Fit Family

If you know me, you'll know I'm always trying to find a deal. Some of my favorite deals are meaningful activities for our family to do together, especially if it involves a pool, since my kids love the water. (Kind of ironic, since I grew up with a pool and probably took it for granted.) At the end of December I discovered the Family Fit program at the Summit. It had actually been going on since September, but somehow I missed the advertisements then (how did I do that?!) This program has a free family activity each month. All you do is sign up at the start of the semester, then sign up each month for that month's activity. If you track each individuals' activities and/or steps each month from your family, you can enter to win prizes. I can't believe more people don't do this around here!

In January, it was the kick-off to a new semester, so they advertised well, maybe why I discovered it then. We met at the Summit for wii bowling tournaments (which our kids won second place for and won a bag) and giant Jenga. Then they had a Yoga class and open swim (the real reason we signed up, so we could swim at the nice pool for free!) I was excited for the Yoga and intended on the kids doing it with me, but when they said we could start the open swim early, Yoga was definitely a thumbs-down for them!

Our second place medal. 

 February we got to go snowshoeing. We met at the Summit for a short history of the Native Americans that lived around here and how they used snowshoes, then we got to snowshoe around the lake and have hot chocolate.

Erik, the white blur blending in with the snow...

Victoria brought her friend Sabrina with us.

Austin's friend Dallin was there.

They loved exploring with those snowshoes on!

March was ice skating. That was when we went the night before my birthday. So fun!!!

You've seen all these pics before, but I had to repost for good memories!

Last Saturday it was a bike parade for April. We met at the park to decorate our bikes, play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk, and learn some bike safety. We did a short ride around the lake for the littles, then won a bunch of prizes for our names we'd entered in the raffle. There weren't many people there that day, so we took home 5 prizes! Two bikes bells, a bubble machine you can attach to your bike, a strand of lights for a bike, and a set that includes a water bottle holder and light for a bike. They also gave out little lights to put on the air valves. After we collected our goods, Jason took home Karissa and Erik. Victoria, Austin, and I went on the trail ride with some of the other more "seasoned" riders. It was great because the trail had to cross some streets and those crossing areas  were blocked by police cars when we went by so we could stay together, our band of 8.

Bartlett the Beaver, the Summit's mascot, was there.

The bikes are all spiffed up!

This bike is now Karissa's and Victoria has a big red one.

I really hope they continue this program, but I'm afraid they won't since most events aren't that well-attended. There was more staff at this bike event than cyclists! The weather couldn't have been better either!

The sad and happy news for Karissa: little Karissa, the same size as 6 and 7 year-olds, has had a hard time trying the learn to ride her two-wheeler. At the end of last summer, we gave up. She didn't have the confidence nor the desire. I realized this bike event was coming up, so I had her try the bike on our first nice day last week. She did finally have the desire. She rode down the driveway and for a moment I remembered 4-year-old Austin just taking off and I thought that was going to be her, but she freaked out and the end and crashed into the island. Well, we tried again and again after that, but she had lost confidence and each time was worse. Luckily, she still had the desire, which was the only reason she kept going for about 15 min. We were both very discouraged. The next day at the bike event. Jason decided not to bring his bike and just run with her around the lake. He said he pretty much supported her the whole time, which is why she didn't ride the trail with us. Later that day, she decided to try Austin's much smaller bike, which is something I had forgotten we were going to try last summer, since it's so much smaller. She did it!!! Her bike is just like an inch bigger than Victoria's, so we tried her on Victoria's next, and she did it! So, we made a bike swap. Victoria now has a full size bike that we got from some friends and Karissa has Victoria's old bike. We can't get her off the bike now! She's constantly riding and going off curbs and waving and everything! She just needed a smaller bike to get going and the confidence after that. Hooray!

There she goes!!

Erik has decided to ride his training wheel bike, finally!