I warned you of the fun that was going to be had...get up here NOW!!! A video of the final race to wrap up the evening!!!!

Victory Quest 2013

John competed in the Memorial Day Victory Quest mud run for the second year in a row. Dominic competed for the first time. John ran an unbelievable race. He was in third most of the race with the leader being a good 100 yards a head of him. His strength is in his cardio so I knew he had a great chance to catch him at the end. The first half of the race are filled with different obstacles and then you finish with a 2 mile run.     It was so exciting.  John made up the 100 yard distance and passed the leader TO WIN THE RACE!!!!!  We were going nuts screaming our heads off!!!!!!!!!

Dominic did remarkably well especially since he had a bum knee from a track meet last week.  Every young boy needs to run a mud race.  His love of crawling through mud, diving down mud slides, leaping over obstacles was so exhilarating to him that he noticed no pain in his knee.  He kept pushing forward no matter what.

I missed his favorite obstacle called "Omaha Beach" but it is a 15 foot mud slide that is performed face first on your belly.

John won the event last year!  

I cannot express how much I delight in John doing sports.  He loves anything athletic and competitive so to see him race brings so much joy to our whole family.  The girls have gotten really good at screaming his name.  The guy that was right behind him told him after the race that he wished his name was John.

FIRST PLACE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish I had a picture of them right after the race and they weren't hosed off.  John's shoes each had to weigh 50 pounds a piece with all the caked on mud.

POtD Continued #2-6 Irvingdale, Stransky, Peach, Rudge, and Van Dorn Park

This title will have to do until I can think of a more intriguing opening title for all 125 parks we hope to visit this summer.
Tonight, we visited Irvingdale, Rudge, Peach, Van Dorn, and Stransky Parks.

Irvingdale Park
Rating: 2

 We decided to take a picture of each park as we were leaving so we could look back and remember what each looked like.

 Stransky Park
Rating: 10
I have always loved this park.  When Dominic was born, we lived in a little apartment two blocks away from this park.  It reminds me of his babyhood.

 They were hiding from Dominic.

 He found them.

 We decided Damaris has logged in more swing time already than any of our other kids put together.  

 Sister Chat.

 She decided to stay at a safe distance claiming she was 'fraid.  Whatever.  She isn't 'fraid of nothin'.

 I was trying to get a picture of Rose and Zellie.  Clairvaux decided otherwise.  Photo bomb PERFECTION.

 She spent a good amount of time thinking this dog was real and then wanting a picture.

 Lillie requested a picture stating she is going to grow up and have a lot of animals.

 23 weeks

Birds were everywhere.

Peach Park

Rating: 7

Rudge Park

Rating: 0

There wasn't much to do at this park besides swing.  We decided to move on.

Van Dorn Park

Rating: 10+

John claims this was the "box is more fun than the present" situation.  They thought this park was way too much fun.  It was old yet simple.  We stayed here for about 2 hours digging, sliding, and swinging.  The weather had really cooled off and it was just a lovely evening.

 Vianney told me that she could touch the blue clouds.

 Not much beats her baby blues.  Her eyes are like sapphires. 

 Rose and company worked on this for most of the time.  They wanted to dig all the way around.

 John and Dominic are running in a race tomorrow.  John was filling him in on the details of the race and how he was already nervous.  I love that I captured this sweet, genuine smile of Dominic.

 Humid curls

 100% Niewald look

 Near the end, it was just Rose plugging away.

 Baby finished up the work.  Good baby.

 A true sign of a good day at the park.

John and his homemade baby carrier.  Baby didn't like it.