outdoor – Page 12 – Mommy Hiker

[Guest Blogger Series] Making Time For More Family Time by Kerem Hanci

Posted on August 6, 2013February 24, 2016 by Jennifer Fontaine

This month Mommy Hiker is pleased, honored and proud to welcome my very own husband, Kerem Hanci to the Guest Blogger Series! Pro Photographer, Husband, Daddy, Blogger extraordinaire, he has been writing his own very popular Friday Photo Blog for just over 5 years now and if you’ve been with us from the beginning, you may remember waaaay back almost a year ago to his first Mommy Hiker Guest Post (Wow! A year!). Let’s give him a warm welcome back!

I am so happy to reconnect with all the readers of Mommy Hiker again.

As a professional photographer who shoots primarily weddings, summer is extremely busy for me.

Although this can create certain challenges in getting my much-needed family time, I never let it become an excuse to take those precious fleeting moments away from me.

We were able to schedule a fantastic camping trip (my blog post on that trip and I am sure you already have read Jen’s blog post) last month and this past week was extremely busy for us in a very good, outdoorsy way!

First we spent an entire afternoon at the park. We were supposed to meet with friends and something came up on their end and we ended up having a family day at the park.

Following that wonderful day, right before the weekend, I went along to my first official Mommy Hiker Los Angeles hike! The Mommy Hiker regulars and their children who joined, the energy of the group and the joyful couple of hours that followed were one of the absolute highlights of my summer!

The camaraderie of the children, with the older ones taking responsability for the younger ones was adorable to witness. I kind of stayed away from the socializing moms (which is another perk for the members of the Mommy Hiker community) and focused on the children. Their laughter, their fascination with the nature and their endless imagination uplifted me to a whole different level on Friday morning.

The lunch time was a carnival of carefully packed delicious, healthy snacks and it was followed by a festival of children taking turns blowing bubbles and get lost in their excitement of chasing soapy water filled with air. The joy of life really is just that simple!

Over the weekend we drove down to Long Beach for a baby shower, than we drove up to Oxnard for a wild-life cruise, which Jennifer is dedicating an entire blog post to later this month.

I am certain I am preaching to the choir here, but I would like to finish this photography-heavy blog with this: don’t say you would go out and explore the outdoors and let your child(ren)’s imagination run wild “when you can”. Make time for it, create it and give your undivided attention to how your little one is expanding his/her horizons. Expand yours with theirs. We are blessed in California, with year-round lovely weather, kid and wallet-friendly outdoor attractions. Come join the Mommy Hiker group when they are hiking on Friday mornings and make a serious effort to go every week. It is a fantastic opportunity to stay in shape, to challenge the little ones and yourself to achieve new heights in personal development.

This was the first time I joined them hiking, you can be sure it was not the last time! See you all soon on a hiking trail with the little ones!

Caves and Creeks and Conductors! Oh My! – Hiking Malibu Creek Trail with a Toddler

Posted on July 29, 2013April 28, 2016 by Jennifer Fontaine

On this week’s Friday Family Hike, we journeyed 30 minutes north of Los Angeles to trek the Malibu Creek Trail to the Rock Pool! After almost two years of hiking with my babe you can imagine that we’ve been all over LA and beyond! There are so many old favorites that we go back to again and again, so it’s a lot of fun to venture to a new park and discover that it can be easily explored by a 2 1/2 year old. After Friday, Malibu Creek State Park is definitely one of our new favs!

When researching the trail information, we read that there is a $12 fee for parking, but there are also two designated state park parking lots available for free .2 miles away from the Park’s entrance, on Mulholland Drive, so we parked there and walked along Las Virgenes Road into the park and to the trail head.

It was a warm and misty (at times downright rainy) summer morning; perfect for staying cool and comfortable! Just steps into our hike, we made our first creek crossing and V was sure we had made it to the Rock Pool! After a little coercion and necessary time spent throwing various-sized rocks and sticks into the water, we were ready to move on!

The trail mosied ever so slightly up then leveled off when we reached the grasslands, a sprawling swath of meadows with so many nooks and crannies to explore, you can almost end your hike there, which we almost did. We found this felled log along the trail and decided to stop for lunch…

which turned into an hour-long playtime complete with V conducting Mother Nature’s orchestra and a bit of quiet contemplation!

I assumed, by that point, V would want to head back, but she wanted to explore some more, so we continued up the trail along a dry creek bed where I spied on the other side a huge rock face full of large wind-eroded holes. So, off trail we went, over the rocky creek bed and spent another hour carefully traversing the rock face and exploring every person-sized ‘cave’ we could safely climb.

We sat, looking out, enjoying our newly-found perspective perched high above the trail, sang songs, played patty cake, I Spy and even were lucky enough to coerce some hikers over to snap a picture of us!

At that point, it was getting dangerously close to naptime and with all of the hiking V had already done, I decided there was no reason to push on, we would have to make it to the Rock Pool another day and you can be sure, we’ll be back to Malibu Creek State Park soon!

Hiking & Hijinks in the Majestic High Sierras – Family Camping in Sequoia National Park

Posted on July 22, 2013February 24, 2016 by Jennifer Fontaine

We’re baaaaaack! Fully recharged, feeling rejuvenated and reconnected to this beautiful world we are blessed to call home. There’s something about being 6,700 feet up in the High Sierras that lifts my soul up, reminding me of just how grateful I am to have what I have and to do what I do and to be who I am, evolving and growing and mastering my awareness that I am always changing.

Hiking the Kaweah River Falls trail with toddler

Basking in the beauty of the Kaweah River Falls!

As is necessary when camping in Sequoia National Park during the summer months, we made our Lodgepole Campground reservations back in mid January and eagerly counted down the days. All One Hundred & Eighty of them! Fortunately, we had also planned a late spring camping trip to Big Sur as well, so we were able to bridge the seemingly infinite gap between trips.

This marked our third trip to the high Sierras and we enjoy it a little more each time! Within minutes of entering the park’s main entrance, we were greeted by 3 deer crossing the canyon floor. Early the next morning we were treated to another deer having breakfast 10 feet from our campsite!

Then, we all watched in amazement as a gorgeous brown bear made it’s way across the rocky creek bed a mere 100 yards from our tents! We were all so caught up in the awe of the moment that none of even thought to grab our cameras, but when the momma bear showed up later to fish in the creek with her cubs, thank goodness Uncle Joey snapped some pictures!

Mama Bear with her Cub (Can you spot her cub?)

We walked the land that John Muir fought so passionately to preserve so that we could all drink the deep breath of its wild air. “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees. The wind will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves,” he said and we did.

Hiking Tokopah Falls Trail with a toddler

Snack Break on the Tokopah Falls Trail

The more we camp with our toddler (this is her 4th camping trip), the more experience we gain, the more organized and prepared we become, the more we realize that we can do this….MORE! Thanks to our much smaller and more useful tent, our meticulously packed camping bins and tons of food prepared ahead of time, we were able to spend much of our days playing, exploring, discovering and taking lots of pictures!

Frolicking through fields of wildflowers

Discovering hidden creek-side beaches

Sketching the sweeping Sierra vistas

Learning how to skateboard with Uncle Joey

Swimming with the Trout

On our last night, my hubby and I sat curled up next to a crackling fire, V tucked snugly into her sleeping bag, and we were already discussing how we are going to squeeze in another camping trip before the end of the summer! We can’t wait!