Tuesday, August 16, 2011

A Walk in The Park

Two Thoughts For Tuesday

Thought #1  Parks are Fun

Every town has little parcels of land carved out for the use of the masses for the  purpose of relaxing, playing, generally renewing oneself.  The parks at the town and city level are some of the measure of what makes a town a great place to live.  As we live nearly on the border line of Olathe and Overland Park, Kansas, we get the added bonus of two towns that have "outdone" themselves with great parks. 

This week we took our grandsons to visit one of the parks that we enjoy.  Deanna Rose Farmstead opened in 1978 as the Children's Farmstead but was renamed in 1985 to honor Deanna  Sue Rose. 

Deanna was an Overland Park police officer that died while trying to make an arrest.  Officer Rose is the only police officer in the history of Overland Park and the first woman officer in the state of Kansas to die
in the line of duty.

The farmstead is designed to depict a turn-of-the-century family farm as well as a gold mining camp, a one room  country school house, a general store, vintage bank and Indian village.   There are fishing ponds, petting zoos, dairy barns and pony rides to name just a few of the things to do and see.

After going through the barn entrance the first place we have to go is to get out Popsicle at Alex & Emily's Ice Cream Parlor.


Once we have "sugar loaded" we are off to the playground.


After multiple trips down the slide we are off to talk to the animals.


The Rabbit looks surprised to see us

Feeding a couple of the little goats. G-boy #2 is strictly a
spectator while G-boy #1 is doling out goat chow


The bigger goats want handfuls of food and they mean business
a prairie dog pops up to say hi

The Black Swans are  chllin' in their pool

Not even a hi from the buffalo.  He is busy with supper.

Mr. Eagle is eyeballing us and trying to look majestic.
A little garden in the middle of the park
G-boy #1 is doing some soil testing
pretty little English gardens to look at native plants
We can't leave the garden until we step on the stepping stones
Leaving the garden and heading for the Nature Trail
The trail entrance leads us to the Butterfly Garden
I don't see the butterflies but I see a fairy.
Grandpa and Grandson are sizing up the big wind chime.
The wind chime doesn't have wind so we have to help it make music
Almost time for the park to close so we are we are heading back to the front of the park


Looks like he is saying "call me" but that can't be as what 3 year old is taking calls?


Sad to be leaving
Heading to the car

Thought #2  Parks are more fun with Kids....especially Grandkids



The Good for the Day....  A nice day for the park


The Bad for the Day...Deanna Rose was attempting to arrest a drunk driver when he knocked her to the ground unconscious and then ran over her.  She was 27 years old.


The Weird for the Day.. I think this tree is staring at us










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