This is my kind of winter – no snow! My kids disagree, and I know the skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts out there are not happy either. But for me, dry roads and the disappearance of snow pants and boots is just fine. I’m sure it will snow hard one of these days (weeks, months?) and we’ll have a blast making snowmen and snow forts and snow balls. And, for the first time, we’re planning on taking the kids skiing this winter, even if it is on machine-made snow.
courtesy: Weston Ski Track
But, until Mother Nature cooperates, the four new sets of snowshoes we bought are collecting dust in the basement. Never mind that we don’t have poles yet; I’ll get around to buying those eventually. A friend did recently mention the Weston Ski Track, where she’ll pilgrim to this weekend to snowshoe. I’m tempted but not yet desperate enough. I’m holding out for the beauty of Maudslay State Park.
So what to do with ourselves on these mild days of winter 2012?
Get outside! The more time we can spend outside, the happier the kids are. Happy kids equals happy parents, and vice versa.
My kids and their father take off on the first of many laps around the track at Bradley Fuller Athletic Field on a recent sunny morning.
So last weekend, on a sunny Saturday, we hit the track. My 7-year-old daughter had asked a number of times to go running with her father, and visiting the Bradley Fuller Athletic Field on Low Street, where the Newburyport Public Schools hold many practices and events, seemed like the perfect choice: enclosed, away from cars and a large enough space to tire the kids out. So we dressed in layers and sneakers and off we went.
To our surprise, several other families had the same idea! We bumped into a friend and her 8-year-old daughter getting their exercise, and met a new family also looking to raise the heart rates of their little ones, ages 3 and 6.
We spent about an hour at the track that morning, taking turns running laps with the kids, having races, and just generally being silly. One of the other mothers there had her children gallop, skip and jog backwards on the track, while the other mother-daughter pair ran separately at different paces. The small set of bleachers served as a perfect cheering – and resting spot.
We capped our morning at the track with a visit to the Nock/Molin School playground next store, hidden from sight from Low Street and behind the building. The kids loved climbing the spider-like structure. We didn’t get a chance to visit the playground at the River Valley Charter School across the street, but from what I understand, all the school playgrounds in Newburyport are open to the public after 4 p.m. on weekdays and all weekends, so we’ll check that out in the future.
Ready, set, go. Hannah legitimately beat me running a lap around the track.
Another outside activity we’ll be at is the family-friendly and free Newburyport Winter Carnival, scheduled for Jan. 28 from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Events include ice skating, sledding and snowboarding, horse-drawn carriage rides, a human dog sled race, free snowshoe demonstrations by retailer REI, and free hot chocolate. All’s that needed is some cold air to freeze the Frog Pond and snow to sled on! Do you think it’ll happen by then??
Update to New Year’s Eve 2011: Instead of hitting First Night Boston, we ventured up to First Night Portsmouth, a smaller scale of great events. We rolled into Portsmouth a bit before 4 p.m. and stayed until after 8 p.m. The entertainment was perfect for my 4- and 7-year-olds – two kids’ concerts, a puppet show, and a magic show. Top it off with a neat ice sculpture display, a view of the moon and Jupiter from a high-powered telescope, and fireworks and it made for a great evening.
At First Night Portsmouth, Hannah and Alex hold a star made of solid ice.
We started off the first day 2012 just as we started off 2011, with a long walk on Hellcat Wildlife Observation Area at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island. We explored the various boardwalks a bit more this year, and got slightly lost a few times but enjoyed every step of it, particularly the moment when two swans shimmied across the vast sky.
Happy 2012!
Jill Oestreicher Gross lives in Newburyport and be reached at jillalexandra@yahoo.com.
