Fun at City Park

After spending a long day trying to pack 2 kids for camp with little success (not sure why this was such a struggle today)  we needed a break. So we grabbed a bag of bread and headed to City Park to feed the ducks.  The ducks were more then happy to have 4 kids with fresh bread to gather around. Ammon got his finger a bit close to the ducks a few times and got a few nips on his fingers! 

After our bread ran out (way too quickly of course) we went to the playground to burn off some energy. It was pretty hot, so we didn't last very long.

2nd round of City Park this week.

Simeon & Corrine are both at camp, so Ammon, Rebecca and I headed back to City Park to ride the rides. The #1 ride they wanted was the train. Luckily for us it was 1 of 2 rides open today. It's been so hot that some of the rides that don't have a covering on them are too hot and could burn them.

Ammon looking so cool on the train. He decided after this outing that sunglasses are definitely for him. He got the sensitivity to light from mom and these made the sun much easier to handle.

I was grateful for these small non-moving horses that Rebecca was so excited to ride on. Since she was stationary I got to watch, rather then ride, which saved me some dizziness.

Round 3 of City Park

I bought a really great priced swim punch pass for the pool last week, so the 3 of us headed for the pool. Normally is costs $4.25 a person to swim during the day ($2 from 5-8 pm), but with our pass we paid $3.90 for the 3 of us to get in!!

We met some friends there after lunch and swam with them for a couple of hours. After they left, we got a stamp on hands and left to get dinner. We had a McDonald's picnic outside the pool then headed in for a few more hours of swimming. We ended the day playing on the playground and exploring the old prairie homes at the park.

Run for Relief

This morning Corrine ran our 1st official 5K at Lower City Park with Run for Relief. The race was put on by City High's cross country team. All the money raised was given to Joplin Highschool to help rebuild their highschool that was destroyed by a tornado earlier this year.

When we left our house it was sunny and cool and we could see clouds coming. By the time we got to the park it was cloudy and windy and COLD! After we checked in Johann ran home to get warmer clothes and gloves for everyone.

There were around 100 runners in the race. At the starting line there were 2 dogs behind us that made Corrine uncomfortable and she struggled for the 1st quarter mile worried they would come near her.
After the 1st quarter mile she settled down as the dogs got further behind us.


At mile marker 1 we had a pace of 9 minutes and I was working hard, but she was still comfortable. A few City High cross country runners ran by right then and asked her how old she was. She told them and then kept running with them. From them on she ran ahead of me. She was able to keep her pace the entire time.

The final results from the race were:
Corrine #48 29:15.4 Pace 9:26.3
Kari #56 30:05.2 Pace 9:42.3



She was 21st in her age group (18 and younger).
I was 4th in my age group (30-39).

It's so fun to watch Corrine run and to see how much she loves it. She has such a natural talent for running. She's already talking about running cross country in Junior High.

It was such a fun run and it made me want to do more!! I'm so excited that Corrine wanted me to be her running buddy for Girls on the Run. It helped give me that kick I needed to start running again. It's been hard to start running after 13 years of not running, but it's been so worth it!
This race gave the boys the running bug, so we've talked about training as a family this spring to do a 5K together. I remember lots of walks/runs I did as a family when I was a kid. I'm excited to do a walk/run with our whole family!!