The Outdoor Life

It is once again that glorious time of year where the kids wake up, eat breakfast, put on their shoes and go outside.  This year it is even better because Elliott is at the point where he too can play outside by himself without constant supervision.  They absolutely love being outside and it is sometimes a challenge to get them to come in to do little things like eat lunch.  That's all right with me, I would rather have them grow up this way than sitting inside playing video games (although I'm sure that phase will present itself at some point).

Today as an added outdoor living bonus, I took the kids to the stairs at Memorial Drive and Centre Street for a bit of fitness.  I met a bunch of girlfriends there - we are motivating each other to be active.  I did the stairs, all 167 of them, 4 times - once with Elliott in the backpack on my back.  It was great to be able to do this with friends because it meant that someone was always at the bottom of the stairs;  I was able to leave the kids at the bottom of the stairs playing while I made the trek up and down.  Of course Payton seems to be half mountain goat and I think climbed the stairs about 6 times on her own - we'd get down and she would take off up them again with the next group of girls.  If only I had her energy!  After the 4th time, a couple of us decided to do the hill path once as a 'cool down'.  I strapped Elliott into the backpack once again and managed to make it to the top of the hill.  Phew.  Feels good to accomplish something like that in a day :)


In addition to the stairs, I got up earlier this morning to do an hour's worth of yoga.  I've been able to keep this up since my last blog entry, doing yoga every second morning, and I remember why I love doing it.  I always feel so good and relaxed when I'm done - it really is awesome!