Mountain Mom and Tots

National Parks Week, April 18-25, 2015

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Hip Hip Hooray! Tomorrow is the day! April 18-25, 2015 is National Parks Week!
National Parks feature heavily in our outdoor adventure plans. For the last five years our family has purchased the America the Beautiful pass, which allows access to any federal land for the entire year. The cost is $80.00, which I think of as both a donation and a challenge. If we can visit enough National Parks in one year to cover the cost of the card, we’ve done pretty well.

Here are three ways to celebrate National Parks week – I hope you enjoy!

1. Free admission April 18-19, 2015. If you live near a National Park, or want a quick weekend getaway you can explore for free this weekend. All Admission fees are waived Saturday April 18th and Sunday April 19th 2015.

2. Plan a vacation. Summer will soon be here and you have to do something with your tots, right? Plan a trip to see some of the nation’s beautiful spaces. Here are some links to our favorites:

Denali National Park, Alaska
Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California
Redwoods National Park, California
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, California
Yosemite National Park, California

Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Independence Hall, National Historical Park, Pennsylvania

Arches National Park, Utah
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Dinosaur National Monument, Utah
Zion National Park, Utah

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

3. Be a Junior Ranger. Tots of all ages can enjoy learning about the world around them through the Junior Ranger program. Just complete the pamphlet for each park you visit and your child can receive a patch.

Mountain Baby and a New Normal

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Dear Readers,

I’m sorry I haven’t posted since February. The reason for my silence has been the anticipation and arrival of the newest member of our family – Mountain Baby.

A new baby is a blessing, so small and precious, but getting it here is tough. I had forgotten how tiring being pregnant is, how little energy I would have for outdoor fun. In those last few months of pregnancy I could barely walk down Big E’s hallway at school without getting winded and walking up stairs was an endurance event. It was hard respecting the fact that my body just could not do the things it could before. Those physical limitations led to emotional weariness as well. The thought of doing anything above the bare minimum for survival was too much.

Now that Mountain Baby is here I feel physically better and worse. I’m able to lay on my back comfortably, I can breathe deeply and reach down to pick things up off the ground, but I’m also sore and exhausted from lack of sleep. Once again I’m trying to respect what my body can do and not expect much more than that. I want to compare my daily achievements to what I was able to do before, but when I do I come up woefully short. Showering and feeding my kids do not make an impressive list of accomplishments.

With time I know I will find my way to a new normal. I know there will come a day where I’m not waking up every 3 hours to feed a newborn, comforting a jealous older sister, and managing Big E’s schoolwork while breaking into tears because my kids aren’t listening and the baby’s crying. I believe that day will come. For now I will try (again) to show myself and my family kindness and compassion, to not expect too much and enjoy the blessed moments of peace.

Holding Mountain Baby helps me remember the things I love in my life – my kids, my husband and the outdoors. I’m excited to introduce her to the world of camping, hiking, biking and loving the outdoors. She’s a precious blessing in my life and I’m grateful she’s here. I hope you’ll read along with our adventures in family life and the outdoors.

Thanks for reading. I hope you get out and have your own adventures!

Sitting Out on Skiing With the Tots

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Being 9 months pregnant puts a damper on our outdoor activities, but I still want my kids to get out and be active. This is where I recruit others. A few weeks ago Grandpa came to take the kids on a ski adventure.

With little g only three years old her ski skills are minimal. Just read here to see how well my attempt at skiing with her was. She’s still learning the basic concept of stopping. Thankfully Grandpa was willing to try a short green run with her between his skis. She loves the downhill movement, often saying “Weeee!” as if she’s on a slide at the park. But I feel like it’s a lot of work to take her skiing, which is why she was done after just one run.

Big E on the other hand, has gone semi pro. Not really, but he’s not afraid to ride intermediate blues or try tiny jumps or side trails through the trees. Grandpa, who only gets on skis once or twice a year, said he was a great ski partner. “We’re about at the same level right now, in a few years I’m sure he’ll be blasting past me.”

Watching from the sidelines while my kids had all the outdoor fun would normally make me feel like I was missing out. In this season of my life, however, I can recognize that it’s okay for me to sit out, rest, relax. Just being in the outdoors, breathing the air will have to be enough for now. My body can only handle the extra burden of growing a baby, it can’t handle snowboarding, skiing, hiking and biking as well. And that’s okay.

It can be hard to love your body as it increases in weight and decreases in energy. But it’s good to try, after all, it’s the only body you’ve got.

Are You a Pusher Parent?

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Big E turned six last week so I’ve spent a large amount of my time celebrating. There was the family dinner, presents, a bouncy house outing and taking a friend, cousin and sister to the arcade. With a birthday in January and my being eight months pregnant my outdoor celebratory options were minimal. I did arrange for Big E to go skiing with a talented teenage neighbor (Mountain Dad doesn’t ski yet) but the morning of his big day he told me in no uncertain terms, “Today’s my birthday. I can’t go skiing.”

I’m not sure what about the day would prevent him from skiing. In my world snowboarding would be the number one activity of choice for my big day. I was flummoxed and asked him repeatedly, “Are you sure you don’t want to go skiing today? You can go for just an hour if you want.” But he was sure. It was his birthday and he didn’t want to spend it skiing.

This brought up an interesting self reflective question. Am I a pusher parent? My answer: Yes.

You know the kind, the ones who live vicariously through their children, who excessively encourage sports, academics, dance or any other interest to the detriment of their over-scheduled offspring. There’s a great chapter on this in the book All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior. I talked about this book in this previous post.

It discusses the pressure parents feel to have their children involved and the causes of that pressure. What parent doesn’t want their child to develop talents, learn discipline, and make friends, after all? Sports, scouting, clubs and groups are great ways to accomplish that, but how does the child’s schedule affect the family unit as a whole? I don’t want to be just a taxi service for my over-involved children and after reading All Joy and No Fun I decided I wouldn’t force my kids into anything.

Then ski season came around.

We live near Sundance Resort in Utah. Our family chooses to live here because of its easy access to recreational activities. I LOVE snowboarding, it is one of the top ways I feel joy in being alive. In fact being pregnant during this entire ski season has caused more than a few depressed days this winter. I fully intend to teach my kids to ski and snowboard as soon as they can walk. I want that to be the sport they care about as much as I do. In my house I’d love for the winter X games to be a bigger sporting event than the Super Bowl.

If that makes me a pusher parent, oh well. I believe a love of outdoor sports is worth a little parental pressure.

I hope my influence doesn’t cross the line between coercion and creating a outdoor family culture. My goal as a parent is to give my children skills they can use throughout their lives, very specific skills that have brought joy and adventure to my own life. Here’s my list:

1 – Skiing or Snowboarding. It’s just so awesomely fun, plus when they’re teenagers we’ll have something in common and they’ll be stuck on a lift with me, forcing them to talk to me about it.

2 – Music. Playing the piano and trumpet opened doors to friendships I would not have had otherwise. I could take pride in my abilities, even though I never was an exceptionally good musician.

3 – Speaking Spanish. Learning a foreign language was hard. For me it included two foreign exchange programs and a lot of extra classes in high school and college. But I use Spanish in my life a lot and if I can give that gift to my kids and make it easier by teaching them when they’re young, I’ll do it.

4 – Riding a bike and swimming.Swimming can save lives and every kid should know how to ride a bike.

I guess my kids will have to live with the fact that I will push them in these areas. I’ll have to get over it too. Activities above and beyond these will have to be inspired by the kids themselves.

So, in what areas are you a pusher parent? I can’t be the only one out there…I hope.

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