Yesterday I took my boys, Rex and Jax up into the mountains for the day. They are only 2yrs old and 9 months old, but we had a blast. I know that a lot of people are struggling financially right now and want to take a minute to share how you can still do fun things as a family and not blow a ton of money.
My wife is helping one of her friends get ready for a wedding right now. Yesterday she asked if I could get the boys out of the house for a while so that she could get some work done. I told her that I would be glad to do that. After all she spends a ton of time taking care of the boys while I spend hours a day training.
We have a pass to the zoo which Rex loves to go to, but I didn’t feel like going there. I love to be outside, especially up in the mountains and I hope to pass that love on to my boys. We have had beautiful weather here in Seattle so I decided we would head up and enjoy nature.
I, well Suzy, packed a lunch and some extra clothes and loaded the boys up for our adventure. They both fell asleep soon after we got into the truck so I just kept driving. We drove up and over the pass before they woke and once they did I started looking for a trailhead so that we could go hike around.
Rex loves to hike and we have an awesome stroller that will go just about anywhere that I strapped Jax into. We ventured off into the woods to enjoy the day. After about a quarter of a mile we came upon a creek that had an awesome waterfall and some good places to sit. I got out the boys lunch and we sat and ate.
After eating I let Rex play. He loves the water and didn’t seem to mind how cold the water was in the creek. He was throwing rocks, checking under fallen wood, and all around exploring his surroundings. We didn’t have any where to be so I let him go and explore wherever he wanted. All told he lasted about an hour. We hiked back to the car and started driving back toward home.
We stopped at the top of the pass to get a picture of Rex in the snow without a shirt and shoes on since it was nearly 70 up there and continued our drive back down. Once again the boys fell asleep after their “hike”.
The drive really gave me time to think about a lot of things. Of course I thought about my training and upcoming events. I thought about my weight and things I can do differently to continue losing, but most importantly I thought about my boys and how hopefully by taking such little adventures like this that they will learn healthy habits and have appreciation for exercise.
I can only hope that the things we are doing together now will be something that one day they will want to do on their own or with friends and one day their own families. It is my job to help mold them and show them how they can enjoy an active lifestyle.
The only thing this little adventure cost us was a little bit of gas. A price well worth paying to help teach my boys how to be active. Being involved with your family and being active with them doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. In fact all it really has to cost is some of your time. I personally think that time with the family is an investment well worth making.
