Today I am excited to interview Shelly Rudd, fitness instructor, mom, runner, and an all around kick-in-the-butt for all of us who need one!  She has been a fitness instructor for ten years. In addition to running, she enjoys doing pilates on the reformer, kickboxing, and weightlifting. Shelly, what drives you to remain active and…

Welcome to Expect[ing] to Thrive! If you’ve just joined us you don’t want to miss our very first post: An Invitation to Action, not Comparison and our very first GIVEAWAY from Mountain Mama! Today we have guest contributor Erica Lineberry sharing her story of pregnancy, climbing and the adventure of having a “cragbaby.” You won’t…

Oh, the clothing I WISH I had had during my pregnancy and nursing days… I am about to share a hilarious photo with you. Hilarious in the I-don’t-want-any-one-to-see-this type of way. But I love you guys, so I will… I am 8 months pregnant, attempting to snowshoe in Winter Park, CO and it is a…

I wrote this post on my bike this morning. No, I am not super-woman. I did not have my laptop propped on the handle bars, typing away while simultaneously sweating away last weekend’s s’more. But I was spinning away at the gym, focusing too much on my legs that were screaming, “can we be done…

  Hi, friends! Obviously we were thinking of all you on our last camping trip of the summer…cause I managed to snap some fun photos of the yellow tutu debuting near Moab! I don’t know about you, but this week is insanely busy! But enough about me… We are only one week out from our…

It is 6 a.m. My coffee is keeping me company this morning. And you too! I am not a morning person. But my in-laws just hit the road back to Oregon and I find myself up and unable to go back to bed. And really there is no better time for this mom to write…

This whole “fear” series has invoked some interesting responses. But by and large, the biggest question we have received is this, “What if my kid is fearless? What about then?” And I get that. In fact, dealing with a fearless kid is often times alarming for all us adults. My daughter, as far as I can…

For the last week we’ve been doing a series on fear. What we fear, what we shouldn’t, and how to help our kids overcome their fears. Today, we are going a different direction: how to deal with things we SHOULD fear –  like extreme weather and the potential danger to our family. A few weeks…

One silly little post on fear… and it has erupted into a series. Should I call it a mini-series? Ha ha! Earlier this week I opened up about my new climbing buddy – Mr. Freak-out himself. And the little things I have done to help fight him. Today we are moving on to our kids…

We were three pitches up on Bastille Crack, in Eldo. I was doing my first ever hanging belay and I had to pee. This is embarrassing to admit. But I had to pee really bad. Bad enough I felt like vomiting [though I am sure 50% of my nausea was do to nerves.] See, for…

This post is like my recyle bin. Useful little tidbits – that have no where else to go. It might feel a little all-over-the-place. And well…it is! No matter how prepared I think I am, I always forget something. We just hope it is a “cheap” something we can grab at the local store. Often,…

OK, you are right. There is no such thing as kids getting bored around camp. Usually. But when you have been camping for 5 days and still have a few more before you leave? Sometimes you need to change it up a bit.  Not to mention those famously few camping trips where weather keeps you…

Welcome to the third post in the Camping Chronicles. We’ve talked a whole lot about staying warm. Now we are switching gears entirely to potty training. I had to start this post off with this photo. Cause why not?! We all need a few more laughs when it comes to potty training. If you are…

Welcome to part two of “Keeping your kids warm” in our series, Camping Chronicles! Today I am simply the messenger. I called it a bloggers “mashup” cause well, we are mashing it up! Taking lots of ingredients, from lots of places and mixing it all up for ya. I asked my fellow outdoor mom’s what…

This is the first post in our series Camping Chronicles, discussing all things camping with kids! Join us for more posts on topics such as packing, potty training, camper trailers, and good gear. Today we are attempting to answer the endless problem of how to sleep your babies in a tent AND keep them warm….

Join us for our series called the Camping Chronicles, for more tips and information! There is a segment of the climbing [outdoor] population that sighs and rolls their eyes every time they see a family come around the corner. They are bitter when their peaceful silence is interrupted by a crying infant. Honestly, I think…

Moab, UT. For me it is a little slice of heaven. Funny though…we went there many times during college and nearly every trip became epic in someway. Things just always seemed to go wrong – running out of water while backpacking, cold nights, injuries from biking… And yet we always go back and we always…

To me, Winter Park/Mary Jane, CO will always be a mogul skier’s dream. But now that I have three tiny tots, two of which are skiing, I have realized it is a kids dream as well! I practically grew up on the tree trails, runs, and lifts of Winter Park. I remember skiing up to…

We are a society of instant gratification. But so much in life becomes good when we are in it for the long haul. Like, for example, our puppy, Kai. Now we really haven’t been in “it” that long with him. He is roughly 8 months old… But I can tell you that those first 3…

Today we took time to interview our blogging buddies at Bring the Kids and asked them a few questions about their marriage. How long have you been married? We’ve been married for 6 years! Where/how did you meet? We were both skiing up at Snowbird, were in the singles line and hopped on the lift…