While children can slow you down, they do not have to stop you from enjoying a little “mother nature”!

In fact, introducing our children to the outdoors should be one of you fondest memories of spending time together.  There is a great book titled “Last Child in the Woods” written by Richard Louv. In this book Richard states that the lack of nature in the lives children is directly related to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

So if you and your spouse stay adventurous, more than likely you kids will to. You should try to do outdoor activities as a family and one-on-one with your kids, when possible.

Below are a few points my wife and I would like to share with you. Some we feel we figured out on our own, others were referred to us via friends, family and social networking!

Always Have Snacks

Our son Ciro is very much like his Mom’s side of the family. Meaning, that hunger can come up quick, fast and you better be prepared! The family joke is that if you wait too long to feed them, they start to turn into “Regan” from the Exorcist. J  So, we always have snacks for the whole family.  We will have GORP, deer jerky, deer sticks and Ciro’s favorite Mum-Mums!

Car Travel Distractions

We noticed early-on that Ciro did not like to restrained, so we knew that long car rides would be tough. On our most recent trip we paid the extra $10/day to get a DVD player.  This was a huge benefit for us as he could watch his favorite DVDs.  Now we also brought along his favorite stuffed animal and blanket to assist in keeping him content or to comfort himself! 

Get Sleep

There is nothing worse than a tired, cranky car load of people!  So, don’t stay up late and get some much needed rest. Remember…vacation is to unwind, not burnout on top of work. Once you get the child down you and your spouse could talk about the next day’s plans or just read a book. Then, lights out!

Prepare For Air Travel

This starts with the purchase of your tickets. We highly recommend getting the whole row of seats at the bulkhead of the plane. This will provide ample leg room and room for you “little monkey” to climb over you and your spouse during the trip. This is a much better alternative than having your child run up and down the aisle of the plane for the duration of the trip and be “That Family!” The trade-off is that with no seats in front of you, there is no under seat storage and everything you will need for child will have to be put in the storage above the seats and cannot be accessed during take-off or landing. 

Purchase Good Kids’ Gear

We purchased a BOB stroller, which are awesome, but we do not take it on airline trips as it is too large. In its place we purchased a very light-weight flat folding stroller that allows for some storage and the child to lay flat if needed.  The other piece of gear that I like is the Kelty Child Carrier, this makes it much easier for everyone and Ciro loves to have his Sherpa (Me) carry him around! You don’t have to buy brand new gear, check eBay, Craigslist, yard sales or some local consignment sales. Don’t skimp on your kids gear, cause if the kids are uncomfortable, nobody is having a good time.

Take Your Time

Again, this is your time with your family, enjoy it! Remember with kids you’ll need to stop often, especially if they’re walking, they will stop and inspect every stick and overturned stone along the way. 

Patience goes a long way – the time that you take spending outdoors with your kids will be rewarded in the long run.  Chances are they will want to spend time outdoors more often as they mature.  And as they get older, you can plan to do more exciting and memorable trips as a family.

For those of you who haven’t caught Full Moon Production’s (FMP) latest movie – PROOF, you need to watch the trailer below.  For ordering, click the link to access the FMP store. I recommend the “DVD 3 Pack” as all 3 of their videos are a must have!!! 

Check out this very cool, quick clip of the Sitka team testing out one of their new jackets against high winds!

Read the full article here.

Archwood Flextrek 37 Trillion

ZXYVR/M-Series

Magnum Package

Endorsed by world renowned Steve Climber

This pack everything you’ll need in the backcountry, except for your chiropractor!

Sitka’s Core Zip-T was recently tested by BackPackGearTest.org. Back Pack Gear Test does an impressive job at putting a product through the paces.

It was impressive to see how the Zip-T handled the 6 months of abuse with glowing praise, for both the hunter and recreational outdoors person.

Read the review here.

Jonathan thought that he would share just a few of the review’s on Cabela’s website, where the Ascent Pants are seeing an average rating of 4.6 out of 5.

These pants are awesome! As used the for more than a week strait in North-West Montana last elk season and through my deer season in Virginia.

Read the full article here.

Another very useful from South Cox on the all important “Water Filters” selection for backcountry hunting.

As promised I’m going to tell you about the water filters I was at the Outdoor Retailers Show.  The first one is from MSR.  The filter is smaller and lighter than any others that I’ve tried and it blows the doors off of the competition in speed.  The Hyperflow Pump is what they are calling it and it weighs just 7.8 oz.  It is hard to expect great performance when you are getting such a compact, lightweight unit, but the manufacturer boasts 2.75 liters per minute!  That is almost 3 times the speed of most of the filters out there.  I tried it at the show and was surprised at how little effort it required to use.  Also, a great boon to it’s design is that it is field serviceable; no disposable cartridge to plug halfway through your trip.  It takes a couple of minutes to disassemble the pump to backflush the system, but the inconvenience is well worth the benefit.  I’ve had my disposable filter pump leave me high and dry when filtering murky water. 

Read the full article here.

 I am not sure which part was cooler, the infra red camera footage or seeing the vest in action!  Although this was a hack job of filming, it gives you an idea of the heat that the new Ardica enabled Sitka Dutch Oven vest puts out. The video captures some images with a FLIR (forward looking infra red) camera. Built to survey heat loss in buildings or leaks that are unseen by the naked eye, this $40k camera was very a blast to use.

I cannot wait for these items to be released!

Watch the video here.

Another very useful from South Cox on the all important “backpacking stoves” selection for backcountry hunting.

Adding extra weight to your pack is something we all try to avoid.  If a piece of equipment can be omitted from your pack and it doesn’t affect the outcome of your hunt, then it takes a pretty strong argument to carry the extra weight.  For some, the stove is one of those items.  Many make the argument that they’d rather just eat MRE’s and ditch the stove.  While I’d agree that we’re hardly out there trying to have a resort experience, keeping your body fueled is a very crucial part to your success in the field.  I’ve written more in depth about the weight trade-off for MRE’s vs. [[freeze dried]] in past issues of Eastmans’, and Cam Hanes included a couple of those pieces in his book Backcountry Bowhunting.  The jist of it is, you can carry heavier food (MRE’s), or carry a stove and lighter freeze dried food and oatmeal.  If you have ever lived off of MRE’s for a week, you’ll certainly feel for our troops.  While some of them aren’t bad at all, the diet gets old pretty quickly.  A hot meal from the wide variety of freeze dried meals available, plus the bonus of coffee or hot chocolate in the morning pretty well seals the deal for most of us backcountry hunters. 

Read the full article here.

Another very useful from South Cox on the all important “sleeping bag” selection for backcountry hunting.

One of the bulkiest items on your gear list for a bivy hunt is probably your sleeping bag. If it has not been replaced in the last couple of years, chances are you cannot only shave off some weight, but also significantly reduce the bulk. Almost all of the major sleeping bag manufacturers are offering sub 2 pound 3 season down bags now. Some have reduced the weight down to as little as a single pound and can be stuffed into a sack half the size of a nerf football. For my early season hunts in August and the first week of September I like a bag rated at about 30-35 degrees. Any later in the high country and you are increasingly flirting with the chances of sub-freezing temperatures. For those hunts I drop down to a 20 degree rating. Some of my favorite bags are from Western Mountaineering, Marmot, Mountain Hardware and Feathered Friends.

Read the full article here.