The way the media portrays children these days, it’d be OK to assume every parent has to practically peel their child off the couch to get them outside.

When I was a kid, it was the other way around.

After hours of playing (very dangerous) pick-up tackle football outside with my friends, my mom would usually have to remove me from the imprint they had engraved into the dirt with my body. And that wasn’t just in the summer time. I remember basically playing football on ice skates several times during the winter. For some reason, my teammates and opponents thought it’d be a good idea to play on frozen snow. On one particular day, I don’t remember if we won or lost; I just remember running my frozen fingers under hot water (like an idiot) afterward in an attempt to thaw them out. If you don’t know what that feels like, don’t do it — it isn’t fun. I cried.

But I digress.

What I’m trying to say is that we adults probably have this idea that when we were kids, we were outside all the time, or at least a lot more than today’s kids are. I know that my mom and a lot of my friends’ parents promoted, if not forced us into, outdoor activities. I’m not sure I even knew what obesity was when I was a kid. It wasn’t until I reached high school, and then college, that I delved into the subject of obesity — especially childhood obesity — for papers and presentations. It was only then that I began realizing how serious an issue it really is.

But, as much as we hear about it, I’m beginning to think it’s not as much of an issue here in Powell. Now, my opinion is obviously based on a nine-month analysis, so maybe next year I’ll be reporting on a Wyoming obesity epidemic. But for now, I think my hypothesis can be supported with a simple walk through Homesteader Park, or a stroll down any populated neighborhood. Kids are outside playing — ALL THE TIME.

On June 8, I went story hunting with my camera strung over my shoulder in hopes of finding something interesting to fill my pages that week. Naturally, I went to Homesteader first, and I was suddenly presented with a smorgasbord of options. Powell Recreation District chaperones were leading a herd of Kids Camp participants to the small pond on the grounds for some fishing and bug catching. At the bike park, kids were getting some serious air on their bikes and skateboards. Up on the hill near the Powell Aquatic Center, 14-year-old Rylee Moore rode her Fun Cycle (Google it, they’re pretty cool) up, down and around the path throughout the park.

Active kids having self-produced fun. I’m not sure I’ve ever supported anything more in my life. No wonder the fittest Americans come from the Mountain West (at least according to a story published by The Washington Post in March 2014).

I know the trend in our town doesn’t apply to every kid in every town. And I know that Wyoming probably does have its struggles with obesity, at least in some regard.

But watching kids laughing, playing and having a good time under the sunshine and blue sky just seems to make everything a little less worrisome, doesn’t it?

It just makes summer a little more ... summery.