Tag Archives: tips

Hiking, Kid Friendly Hikes, Outdoors

How to trick your kids into enjoying hiking!

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I did a post with a couple tips on hiking with young children a little while back. It was more on keeping your kids comfortable then entertaining them so I thought I would do a new one with some tips and tricks on hiking with children!

I am not above tricking my children into forgetting how many miles they have been walking!

I want them to enjoy their time outside not dread it!

Here is a list of ways I “trick” my children into enjoying long walks/hikes:

1. Play I spy! This has been a game changer for me. The boys love playing it! We play it in stores, on walks, and on hikes.

It is easy also! Just find something odd say it out loud and see who finds it first! Then it is their turn to do the same.

2. Give them a map.

For some reason kids just really like to look at maps! If you have a GPS device that is even better!

3. Give them a compass and teach them how to use it.

4. Bring along animal/plant identification charts

I really like the laminated ones I found at a nature center!

I recently found these also though and really want to get them!

5. Have a special treat waiting at the car/house, or if you are walking try to walk to a place you can buy something for them. I love actually going somewhere when walking instead of just going in a circle! We walk to the park, walmart, or a gas station often. The boys actually ask to go to them even though it is a five mile round trip!

You could also bring a special treat with you.

6. Do a nature scavenger hunt! I just did one while up visiting family in Minnesota and all the kids loved it!

We did the Nature Bingo I found here.

More ideas here and here.

7. Tell stories.

I actually learned this from reading Little Woman! You start a story and then they have to continue it. It is so much fun and keeps their mind off the fact they are walking! It does take a little work to teach them how to do it if they have never done it before but it is worth it!

8. Lastly pick a fun location! One with lots of animals, fun bridges, or rocks to climb!

Robbers Cave State Park

Ray Harrel Nature Park

Turkey Mt. Wilderness Area

Also the Mary K. Oxley Nature Center and the RSU conservation Trail.

I hope this post helps make hiking more fun for you and your kids!

Hiking, Outdoors

How I Hike in the Heat.

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It gets HOT in Oklahoma in the summer!

I feel like if I wait for it to cool down I will not get to hike until November so we keep hiking and walking even in the heat.

Here are a couple things my family does to keep somewhat cool on those hot days.

1. We go out early morning(8am or earlier) or evening (usually 6:30pm or later).

2. We bring an insane amount of water! As much as we can carry. We bring more Gatorade then anything when it is really hot.

3. We try to wear mostly wicking clothing. This is slightly new to this year and I have seen a huge difference in comfort.

Look for labels that say “quick dry” or “wicking”.

4. We try to hike places that are nice an open but shaded. I have found lake trails to be the best for that in my area.

5. Lastly, we do not push it! If someone is getting even a little bit light headed we turn around!

We do get acclimated though and this is not an issue as we get farther into summer.

If you are just starting though I would definitely encourage you to do a nice easy hike and be prepared to turn around.

Getting sick or injured right away can really turn you off to hiking!

What do you do to stay cool in the summer?

Staying in the AC in not an acceptable answer…

My Family, Personal, Photo Projects

Day 30! ~30 days project

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Day 30

I am going to try to explain my process when it comes to self portraits.

1. I pick a location

It was a cloudy day so I wanted to face the sun(at least where it would be, I could not see it) instead of having it behind me.

I usually have it behind me because I love how it lights my hair and bright light hides flaws in my background.

If you are trying for the backlit look though you need to make sure you get some light reflected on your face!

You can use, a reflector, a white piece of poster board, a building, or even a car.

In this shot I am sitting right in front of our white car.

See the light in my eyes?

That is from the sun hitting the car and reflecting into my face.

I have been working to see more objects around me that I can use as a reflector instead of always using my actual reflector.

It is really hard to hold it while taking a picture of yourself!

I positioned my camera so that the background would not be distracting, then I focused on my boys, and set the interval timer.

My D300s has an interval timer, which means it can take lot’s of pictures in bursts and I can set it to take how many I want.

I prefer a remote though.

I end up with a lot of pictures with the interval timer and can never seem to guess when it is going to take them!

You can use your regular timer on your camera, just make sure you set it to give yourself plenty of time.

You do not want to have to slide into the picture.

The problem with my choice to set my focus on my boys was this one was leaning way forward!

You guessed it, that whole set was out of focus.

This happens sometimes but usually setting my focus on them works really well, I do have different ways I get my focus though.

1. Use an object in the picture that I know I can sit right on, or next to (like my boys). You would have to be able to set it to manual focus for this to work.

2. Let it find it’s focus on me (this one is kind of chancy, I get a lot of shots out of focus), I have had this work but I do not usually do it if I am using a regular one shot timer or my remote. You do not want to keep getting up to check your picture over and over and have them out of focus.

3. My lens has the distance written on the focus dial, so I can set it to the distance if I am feeling lucky. I am really bad with distances!

My boys were done after the first set so I took some by “myself” after resetting the focus to something unmoving (the tree).

This is how a lot of my shots happen.

The boys are either playing all around me, popping into the picture, or asking me questions as I am taking them.

They started bringing me flowers (some of them wrapped) so I kept shooting.

My oldest is the leader of this movement.

I kind of love it.

They always insist I put them in my hair.

They finally came back for some shots but my youngest was not looking for most of them.

Of course I am showing you the one shot he looked up.

I do not know why I did that.

I am too lazy to change it.

When that happens , I start talking to them, I look at them (if they are not going to look at the camera neither will I), I hug and love on them, or I start tickling them!

I make an effort to do what they want to do.

Read books, play, snuggle, ect…

I have some of my favourite pictures from doing what they want.

It was a little crazy to try and take pictures of myself, taking pictures of myself.

Here is how it went.

The boys were almost done with their quiet time so I went in the front yard and starting figuring out where to shoot.

I hauled both cameras on tripods outside and started setting them up.

My oldest came running outside with my youngest saying “there is blood!”

This actually happens pretty often with two little boys so I did not panic.

After figuring out younger brother cut his mouth and did not need to go to the ER, I cleaned him up and we went back outside.

I asked if they wanted to take a picture with me and they said yes (this is not always the case).

They sat down and the whole process began of trying to get a usable shot.

Sound like too much work?

My pictures with the boys are priceless.

I always try to keep that in mind when going to all this work.