Starting an outdoor challenge in January sounds tough, and it definitely can be. Luckily, we live in a warmer climate, so all it took is a warm jacket, and we were in business. When we first told our girls we wanted to try to spend 1,000 hours outside, it felt like a lot to them, and truth be told, it still is. That averages out to almost 3 hours per day. That is a LOT! We figured we would pad our time with our family’s newest undertaking–backpacking! See Original Post Here.
A few years ago, if you told me we were preparing for a backpacking trip, I would have called you crazy. We weren’t exactly an outdoorsy family. We wanted to start making memories with our kids, and hiking just became an easy answer for us. After convincing our kiddos to stick with it and finding some things that work for us, it is easily our favorite thing. At this point backpacking feels like an awesome next step.
Sometimes though, the best laid plans can crumble. Our trip was abruptly canceled when the day before we were due to leave Justin had a bit of an accident. He fell swinging from one giant wheel to another at our local ninja warrior gym. While it was an epic fall, and a good story, it has really put a grinding halt on our 1,000 hour goal. And something surprising has come out of that.
We missed the backpacking trip, and that made us all a little sad. But more than anything, we’ve missed being outside! We crave the sunshine and the air, and everyone is feeling a little cooped up. The crazy thing is it’s only been two months of extra outside, but the difference the past two weeks has been apparent.
So now we find ourselves needing a real outside adventure with beautiful scenery and clean air, and we are so excited to be headed to The Grand Canyon next week! Justin is still in a cast, and I may have to lug our well stocked daypack for a week, but we will make some real headway in our hours! On top of that, The Grand Canyon will be Dilbert’s newest adventure!
How many hours do you think your family spends outside? Would you try 1,000 hours?
