Seasonal Essentials

The Helpers

Dan & Angela Storey are accomplished professionals, active community members and, most importantly, parents of Oliva (11), Eleanor (7) & Ruby (5).

While the family is now hunkered together at home, they still love Spring. Stay-at-home orders cut many of their favorite seasonal plans, but the family still loves the season and can’t wait for the chance to celebrate.

photos by Amber Yoshida

Spring Seasonal Essentials from the Storey Family...

1. KU and March Madness – Dan and I both work for KU, so whether it’s Big 12 tournament or the NCAA tournament, our girls (and us!) get really excited for game days. We’ll sometimes go to watch parties, or find family friendly watch sites around town. About 85% of our closet is crimson and blue… and our girls’ follow suit.

2. Bike Ride to the Levy – We all love to ride bikes, and we have done some big trips where we bike to the levy and head down the trail from there. The outdoor patio at The Levy Café is one of our favorite treats.

3. Walks with our Dog, Dixie – The girls wanted to make sure the dog made our list, because she is definitely a part of the family! We take her to the dog park, or walks around town, and she loves it. She is the most loving, cuddly dog we’ve ever met. We adopted her about 2 years ago.

4. Lawrence Public Library – This is one of our favorite Lawrence spots. We try to watch their schedule closely for any activities that we can participate in. Even without an activity, we can spend hours at the library. All 3 of our girls LOVE books, and love to read!

5. Campus Bike Ride/Walk – We always have some fun campus walks in the spring when the weather starts to turn. Dan is a photographer and created a really fun activity a few years back where he gave Olivia a digital camera and they walked around campus taking photos. It was fun to see how it turned out from each of their lenses!

6. Grilling Out – When it starts to get warm, we love grilling and eating outside on our deck.

7. Lawrence Arts Center – We spend A LOT of time at the Arts Center. Our girls participate in performances and we love to check out the art displays and other exhibits they offer.

8. Easter Egg Hunt – We have several hunts we try to go to around town because our kids are still of the age that they have a lot of fun with it. We really enjoy the annual hunt at Lawrence Country Club.

9. KU Baseball/Softball Games – Outdoors and stadium food!

10. Hiking – When the weather warms up, we like heading out to Clinton Lake or the Lawrence Nature Park on Folks Road if we have free weekend time.

11. Soccer – Eleanor & Ruby play soccer, so you can find us on the soccer fields most Saturday mornings.

12. Sunfire Ceramics – The girls LOVE art and LOVE to create… so Sunfire Ceramics is one of our favorite spots.

13. Picnics – In general, we love finding a spot to have a picnic. Whether it’s out at Clinton Lake at the beach, or at Deerfield, or South Park… it’s always fun packing up the kids, the dog and a picnic basket.

14. Spring Farmers’ Market – We really go a lot in the summer, but when it starts up, we love finding something at the farmers’ market.