First, get on your bikes.

Nothing fancy, just ride-around bikes (check for used gear on Stapleton Exchange, or BlockMarkets.com, or the Stapleton Moms Yahoo  Group!).

Or get serious and check out the bikes at Cycleton in the Stapleton Town Center: cool cruisers, high end road bikes, a big range of kids bikes. Is your little one too little to ride? We pull a bike trailer for our 2-year old. The 5-year old now rides without training wheels, but even with them, he could go pretty far distances.

Here are our favorites:

1.  Westerly Creek green space. Our regular route. Take a leisurely ride and stop to notice all the critters! Rabbits, birds, bugs, coyote dens on the south end, the beaver dam on the north end.

2. Head to Central Park. If the purple mountains are old news, ride to the north side of the park to ride the hills. If it's hot, hit the fountains. If it's Wednesday, ride over to the Town Center for lunch at the Rocky Mountain Green Chili Bowl truck. Yes, my boys eat it too - and they have hot dogs!



3. Sunday morning? Ride to the Farmer's Market. (We ride up 29th Avenue in the median's gravel trail.) Grab some Udi's granola and Noosa yogurt to take home, and line up for the Biscuit Bus: Fluffy biscuits with southern strawberry-rhubarb jam... yum. Let the kids run around the grass or jump into the Town Center fountains - on Sundays they are a frothing, splashing toddler stew.




4. Take a ride to Bluff Lake. This treasure is so close, yet so under appreciated! Perfect for little legs, lots to look at, bugs and birds and sometimes rabbits, in an enclosed space. It's a mile loop around the lake. Even our 2-year old made it on foot. Bring a lunch to eat on the wooden dock at the lake (which may or may not have water, depending on the season) or under the shady path.