Create Your Summer Bucket List

Summertime means more free time for kids and plenty of sunshine and warm weather to do things that cannot be done the rest of the year. Stop summer boredom before it happens by having a family “Summer Bucket List” handy for kids to select activities from. There are a ton of websites with ideas to get you started on your family’s own summer activity list. Click here for a great PDF with a ton of fun ideas. Make sure to tailor your list to your family’s taste and what is available in the Puget Sound area. Some suggestions for fun, kid-friendly activities to add to your list:

• Hike to a waterfall
• Play a musical instrument in front of others
• Plant an herb garden and use it for cooking
• Attend an outdoor concert
• Play flashlight tag

Keep it Attainable 

Keep your family’s summer bucket list attainable by setting realistic parameters for distance, cost, and availability of the activities. While flying to Australia to pet a kangaroo may not be a reasonable summer 2021 goal for your family, perhaps you could plan a visit to a nearby zoo to see kangaroos in person.

Put the List Up for All to See

Keep summer activities and priorities top of mind by posting the list for all to see in a prominent place in the home. Use brightly colored paper, markers, glitter, or paint…whatever kids want to do to make the list-making a fun activity. Alternatively, ditch the paper altogether and write the bucket list activities on rocks or clothespins. As you complete an activity, move the list item from one container to the next. At the end of the summer, you will have fun looking through all the items in your “completed” container.

Make it Social

Build accountability and inspire others by sharing your summer bucket list activities on social media with friends, family, and neighbors. At the beginning of the summer, post your list and make sure to include a photo of each summer activity as you complete it. Create a hashtag unique to your family so you can search out photos later or compile them into a summer activity video log. We would love to see your summer bucket lists! Share your lists with us on social media, @TenTrails, and tag us when posting your summer activity photos. www.TenTrails.com 360.369.4043

Take a Virtual Tour of Local Museum Exhibits from the Comfort of Your Ten Trails Home 

While visiting museums in person isn’t possible right now, some local museums decided to bring the exhibits directly to your home! Take full advantage of Ten Trails’ ultra-fast 1-gig internet to keep kids entertained, augment at-home school learning programs and take part in fun puzzles and challenges with online programs offered by some Seattle area museums!

Take Flight at Home with the Museum of Flight

Ten Trails residents can take a 3D virtual tour of dozens of different aircrafts including the NASA space shuttle trainer via the Museum of Flight’s website. The Museum of Flight is also offering downloadable STEM workshops created by museum educators for kids in grades K-12. Kids can also get challenged competing in online puzzles and other interactive and educational games offered by the museum.

Pacific Science Center’s Curiosity at Home

Seattle’s Pacific Science Center is offering a new program, Curiosity at Home, which features live streaming science shows and hands-on STEM activities and tutorials for kids of all ages to do at home. The programs are intended to inspire young minds and create excitement about all areas of science. Every Wednesday at 11 am PST, the museum goes live on Facebook with educational programs related to the museum’s exhibits, live animals and even live science experiments.

Stay Home with SAM | At-home Art Programs from the Seattle Art Museum

While it is temporarily closed to the public, the Seattle Art Museum is offering weekly programs to inspire families to take part in at-home art activities. The museum’s blog features a new art object each week with information about its history, origination and the artist who created it. The weekly object is then connected to a suggested at-home activity for the entire family to take part in with tips on technique. www.TenTrails.com 360-469-4043

  Ten Trails premiered its first-ever movie night in the Civic Park this past Friday night with a showing of The Sandlot! Prior to the movie, guests enjoyed food truck fare, music, yard games and bouncy houses More than 25 vendors lined Fir Street by the park, offering up varied goods from pickles to live edge furniture! Join us for our next Sunset Market event on July 13th at 6 pm in our Civic Park! For details, follow us on Facebook @TenTrailsHometownSocial. 360-469-4043 www.TenTrails.com

Visit Nearby Crystal Mountain Ski Resort

Convenient Location, One Hour from Ten Trails

Ten Trails residents can count themselves lucky to have quick and easy access to Crystal Mountain Resort! Just about a hour away from the community, residents can find some of the best skiing in the area. Crystal Mountain has runs for all skill levels, so beginners and expert skiers can enjoy a day on the mountain. Crystal Mountain is also kid-friendly with programs in place to teach younger skiers.

Ski Season is Coming Soon

With snow already reported at the resort, it won’t be long until Crystal Mountain opens for the 2018-2019 ski season! Crystal typically opens for the season in late November. In addition to skiing, there resort also has snowshoe trails for wintertime visitors to enjoy.

Ikon Passes on Sale Now

Crystal Mountain is part of the Ikon pass for the 2018/19 season! Ikon pass holders have access to not only Crystal Mountain, but a number of legendary mountain ski resorts in North America, Japan and Australia. Ikon passes are on sale now through December 13th. To purchase an Ikon pass, visit www.ikonpass.com.

Summertime Visits

Not a fan of skiing? Crystal Mountain offers summertime recreation opportunities for those who prefer warmer weather activities. The resort has a number of hiking and horseback riding trails, offers interpretive nature walks as well as mountain yoga classes.  Visitors can also buy tickets to ride in the Mount Rainier Gondola from June to September. Climb 2,000 vertical feet to the summit of Crystal Mountain and take in sweeping views of Mt. Rainier, wildflower meadows and the Cascades. www.TenTrails.com 360-469-4043

Ten Trails Welcomes First Residents 

Ten Trails’ new residents, the McFadden Family, Join us for a Photoshoot and Chat at Ten Trails’ New Civic Park 

It’s early on a summer morning in late July and all is quiet within Ten Trails’ new Civic Park. In the distance, construction workers are beginning their day at Lennar and Conner Homes’ jobsites, and two children can be seen running up the community’s paved pathways toward the park. It’s the two oldest McFadden children, Damian and Nelly, who arrive slightly breathless and eager for their photo to be taken. A short while later, their mother, Leyah, and father, Marty arrive with the two younger McFaddens: Rosy and baby Griffin. The family of six is a happy group, and they are particularly pleased to be back in the Seattle area after living in Utah for the past two years. Originally residing in the Bothell area, the McFaddens had to relocate to Utah for Marty McFadden’s work, but now his job as facility manager brought him back to King County and to where the family desired to be: in close proximity to nature. “We really wanted to be close to outdoor activities,” explains Leyah when asked one of the main reasons they decided to purchase a home in Ten Trails. Ten Trails offers the family everything they were looking for: nearness to nature, easy access to Marty’s work, amenities like the community’s large Civic Park, and miles of accessible biking trails…something Leyah missed while living in the hilly suburb of South Jordan, Utah. The family is no stranger to master planned communities, having just lived in Daybreak, a 4,000-acre planned community located southwest of Salt Lake City. To the McFaddens, Ten Trails’ focus on lifestyle and community-building was a familiar concept, and they look forward to being able to get to know their new neighbors and enjoying new amenities as Ten Trails expands. The community’s built-in gathering spaces as well as monthly family-centric events were also things that appealed to the couple. Beyond embracing Ten Trails’ location and lifestyle, the family has also been enjoying settling in to their new home, built by longtime local builder, Conner Homes, one of the four builders announced for far at Ten Trails. “It’s perfect for how we live,” says Leyah. The open-concept plan with upstairs loft is the ideal layout or the active family, and its nearness to community green spaces provides the children ample space to play beyond their low-maintenance backyard. One new favorite family hangout spot for the McFaddens is the Civic Park. In particular, the family has taken a liking to the hammock swing.  “This is the best thing at this park….it’s even fun for adults,” Marty jokes. Damian and Nelly have enjoyed exploring the park and having it largely all to themselves over the past couple of weeks while they wait for new neighbors to move in. “My mom says this is our park,” Damian says.  Leyah laughs and adds, “Yes, for now it is.” www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043