Our area of choice for Echo's first trip was Rock Canyon in Provo, UT. We've been there tons of times last summer and were familiar with it. Plus, I knew the trail wasn't too rough, and I was nervous about doing a strenuous hike so soon postpartum. We experimented with a few ways to get baby up the mountain, and ended up using our stroller... not the best. It's a pretty tough little thing, but this trail did a good one on it. We made it up, then carried her and her car-seat and stroller up the remaining trail to the belay area. So, to be honest it worked - but it wasn't the most convenient or effective way of getting baby up the mountain. As we struggled carrying everything, we watched a couple glide past us with their little 1-year-old girl in this backpack child carrier contraption - we stared longingly as they hiked at a rather vigorous pace up the very trail we were struggling with. When we finally arrived at the wall, there they were! With their little girl just hangin' out in her carrier backpack that had it's own stand and everything, and they were readying to lead the wall. We knew that there were such carriers, but we are such a frugal family that we figured we'd make do with what we had. But, that experience enlightened us - if we were going to continue with our hobby, we were going to need a better way of transporting Echo. After chatting with our next-wall neighbors about their backpack thing, and getting their opinions and feelings on it, Chance and I looked at each other and we knew. There was no way we were doing this again without it.
- Side story: Marcela (one of our awesome rock-climbing buddies), didn't hear the couple right when they said it was an Osprey backpack, so she jumped in and yelled with confusion, "You call your child your offspring?". Thus, the title of this post.
Typically when it's warm and gorgeous outside, we go rock-climbing with whoever wants to tag along. But things became so busy that after that, that it'd been a few weeks (which worked out well because I wasn't willing to go through the stroller-struggle again) and we still hadn't scrounged up the money for the backpack. One day, for kicks and giggles (and to make sure we really liked it), we went to REI with Echo and tried it out. Needless to say... we had a really hard time not purchasing it right then and there! It. Was. Awesome. It had this little sunshade that pulled up and clipped in front of her, a mini-backpack that zipped off and was small enough for a child, the bottom opened up as a sturdy base for it to sit on the ground, and had lots of storage. We were sold, so hard. Not to mention Echo looked so freaging adorable! And it had this "Almighty Warranty", so no matter what happens to it, they'll fix it for the rest of our life, and if they can't fix it they'll replace the backpack. With the three more kids we're planning on having, we figured yeah it's expensive, but this is a great investment. We're suckers for good buys. The next week REI had their anniversary sale, so we bought it and got the 20% off (whoot whooot, who doesn't love sales?!).My 23rd birthday was the following weekend, and Chance had this whole trip to Zions National Park planned - but that's a story for another time, so we decided it was time to take the plunge. We were now those people who have an intense child carrier backpack. You know - the ones you see carrying a baby on the trail and think to yourself 'why would you bring a baby here? You're insane!'. Yeah. That's us.
In the end, it was a small price to pay for freedom, and the ability to instil in our child (and future children) the importance of getting out in nature with your family. We never knew we could enjoy the outdoors so much, and we could never have comprehended how much more important it'd become for us when we started bringing babies into the world. So, you live, you learn, and you grow.
Another adventure in the lives of Growing Paynes.
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