With summer winding down, and hunting season close to kicking into full gear, the wife and I really wanted to do one last – purely for Abby – activity.   Then, one night while reading one of her favorite books, I instantly knew where we were heading – the zoo.

Abby loves to read books involving animals, and she loves to name the animals as we read through the books.  She loves all the animals – giraffes, zebras, elephants, deer, and turkey – just to name a few, and she takes great pride in knowing them all.  In fact, one night she even corrected me and let me know that the animal we were looking at was indeed a jaguar – and not a cheetah – as I originally thought.

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I missed out on last weekend’s outdoor festivities, because I was fighting my nasty skin infection.  This weekend, though, I more than made up for that.

Saturday was all about turkey hunting preparation.  Jeff and Matt, along with a few of the kids, will be out trying to put a couple of turkey breasts in the freezer on Monday.  So since everyone was getting ready for their seasons to start, I took the opportunity to get the wife sighted in and ready as well.  Our season doesn’t start for another couple of weeks, but who I am to sit back and let everyone else shoot.

Jeff got his youngest stepson sighted in and ready for his first turkey season, my wife is sighted in and ready to put down her first bird, and we even managed to get another one of our cousins to shoot a gun for the first time.  After a little lesson on how to shoot the gun, she managed to put a few shots right in the kill zone, so Jeff may take her out sometime this week and let her try her luck, especially since Michigan has its wonderful new Apprentice Hunting License.

Then, yesterday, the wife and I bundled up little Abby and took her out to the 10 acres that her Papa and Grandma own.  This is the place that has the private pond, and is just a little piece of paradise that all of us are fortunate enough to be able to enjoy.  We blew all kinds of bubbles, rode around very slowly on quads, played in the sand pit, sat around the campfire, and I accomplished the one thing I set out to do – catch Abby’s first fish.

Considering it’s the early season, the fishing was a little slow, but I still managed to land one little bass – with Abby’s help of course.  You never know how the little ones are going to react to new things, but Abby didn’t have any problem reeling in the fish…….touching the fish…….or laying a Jimmy Houston kiss on the fish.  It was hysterical, and made for an awesome afternoon.

Spring has definitely sprung, and with it the outdoor activities are really starting to ramp up.  Turkey season begins on Monday, and camping will be here before we know it.

This weekend was perfect.  I got the wife sighted in and ready to kill her first bird; we managed to recruit a young girl for hunting; and I managed to make a memory that will last for a lifetime – catching Abby’s first fish.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Author’s note: And, though I loved getting outside during the winter months, it was still nice to be able to head out this weekend, let Abby play outside and have a good time, and not have to dress like we did in this picture.  Oh….winter in Michigan.  You definitely have to wear plenty of layers:):)

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The last few days have been awesome.  I didn’t post nearly as much as I should, because I was too busy enjoying life………….and that is never a bad thing.  I was too busy doing some outside projects on the house, helping Abby swing in the backyard, and walking my brother’s property in search of turkeys.  It’s been a great last few days.  Unfortunately, though, we were having so much fun that I lost track of time and only wrote a handful of posts last week.  Oh well, though; no regrets and move on.

Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the wife, Abby, and I  did some outside projects on the house.  Of course, Abby had a great time playing outside and didn’t really care that there was work involved.  She tried to “sweep” the grass, and had a great time watching her mommy and I work.  And, of course, in-between work sessions, I made time to play with Abby on the backyard swing.  And to say she enjoyed it would be an understatement.  In fact, she cried when daddy decided it was time to get back to work, and that play time was over.

All of this activity reminded me of something as well:  sometimes the outdoors needs to be kept simple.  I think all of us – when it comes to getting young ones involved in the outdoors – get caught in an idea that, in order for the kids to enjoy being outside, it has to be some elaborate, intensive outdoor experience.  Really, though, getting kids involved in the outdoors can be as simple as playing with your kid on a backyard swing; showing them a spider making its way through the grass; blowing bubbles with them in the backyard; or, as I did last week, showing Abby what the moon really is – that it’s not just some magical life-like object on cartoons.

Simple.

Sure, we all want to immerse our kids in outdoor adventures, including fishing trips and hunting excursions into the deep woods, but we also want to show them how simple and splendid Mother Nature can be.

And that can start right in our own backyard.

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Everyone who reads this blog knows that our main passion here at SimplyOutdoors is getting kids involved in nature.  We don’t care if they want to sled, have a snowball fight, hunt and fish, catch fireflies or whatever – we just want them to be outside.

And this year I’m going to be able to help little Abby do those kinds of things………and I can’t wait.  Since she was born, I’ve never shied away from getting her outside; we’ve had her camping multiple times, and she’s already played outside this year too.  But this year will be the first year that I can teach her to fish, or chase bugs, and actually have her somewhat comprehend what’s going on.

And I’m excited.

For the last ten years or so, a big dream of mine has been to teach one of my kids about the outdoors; to teach them about life.  And, finally, after a few years of thinking that having our own kids wasn’t going to be a reality, this year that dream is finally going to come true for the wife and I.  We can’t wait to teach Abby all about baiting and setting a hook;  we can’t wait to show her what a lightning bug is while teaching her how to catch one; and we can’t wait to be able to share our love of the outdoors with her (I’m sure our camping trips will never be the same).

Of course, showing Abby all of the things that nature has to offer will also remind us about the wonders that nature holds; it will allow us to look at the outdoor world through kid eyes.

She’ll be able to discover nature while allowing Jenn and I, as we teach her what we know, to discover nature again.

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I checked weather.com to find out it would be 25 degrees for a high, and only 14 if you figured in the wind chill.  But that didn’t stop any of us from heading outside this weekend.  We were part of the brave crowd.

And it was fun.

It started with a chilly quad ride.  Normally this time of year everyone would be riding snowmobiles, but luckily for me the snow hasn’t cooperated and the snowmobile trails were a mess; I don’t own a snowmobile, so I would have had to sit at the cottage and let everyone else ride their sleds.  I do own a quad, though, so three of us took those and tore down some trails and a few of the roads, all the while taking in the awesome scenery.  I love the laws that allow us to ride all the secondary roads in the county.  It’s awesome.

The ice-cold wind was finding its way through my helmet, and the 8 layers I had on weren’t preventing it from smacking me right in the chest.  But I was still in heaven.  The trails and roads were lightly snow-covered, and the scenery was something that could only be found in North Country such as this.  It was awesome.  I ignored the icicles hanging from my nose, my frozen thumb that was operating the throttle, and drove on.  It was perfect.

After a few hours of that, we headed back to all of our families who were waiting at the cottage.  They had come in order to visit Tip Up Town USA.  Houghton Lake is a smorgasbord for anything ice or snow-related this time of year, and the annual two week festival was to provide many things for the kids to do: They rode fair rides, fed a llama that I thought might eat their clothes off, and slid down the ice slide.  Honestly, the ice slide was one of the highlights of the trip – If you could have only seen the smiles on the kids’ faces as they slid down that thing – all bundled up in snow pants and winter coats – with a grin on their face all the way to the bottom.

The adults had a good time, too.  I loved watching the kids experiencing everything, including my little Abby who looked somewhat like the I-can’t-put-my-arms-down kid from A Christmas Story; she was so bundled up I’m not sure how she managed to fall asleep in her stroller through most of the experience.

I even managed to do something that most of the group was amazed by:  walk on the ice.  I hate ice fishing, and I hate standing on the ice; it is just a strange feeling for me.  But when there are vehicles out on the ice, I figure it’s safe to step on out.  Jeff relished in the moment and managed to capture a few pictures for proof.  Heck, it was so much fun, if the weather cooperates; I might even ice fish with him this weekend on a local lake.

Cabin fever tends to settle in for a lot of people this time of year, but I’m glad that hasn’t happened to any of us.  There is just something invigorating and refreshing about being outside………..even if you have to wear 8 layers to stay warm.

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