Skinny Moose Media blogger, Jason Hendricks of The Adventurist blog is not only a dad but is an outdoor junky and reporter. With just a recent study proving that American kids are just not getting the outdoor activity they once got, Jason is already set up to become a great and active parent for his children.

For those who like to read my articles should also subscribe to Jason’s blog in attempt to follow what is going on in the outdoor world. Jason likes to cover expeditions to the top of Mt Everest. His interviews with some of the leaders in the industry make for an exciting read, and when people fall short of their goals the blog documents all those aspects as well.

If you want to plan a family adventure contact Jason for some helpful tips and ideas on how to find the best spot. I have chatted with Jason on the phone several times and his knowledge of the outdoor world is extensive and not only is a good reporter but can also give you great ideas on your next trip into the wild.

Do you remember the team who were stuck on Mt Hood not too long ago? Jason was following the events as they unfolded, and in fact was getting some inside information before Fox News reported. This essentially sent thousands of readers to Jason’s blog to get the news first. You can count on him to get to the news quickly and get a sneak peak of what’s happening on the inside.

There are also some exciting things that The Adventurist blog will be covering in the weeks and months ahead. So head over and subscribe to his blog and follow the madness. You will be glad you did.

-sillydad

This weekend, we spent the time with our kids. We drove about 45 minutes to a place called Birdsacre, also known as Stanwod Wildlife Sanctuary. They have birds on display. The owls were a great hit for the kids. But what was the most fun about the place were many trails to hike. All the trails were perfect for the kids and we were able to walk around about 200 acres of preserved land.

To get the mood of the place you can find this quote straight from their website:

“We bring back from the woods what we carry to it – give little and we get little in return…. Nature will have all of your attention or nothing of you. If you think of yourself, or your affronts, you forget to look for the color, you lose the Cecropia’s cocoon, you fail to see the bird or hear the song, and the flowers lose their fragrance…. Intimacy with Nature is acquired slowly.” -CJS

You can learn more about the Sanctuary and the purpose behind it here.

Let’s see what else did we do? Oh, on Sunday we were going to take the kids swimming in the afternoon but first we wanted to do some more walking trails. We are trying to get the kids back into shape for the Summer ahead. Regularly we take the kids up to the Orono Bog Walk, where there is a boardwalk about a mile long you can walk along. There are many things you can see from the boardwalk like wild flowers, animals, etc.

They also have walking/biking trails you can go on aside from the mile long boardwalk. Some people bring horses up onto the trails and some walk their dogs. It is a very popular area as parking is tough to find on the weekends. Lots of trails and plenty of nature to see. Our regular routine is to go to the boardwalk first and then whatever we have time for afterwards we go and do. This time we went straight out onto the trails and walked around the woods for a couple of hours.

It was nice to get out this weekend and into the woods. The smells of the trees and the sounds of birds chirping is always nice, especially when I am normally listening to kids arguing over toys and being fully indulged in the chaotic environment of having 5 kids….

-sillydad

JOHN MC CAIN:
My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side
of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:
When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the
road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure — right from
Day One! — that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves
to cross the road. But then, this really isn’t about me…….

DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won’t realize that he must
first deal with the problem on ‘THIS’ side of the road before it goes after
the problem on the ‘OTHER SIDE’ of the road. What we need to do is
help him realize how stupid he’s acting by not taking on his ‘CURRENT’
problems before adding ‘NEW’ problems.

OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he
wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I’m going to
give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not
live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don’t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of
the chicken crossing the road…

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been
allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It
was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken’s
intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road because he’s GUILTY! You can see it in his
eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a
standing order at the Farmer’s Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the
chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I’ve not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die in the rain. Alone.

GRANDPA:
In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us he chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn’t that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the
chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it
experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life
long dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:
I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will
lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book.
Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new
platform is much more stable and will never cra…#@&&^(C% ………reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the
chicken?

BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of
chicken?

AL GORE:
I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY:
Where’s my gun?

AL SHARPTON:
Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

- sillydad

“Where is my other shoe, Daddy?”

Of course the little one is always to blame for taking it and putting it in the toy box, behind the couch, or even in the trash.

Those mornings will definitely not be missed.

This Summer we have lots of things planned. Most of all of our weekends are already booked with short day trips, weddings, museums, camping trips, picnics, etc. Hopefully we can get some fishing in with all the craziness going on.

Anyone staying closer to home due to rising gas prices? Most of our trips will be close to home…

- sillydad

The secret to a long lasting and healthy life is to live a healthy lifestyle which consists of eating good food, but the biggest and most important secret is exercising regularly. I have my moments where I slack and gain weight and when it is time to get back to losing and shedding those pounds I begin to research more about the best ways. Maybe this time I will find a hidden secret that will make my quest that much easier.

I did stumble onto something in my quest that was actually a little nugget of truth that might help all of us out when we start exercising to get back into shape and shed some pounds. So what is it?

Exercise in the morning if you can. There are so many added benefits to exercising in the morning that studies show 80% of all people who exercise in the morning lose weight and actually keep it off. And we all know losing weight isn’t really too difficult, it’s keeping that weight off….

I can’t remember the percentage of those who exercise in the evening who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off but it was something dramatically lower like 23% or so…

So what are some of the benefits?

First off the simple fact that getting up in the morning before everyone else and hitting the gym or going jogging is a lot more difficult to interfere with. Exercising in the evening and last minute things pop up, ultimately keeping us from going out to exercise. A friend or family member calls just as you were heading out the door. Maybe someone unexpectedly stops by. Maybe you want to sit back and watch a movie or tv show with the family. People are awake and living their lives in the evening and so getting up before everyone else allows your schedule to not be interrupted. I have a wife and 5 kids. There are times it is just inconvenient for me to go for a walk in the evenings. Some experts say to think of it as a morning meeting you just can’t miss.

Now onto the more physiological benefits. We all have read and know that exercising does so many things for us. One of those many things is the release of endorphins and other chemicals into the body. This stimulates brain activity, increases metabolism, and your ability to burn fat quicker peaks.

So how do you benefit from this in the morning more so than at night? Good question. Studies show that these chemicals put you on a high. They say the best time to pump iron is immediately after aerobic activity. When you exercise in the evening, jump in the shower, and head off to bed you feel pretty good… This is because those natural chemicals are really at it’s peak. But when you head off to bed you in a sense are not putting that to good use. Well it won’t hurt you but you can benefit from this during your waking hours.

For instance, heading off to work instead of sleep allows you to be more up beat and think more clearly during the work day, ultimately burning more calories because of this. You aren’t as hungry so you eat less throughout the day. If you exercised in the evenings all these benefits would be happening while you were dreaming about stuff. You are not going to be as active (since you are sleeping) therefore less fat being burned…

Another cool things I read was about a new study regarding sleep patterns and the quality of sleep by those who exercised in the morning and with those who exercised in the evenings. They found that those who exercised in the morning actually had better quality sleep, and therefore not needing as much sleep. This made it easier for them to wake up early and do their exercising.

Those who exercised in the evenings still needed their normal amount of sleep.

So if you are one of those people who can easily choose when to exercise and your ultimate goal is to lose weight and benefit from a healthy hour walk on a daily basis, you should seriously consider waking up an hour early and getting out there.

I have begun doing this and I tell you right now I am NOT a morning person. The first couple days I felt I was really dragging, but now I look forward to getting up and it feels great. My body is almost expecting me to get right up and get out there. I feel more up beat throughout the day. I do admit, that when 8 or 9pm comes around I am spent. I am not wanting to stay up until 11pm or Midnight watching TV or jumping on the computer. By 9:30 or 10pm I am in bed and I sleep through the night, whereas before I would wake up several times. I wake up at 5:30am and go for an hour walk. It feels good.

Just do it!

-sillydad

Unfortunately this will also leave more people unemployed, seeking out new jobs.

-sillydad

Today oil prices soared up $5 to a new record of $132/barrel. Crikeys! And probably most people think Bush is raking in some sort of profits from the high gas prices. Apparently quite the opposite, and in fact, OPEC seems to be liking the idea of putting the squeeze on American drivers, so much so the U.S. Congress wants to sue OPEC for not increasing oil outputs…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

These same people who are suing OPEC are the same people who say NO to drilling, NO to refineries, and tie the hands of the oil business… then turn around and complain about the price of oil.

I know hauling 5 kids around town in my super minivan, I can definitely feel the pinch of high gas prices, but it’s time to stop complaining and to take matters into our own hands. Either find a new energy source or stop being so dependent on imported oil. Let’s drill. Let’s build refineries. We just found enough oil in Montana and North Dakota to extract what they claim to be 4.3 billion barrels of oil.

The U.S. Geological Survey calls it the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed.

What the hell are we waiting for folks?

-sillydad

One of the things most people ask me is how big is the change as you tack on another rugrat to the blend? I mean does it get exponentially easier because of the experience or does it get harder because of the load. Or do they offset each other and there doesn’t seem to be much change?

I wish I could answer that but I can only say “I don’t really know”. But I do know that going from #5 to #6 changes a lot of things in our family. For instance, the minivan holds 5 kids but not 6. The amount of bedrooms in our house and the beds laid out we can fit 5 in nicely and not 6. So in a sense we have come to the point where we have outgrown the house and the minivan. Yowzas.

Going from “I will never be caught dead driving a minivan” to “honey we just outgrew the minivan” in roughly 9 years is a major accomplishment. That’s definitely moving fast up the corporate ladder of craziness with kiddos.

So the dynamics really change a lot this time around. Looking back on things I see where going from 2 kids to 3 was a struggle. I have 2 hands and 2 kids and so when the time came to cross the street I could grab each one with each of my hands. With 3 you can always grab 2 if you have to but there is one person you really have to put a lot of trust in and hope you raised them right… not to go flying off the handle, run out into the road, and immediately get run over by a semi…

I was always good at juggling 3 objects in college. Beer bottles were elongated and more difficult to get into that groove but I think the practice did pay off in the long haul. I can’t say college didn’t teach me anything constructive, practical, or completely eccentric.

But there you have it… another child soon to be terrorizing the house, the backyard, the outgrown minivan… I sure do expect some fun times…

-sillydad

Learn your weakness…

18 Things A Grown Man Should Never Have

1. A black eye.

2. A witty e-mail signature.

3. An empty refrigerator.

4. PlayStation thumb.

5. A key chain with a bottle opener.

Read the entire thing >

-sillydad

So with the many requests I will keep this blog going and update it as often as I can. It could be a couple times per week but I will fill you in with what’s happening.

Currently in a nutshell:

* My oldest daughter turns 8 years old today
* Meghan is walking and climbing stairs
* Dad is back to 30 pounds over weight…
* Sam is now taller than Elizabeth
* Isobel can now put on her shoes or boots on the correct feet almost 100% of the time
* Emma loves the movie Flushed Away

Will keep you posted!

-sillydad