Spokane, WA

Thursday morning my MOMS Club playgroup met at Shadle Park, 4302 N. Belt in northwest Spokane, to let the kids burn off some energy by playing on the toys and running through the splash park. Shadle Park consists of 40 acres just west of Maple/Ash on Wellesley Avenue. Shadle Park has something for everyone. You can run through the water, play on the toys, become competitive on the tennis court, watch baseball games, play a game of pick up basketball, or just lay a blanket down and read a good book.

After we laid out our blankets, administered sun screen in large quantities and figured out how the splash pad worked (you have to push the large black button on the orange pole) we let the kids start playing. The boys loved the splash pads, but the girls were not sure about getting wet at 9:30 in the morning.

After getting bored playing in the water, the kids headed over to the toys. Simon of course followed the big kids right up a set of stairs that led to nowhere. After I figured that out and showed him where the stairs were that led to the slides, he was set. Sliding is by far his favorite park activity. Shadle is nice for that as there are 3 separate toy structures with numerous different slides. There is also a tunnel to crawl through on the one of the toys and a large net to climb and fireman’s pole for the older kids.

If playing on the toys is not your style, there are lots of other activities at Shadle Park. There are tennis courts, a basketball court, baseball diamonds, a large gazebo and acres of grass for running or just relaxing. Starting this coming fall, the City of Spokane will also being construction of a new outdoor pool that is slated to open the summer of 2009.

This was our first time to Shadle Park, but since it is only a couple of miles from our house, I plan on visiting it regularly to let Simon stay cool and burn off energy throughout the summer.