THE LONG VERSION

Breastfeeding baby Ivey while hiking in Eldorado Canyon State Park.

Hi, I’m Emily! Welcome to my blog. If you’re wondering how we got here, here’s the long version…

I grew up on the coasts - I was born in Southern California and spent most of my childhood in Central Florida. While I spent a lot of time outdoors playing sports, I can’t say that I enjoyed myself. I know lots of people would kill to live in Florida, but the heat, humidity, fire ants, etc. were all big detractors for me.

It wasn’t until college when I spent two summers working on a dude ranch in Colorado that I started to ENJOY being outside. Sure, I did quite a bit of hiking on family vacations while growing up, but my whole perspective shifted during those months living in the Rockies. All of the sudden being outdoors was everything - I wanted to see and experience as much as possible. I fell head over heels in love with the mountains and hoped that someday I would find a way to return and call them home.

Working two summers in Colorado during college sparked my love of hiking and summiting 14ers.

Fast forward several years. I finished college in Florida, moved to Chicago with my high school sweetheart, Charles, got married while he was in medical school, and then moved to Charlotte for his residency. Despite not living in particularly mountainous areas, I learned to appreciate the natural world that I had access to. I trained for trail races by running along the shore of Lake Michigan, I learned to backpack in the rolling hills of Wisconsin, and I hiked to my heart's content in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

During our time in North Carolina, we adopted our first dog, Samson. He was the catalyst for a lot of change. After finding ourselves overwhelmed with a strong willed, destructive puppy, we hired a local dog training company, KeenDog Training. I again feel head over heels in love - this time with dog training.

Up until that point, I had been working in the corporate world, filling various roles in the realms of market research and branding. In the fall of 2020, I decided to go part time and start an internship with KeenDog. A few months later, I quit my job, went to work full time as a trainer, and also took on responsibilities as KeenDog’s office manager. During this time, we were joined by another dog, Xena, and fell into a nice rhythm as a family of four.

In the summer of 2022, nearly everything about our lives changed, all at once. In June we welcomed our son, Ivey, into the world, in July we moved across the country to Denver, CO, and in August Charles started a new job as an emergency medicine attending physician.

Since moving to Colorado, I have spent as much time as possible hiking with Ivey and the dogs. There are so many things that I want for Ivey - I want him to appreciate and value the natural world around him, I want him to develop healthy habits and a balanced mindset around exercise, I want him to be confident in himself and learn how to engage in risky play safely, I want him to be an ally and world changer… the list goes on. To me, time spent outdoors isn’t just fun, it’s paramount to raising my little boy into the type of man this world needs more of. So we get outdoors a whole lot!

Hiking as a family of five!

I still have to learn the ropes of hiking with a toddler (wish me luck!) but I have LOVED hiking with a baby. I am thankful to have found a wonderful community of mothers who hike with young children. They are an incredible resource and an inspiration. I’ve also started getting plugged in with fellow dog people who enjoy hiking. It has been an immeasurable blessing to be able to raise my son in the Front Range and indoctrinate him with a love of the mountains, and dogs too!

Now… why start a blog? That’s a tough question to answer. The internet is flooded with content creators, influencers, experts, etc. I’m not really any of those and my imposter syndrome would never allow me to pretend to be! What I do know is that I see posts on social media every day from parents who want to get outside but don’t know where to start and dog owners who want to hike with their dogs but struggle for one reason or another. If I could help even one person live a more fulfilled life outdoors, I would consider this venture a success. 

So pour yourself a cup of coffee, pull up a comfy chair, and stay awhile. I’m so happy you’re here.