Going for a "Walk"

Do you know what happens when warm weather, sunshine, 132 requests to play video games, 1 hour with nothing to do and 4 antsy kids all collide?  Yep ... it's time to go for a walk!

A few weekends ago, Brett came home from a visit with his folks to find just such a situation in our home. And one mommy desperately in need of being refreshed!  Commence count down to:  Mission - Get out of the house ...

We checked the clock:  plenty of time to get out and get back for dinner.
We checked the weather:  sunshine and no wind.  Perfect condition.
We checked the kids:  they were whining, moping and flopped on the couch.  Perfect candidates.

We announced that we were all going for a walk and received mixed responses.

"Yeah!  Can we scooter?"
"Nope ... we're walking."

"Boo-yeah!  Can we bike?"
"No ... we're walking."

"Can I stay here?"
"No.  We.  Are.  Walking."

In just under ten minutes, we were finally all properly shod and jacketed and headed out the door.  Lydia was plopped in her little red stroller and Gimli was on his leash.  The three other kids were free to walk and roam within reach.

We headed out of the cul-de-sac ... like a small circus-less parade.  (Four clowns and their parents ... but with none of the fun associated with an actual parade.)  As we made the turn to head up the street, the kids came to grip with the plight of being required to actually walk ... and began to enjoy themselves a bit.

Aaron began sharing in minute detail his most recent adventures on the computer.  I confess that I didn't exactly follow along with all the in's and out's of the game, but I kept up by paying attention to the sound effects and the slow-mo replay of each battle.  He kicked, punched, leapt and "spchu!"-ed up Kansas Avenue.  All I can say is that it was pretty intense. And wet. :)

Ashley decided to take advantage of this walk to get in her cardio work-out for the day.  I think that she ran, hopped, skipped and danced her way up the street.  Anytime that little pixy tells me she's too tired to walk upstairs and put away her pj's, I'm going to remember her sprinting back and forth between the stroller and the next stop sign ... and I'm going to put her to work.

Lydia jumped out of the stroller a few times so that she could spin, jump, hop and skip with Ashley.  And walk Gimli.  Slowly.  Sniffing every bush and mailbox.  She strutted her stuff about 75% of our walk and when you think about how far we ended up walking, it's pretty amazing.  If I was to figure out the distance she walked in proportion to the length of her little chunky legs ... she walked to Montrose.  (For you non-Coloradians, that's about 60 miles from here ... so yeah, it's an exaggeration.  Almost.)

Then there was Norah ... who didn't actually walk.  She cartwheeled.  A lot.  I wish that I had been paying closer attention to her because it would have been fun have an actual number at the end of the walk.  "Norah did 97 cartwheels on our walk."  And five walking handstands.  And a couple of splits.  (Those last ones really slowed her down, so she had to catch up with some split-jumps in the air while running.)

And Brett and I?  Well.  We actually just ... walked.  We walked and laughed (at the kids, mostly).  We walked and reminded the kids to "stay to the right" and "keep off the lawn" and "leave the rocks there".  We walked and held hands a few times ... just like when we were dating.  We walked and gave some simple instructions:  if your gum falls in the dirt, don't eat it; if the dog is doing his business, let him finish; and if you see a car, move out of the way.  We walked and wished we were burning as many calories as the kids.

It was nice.  And in the end, we all got some exercise (some more than others), we all got some fresh air, we all got a few good laughs, we all got our wiggles out and we all slept better that night.

Here's to more walks-runs-spins-cartwheels-leaps-battles-strolls this summer!

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Just a reminder to check out "What's for Dinner" and "Trekking Thru the Bible" ... all new this week! :)