As the summer heats up, we have been scheduling our play dates earlier in the day if they involve being outside in the heat. This past week the temperatures reached highs of just over one hundred degrees but we were able to avoid the discomfort of such high temperatures by going out early in the morning.
On one of our recent playdates we made plans to go to the only lake within the city’s limit. This lake has a lot of nice features. It has a beach for swimming and sand for playing as well as a good sized playground. There is also a dock for boats and good spots for fishing. The feature we planned on taking advantage of was the jogging/walking/biking path that went all the way around the lake (it also connects to the jogging/walking/biking trail that goes through the city itself.
We met the cousins at nine in the morning. My son’s ten month older cousin brought his new bicycle with training wheels and my daughter’s four week older cousin rode in the stroller. I had both my son and daughter in our double stroller. While many of our playdates together involve the moms sitting on a park bench with the girls while the boys play on the playground, this particular playdate gave the moms a chance to get in a little exercise too. We started our long walk around the lake. My son ran alongside his cousin (who was on his bike for a good part of our walk) most of the way around the lake laughing together. Occasionally we would stop for a water break or to switch the boys into the strollers for a running/bike riding break. For the first time in a long time we had a playdate that lent itself to a nice little bit of exercise for the moms which was a welcomed change!
