Good Days to be Outside

We spent five and a half hours out at Prescott last Friday. It was beautiful. This small town of ours has some jewels, that place being one of them. Well, Rainier claims it, actually, but it's between the two, so I guess it's kind of ours, too.

I found us a spot in the warm sun at 10:30 that turned to shade at one. Perfect ratio and when you need the shade the most. The kids were happy to play in the water and wander up and down the beach area. Talmage did a face plant in the water soon after arriving and steered clear of the water after that. We made mermaid tails and dug for water. I was able to lay in the sand and they kicked up water and hunted for freshwater clam shells.

Our 50 hours outside is quickly coming to a close. The end date is this week, Saturday the 21st, and right now we have 1.5 hours left. I think we're going to make it. It's been a race. But a manageable one. It's gotten me out of the house when usually I would stay inside to clean up one more thing or start another load of laundry. And I have embraced that there is nothing wrong with peanut butter jelly sandwiches for dinner, or cereal, because sometimes we've been outside playing when I would usually need to be inside cooking dinner. Or heck, even some fast food, if we've been out at the park and are coming home hungry.

At our gym there is child care in the morning and child care in the evening during the week. When someone needs a backup, they try to switch days with someone and then if that doesn't work, I get a text asking if I can fill in. I don't mind and do it happily - extra happily that I don't have to do it every week. This past week I was filling in on a Wednesday and it was gorgeous out. I left a note by the sign-in sheet about joining us outside. I took a soccer ball and the kids had a picnic before anyone else showed up. We were coming directly from acro-jazz and had to get dinner on the way through town. They played house for a hour and a half until some other kids showed up and they kicked the soccer ball around for a good amount of time. They were older kids, older as in 7 and 9, and they were so much fun to be with! I am so excited for our own to get that old. Of course, then there will be little ones again, too, but it was nice to have a glimpse of what the future holds. They could actually get and understand a game of pick-up soccer and I jogged around with them, kicking in where I could.