When my husband and I got married, we decided to move to the town where he grew up. It's a small town with a population of about 10,000, full of orchards and farms and mountains and lakes and so much pretty landscape that it takes your breath away all year 'round. There are also many young families, and the town builds into that. There's a Festival of Lights at the end of November and movies in the park on Friday nights in the summer and this past weekend was Action Festival.

Action Festival runs from Friday afternoon through Sunday night and there is something for everyone. There is a massive baseball tournament, there is a rotating roster of musicians playing in the band shell in the park, there are more food vendors than you can imagine and there is, of course, a beer garden for those who want to just sit and take in the music. Saturday morning there is a triathlon, and Saturday evening you can participate in a 5K or 10K run. I ran the 10K last year for the first time last year, and ran it again this year. Only this time, I wasn't the only member of my family who was racing.

My children all attend the elementary school (It's Kindergarten to Fifth Grade) and the school did something new this year. They've always promoted DPA (Daily Physical Activity) and the kids go on long walks and hikes and just get outside. As a build-up to ActionFest, they had all of the kids run a KM per day, with June 15th being the fortieth day that they do this. For the kids who also participated in the ActionFest 5K, they'll have completed the 42.2 KM that is the total amount of KM in a marathon, and they'll get a t-shirt attesting to that fact. I think that's pretty rad.

So, this past Saturday saw all five of us (plus a cousin) at the starting line. Their Dad went with them on the 5K route, I took the 10K route, and we all met back at the finish line. (My daughter is five, so she didn't do the whole 5K. Instead, she and her Dad met me at two points along my run to high five me and cheer me on.) When I got to the finish line, I was cheered on by my husband, our kids, and my inlaws/nephews. We all walked over to the park, bought dinner from the food vendors, and listened to them call out door prize winners.

I am SO PROUD of my kids for participating, and they are SO EXCITED that they got to do it. They slept in their race t-shirts the first night, and wore them to school for three days straight until I threw them in the laundry. I love that an activity that both my husband and I love to do (running) is now something that our kids love to do. They even want to keep training and get faster.

How about your family? Do you participate in any sports together, running or other?