beating the heat

Laura and I have an arrangement this summer: On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, she takes the kids (hers and mine) to the pool or park; on Thursday and Friday, while she works at my grandpa's store, I take them. It's worked out pretty well so far, and the kids all love going to the pool. But today it was WAY too hot and muggy, and when the weather is like this my feet and hands puff up like I'm some kind of pufferfish, so I needed a different plan. And wouldn't you know it, the state parks came to the rescue. Well, sort of.

My plan was to take them to the nature center at Potato Creek, which has air conditioning and a little play room. So we picked up Jimmy and Gracie and Elly, and off we went. It was nice because the nature center is small enough that I could sit in the little bird-watching area and still see/hear the kids wherever they went. There are animals downstairs, and there's a play area upstairs where they put on a little puppet show. Everyone was even getting along!

The wrinkle in my plan came when the nature center closed at 5:00 and the kids wanted to go play on the playground and climb some trees. Which naturally led to them wanting to walk in the woods. Which naturally led to all of us traipsing around in inappropriate footwear in the heat. But hey, I got some pretty good pictures! (And the kids had a blast. They were bummed out when it was time to go, but a promise of McDonald's ice cream cones for the ride home perked them back up.)