Salem Willows

The last day of the boys' April vacation deserved some kind of outing. We are not much on making plans in advance, but I realized I'd heard somewhere that the Salem Willows was open for the season, and we decided on a last minute jaunt to check it out.

The kids and I had never been before and they loved exploring the park and rocks and beach and of course, the arcade! It was considerably warmer on the North Shore than at home and LOTS more flora was blooming so we were thrilled to see so many buds and actual leaves sprouting already.

First stop was a climb down the rocks onto the beach. Liam is so in his element outdoors and immediately jumped from the car to climb the first hill he could find.

Sadie couldn't manage the sheer rocky drop to the beach, but luckily she became obsessed with manhole covers which kept her busy while her brothers explored a bit.

Time out for games and rides! I could tell Colin thought he was MUCH too big for the baby rides but he was very happy to supervise his sister on them and was so sweet with her, as always. Liam, of course, tried his hardest to jump/lean/fall out of the rides and ended up duking it out with Bozo the Clown. He was great at the sports games (no surprise!) and landed most of his shots in the basketball hoop! Eamon savored each and every quarter and had half a cup left by the time his big brothers were already broke, and he lingered over all of the car/racing/motorcycle/snowmobile rides he could find. Colin managed to beat The Claw and won a Red Sox ball only to put it down and have it lost/stolen moments later. Luckily I convinced the extremely creepy guy who was working on the machine to let him have another one.

Back to the beach for a couple hours of adventuring. This time we found a way for Sadie to get down and she met up with salt water for the first time! She loved it and walked right in despite the frigid April water. Her brothers tried hard to outdo each other and see who could last in the water longest (Liam won by far and went up to his neck. I don't know what I'm going to do with that kid, but he NEVER complains no matter how hurt or beat up he gets so what's a Mom to do but allow it?)

This sissy photography preferred to stay warm and dry on the beach and just document every one else's craziness!

Eamon went exploring near and far collecting shells...

...and seaweed and snail shells and crab shells and anything else he could convince us to take home in the car with us.

If there is a tree, we will climb it. (And if it happens to be a gorgeous old tree, all the better)

All that sun and sand make for a tired girl.

And her brothers were not far behind!