Absolutely gotta get the out and about... Well done mate!
Mine are still quite young but the eldest has been happiest sleeping out under a tarp when we're camping since he was 3.
Nothing quite like the wild for getting kids active and self-confident.
Had to do the same thing with my boys right out of the gate for summer. Great trip to Big Bend National Park a few weeks ago and we head to Padre Island National Seashore for a couple days over the holiday weekend to do some fishing.
This was a lot of fun. It was a quick trip. We grabbed food, his dog, fishing gear and camping gear up Saturday afternoon and headed out. We had to come home yesterday afternoon. Some of the colorado river cutts were colored up pretty good still. Nothing big but it was fun.
I got to take my 4 year old on his first hunt! It was supposed to be easy, focus on quality and not kill as success. Well I see animals and get wound up, end up crossing swamp, beaver dam, alders for an hour to get to the animals.
He made me proud, I was trying to hold alders open for him to get through, he kept saying I got it dad, I don’t need help. Zero complaints, whining, nothing the entire time we were stalking and packing out. Mom is getting both knees replaced after college sports injuries tore her up, we took it slow and I scouted the route out as we went to save her back tracking.
One really priceless moment was when my wife was getting ready to shoot and I put his muffs on, he starts making noises because it sounds funny with muffs on. Wife is lining up, I’m coaching, hear this ooooohhh, ahhhhhg, weeeeee. Shhhhh, quiet. Turn around, ooooohhh, ahhhhh. Decided my trying to quiet him was louder than him goofing so I told her to take the shot when he stepped out. Rem 260, 140 Nos PT worked great.
Awesome trip, favorite hunt ever. 2 heavy trips out and we were headed back to camp.
Only screen time today was for an hour of homework. Then Dirtytough and I took our kids out for the ND youth season. His kid had some close calls, but couldn’t quite get the right situation. My oldest got his first deer and packed it out. Good stuff.