Nautilus is headquartered in Vancouver - right near one of my favorite local shopping areas. If you look at the signs as you're driving around the parking lot, you see an arrow pointing to something that says, "The Backyard." The Backyard includes an artificial turf football/soccer field, softball field, track, basketball courts, bleachers, scoreboards, picnic tables. There's plenty of parking, and it's open to the public (you can even reserve the fields if you want to plan ahead). I've been there a few times with the girls, and yesterday the whole family went - and at no point have I ever seen more than one other small cluster of people there. Now, I don't know that Nautilus really aggressively advertises that this wonderland is available for any old Joe off the street and his rugrats - but it IS. (It's kind of hard to find much to link to that explains the Backyard - here's something at least. See the lower right-hand corner of the page.) And, with the kids - anywhere you can take them where they have the freedom to run around an open space at will, it's awesome.
It's funny to see the personalities come out when we do this type of thing, though. Ellie picks up a ball and starts running around laughing and "playing fetch." Maggie picks up a ball and pretends that she's a princess holding on to a precious egg that must not be dropped, thrown, kicked or otherwise abused. She likes to twirl around and get lost in whatever little fantasy she's dreamed up in the moment. Meanwhile, Ellie's running laps, kicking field goals, shooting three-pointers... well... Don't want to start pigeonholing anyone, now do I? But, we have decided that Ellie will be a soccer player and Mags will probably be a Jazzercise instructor. (I got her a pair of black leggings the other day. Today she wanted to wear them and her sneakers so she could pretend to be just that.)
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