Adventures in Snow Land

We haven’t been hiking lately. After setting a goal last June to do a hike a week, we’ve finally gotten to a point where that has been paused. We simply can’t. It’s snowing in Tennessee.

Our family vehicle is a modest, overpriced, comfy, messy, Pacifica. It’s a minivan and it’s just not capable of doing the driving while it is cold. Sure, we could take two vehicles and make it out from our backroads, but, like, no. Why? We still have plenty of land to adventure on here.

We’ve been spending the past 2-3 weeks of snowed-in chaos outside. We’ve taken the kids to the property where their uncle’s house is being built to study and observe animal tracks. Our 2 year can tell us if a cat, dog, or rabbit has been nearby. She only knows the colors purple and not purple, so this tracking thing is impressive to me. The big kids are noticing snow drift patterns and temperature changes versus the “real feel temp”. The preschooler understands hypothermia and frost bite signs. We’ve gone up and down the road and watched the way water is melting and eroding our (terrible) street. These are all things that they should know and need to know. There are no snow days here when it comes to learning!

I’m hoping to do another solo in the next 4 weeks (give or take) because your girl got her birthday gift early and I can’t wait to use it (hint: it’s a tentttttt). After that, we’re discussing taking each of the big kids on separate overnight hikes for their first times. I think I will have the oldest and Derek will have the second oldest kid. Again, we’ll see. When you are managing a family of 6, things change fast.

In conclusion, we obviously aren’t done hiking. We are just sitting in and enjoying this season of rest, snuggles, and snowball fights. We hope you all are staying warm and cozy. We’ll see you out there!!