Another September comes to an end today, so you should know what that means...
We just completed our S I X T H Hike it Baby 30 challenge, wahoo!
I've said it before, but I'll repeat it any way - Hike it Baby 30 is an initiative to get families to spend more time outside. So simple, right? These challenges are always so much fun for us, because we keep a detailed record of all the memories we're making. I don't always keep track of how long we're outside on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis -- but I always do during challenge months. This particular challenge was our most successful one yet, and I'm still AMAZED at our incredible results!
We opted for mostly walks around our neighborhood to log our miles, but we did adventure to a few trails -- all of which were some of our most favorites! And when we weren't racking up mileage, we were posted up on the pavement playing with chalk or at the park, playing our hearts out. The weather this month has been so great, which definitely helped us surpass our goal in such a huge way. It's been a HOT September, but I haven't minded. An extended summer is right up my alley! ;)
The challenge, itself, is this: hike/walk/bike 30 miles with your kids and/or spend 30 minutes outside 3 days a week with your kids. For us, we logged a total of 56 MILES between the trails and the pavement AND spent a whopping total of 134 HOURS outside during the month of Septemer! WOWZA!! That time outside breaks down to an average of 4.5 hours of outside time each day. I am SO proud of us! I'm especially proud that I have this sweet tradition with my kiddos (and husband, when he's able to join us) that keeps us active, healthy, and constantly adventuring. I hope they remember these days. But if not, I've got picture proof. LOL!
I've got a major travel itch currently, and I've been mapping out new-to-us hikes that we could write down and cross off in a few new-to-us places. TJ hasn't exactly signed off on all this yet (aka he's more present-minded and detail-oriented than his lovely wife), but I hope he will soon. I'm not asking for anything tooooooooooooo crazy (*insert evil laugh here*), I just want to see places that I've never seen now more than ever before.
These challenge months help scratch these itches I get from time to time. This particular challenge, however, was a bit of an emotional one for me, because it's our final September edition where Braxton is with us at all of them. Next fall, he'll start kindergarten and our days will change a whoooole lot. I may have cried about it, but I'll never tell. Teesh and I had planned to put him in a MMO program this year to "get him ready" for school, but we changed our minds when we thought through what our days would look like. He will have the next however many years of his life dictated to him by school and work, so we decided to hold off on preschool to give him (and us) one final year of flexibility and explorations not determined by a schedule. I'll never regret this decision!
I hope my babies are proud to tell their friends about their childhood when they get older, and I hope that they always want to show their photo albums of all our fun to everyone who comes to our house (that's currently Braxton's favorite thing to do, and it is so precious!). I can't give them everything they want or maybe even all that they need, but I can at least try my best to help them grow and become the people God had in mind when He created them to be. The best way I know to do this is to show them the world and let them run wild in wide open spaces.
I believe that to see the Earth is to get a glimpse of Heaven, and I want my family to know Heaven through and through.
Trail Hikes: 4
Trail Miles: 8
Total Miles: 56
Total Minutes Outside: 8,060
