It’s been far too long since I’ve thrown up a trip report, particularly in this surreal COVID era. We were sent home, to work from home, at the beginning of March I believe. I found myself recognizing and experiencing the Spring with a satisfaction that I can’t remember feeling. I

Many families are wondering how in the world they are supposed to homeschool when they have multiple kids running around, all needing different things. While our kids are fairly closely spaced (almost-9, 7, 4.5), one could still easily feel overwhelmed with how to provide an education for a 3rd grader,

As schools start rolling out their proposed re-opening plans, a lot of parents are looking at the guidelines and requirements and saying, “WELP, I guess we’re going to homeschool!” Whether you’re doing it because there are no other feasible options, or you fear the inevitable total shut-down in the fall,

I don’t even know how long it’s been since we’ve posted but the world has pretty much been turned upside down since March. There are a lot of things we could discuss but, for now, I’m going to stick with talking about homeschooling. For those who don’t know, our family

This campsite out in the american springs area was surprisingly nice. We also found an impressive shelter that someone had built.

I know, just what you need, right? Yet another activity for your already-overwhelmed kids to do while you are all quarantined due to CoVid-19. This one is so easy, though, I promise. Zero prep! And it could have some extended educational returns, depending on how your kids respond to it.

I’m inventing a new type of fun designation: “Type P”. “P” stands for “parent”. Those of you who might read this blog are probably familiar by now with Type I versus Type II fun; TGR has a nice explanation. Type I is your immediate fun—it brings a smile to your

It is rare for me to advocate “old school” over modern tech, but I’ve found a great method that I would like to share: waxing your polyester/cotton garments with good-old wax. I have taken to waxing my favorite Fjallraven Vidda Pro pants (this post will probably also turn into a

We got our permit and wandered the National Forest again last weekend to find ourselves a Christmas tree from the woods. I have already written about the tradition in another post, so I won’t repeat all of the background info (be sure to visit that post for the Chevy Chase

We made it back to Utah again this season! And we convinced another boy family to join us! (heh heh heh) Not sure that they really knew what they were signing up for… But all’s well that end’s well, and this was a spectacularly successful trip. Between the four of

The title pretty much covers the whole point of this post. Once upon a time, I lived in Crested Butte, for two years. I taught high-school science and math at a now non-existent private school, Crested Butte Academy. The first year my salary was $12,000. The second year my salary

I took the three boys by myself back up to far northern New Mexico, again a stone’s throw from the Continental Divide. This was our third time this summer to the same general vicinity, just south of the NM/CO border, north, south or—in this case—west of the Cruces Basin Wilderness.

He headed back up to far northern NM for some more camping with friends. We ended up finding a spot a quarter mile from where the Continental Divide trail passes through. One of my memories to preserve: Emerson was very proud to have learned how to operate his lighter by

We put our cat to sleep today. Baba developed some sort of abdominal cancer, or something that cats get called FIPS, or something else. It hardly matters what, now. I took him to the vet an hour ago and had them kill my cat. I feel guilty about putting him

In late June we found some friends to join us for camping in Northern NM. We started out with an afternoon at the Great Sand Dunes—the conditions were perfect. Lots of wide shallow water for safe play with minimal parenting, no mosquitoes, and nice hot sun. I love the sand

Once again, it has taken a long time for me to finally post this trip report. This is a post about a trip we took during the first week of May… Highlights included lots of beautiful campsites, copious fantastic thunderstorms, the boy’s first real slot canyoneering, super remote roadtripping, and

Every time we prepare for a camping trip, I (Karen) find myself amazed and annoyed that I still have not conquered some relatively easy tasks that would make trip-prep a heck of a lot less exhausting. Matt. of course, already has his system and has had it down for years.

Have you ever done something that felt really really BRAVE to you but also made you feel kind of stupid because you were afraid of it or it was a challenge? That’s what I (Karen) am calling “stupid-brave.” And, I’m embracing it. Today, I ran on a new-to-me trail. It

The whole family visited the Spruce Hole Yurt this past March (2019), achieving a milestone that I have been looking forward to since we first had kids. Getting there as a family is doable. Spruce Hole yurt is located north of Chama, NM just over the border into Colorado. It’s

When I was a kid, I was infatuated with topo maps. My generation was on the cusp of the mapping technology: before I went to college, the only source for maps for adventure planning were paper copies from the USGS (US geological survey). I fondly recall ordering from the USGS

Since we’ve been homeschooling, I (Karen) have read a lot of books about the topic. I remember reading once about how art shouldn’t be “taught” or forced upon kids until at least third grade. Instead, you should spend all that time and energy you would otherwise devote to painting and

Once upon a time I was a fully dedicated climber, road-tripping weeks and even months out of the year to destinations around the country for the purpose of touching rocks with friends. These days it is still important to me, though it has been rightfully placed a bit down the

When it’s cold and snowy and the days are short, it can be challenging to get the boys adequate outdoor physical activity. They can drive us crazy, literally bouncing against the physical confines of the house and figuratively bouncing against Karen and my psyches… If you’re in a place where

A friend of mine bought the firestarter necklace that I recommended as a holiday gift idea, but told me that he’s having trouble starting a fire with it.  So I made the video below, wherein I mash vaseline into cotton balls to make homemade fire starters, then light one with the

During our October trip back to the family farm to visit the grandparents, my mom bought this rocket kit for the boys.  It was a timely gift, as the boys have been enjoying youtube videos of SpaceX Falcon launches.  Building and launching model rockets with the boys brought back fond

A few years ago, I had a bunch of random things to wrap for Christmas.  Stuff that would not fit easily into boxes or wrap nicely.  I went online and found this incredible hack for making your own gift bags out of wrapping paper.  Maybe everyone already knows about this,

It’s a tradition now – mark your calendar!  The weekend after New Year’s, we all bring our dead, dry trees up to a spot in the National Forest, just off the road, halfway up to the Pajarito ski area.  The location might vary just a bit (closer or farther up

I love buying gifts for my boys.  There are so many options for inexpensive items that they love.  And there are also tons of secretly practical options—the kids think they’re receiving exciting toys, but secretly they serve a down-to-earth purpose.  If you haven’t noticed, I’m big on practical, useful gear. 

Where we live, one can buy a permit to wander the national forest and cut down your own Christmas tree.  Anybody remember Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation?  Yeah, that’s totally us.  I think about that Christmas tree scene in the movie every year (I put the youtube clip at the end

Here’s our gift guide for adventurous women/moms!  While I haven’t tried most of these, I would be thrilled to find any of them under the tree! 🙂 STOCKING STUFFERS Hair Bands: If she’s a mom and she has long hair, I guarantee you she can always use more of these!