Introducing the Miller family...

The hobby horse races started at 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Two horses, five family members, one stopwatch. Dressed in our pajamas, the races started in the family room, took us through the kitchen, into the front hall, through the living room, around the dining room table and back to the starting line. As we all took our turns, cheers, giggles and screams of delight filled the house.

We live for the weekends. As two full-time working parents with three young kids, weekdays go by in a blur. The mornings are a scramble as we take turns getting ready and managing the lunch-making, breakfast-serving, backpack-packing and dressing of a two-, four- and six-year-old. We get home just before six and dive right into supper, playtime and the bedtime routine. Some nights we’re flying out the door to soccer or Sparks — while many other nights one of us has a meeting or an event to attend.

The weekends, on the other hand, are as schedule-free as we can make them. We play together, we dance together, we do things around the city and most importantly, we laugh. We laugh a lot.

As a family we cherish our summer weekends at the lake. Our small cottage has no electricity and water is supplied by a hand pump. We spend our days swimming and playing in the woods and our evenings having campfires with friends. In the winter, our family activity of choice is downhill skiing. Our two girls, six-year-old Sara and four-year-old Addison, have been skiing every weekend and our two-year-old son Sam hit the slopes for the first time this month.

When it comes to the basics of healthy living though, we have our struggles. I admit to being a terrible meal planner and more often than not we’re throwing something together at the last minute. My husband Sheldon and I both struggle with being consistent when it comes to exercise. Even though we both know how important exercise is to achieving our own fitness and weight loss goals, with work and prioritizing our time with the kids, it is often the first thing to go. We both want to be better role models when it comes to being a healthy, active family.

The great thing is that we already love to do things together. We love to be silly, we love to try new things and above all else, we love to have fun. You combine these traits with the tips and ideas from the Healthy Family Challenge and who knows? You may just see us take our pajama hobby horse races outside around the block.