Family Wilds

"Love you, Texas..."

"...see you soon."  That, from the mouth of our 23-month-old daughter as she looked out the airport window last week, made us simultaneously happy and sad.  The only family we have in Nashville are the three of us that were sitting together at that gate waiting to fly home. 

We have wonderful friends in Nashville, many of which are essentially family to us, but no one that we've known all our lives.  It's difficult at times, logistically and emotionally, to be so far away from the hometowns we grew up in and the family members we grew up with.  Most of our vacations are to Austin and Tampa where we go to visit family as often as possible (which is certainly not often enough).  It's always comforting, peaceful and happy time spent in either of those two places.  Always.

Hearing our daughter express her love for the time we spent with family is something I'll never forget.  She was genuine and sincere.  Earlier, in the airport, we had to work through the fact that we were going back to Nashville where we wouldn't be seeing her grandparents, great grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  She appeared to understand what that meant.  And seriously, is that not the cutest sad face you've every seen? 

Fortunately, we were able to let her know that the grandparents would be coming to Nashville for her birthday celebration.  On top of that, she was correct that we would be back soon.  My sister's fiance (who we love) asked her to marry him this past Friday.  She said yes, and they're planning a quick wedding.  We'll be back in May and will be bringing a flower girl along with us. 

Hopefully, we'll be able to make it down to Tampa shortly after that.  Any time we can fill with immediate and extended family is time we know will be rich in love, education and joy.  We have each other, which is definitely enough, but it's exponentially beautiful and fulfilling to be surrounded by family.  This is especially true with regards to our families; they're amazing.  So, I'll say it, too, "Love you, Texas! Love you, Florida! See you soon!"

Here are some more pictures from our fun-filled, albeit way-too-short vacation to Austin.  What are you favorite types of family vacations?

Here are the rest of our Texas vacation posts:

Circular Rainbows and Itty Bitty Houses

From Tea Parties to Tamales (and Everything Unpolitical In Between)

Walking, Playing and Teaching Grandma to Boulder

Covert Park at Mount Bonnell - Austin, TX

Oh, and by the way, this is our 100th post!

-Pablo

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Covert Park at Mount Bonnell - Austin, TX

I am from Austin, so every time we come back to visit I try to introduce Nea, and now our daughter, to something local that they haven't seen before.  We had a few hours before we had to catch a flight home to Nashville, so I decided to take them out to Covert Park atop Mount Bonnell.  At 775 feet above sea level, it's the second highest point in Austin (behind the Jollyville Plateau).   It's probably the prettiest though; Mount Bonnell's peak offers some amazing views of the downtown skyline and Lake Austin (which is actually part of the Colorado River). 

It was a near perfect afternoon with cool temperatures and bright skies.  The park wasn't very busy, which made it more quiet, personal and secluded, which we loved.  Our daughter was fairly tired from several days of playing and entertaining family, so she wasn't as energetic as usual.  However, she was still able to find some stuff to climb, pick up, sit on, run up and hike.  It was a really wonderful way to end a really wonderful vacation.

Austin Skyline:

Lake Austin (Colorado River):

Limestone "cliff" perfect for toddler bouldering:

Tired, but always awesome and beautiful:

If you're ever lucky enough to be in Austin, visit Mount Bonnell!

-Pablo

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Walking, Playing and Teaching Grandma to Boulder

We're having a great visit with family in Austin, TX.  The weather is prime for outdoor play, even with some heavy clouds and stout winds.  We headed out to Brushy Creek Park in Cedar Park, TX for a little walking, bouldering, and playground fun with my parents (our daughter's grandparents).  It was a great morning full of a well-rounded mixture of sport and goofing around.  Here are some pictures.

We ended the day with some excellent brisket and sausage from J&J in Cedar Park.  Next on the (very loose) itinerary for our trip are a trip to Cavender's to buy new boots, food at the catfish restaurant my dad manages, more outdoor play, and some real, honest-to-wonderful Tex-Mex food.

I'm hoping your Monday was as good as ours!

-Pablo

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From Tea Parties to Tamales (and Everything Unpolitical In Between)

After our great flight into Austin, during which we saw a circular rainbow, we couldn't help but have a great next day-and-a-half.  Our little one was wound-up after getting off of the plane So, we took the first chance to go outside for some fresh air with her Grandma (my mom).  She loved riding in and pulling the Radio Flyer (granddaughter, grandma didn't ride n the Radio Flyer).  She's never been in one before, so it was especially fun for her. Shortly after that, her grandpa (my dad) came over with several other family members where a tea party broke out.  Grandpa was a little heavy handed with the sugar, but they both loved it.

Today was our first full day in Austin, and we spent it at a farmer's market, running errands, playing at home, and going to the park for some outside and shadow play.  Oh, and there were also some tamales and spaghetti to take care of.  It was a beautiful day here in Texas, and we're fortunate to have 3.5 more! 

 



We certainly hope you're all having (or had) as good a weekend as we are (did)!

-Pablo 

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Circular Rainbows and Itty Bitty Houses

We flew into Austin, TX to visit family yesterday.  We've flown with our daughter a few times, but this was the first that she could really look out the window and begin to develop a concept of what was actually happening.  WE WERE IN THE SKY...FLYING...LIKE BIRDS.  We were flying!  There were clouds underneath us, and beneath that was the ground with tiny houses, tiny cars and tiny trees! 

Watching her look out of the window and see the world below morph through shapes, colors and shades, hide behind the white and graying clouds, pop back out with  the vivid colors of  water, soil, crops, towns and cities, it's a remarkable thing to witness. 

She doesn't have the full concept of what she's seeing, or the experiences or vocabulary to begin to understand it all.  She has the beginning notions though and that made it all the more interesting.  What must she be thinking watching that tiny strip of the planet between Nashville, TN and Austin, TX reveal itself below?  It's seriously a cool thing to get to hang out with toddlers.  That was just our flight in!  We're really  looking forward to next five days.

By the way, we thought at first that the picture we took of the circular rainbow was some sort of optical illusion created by the plane window + engine heat + who knows what else, but it turns out it's an actual thing.  We found other similar pictures on-line, which is pretty cool.  Here are a few more photographs from our flight, which our daughter loved (and did awesome on) by the way.

Thanks for reading!

Pablo and Nea

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Top 5 Family Wilds Adventures of 2011

We started FamilyWilds.com in May of 2011.  After seven months of chronicling our outdoor adventures with our daughter, now 22-months-old, we can't help but feel like we've already had a lifetime worth of fun and learning, especially when it comes to keeping our toddler actively engaged outside.  We even became ambassadors for Nature Rocks and Deuter.  We're very fortunate to have each other and to each have the itch for being outside and having fun.  There are many mornings our daughter will wake up from a good night's sleep or from a nap and request to go for a hike.  What more could we say about family wilding in 2011 than that? 

Well, we'll try to say a little more.  Here are our top 5 family adventures of 2011.  It was a really fun year so we had to leave a lot of the fun off of the list.  We spent a great deal of our outside time in and around Nashville at parks and trails (Percy Warner, Edwin Warner, Shelby Bottoms, Beaman, Bells Bend, Bledsoe Creek, etc.), at the Nashville Zoo and festivals (Pride, Bluegrass Jamboree, Tomato Art, etc).  Nashville is a constant adventure, so we felt justified in leaving it off the list and mostly concentrating on non-Nashville outdoor events. 

5. Climb Nashville

We are not what anyone would mistake as expert climbers.  We've only come into climbing recently as a means of finding another activity to do together.  We like hiking, camping, etc., but this would be something fun, different and interesting for our daughter to see us doing together.  When she was 18-months-old a staff member at our climbing gym, Climb Nashville, handed us a kid harness and pointed us to the kid walls.  She loved it, and we've been taking her back fairly frequently since then.  We quickly figured out how to keep the climbing gym fun for a toddler, found a great pair of kid climbing shoes in the Evolv Venga, and decided to add a helmet and harness to her gear closet.  The next year should be full of a lot of climbing...well, as long as she continues to enjoy it anyway!

4. Florida

We took a summer trip down to Florida to visit Nea's side of the family.  Our daughter had a full week of fun in the Florida sun with her cousin, just three months older than her.  We played outside, went swimming in the pool, played at the beach, and hiked an awesome riverside trail at Hillsborough State Park.  We can't wait for our next trip down there!

3. Texas

This year we took our daughter down to Texas for the first time.  Pablo's family is from Austin, so we flew down for about a week to be with our family there.  Not only did we play in and around Austin, but we even headed down to Gruene, TX for a few days on the Guadalupe River with family.  This was the trip our daughter swam in a river, rode in a kayak, ate tacos and rode a train all for the first time.  It's been too long since our trip down, so we're heading back down there in January!

2. Camping

We waited far too long to take our first family camping trip, but at 14-months-old we packed her and some gear up for a few nights under the stars with great friends.  The Taylors, have a son who is just a few weeks younger than our daughter.  We camped at Foster Falls in Savage Gulf Natural Area in Southeast TN.  We went on some amazing hikes, saw some amazing sites and had a lot of fun outside playtime.  We had so much fun that we went to Fall Creek Falls just a few weeks later for more camping!  As soon as it warms up just enough, we're heading back out for some more.

1. North Carolina

Our number one Family Wilds adventure of 2011 was our recent trip to NC.  It was a very short trip, but we packed it full of spontaneous fun.  We left with absolutely no plans.  The trip up to the Boone area was filled with stops at a giant tree house, a sushi restaurant and a national forest.  Our time in the Boone area included a hike at Price Lake, outside play on Blowing Rock and a lot of delicious local food.  Our trip back home to Nashville included an amazing impromptu snack break atop Roan Mountain, which may have been the highlight of the trip. 

This little vacation really seemed to be a great representation of what kind of family we are evolving to become.  It was spontaneous, adventurous, and rich with laughter and fun.  We don't always laugh and we don't always have fun, but we are always a family.  As we wild we grow, and as we grow we get closer.  This was a great year for our family, and because of that we're ready to welcome 2012 with open arms.

Happy New Year!

Pablo and Nea

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Keeping Car Vacations Fun For Kids and Parents

For many, the idea of traveling with kids in a car for any extended period of time doesn't sound like the ideal way to begin or end a vacation.  Have you ever given yourself over to daydreaming about how awesome a vacation is going to be, only to start thinking about the 6-7 hour drive (which always ends up taking longer) you will have to "endure" just to make it to the awesome? 

That happened to me before we made a quick family trip from Nashville, TN to Boone, NC.  We were only going to have one full day in the area sandwiched between two days of heavy travel there and back.  Confession: That kind of scenario typically stresses me out.  I'll admit to having to do a lot of personal preparation for this trip.  One of the biggest reasons was that we had never traveled (even close) to that far by car with our daughter.  On top of that, we were going to be in a hotel...with walls, and neighbors, and hotel carpet...and a toddler.  We would have preferred to be camping, but circumstances didn't allow for that on this trip.

Quickly, this fun family getaway was becoming a stressor.  This wasn't cool, nor was it fair to Nea or our little traveler.  So, I decided before we left that I would be a few things that my family really needed me to be on trips like this...and maybe even more often at home!  I wasn't sure how to label or characterize those things, but I did know that my focus needed to be on keeping the trip fun.  With some time to reflect upon our trip I have come up with those eight things I need to be to make sure I can help Nea keep vacations, especially car vacations, fun for our daughter and for us (Nea is very good at this, by the way).

1) Be prepared - Well, as prepared as you can be - toys, books, games, proper clothing, kid carrier, hiking pack, plans for things to do, plans for places to stop, etc.

2) Be a traveler - Don't shortchange yourself or your family; count the travel time as part of your vacation.  We had some of our most fun moments on the way to and from Boone.

3) Be flexible - Be flexible enough to change your plans.   On the way home we were going to stop for a 5-mile hike before we left the Boone area; however our daughter slept for an incredible 13-hours the night before!  So, we weren't going to have time for 5-miles; instead, we decided to just go and find something along the way.

4) Be adventurous/spontaneous - What we found along the way was a quick hike up a grassy bald atop Roan Mountain.  It just so happened to be on the alternative route were taking home, and it just so happened to be around snack time.  What better place to have a snack than atop a mountain?  On the way to Boone I remembered that Josh from the Happy Family Movement recommended a giant tree house that I hadn't known existed; it was on our way, too.  We stopped there and a few other places just for fun.  And, you know what?  It was a whole lot of fun.  We didn't worry too much about getting into town to do fun things, because we were finding and having so many great experiences along the way.

5) Be attentive - Know when to stop, rest, push through, sing a song, sing lots of songs, read a book, put on the relaxing music, be quiet, etc.  Toddlers take a lot of attention.  This is obviously much easier with a good traveling partner (again, Nea's the best).

6) Be locally-minded - Why go to someplace amazing and not partake in the local culture?  We ate out for two meals a day, and each time was at a different locally owned restaurant or cafe.  We shopped locally, played locally and naturally (hikes, walks, playgrounds, exploration, etc.).  We even did this while traveling.  On the way to Boone we found a great little sushi restaurant outside of Knoxville, TN, and on the way back we had barbecue sandwiches at a saloon in Elizabethton, TN. 

7) Be together; be on vacation - When it's not work time, it's not work time.  This is true when we're in Nashville or anywhere else.  I'm much happier when I am with my family, focused on them and completely mindless with regards to work.  I love my job, we both do, but we love our family more and these times we have together are priceless.

8) Be thankful - Most of all, I found myself feeling thankful on this trip.  My family is remarkable.  My wife is my best friend, and our daughter defies description.  I remind myself constantly how fortunate we all are to have each other.  Whether we were finding our way through Minister's Tree House, feeding our daughter lima beans with chopsticks, watching the sunset in Cherokee National Forest, scrambling down rocks at Price Lake, enjoying local cuisine in a locally-sourced restaurant, sitting silently atop Roan Mountain, or just watching our daughter sleep past 8:00 AM, there was a constant feeling of peace and happiness.  This is pretty much how I feel everyday I am with Nea and our daughter, and I am eternally thankful for that. 

So, that's my list of what I need to be in order to keep the fun going on a road trip.  What do you think, did I miss anything?  We would love to know what you do to keep road trips fun for everyone; please share!

Happy Traveling!

Pablo

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A Late Start Means Hiking A Roan Mountain Bald

Our only full day in Western NC was full of hiking, swimming, walking and playing.  This was the perfect recipe for a big, fluffy sleep cake.  Our daughter slept for 13-hours.  It was like a vacation within a vacation.  THIRTEEN HOURS!  As awesome as that was, it also meant that we were not going to have time for our planned morning hike, the 5-mile Boone Fork Trail.  We really wanted to be home by 6:00 PM CST, so we could settle the little one into her normal nighttime routine.  Starting the Boone Fork Trail hike a few hours late would have made that impossible.

This was a trip all about spontaneity, though.  Our trip up to Boone from Nashville was filled with off-the-cuff adventures, and we were certain we could do the same with our trip back.  A portion of a main road taking us back toward TN was closed, so we took an alternative route.  We didn't relaize until we were halfway there that this route would take us right past Roan Mountain. 

Roan Mountain, in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, is a series of peaks and grassy balds that resides in both Tennessee (Roan Mountain State Park) and North Carolina.  The Cherokee National Forest and the Pisgah National Forest meet there, and the Appalachian Trail runs along it's spine.  It would be the perfect way to say goodbye to North Carolina and welcome ourselves back home to Tennessee.

There still wasn't as much time as we would have liked.  We really wanted to hike to a few of the grassy balds, which is one feature Roan Mountain is famous for (it also has the largest natural rhododendron garden in the world), but we could only fit in time for one.  We hiked up 0.6 mile to Round Bald, had a snack, played and hiked back down for the rest of the trip home. 

Here's a short video of the view from the spot where we settled for snack.  Our daughter was in the kid carrier (Deuter Kid Comfort II) on Pablo's back as we were shooting this.  If anyone can tell us what she is saying, we'll be very grateful :-)

 

Some of our favorite photographs from atop Round Bald...

Here are a few short bonus videos.  These were shot during our car ride back home somewhere around Cookeville, TN.  They are dark, because she wouldn't keep being cute and silly if she knew we were recording.  The audio's good, which is mostly what matters.  Yes, those are her socks on her hands.  Oh, and the driver was NOT taking the video, btw! :-)

 

 

Happy Trails!

Pablo and Nea

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Price Lake, Swimming and a Playground

After our fun-filled drive into Boone, NC, we only had one full day in the area.  As soon as our daughter woke up we took a short drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Price Lake.  Price Lake sits just outside of Blowing Rock, which we ended the day at.  In between, we went on a beautiful hike around the lake, swimming at the hotel pool, walking through downtown Blowing Rock which included watching the sunset over our daughter laughing and running around a playground. 

We left our camera back in Nashville, so we only had our phones.  However, the phones are only good as cameras when you remember your phones, which we forgot most of the day.  Fortunately, we do have pictures of our morning drive and hike.

It was another great day!  We'll share pictures and some video from our drive home soon, which included a spontaneous snack break...on the top of a mountain.

Happy Trails!

Pablo and Nea

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A Tree House, Sushi and Cherokee National Forest

We decided to take a quick road trip to North Carolina for a few days.  This is a recap in pictures of our drive from Nashville to Boone.  It was a long drive, but we broke it up with a lot of really fun stuff.

We received a tip from Josh at The Happy Family Movement about The Minister's Tree house (link to more info and directions from RoadsideAmerica.com) in Crossville, TN.  Basically, it's a giant structure built around and in trees.  It's huge, and maybe a little scary.  We held on extra tight to our little one.

We stopped shortly after we left The Minister's Tree House for sushi just outside of Knoxville, TN.  She didn't have any, but loved being fed her lima beans with chopsticks.

Our last big stop was at Watauga Lake in Cherokee National Forest just past Elizabethton, TN.  The weather was nice, the scenery was amazing and we had it all to ourselves.  It was us, some geese and the sunset.  Perfect. 

We'll post more in the coming days about our trip, including hikes and other nonsense.

Happy Trails,

Pablo and Nea

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