671 Hours Outside

Right around this time last year, I came across an instagram account, @1000hoursoutside. The purpose of the account is to motivate parents to get their kids outside as much as possible to really experience the benefits of fresh air and nature. I have always loved being outside, and I have always thought that getting my kids (and myself) outside was way more important for their growth, education, and wellbeing than anything they could learn in school (especially since they’re not even school aged yet). So, I decided to take on this challenge.

Here’s a few things that I assumed when I took on this challenge.

We started 2020 in Colorado. While it was absolutely freezing that first week in January, and we actually didn’t spend a ton of time outside, we had at least two more trips already planned where the weather (statistically) would be better and we’d spend full days out skiing, sledding, tubing, and whatever else. I assumed we’d also spend some time there in the summer enjoying the outdoors. We got in one more trip in February (where we got to watch Aunt Rissi and Uncle Ryan get engaged!!) but that was right before the beginning of the end.

I also assumed we’d spend some time in Florida, at least this past Christmas, and probably some other time, spending our days out on the beach. Obviously this also did not happen.
I thought a lot of our summer would be spent either in the Hamptons or with kids at camp, again with whole days spent outside at the beach, in the pool, or just enjoying the outdoors. Camp was canceled, and while we spent some time in the Hamptons, it became too difficult to find creative ways to visit my high risk family members with my petri dish toddlers, and also I was a million months pregnant and unable to travel anymore anyway.
I assumed we’d have aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even babysitters to help us enjoy being outdoors with our kids. There was a little bit of this as time progressed and we began to understand and get a better handle on this COVID thing, but not nearly enough or as much as I expected.
I assumed it wouldn’t snow in May, but #2020.

Here’s what I didn’t know when I took on this challenge.

I didn’t know I was pregnant. I thought I might be but I didn’t know for sure so it wasn’t really something I was considering. I also didn’t know that I’d be due at the very end of the very hottest summer ever, and that it would be my longest and most difficult pregnancy of the three, making walking difficult let alone getting outside with my super active toddlers.
Since this is technically a travel blog, I’ll emphasize this point once more. I didn’t know that travel, which usually leads to a lot of outdoor time, would be canceled for basically the entire year.
I didn’t know that the world, including all of our beloved playgrounds, was about to shut down and there would only be 2.5 months of normalcy in 2020, leaving us with our kids all day every day with little to no help at least until September, when school and babysitters began again.
However, I also didn’t know that when more information would start to surface about the spread of Covid, we and our extended families would actually be forced to be outside just to see each other. So while screen time increased due to Covid, I think in some sense we were also able to increase our time outside.

I told some people about this challenge back in January 2020, and they told me it would be really tough and maybe I should aim for a lower goal than 1000. And they were sort of right. 1000 hours outside is A LOT. 2.74 hours a day to be exact. And that’s not considering weather, that’s just a number. But then I thought well, this is just a goal, and the point is to get outside more. So setting an unattainable goal isn’t going to ruin the challenge just because I probably wouldn’t succeed. Setting this unattainable goal would only have the effect of pushing me to try to achieve it, and forcing me to get outside more. And now, after spending 671 hours outside with two (turned three) tiny humans in the middle of a once in a lifetime global pandemic where everything was shitty, I’m remembering that my favorite moments were those outside. So, I’m going to do it again in 2021 with the only goal being to beat that 671 hours, or 1.84 hours per day (still a math nerd). Hopefully this time with more travel involved.

Here’s a monthly photo journal documenting some of our best time outdoors. Disclaimer 1: I separated these by month, but I have no idea why they didn’t upload in order during the month. Whatever no one has time to edit that. Disclaimer 2: This is literally an entire year’s worth of pictures. If you don’t want to look through hundreds of pictures of my belly becoming a baby, my baby becoming a toddler, and my toddler becoming a child, then you should move on. There’s no more words other than some very clever captions, because I’m a very clever person. If you want to make a game of it though, feel free to figure out the percentage of photos that involve Joey eating. Happy New Year! Cheers to a better 2021.

January: