Urbandale Parks Challenge: Timberline East Open Space and Days Run Park

We originally set out to walk through the Timberline East Open Space as one of our parks, but then I spotted a playground in the distance. It was Days Run Park, so we got two parks for the price of one today! This means we finished up parks 14 & 15 in our Urbandale Parks Challenge.

Days Run Park was busy! I think there were 3 other sets of families there, so the kids got a chance to play with others and be social. There are a lot of homes that back to this open space, and plus it has wide open views from the homes. So, it felt like a very safe park to let the kids kind of play on their own. I should have brought a book!

There was a bit of a castle on the playground, plus a dinosaur. It wasn't an especially big playground area, but they loved it just the same.

As far as shade goes, it was moderate. There were some trees to provide shade for parents hanging around, and a small section of the playground was shaded.

Urbandale Parks Challenge: First Park - Brookview (1 Down, 31 to Go!)

We're participating in Urbandale's 32 Parks in 90 Days challenge! Today was the first day of the challenge, and so I took the kids to Brookview Park after Oliver got home from school. It was a little hard to find. We found a path that ran from the sidewalk next to a house on 65th Street, and the path led to the park. The kids were really excited to see the castle feature on the playground!

The park isn't shaded at all, and so the kids complained about feeling hot. I told them to run around and play! But, honestly, I couldn't imagine going here in the heat of the summer.

There's the trail from the park. It splits and leads to a few different parks in Urbandale. Almost every park in the Des Moines area is connected by a trail system!

As part of the challenge, we're supposed to take our picture by the park sign. Unfortunately, we couldn't find one, so I took a picture of the park map with the kids playing in the background. Close enough! One park down, 31 to go!