Why Get the Girls Outdoors?

The idea to start this blog came to me Mother's Day 2016 while hiking Storm King and Butter Hill in the Hudson Valley of New York. The weather when we began was crummy, it was drizzling and cloudy. We started the hike anyway because it was the only thing I wanted for Mother's Day.

We have taken our daughters hiking many times throughout their lives and while its not always enjoyable, it makes us happy to get them outside. After our adventures I normally post pictures, I often hear from other parents of girls, "My kids could never do that" or "How do you get them to hike?" My answer is always, you have to start small. My husband has taken many videos of what he likes to call the "Slow Poke Award" from when we first began "hiking" (walking) with the girls. This went on for about 6 months before we were able to take the girls on longer hikes.We kept going, we never gave up or in to their complaining. Even now there are hikes that are simply miserable... like that time a close friend took us on a 3-4 hour hike that was "maybe 6 miles". Well, 8 hours and 12 miles later we finished. We survived, mostly because we had two other adults helping to encourage the girls along. That day we hiked up and down 4 mountains and ended with delicious tacos. We learned that DAMN our kids can hike 12 miles in one shot, though we probably will not do that again soon.

There are other hikes, like our Storm King hike, were the stars seemed to align, the clouds cleared, we find a couple geocaches along the way and its borderline perfect. Moral of the story, DON'T GIVE UP OR IN TO THEIR COMPLAINING. There will come a point in the near future that the complaining stops and the fun begins.

My goal for this blog is to encourage other parents to take their children, especially their daughters into the great outdoors and explore. I hope to take my girls up all 46 Adirondack High Peaks and I plan to chronicle our adventures here.

Thank you for your love and support of this adventure!
With Love,
The Big Girl in the Great Outdoors