Category: Gear

Baby Safety On and Off the Campsite

Camping with a baby is tough. When they’re little lumps who sit happily on a picnic blanket it’s easy. Now that Baby L has opinions on where she sits, what she eats, what she plays with, who picks her up, and everything else it’s hard.

She’s at an awkward stage. At 15 months old, but not quite walking, she is literally in the dirt on every camping trip. What’s more, she’s a great climber and crawler which means I have to constantly make sure she hasn’t gotten into the fire pit. Babies in the outdoors take work and some extra gear. That gear can make a huge difference.

Portable Highchair
The coolest new baby gear item we’ve tried is the Kidco DinePod. This highchair folds up like a regular camping chair so it’s easy to travel with. When set up, the legs are as sturdy as any restaurant highchair with a buckle for baby. Baby L can eat at any campsite we visit without sitting on my lap and sharing her food with my clothes. 

Holding a wiggly almost-toddler while they grab at your plate requires patiently wrestling, readjusting and moving things out of reach. I hate it. It’s so much better to have a KidCo DinePod so both Baby L and I can enjoy meal time. My one complaint is that the push button to fold up the seat gets stuck easily. I’ve had to wrestle the chair closed a few times. It wasn’t pretty.

Hiking Carrier
If you want to get out of camp and on the trail you’ll need a quality baby carrier. Different carriers work better depending on the age of your baby. Tales of a Mountain Mama has extensively tested almost every baby carrier on the market including soft sided options like LILLEbaby and Onya as well as framed carriers from Deuter, Osprey and Kelty.

We use an older version of Kelty’s Pathfinder framed pack mostly, but on quick trips or when we are packing light I’ll wrap Baby L in a Moby Wrap and call it good. We reviewed these more extensively here.

Baby Tent
One item we’re excited to try out on our National Park to Park Highway tour is the Kidco PeaPod Plus. The infant travel bed works like a pop up tent. It collapses into a convenient case and comes with a built in sleeping pad. We’ll be attaching the KidCo PeaPod Plus to the tailgate on our trip so Baby L can sleep close to us in the back of the truck, but not on top of us while we’re trying to sleep.

I have a friend who used a KidCo PeaPod nightly to keep her climbing toddler boys from escaping their crib. They zipped them up at night and didn’t have to worry about broken arms or legs from their adventurous boys climbing out. Nice.

Stair Gates
The number one baby safety item that has changed my life recently is not one we’ll be taking on our National Park to Park Highway Tour. It’s attached to my house.

One of super climber Baby L’s favorite activities is to climb up and down our stairs at home. With a spiral staircase to our basement and openings between the steps to the upstairs, I am constantly worried she will slip through and fall.

When we asked Kidco to be a sponsor for our National Park to Park Highway Tour, I mentioned that our stair gates at the time consisted of a guitar case and a plastic gate bungeed to the banister. It wasn’t pretty and only 50% effective at keeping Baby L from sneaking up the stairs. Luckily Kidco sent me two Angle Mount Safeway Gates to protect my littlest tot from danger.

The KidCo Angle Mount Safeway Gate is great for non parallel attachment points. The gate hardware allows you to choose the direction the gate will swing and it’s easy to control once installed. The dark wood looks great with our balustrades and the gate itself can handle openings ranging from 27 to 42 inches.

The installation was tricky however, and I’m pretty handy with a drill. The toughest part was making sure I positioned the hinges at the same height on both sides of the stair opening. Kidco sent templates to help with that, but their directions weren’t very clear. Also the top latch comes off easily, especially when older siblings are opening and closing the gates.

With that said, having these KidCo Angle Mount Safeway Gates has changed my life. I’m no longer dropping what I’m doing every second to follow Baby L up the stairs for the twelfth time that day. Now I can control if and when we go up and down stairs. The worry that Baby L will tumble down has been erased from my mind. Plus the gates look great.

Baby safety indoors and out is something all parents have to worry about. Thankfully the right gear can take some of that worry away. Do you go camping with a baby or toddler? What gear has helped in your outdoor adventures? Let me know by leaving a comment!

This post includes affiliate links. I receive a very small commission if you purchase something by clicking through these links. Thank you to our 2016 National Park to Park Highway Tour Sponsors.

What to Pack for a Seven Week Road Trip – Part 1

National Park-to-Park Highway

Packing for a seven week road trip is a daunting task. What will I wear when we visit the Grand Canyon in July? I don’t think they’ll let me in the visitors center in just a swimsuit. What about Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks in the Rainy Pacific Northwest?  How will I fit all of those layers into one backpack?

Since we’re living out of our truck on our National Park-to-Park Highway tour, we’ve adopted a backpacker mentality.

Each family member gets one backpack for all of the clothes they will need for the entire National Park to Park Highway Trip. Those of you who have thru-hiked the Appalachian trail may think that one backpack just for clothes is a luxury, but for a mom with dirt loving children, it’s not much space.

I will be wearing my outdoor essentials, and plan to bring those for my tots too.

Psst…See exclusive photos from our National Park-to-Park Highway journey by getting the FREE ebook Mountains to Ocean. Just sign up in this box:

Comfortable Cotton

I believe in layers for me and my kids. Leggings, wool socks, shorts, t shirts, fleece sweatshirts, jackets and hats will all be along for the ride, but my go to outfit will be a comfy cotton dress.

I wrote about this in my 6 Tips for Style in the Wild post, so you may already know that I’m a fan of the outdoors skirt. That’s why I approached Synergy Organic Clothing to be a trip sponsor. They have a wide variety of soft, easy to wear skirts and dresses that look great.

 

The Leaf Flame Boatneck Dress from Synergy Organic Clothing is my favorite. The leaf pattern on the sleeves makes me feel classy while the cotton spandex blend fabric moves when I do. I love the ease of movement while still feeling stylish.

Looking at their website you may think you need to be a supermodel to wear their clothes, but take it from me the clothes are as comfy as they are chic. They also have great womens leggings, tops and jackets and all of their applique is done by women in Nepal for a living wage. I like that my clothing choice can do some good in the world.

Foot support

Hiking outdoors requires a good set of shoes. And we’ll be doing a lot of hiking. We’ll be packing waterproof sandals and comfortable tennis shoes for each of us (except Baby L who isn’t quite walking yet).

I’ve always been a fan of regular tennis shoes or trail runners for hiking instead of clunky hiking boots. That’s why I approached Vionic to sponsor our National Park to Park Highway Trip. They have well designed shoes and sandals that help with body alignment and the ones I’ve tried are all light and comfortable.

What’s unique about Vionic is their orthaheel technology. With arch support designed into every sandal, your feet are working for you for proper body alignment. It took a while to get used to, but after a few days of wearing Vionics it felt like my back and legs were creaking into the places they’re meant to be.

I really like their Muir Sandal (love the name!) as an outdoor water hiking option. With the Vibram outsole for traction I’ll be set to go. I also like the orange and pink pair Sunset Mary Janes they sent. No surprise. I’m not shy of color.

 

Outer Wear 


The big question in packing clothes for the family is how warm we will need to be. It is summer on this trip, but we’ll be sleeping in the mountains in several places. I’m bringing a winter hat and mittens for each of us – these are essential, but should I also bring winter jackets?

Next week on Stage 1 of our National Park to Park Highway Tour we’ll be camping at 10,000 feet in Cedar Breaks National Monument. We’ll be there the very first day the campground opens. A local ranger said there’s still snow on the ground. For that trip I will bring winter coats, but for the rest of the trip I’m hoping rain jackets and warm fleece sweatshirts will suffice.

My jacket of choice is thisOutdoor Research Women’s Ferrosi Hoody . It’s lightweight, water resistant, stretchy, comfortable and such a great color! I’m a fan of color in the wild and pink is such a better choice than blaze orange. Plus the Outdoor Research Women’s Ferrosi Hoody won Outdoor Gear Lab’s Best Buy Award for Fall of 2015. They agree it’s a great jacket.

 

Head Games

I’ve already mentioned that I’ll bring a winter cap and mittens for each of us, but what about when the weather is beat down hot and sunny? For that we also have hats.

Little G got a Kid’s Rambler Sombrero Hat from Outdoor Research that’s UPF 50. I like the wide brim for shade protection and the strap to keep the hat from flying away. Plus the brim floats in case she drops it in the water. Pretty cool.

I’ll be wearing this Maldives Hat from Outdoor Research. Not only is it stylish, it’ll protect me from the sun, hides unwashed and uncombed hair, and it doubled as an umbrella for Little G when we were caught hiking in the rain.

 

Sierra Trading Post

Last week I was invited to a blogger party celebrating the grand opening of Sierra Trading Post in Salt Lake City. I’d never been in one before so it was fun to see what all the fuss was about.

Sierra Trading Post is known for having awesome prices on quality outdoor gear and I saw that for myself. Clothes, shoes, packs, camping gear, even pet supplies were all available at 30% off the regular retail price. Pretty good deal. If we end up needing an extra fleece on this trip hopefully we can pick one up at a Sierra Trading Post along the way.

We’ll obviously be doing laundry on this trip too, but I’m wondering if I’m missing something. If every piece of clothing you’d wear for the next seven weeks had to fit inside a backpack, what would you put in? Leave a comment or contact me on twitter, instagram and facebook. I really do want to know!

Thank you to Synergy Organic Clothing, Vionic Shoes and Outdoor Research for sponsoring our National Park to Park Highway Tour. Check out all our sponsors on our sponsor page. This post includes affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you purchase something by clicking through these links. 

Road Trip Safety on the National Park to Park Highway

National Park-to-Park Highway

We’re heading out for Stage 1 of our National Park to Park Highway Tour in just one week! The original Park to Park Highway Tour in the 1920s had to carry all their own spark plugs, tires, tools, and gasoline for those long stretches without gas stations. Luckily we won’t have to bring the service station with us, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be prepared.

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Road Trip Safety in preparation for our big trip. I wanted to share the top three things we’re doing to make sure we stay safe on the road this summer.

Lifeline Road Kit

It’s always smart to have emergency equipment. Our truck comes with a spare tire and jack, but we wanted something more. That’s why I reached out to Lifeline First Aid to request their Truck Road Kit. It comes with safety triangles, jumper cables, road flares, work gloves, a safety vest, a flashlight and even a first aid kit. I love that the first aid kit is stocked with plenty of bandaids. Sometimes that’s all my kids need for an owie to feel better. The sleek carry case is nice, but a bit large for our luggage limited truck.

 

In addition to the Truck Road Kit, Lifeline sent us the Lifeline Trail Light 5 First Aid Kit – a light weight first aid kit with enough supplies for our family of five when we’re out on the trail. It weighs less than 12 oz! Too bad the iodine prep pad leaked in its packaging on its way over so we had to throw those out. I feel much better prepared for our seven week road trip bringing these along.

Urgent.ly
After hearing about our National Park to Park Highway Tour a blog reader suggested I look into Urgent.ly, an Uber-like app for car maintenance. You download the app to your smart phone and if there is an emergency it’s easy to get help. Authorized mechanics and tow truck companies come to your aid on demand, you can track their progress on the app and even connect with family members in case of emergency.

It’s pretty cool to know that no matter what part of the country I’m driving in, I will be able to contact a tow truck with the press of a button on my phone. I especially like that there is no fee to join, I only pay if I need roadside assistance. Thanks to Urgent.ly I won’t have to carry all of my car maintenance supplies like the drivers of the 1920s National Park to Park Highway Tour.

Before You Go

There are plenty of things you can do before leaving home to prepare for road trip safety. Have food and water in your vehicle. Know how to change a tire. Make sure you start out with a full tank of gas. The one that I struggle with the most is perform scheduled maintenance.

This time since we’ll be gone for seven weeks I made sure to contact our mechanic for a automotive check up. We’ll be taking the truck in to get lubed, rotated, refilled, and checked out before we put five to six thousand miles on it. It’s just one more way to prepare for Road Trip Safety.

 So readers, I’m curious who has road trips planned this summer. Where are you going? What do you do to prepare? Leave a comment or contact me on instagram, twitter or facebook. We’d love to hear from you!

See how our National Park-to-Park Journey went in this exclusive photo ebook:



 This post includes affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you purchase something by clicking through these links. Thank you Lifeline First Aid for sponsoring gear for our 2016 National Park to Park Highway Tour.

Kids Style in the Wild Part 2

As the final installment of my Style in the Wild series I wanted to share some of these great Kids’ outdoor fashions. Just like in my 6 Tips for Style in the Wild Post I couldn’t forget the feet for my kids, so this post is all about keeping those toes protected from the elements.

Don’t forget to read Kids Style in the Wild GIVEAWAY and enter the Real Shades and Fawn and Foal Giveaway by April 13, 2016!


Farm to Feet

We love Farm to Feet who sent socks for Big E, Little G and Baby L to try out. Their Kid’s Kittery Hiker Socks have a cute stripe pattern in a variety of colors and their Park City Ski Socks are great for keeping cold toes from freezing on the slopes. Little G especially gets cold so good base layers for skiing are a must.

What’s awesome about Farm to Feet is their 100% Made in America commitment. From ingredients to manufacturing, their Merino wool is sourced right here in the US. Even the paper and ink in their packaging comes from the USA.
We got a pair for the whole family to try. The Farm to Feet Kid’s Kittery Socks smallest size was still too big for Baby L, but I didn’t mind. For once she couldn’t pull the socks off her feet – her favorite thing to do – since they went up to her knees.

Butler Boots
April showers may bring May flowers, but they also make great puddles to jump in. And for that you need a good rain boot. Butler Emperor Overboots are made from flexible material and can be worn directly over your kids own shoe. Great for picky, accessory conscious kids like my daughter. Or so I thought.

When we first got these Butler Overboots to review, Little G loved them, wearing them to preschool and showing off her colorful fashion sense. The bright colors are great for the preschool kid crowd. Like Butler says, these boots are like gumballs for your feet.

They are very waterproof, a major plus, and the included machine washable liner keeps feet warm if you don’t want to use them with their own shoes. I love the selection of bright colors, which adds happiness to every wet weather day.

Unfortunately for me and the Butler Emperor Overboot, Little G’s interest failed again. After wearing them a few times she said the boots were too heavy. Again with the offering, bribing and begging. Again with the refusing. I could not get her to wear them over her own shoes or alone.

I still think the Butler Emperor Overboot is a great kid product since it gives you the option of wearing them over the kids shoe or with the enclosed liner. Little G will just have to get wet in the next rain storm.
What about those non rainy days? When you need something quick to protect your bare feet? You could try Flopeeze.

Flopeeze gave me some of their flexible sandals to try out. The design is simple, just put your foot through the hole and hook the strap around your toes. The protective footwear is similar to a sandal, but the specially formulated rubber is squishier. They pack up small and are easy to take anywhere you go.
It all sounds good in theory, but I don’t like them. The space between my toes hurts after I wear them longer than ten minutes and the rings around my ankles felt too tight. Although the cushion is adequate, their use is still a mystery to me. I could see maybe taking Flopeeze to travel if you I needed something ultra thin to wear in a communal shower, but truthfully flip flops aren’t that much more space and you can wear them in so many more scenarios.
My kids loved the Flopeeze at first, again with the new toy syndrome, but they quickly lost interest as well. 
Thanks for reading. Make sure to check out my 6 Tips for Style in the Wild and Kids Style in the Wild GIVEAWAY Posts too!
I contacted the companies above to ask for items to review unless otherwise noted. I chose those companies because I thought their products were uniquely designed for outdoor families and relevant for you, my readers. My opinions of their products are my own. This post includes affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you purchase something by clicking through these links.