As a growing family looking to keep our four young kids active, we enjoy planning fun adventures to take on the weekends. While winter can be a more difficult time to do this, as we work to keep tiny hands and feet warm, the summer months are an ideal time to venture outside of our home and explore the beauty that’s just a few hours away.
As most Saturday mornings go around our farm, we started the day out slowly. It was an early wakeup for mom with the tiniest baby – just about to turn 4 months old. The other three kids enjoyed sleeping in until about 8:00. Since my husband and I knew it was going to be a busy day we didn’t worry about trying to wake them early.
While it can be tempting to wake kids up and get moving before the heat of the day we weren’t planning any massive hikes and figured the extra morning sleep would serve us better as naps in the car are sometime hit or miss.
After a morning breakfast we got all the kids ready to go. As most parents know, at this age it’s best to layer clothing to avoid being caught without what you need. The mornings are still a bit chilly so light jackets and long-sleeve shirts were a must. Sunscreen was applied, bathroom trips were mandated and then we loaded up – pulling out of the driveway at just after 10:00 AM.
That’s almost record time with four kids under the age of 6.
Our first stop of the day was at Lyons Ferry Park which is only about a 45-minute drive for our place out in Prescott. All of our kids love to fish with dad and there’s some fun opportunities in that area to visit stocked ponds. We got skunked on our trip, but there will be more fishing for sure.
After about an hour of fishing with minimal luck we drove over to the playground at Lyons Ferry State Park to let the kids run around for a bit. When they started asking about lunch we decided to take the picnic we packed and drive the short distance up to Palouse Falls.
None of our kids had seen this natural wonder up close yet and we decided to show them the falls before the busy summer season makes it difficult to find a spot.
The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were a hit and while they liked seeing the waterfalls there wasn’t really enough activity to keep their attentions for too long. We let them get out the wiggles and then hopped back into the car.
We stopped again briefly at the Lyon’s Ferry Fish Hatchery Visitor Center as we worked to turn it into a little bit of an educational opportunity. As we loaded back up I was thankful for the upcoming drive as it was clear that all of the kids would benefit from a nap.
Overall, we had a wonderful trip in the outdoors and it was a perfect way to spend a Saturday. If you’re like us and love to get the kids outdoors and into the fresh air, we hope you’ll use our day-trip adventure as inspiration to plan your own.
