Oklahoma City family fun means something to get out and do.
I'm ready for sunshine. It's April and I love MetroFamily's edition this month because it points to all things summer, my favorite season: swimming lessons, summer camps, brighter days.
Cabin fever is real. I couldn't live somewhere rainier or more overcast because that pull to go out and enjoy just being outdoors or driving with the windows rolled down is too much.
There's always something to do in Oklahoma City but the weather doesn't always cooperate. I'm looking for that perfect afternoon, the one with lemonade, monkey bars and a picnic.
One of my best memories as a kid is crossing the street from the pool over to the public park to eat lunch with my Dad, who had also just walked down from his office, after 8 a.m. swimming lessons. My sister and I swam for two hours each summer morning and our Mom would meet us in the girls' bathroom with towels warmed under the hand-dryer to wrap around us as we shivered from the 50-degree water, blue lips and green chlorinated hair waiting. I think that's why I hate the cold and the wet, actually, but it was a tradeoff for Parks & Rec joy.
We sampled fruit and cake and jumped off of swings, ate over plastic tablecloths and ran to get warm. Summer heat was a relative term in the north.
Our new neighborhood has a small park and I'm just waiting for the day we can pack a picnic and try it out. Swimming lessons, for my sons at least, will come when the weather is hotter.
Sometimes, you just have to wait.
Looking ahead at a new month gives us all something to eagerly await and this month seems especially inclined to exactly that as green springs up everywhere. Ours is a bilingual household; "wait" and "hope" are the same word in Spanish and there's a certain promise in that concept. Good things, we all seem to agree, come to those who do.
I'm holding my breath like I learned in those swimming lessons, optimistically waiting for the sun.
MetroFamily's April calendar shows so much going on in the community. My own calendar is incredibly full and I'm grateful: a Thunder game, an Oklahoma River cruise, this Saturday's First Saturday program at Oklahoma History Center, an artist interview on Sunday. MetroFamily will be at the Oklahoma City Philharmonic's Discovery Series Concert for families this Sunday too with hands-on activities. I'm running a 10K, the Redbud Classic, the Sunday after and it's the Oklahoma City Museum of Art's free Family Day then as well. What's on my calendar is what I commit to first this next month; there are just too many choices.
Click here for 10 free things to do in OKC this April. Looking for something to do with teens? Our editors have chosen five. Toddlers? Not a problem.
Better weather just might be here to stay but there are always a few rainy days in Oklahoma City. If you're looking for rainy day activities, click here. April showers bring May flowers and with those comes summer, the swim lessons and those picnics and all the summer fun.
Here's hoping!