Tough Mudder 2015

Earlier this year, Brandon's cousin (and Violet's godfather) Ryan asked him if he'd join his team for the Tough Mudder Pittsburgh race in August.  The Tough Mudder is a 10+mile military-style obstacle race that supports the Wounded Warrior Project (raised over 8.5 million for WWP to date!)  The Tough Mudder is all about teamwork and camaraderie and many of the obstacles cannot be completed without the help and support from your teammates or strangers running alongside you pushing through both physical and mental fears and challenges.  It's legit, you guys.

So in the last weekend of August, our family drove up to Slippery Rock, PA to support our 'Outdoorsman Tough' daddy at the Mudder.

Team Hunting Daddies consisted of Brandon, Jon, Ray, and Ryan while their cheering squad included me and our three kids and Lisa (Ray's wife) and their son, Reid.  It was practically an entourage.  

We got to follow the guys around for many of the obstacles that ran along the observer path.  It was awesome to be able to see so much of it, and it kept the kids mostly occupied during the day by weaving along the paths and watching all the participants.  We were also lucky that much of the race ran alongside wooded areas, and as outdoors kids themselves, the three biggest kids were thrilled to be able to occupy themselves in the trees and weeds.

The obstacles were a mix of physically difficult and mentally/emotionally taxing - pushing all kinds of fears:  height, tight spaces, water, and darkness.  The boys were pretty amped up during the race between all the adrenaline and camaraderie and so they mostly enjoyed themselves while also becoming progressively exhausted.   Between the thirteen obstacles, there were short distances of running/jogging, so they all agreed that it was a nice mix between the two.

I was so grateful to Lisa for pushing the stroller most of the way (thank you!!) as our little Violet was discontent to be locked in the seated position (there's so much to see!)  I had her in the carrier for most of the race and many times Gem on my shoulders!  Where's my headband for the Mommy Mudder, right?  hahah  (actually multiple people stopped to say that to me, so that's not an original thought - hah)

It definitely would have been easier to leave the kids with a babysitter and just go myself to cheer the boys on - but this is an example of the ways we try to instill in the kids that we are all a part of this one family together.  That Daddy was doing something awesome and so we should all be there to see it - even if that makes it hard.  We are a family and we support each other.  We.work.together.

After a break to eat, we lost the team for awhile.  It was hard to tell time-wise which obstacle they'd be on now that we had taken a break for food - so we let the kids play freely while Lisa and I stared at all the runners trying to recognize anyone's face who was in the group before or after them - hah!  We finally found the guys again (after about 45 mins though!) and were able to see them finish the last three obstacles before receiving their Tough Mudder headbands at the finish line.

  

The whole Hunting Daddies team did amazing and I am so proud of them for pushing themselves to their limits in this race and for this organization that supports such a great cause.  I'm not usually all "My Man!" but I think the Tough Mudder race is an exception.  Brandon is an incredible athlete, it's just in his bone marrow and I'm crazy proud to confirm that he successfully completed every single obstacle the Tough Mudder threw at him.
So, seriously you guys,  my man!

our big secret project OR that time we started a publishing company

Gulp.

What's that thing the late, great, Mandela said?

Well, that about sums up our experience over the last few months as we built our own publishing company:  The Hunting Daddies

Let's start at the start, eh?

If you're a regular reader around here, it's no big secret that we are a hunting family.  I've written about how hunting and fishing .dictate a great deal of our lives with avid outdoorsmen surrounding me at every turn:  husband, Dad, dad-in-law, best friends, cousins, and the guy in line behind me in the check-out line at Gander Mountain last night.  We live in midwestern PA and as James Carville explained about Pennsylvania, "Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle,"  we're located firmly in the 'Alabama' part.

So it really should have come as no surprise when Greyson came right out one day and asked me if I would take him, 'in the woods to sit in a tree stand to use the grunt call.'  He was barely three.  I just laughed at first and shook my head, "oh boy, here we go again - another redneck."  And then my teacher-brain started thinking about how impressive it was that he used the correct vocabulary words in the right context.  Shortly after, I got to googling- I wanted a book that was similar to our other board books that included vocabulary words with the corresponding picture for specific content.  We have one for basketball, football, and musical instruments.  Up until this point, Grey was picking up vocab based off of what he heard our family and friends say.  And I wanted a tool to have on hand that when Brandon said he needs to fix a 'fletching', we would have a picture of one handy instead of googling it.  Alas, I could not find a board book that fit my needs.

Our best friend Jon was living us during the week this summer, so he and Brandon just kept doing what they normally do; taking the kids with them to set up the trail cams, and going for walks in the woods, and teaching the kids to make turkey calls...all the while the wish for a vocabulary books kept rattling in the back of our minds.

Until, finally one night at dinner, I was all like, "Let's just make a book ourselves?"

And so then we did.

Well, it wasn't that easy, but basically that's what went down.  We wanted something that didn't exist so we took the very big, mostly scary, completely unfamiliar steps of making it happen.  

After the initial, 'Wait, are we being serious about this?' conversations, we got started on making it happen.  We all organized the vocabulary words we wanted for our first book, Jon drew the pictures, I learned Photoshop on the fly, we discovered we needed to become our own publishing company (as confirmed by this woman's post), we applied to be a small business, we spent lots of our own money, Linds and I excitedly called each other basically just to squeal, we set up a website, Lindsay navigated the world of online accounting and state taxes, we started social media profiles, we held our breath,  we waited, and waited and waited for our federal EIN, we held web-meetings, created a logo, ordered business cards, jumped through legal hoops, we messed up, we tried again, we googled, we drank beers, we laughed, and above all we learned.

And then after all that (and surely more of that to come), we arrived where we are today.  Somewhere in the middle of astonished and terrified.  The idea began as a way to get educational materials to our own kids about the stuff we already spend the day talking about (hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities), and now after nearly 6 months into this adventure- we've found it's morphed into this awesome thing all of it's own.  

Through social media, we've been so lucky to meet other families that are just like ours (#huntingfamilyfriday).  Regular hunters and fishers who spend their weekends and evenings in the woods or at the creek with their family and friends.  That's what it's always been about for us - sure our husbands love tagging a monster buck or catching a legend-worthy steelhead - but those moments are few and far between, it's more about the memories that are made while spending time with your family away from distractions. 

So, here we are today, at the next big canyon of unknown.  Our first board books have made their way half-way across the globe and we are ready to start selling.  We are busily working on our next book and already discussing ideas for future avenues that at the start of this - we never would have dreamed of.  It's exciting and I'm so happy to get to finally share the news with all of you!

Soooo, that's what we've been up to for the past few months - hah!  So glad that cat's outta the bag, friends.  

If you'd like to check out our book for sale (will be shipped no earlier than Thursday 12/19), please find My First Bowhunting Book here:  http://www.thehuntingdaddies.squarespace.com/products/myfirstbowhuntingbook

If you want to learn more about The Hunting Daddies, check us out:

our website

facebook

twitter

instagram

Thank you so much for your patience over the last few months, I know my posts have been inconsistent so thank you for hanging around as we figure this all out.  I have no plans to leave our family blog, so stay tuned for regular updates and occasional posts on our adventures in publishing with The Hunting Daddies.

xxxox.

moral of this post:  Dream BIG, jump, figure it out on the way down.

5 pin-worthy things from my wedding, even though Pinterest didn't exist at the time

Five years ago today, I was antsies in my pantsies excited about tomorrow...which five years ago, tomorrow, would have been my wedding day.  (word of the wise:  if you're going to write 'antsies in my pantsies' don't accidentally leave out the first 's'like I nearly did...inapprop although probably accurate.  tmi).

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

anyway, I'm one of those pin-lovers of today that feel a tinge of envy for all the brides that get to borrow and make-their-own all those beautiful ideas from pinterest.  Gah.

So in honor of my 5 year anniversary of my wedding eve, I am here to share with you five pin-worthy ideas from my big day, because even without Pinterest and a bajillion awesome ideas floating around via the internet, I still pulled a few goodies out of my sleeves (just kidding, I didn't wear sleeves that day, but ya know what a mean).

Before the dawn of Pinterest, my dear friends (and PinBrides who may have found their way here) - These were my Pin-worthy details from our October 2008 wedding.

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

1. My Something Blue.  Brandon and I are high school sweethearts.  Our high school colors were blue & white and we were the Blue Jays.  Brandon was (and still is!) an amazing athlete, especially though as a basketball player.  As part of his wedding gift from me - I persuaded both his high school and college coaches to give me his 'home' basketball jerseys and then I got them framed.  (He loved them!).  Since I also snagged his away high school jersey (which was blue), I cut a little square out of the bottom and pinned it to the inside of my dress as my Something Blue.  A little reminder of how young and lucky we were to have met in high school.

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

2. Fall Flowers & Foliage.  Thanks to the guidance and support of my awesome florists, we were able to have beautiful and unique flower bouquets and accessories at our wedding.  I was hopeful that we could stick to a fall theme with our October wedding, and the bouquets that were assembled including 'Pods', were perfect.  My bridal bouquet included big white roses and sprinkles of white throughout, ya know, to 'bride it up.'

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

The bridesmaids carried similar Pod bouquets without the bride-y white flowers and our flower girls wore matching flower wreaths atop their precious heads.

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

For the guests that got a little extra special treatment (Mums, Grandmas, Church Readers, Godmothers), we had similar mini corsages (or pin-ons) for them as well.  (Our male special guests got boutonnieres - see below about those).

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

3. Camo vests & turkey feather boutonnieres.  My outdoors-loving husband was ecstatic to learn that he was able to find Mossy Oak camo vests for his tux options.  All the groomsmen, ring bearers, Dads, and my Granpap wore black tuxes, white shirts, and their Mossy Oak vests.  Who says camo can't be fancy?  It certainly does look good-looking, if I do say so myself ;)

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

Our boutonnieres including a spray of fall flowers (matching our bouquets and corsages) beautifully arranged with an actual turkey feather.  With many hunters in our extended family, we had enough turkey feathers to go around for every boutonniere that day.

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

photo credit:  Michelle Misner

4. Table tops.  As we were going for the 'it's fall and also we're paying for this wedding on a budget' theme, we used that for inspiration for our centerpieces.  We got married in a fire hall, ya'll (also that's pretty customary around here where we grew up) but we needed the space (ahem, with 430 guests) and we're pretty country.  So our table tops were decorated with tall simple vases (dollarstore.com) filled with sticks (collected from my parents' woods) and sprinkled with some fake fall leaves.  I also snagged a ton of mason jars from the Trader's Guide and we had tea lights lit inside of them for dinner.  It was extravagant but it was simple and beautiful to us.

Photo Credit:  Michelle Misner

Photo Credit:  Michelle Misner

Because I like reading things in moments of waiting (like at a wedding reception dinner table), I also created triangle table tops for each table.  One side included a guest thank you from us with a Special thanks to those that helped prepare for the reception (family members that baked cookies, helped set up, and our Guest book attendant who took Polariods of guests (hi Yemily!))  Another side included a run down of our music from the night - our song:  Stay with You; John Legend, The Wedding Party song:  Cowboy, Take Me Away; The Dixie Chicks, Father/Daughter Song:  My Girl: The Temptations, and Mother/Son Song: There You'll Be; Faith Hill.  The last side included common wedding traditions and why the exist - like why we wear our wedding band on the third finger on our left hand, and why the groom sits on the right and the bride on the left.

Photo Credit:  Michelle Misner

5. Candy toss.  We had lots of kids attend our wedding because I was a teacher and always a big kid-fanatic.  And really, at this point with that many guests on the invite list - we figured you might as well go big or go home.  We loved having kids there and know its not possible or a good idea for all wedding receptions to include children.  I wanted the kids to feel included, but also wanted them to steer clear of the bouquet/garter toss since that's a potentially very awkward/inappropriate situation.  So we cranked up the song Candy; Bow Wow Wow's version and asked all the kids to join me on the dance floor.  Then I threw candy from a basket like a wild woman while kids ran and collected all over.  We did this directly before the bouquet and garter toss.

Photo Credit:  Michelle Misner

Photo Credit:  Michelle Misner

Photo Credit:  Michelle Misner

So there's my contribution to wedding pinmania, Internet.

Hard to believe that it has already been five years and sometimes not hard to believe at all.  Love is funny like that.  More on the sentimental happiness tomorrow:)  

But for now, let me make this proclamation:  Even without pinterest - our wedding was chalk full of joy, laughter, dancing, and love.

Photo Credit:  Michelle Misner

An 'Outdoors Kid' - the pros & cons

We live in western Pennsylvania.  We actually live, now, in the town that Brandon and I were born and raised - just outside of our alma mater school district which seems almost like a crime to anyone that knows us. Although we align ourselves to all things Pittsburgh (sports especially), we are located in the 'middle' of what James Carville (Democratic political strategist) was referring to when he said, "Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle."

We are 'country.'  And our kids are living proof of all that country blood in their veins, as it is no more evident then when I lay in bed and reflect on the day.  I have come to find in three short years - my children's overall temperaments are almost directly proportionate to the amount of time that they got to spend outside on any given day.

As in all things, there are pros & cons to having an 'outdoors' kid.  The cons range from things like having to find ways to burn energy in the winter when they can't get outside.  And cleaning up enormous indoor messes from attempting to keep them occupied on rainy days.

And the constant tattoo'ing of bumps and bruises.  From skinned knees, to thorn pricks, to bug bites - we do a daily bruise check while getting ready for bed, just to make sure we get an accurate tally of all of the booboos.  This past week, I had to attempt to explain to the Pediatrician why our 15 month old daughter has a scraped up knee (from falling on the cement patio) and a gash and bruises on her forehead (from trying to climb out of the wagon in the stone driveway).

But the Pros are almost infinite - and we are very lucky to have the space in our own yard to be able to let the kids run wild and free everyday, when the weather permits (and even sometimes when we just bundle up or rain-gear up and go out anyway).

My personal top favorite pros to raising 'Outdoors Kids'

Water play:  One of our parenting lessons learned fairly early on was 'If the kid is unhappy - put him in water.'  I think this is well-known parenting advice, and although our kids spend a decent amount of time in the bath and occasionally 'washing' the dishes - there is no better (and easier to clean up) place to explore with water than outside.  Water play keeps them occupied and just happy longer than almost any other activity .

Energy Burning:  We try to get outside as early as 9:30a each morning if we can.  The sooner the kids can start moving their bodies and exploring - the better.  Part of the reason that they have 'better' days (emotionally) is because they are burning up energy that otherwise seems to turn into tantrums when they can't tire themselves out sufficiently.  Burned energy = happy children in our house.

Imaginative Play:  It seems that being outside is the place that encourages my kids the most to be imaginative.  Although we have fantastical play inside - when we are outside there is more space and more props to push their imaginations further than normal.  We have a 'secret hideout' where the kids explore and build and fight off dragons.  Grey plays 'ninja fighting' or 'robot boxing' on the trampoline by himself, Gemmi digs in the mulch and carries it to various places on the patio, giggling and sighing the whole time.

When the kids are outside, I get more opportunities to just watch their little minds than I do when we are in the house or visiting somewhere new.  They don't need me to constantly 'watch this!' or 'help me do this!'  They just play - and its amazing.

The organic learning:  This is my favorite part about having 'outdoors kids.'  There is so much learning happening everyday, with no pushing on my part from ideas I saw on Pinterest or worries about them getting new things in their minds.  All the questions and conversations happen organically because of things they see, hear, smell, find, step on barefoot, and occasionally put into their own mouths.

• They've learned that you duck your head to go under, and you can jump over or off, you walk sideways to go down a steep hill, and go around things that look tricky or dangerous.
• They know that a fire is hot so you don't get too close, but it is good for staying warm and cooking food.
• We know to watch out for 'jagger' bushes and grass because if you step on it barefoot, it will pinch you.  
• Grey said to us last night in the car, "You know a Mourning Dove sings a sad song like this, 'Whoooo, who, who, who'." 
• Gemmi learned (the hard way) that red ants bite but black ants will happily crawl all the way up your arms while you giggle.  
• We hold worms and caterpillars and frogs in our hands and give them names - then we put them back safely where we found them so they can be with their family.  
• The kids know that we don't kill spiders because they eat bugs, so we put them outside when we find them in the house - and its okay to watch a bumblebee but not to touch or play with it because they'll 'bite' you.  
• They learn about the way of the world; that plants drink the rain to grow tall and strong, that there are seasons with grass when it is hot and seasons when it is cold with snow and seasons in between when its a little hot and a little cold and everything is changing; and that everything works together to make our world - Grey recently announced, "Mum, it's raining - the worms are going to come out to eat.  And then the birds are going to come out to eat the worms."
• We know that gray clouds means rain is on its way. 
• They've learned about tools - that a tractor is for mowing, and a rake is for raking, and a shovel is for digging - but sometimes a shovel is for picking up a dead mole that Trixie played with too rough.  And then we use the shovel for moving it to the woods where we say a little prayer for it - something like, "Dear God, we found this dead mole.  Keep him safe and happy in heaven.  Amen."
• Grey says that 'it smells like tractors outside' if we smell fresh cut grass and he'll announce other smells to Gemma- like "Smell that Gem?  It's a skunk!"  or "That smell is horse poop, Gemmi!"
• And every night we look for the 'that crazy moon' and try to guess if its waxing or waning - and then we double check it on our lunar calendar or our moon viewfinder to see if we were right.  

It may mean that my kids clothes are generally ruined faster than most, that they have more bumps and bruises than other kids their age, and quite frankly they are usually pretty dirty - but we are so glad that we are parents to some 'outdoors kids.'