Out and About, Summer 2012!

With summer in full swing, I offer you a bucket list to make the most out of the season, enjoy!

The summer is ripe for the picking and offers innumerable opportunities to engage our bodies, our minds and our energy to doing good things. Whether to enrich your own understanding of your environment or lend a hand to your community, the warm weather provokes memory making and out of door activity.  Take advantage of the long daylight hours, balmy temperatures and sojourn from the everyday grind to relax, breathe new life into your routine and strengthen your sense of belonging to the world.

20 Things to Guide You Outside:

1. Plant a garden! From pots to plots, consider a palette that incorporates native plants for wildlife, herbs, flowers, and edibles.  Visit botanical gardens or clip out images that appeal to you and make them your own. 2. Whatever floats your boat! Pick up some inexpensive floaties, tubes or "suped-up" noodles and jump in the local pool, lake, or ocean and just enjoy bobbing in an aquatic environment.

3. BBQ: find some new recipes and try your hand at cooking outside.  Experiment with kabobs that include fruit, root vegetables, or pound cake! 4. Garage sale: host one or go to them. Clean out clutter in your house and make some extra money for a field trip or two, or find something new to collect and enjoy the hunt of finding that special item. 5. Photo expedition: birds, clothes on a line, dogs, rooflines, alley ways, etc..  Whatever image you find appealing, from post offices to moss, get out there and shoot! 6. Leaf press, dry herbs, create a floral arrangement. Lavender wands, dried rosemary, or a bouquet of "weeds" are fun crafts to do by yourself or with others. 7. Make a lemonade stand, and your loot can go to your adventures or to a special cause. 8. Take a bike ride. Rent bikes or load yours into your car, the train, or a bus and cruise around an area on a two-wheeler.  This unique mode of travel can give you an original perspective of any neighborhood, city, or trail. 9. U-pick: head out to a nearby farm and pick your own fruits and vegetables.  Close your eyes as you taste produce that you picked yourself. 10. Volunteer at a local animal shelter and offer to walk dogs or clean up paths. 11. Learn about local architecture and take a look around; put theory into action and cultivate an appreciation for windows, columns, gingerbread and vernacular building styles. 12. Host a movie under the stars; classics, family or sci-fi-put up a screen (sheet), borrow a projector and voi la! An event is made. 13. Make s'mores. Whether you own a fire pit or use the park's grills, organize a gang to roast marshmallows and create this classic American treat. 14. Pitch a tent: borrow a tent from a friend and set it up in the backyard or a local camp site.  There's nothing like sleeping in the confines of a modern lean-to.

15. Dry the laundry on a line. Save energy and freshen up your clothes and linens by hanging your sheets, clothes and blankets on the line or fence to air dry. 16. Clean up the environment: help weed out nonnative invasive plants, plant native ones, and clean up garbage from natural areas. 17. Have a breakfast picnic. Pancakes on a griddle, oatmeal in a crock pot, or homemade granola.  Roll out of your jammies and enjoy breakfast in a park, on a lawn, or at the beach. 18. Bring your JumpSport Fitness trampoline outside and have your workout in the fresh air. 19. Support community redevelopment: offer your time to paint, sand, sweep, run tools for a local group that helps repair or build housing, or participate in building preservation. 20. Learn to ID birds and local flora and fauna.

As we begin to enter the heart of summer, what are your plans to reap the sunshine? What types of experiences have you already cultivated or have circled on your calendar? Maybe you have taken on tye-dying or basket-weaving? If so, take pictures and post them here on the blog or on the JumpSport Fitness Trampoline™ Facebook page.  You can even upload images from Instagram onto the Twitter, @FitTrampoine.

Have fun!!

Heidi Aspen Rhoades Social Media Correspondent and Fitness Professional @aTweetFit