Get Outside and Play

Playing outside with the family is always fun.  It is great to get fresh air, be active and just have fun as a family.  This Saturday, September 24th, families are encouraged to participate in Worldwide Day of Play and to turn off their TV and go outside to play.  There are so many ways you can enjoy the outdoors with your family, and here are some of my family’s favorites.

1. Swimming – We love to swim.  We swim at the beach, at the pool and from our boat.  It is relaxing, and good exercise too.  The only drawback is that it is seasonal, at least where we live. But while it lasts it is lots of fun.
2. Biking – We enjoy biking together as a family.  We all have bikes, and like to go for rides along the local roads or the Erie Canal path.   When the kids were younger I used to pull them in a trailer, but now that they are teens they whiz right past me.  I have always been the slowest cyclist in the family, but when I was pulling the kids I had an excuse.  Now I’m just slow.  We find 10 miles is about as far as we can go before the kids start whining.
3. Walking – We go for hikes, or more informally just walks in the woods.  The best part about this is we can take the dog.  He runs ahead of us and sniffs everything he can find.  We have about 40 acres of snowmobile trails behind our house, and while we don’t snowmobile we enjoy walking the trails and enjoying nature.  My husband and I also like to go on walks after dinner, in addition to getting exercise this also gives us a chance to talk about the kids where they can’t hear us.
4. Picnics – We like to go on picnics at the local parks, especially with our extended family.  We enjoy cooking in the outdoors, and just hanging out with family.  Sometimes we play catch, sometimes we play frisbee, and sometimes we sit outside and talk.  An informal get-together doesn’t have to take a lot of planning.

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