I grew up in an idyllic outdoor situation.  I spent the large part of my childhood years living on a lake in Michigan.  Our family home was on what had once been an island, but has now been joined to the mainland via a land bridge.  I spent my summers exploring, swimming, biking, tubing and climbing through the woods behind our house.  The sun and the water were perfect, until…

The horrible, aching cold of the snow of winter hit.  For me winters consisted of getting stuck trying to drive away from our home across the land bridge, falling through the ice into the frigid cold of the lake water and shoveling the snow from our rural driveway.  I dreamed of moving to a warmer locale where I could swim year round and hike with ease in January.

Fast forward to approximately 5 years ago, as I anxiously await a text from my husband regarding the news about his promotion that we knew was imminent after a meeting with his boss.  Where would we be moved to?  I prayed it was someplace warm, perhaps his company offices in Atlanta, or Virginia Beach, or Florida.  Then it comes—Minneapolis.  We were moving to a city with roughly the same climate as Moscow.  Perfect.  

We arrived around the first snowfall and I assumed that we would be hunkered down inside until the spring thaw, but then, we began to notice something amazing.  These crazy Minnesotans actually seemed to enjoy themselves outside, despite the sub-zero temps.  With tentative feet we began to make our way outside and also began to explore and eventually enjoy being outside, even on the coldest of days.  

When our son came along, we knew that we wanted to continue to enjoy the gorgeous outdoors that Minnesota had to offer, but with our growth into a family came new challenges of dressing, preparing and equipping ourselves for our time outside as a little one.  Questions like how to store or dispose of a diaper out in the woods on a hike were something we had never encountered before.  

Outdoors Family will explore these unique challenges as well as the joys of sharing experiences year round with your children in the great outdoors, and way to bring the outdoors inside for those times that you cannot go outside for safety reasons.  Follow us on our grand adventure and please share with us your own tips and tricks for safe and fun times outside.