Park Photos and a Layout

About a week ago I took my camera with the zoom lens across the street to the park just to play around with it. And as you can see by my description of "zoom lens", I am not a pro at this. I have no idea what kind of lens it is. I just know it's the one that takes really cool close ups. Mike is the one who knows all the technical stuff!
One of these days I *will* take a camera class. Although, I have definitely learned a lot the past few years.
Anyway,
We are really lucky to have a great park right across the street from our house. With two playgrounds and a splash fountain. Lots of historical pavillions and just really pretty areas. Everyone teases us about what a great "front yard" we have :)

My first favorite shot was of Erin.

It amazes me how much fun the kids have in the park. First we played baseball for a little bit. And then Erin wanted to just check out the trees, while Evan was running around collecting sticks.

Then Erin had to get in on the stick collecting.

So Evan could build this. My artist son entitled his wood sculpture "the stick dancer". Seriously this kid loves art so much and creating and building things out of legos and any kind of construction material he can get his hands on. He goes back and forth saying he wants to be an architect or a "lego builder" when he grows up. And by lego builder, he means those lucky guys who get to work with legos for a living :)

And then daddy was back from his run around the park. Yep, it's a good place to exercise, too! Very peaceful and pretty. We use this park a lot, can you tell :)

And finally a layout I made for Kelly Purkey's Sketch 3 class. This one was from day 3. And the photos are from a Sunday we went to see our nephew in a rowing meet. A totally different park, but just as pretty and with a lake. I also made a card to go with the sketch but haven't taken a photo yet.
So far it's been a great class with four days of sketches for inspiration.
But I knew it would be :)