Like Nike~Just Do It!

I am feeling better about the summer and how our time is being spent. I say this knowing that this is still a great work in progress. It seems that the theme of our summer has been "creating a system" or maybe "managing time." We love to do things together as a family and with the girl's team/boy's team challenge we have (our girls are 8 and 6 and the boys are only 2 and 9 months), picking activities where everyone is engaged is challenging.

This week we hit the tennis courts! Our development has a tennis court and earlier this year I had visions of us using the court since I knew the girls would be in tennis camp and as a whole, we like to be athletic and active. So I set out to find rackets for me and my husband (one on eBay and one from a family friend). The girls had rackets from camp and I even managed to find a small racket for my 2 year old and boy does he know how to swing it!

Day one: Tennis was not so fun. We hit the courts too late and it was unbearably hot. We did our best to ignore the heat, but it was not to be ignored. The other problem was our girls were used to the tennis camp conditions~smaller courts, shade (that's a big one!), kid friendly balls...We spent most of the time hopping the fence to retrieve stray balls. I don't think we managed one volly rally on day one. The kids were complaining about the heat and they forgot their water bottles at the house so we decided to call it quits.

Day two: Started out MUCH earlier to beat the heat of the day. It was still hot, but not nearly as hot as day one. The girls remembered their water bottles, but forgot their sun visors this time. Good grief! We pressed on and got a rally going...well sort of. Today was much better though. The girls were getting better at judging the ball coming to them and their hand eye coordination was improving. My rust was starting to fall off as well. I have not played tennis in over 20 years. I do not think my husband has ever played, but his athleticism always carries him far. :-)

I am actually looking forward to day three now. As we exited the tennis court it hit me that this was what I had envisioned back when we were 20+ feet under the snow a few months back; playing tennis as a family (I will admit our form was better in my daydream). I was reminded today this is what life is about. Just getting out there and doing something with your family. "Just Do It!" like Nike says. It really doesn't matter what it is, as long as you are having fun and enjoying one another's company.