The Great Outdoors

The kids have a better appreciation for the outdoors for activities such as biking and rollerblading more than in the past. It helps that I found some great new-to-us bikes for Austin and Victoria for amazing deals on Facebook marketplace. They also appreciate hiking with friends more when that's the only option they have for seeing some of their friends right now because of social distancing.

We often ride to the park in the neighborhood.

Austin's new bike!

Victoria's new bike. It's bigger than Autin's but with the paint color, it almost looks exactly the same! ( I ride it sometimes when she's not and I'm riding on the dirt roads because it has really good shocks!)

Our favorite bike path now. With friends, it's even better!

Erik's really good friend, Desmond, who lived a few houses down, just moved to Connecticut. He and Erik would have outdoor, "socially distanced" play dates. His last day here he came for lunch. We're sad that his family is gone now. 

Our favorite hiking place, Maybury.

We hiked with friends there recently. They're a little more concerned with getting too close to people, so we just hiked and didn't gather for pictures.

We have played some fun water games outside. The boys had to squirt the water balloon to get it to move. Whoever got it to the end first, won! It was highly competitive but fun!

Something that wasn't outdoors this summer was Girl's Camp. They held it virtually, which I didn't think sounded too great at first, but Victoria and Karissa really enjoyed it! A few days before it started, they each received a box from the YW President in our ward. It included a T-shirt, supplies for some of the classes, a journal, and a program of events that included references for some of the spiritual conversations they had. Monday morning they started with a Youth Camp Leader (YCL) spiritual meeting on Zoom. I don't know exactly what they talked about, but my girls seemed happy and uplifted afterward. After that, they had a watercolor class taught by a lady in our ward that she prerecorded on Youtube. The supplies for that were included in the box. There was a devotional given by the stake YW leaders in the afternoon. Tuesday started with another YCL spiritual meeting, followed by an origami class on Zoom, with supplies provided. That afternoon was a job skills class and then a missionary devotional. Wednesday was the final day and started with the YCL devotional and then a Zumba class taught by my friend on Zoom. That afternoon was a communications class and the evening was a devotional given by the Stake Presidency. It was a few days full of the Spirit in our home!

Victoria's origami and art.

Karissa's art.

The best outdoor activity that is new to us, is our new paddleboard! We loved using my brother's and sister's in Utah, so we ordered one when we returned and it finally arrived! We went to the lake the very next day and it was so nice! The only thing is that the lake had a lot of algae that day, so we couldn't go out too far because it was gross and made it hard to maneuver in. I was surprised it was so bad because we went to that very lake a few weeks ago and it was clear as can be. 

That brown part in the background is not a sand bar, that's the algae!

I've been extending my outdoor workouts because the kids sleep late and I don't have a lot of stuff going on in the morning. I decided to run a half marathon this morning. I felt really good, except my knees were not great at the end. I had been having a little bit of knee pain lately during my long runs, despite all the strength training with my legs, so I knew that I didn't want to wait any longer for the half, I was ready! Today had perfect weather, so I just did it. I want to do a tri soon, just have to figure out the logistics with the lake, etc. My bike rides have been super fun lately!