Growing up in a small town in the Midwest, my idea of being outdoors usually had something to do with our heavily treed backyard or with one of our heavily peopled city parks. Now I am considerably older and being outdoors today typically means no electricity, no pavement and no one else. There are several exceptions to my new definition of "outdoors” and they can all be lumped into a single category called Family Traditions. Our outdoor traditions are an important part of our lives, see if any of these sound good to you.

First, we like to have tailgate parties. I'm not talking about the ones where everyone shows up at the stadium three hours before the kickoff to have a cookout. I'm referring to the ones where you get as far off the pavement as the road takes you and you have your cookout while listening to the game on the radio. Advantages to this type of tailgating are fresh air, great scenery, no hurry to get to the game or home afterwards and you're with the people, and only the people, you want to be with. We take the horseshoes and the hammock too. Now that's a great outdoor family tradition.

Here's another favorite tradition of ours and this one started when the Y2K panic hit at the end of both 1999 and 2000. We wanted to be off-the-grid when all technology based infrastructure collapsed as the experts predicted. So instead of going to a New Year's Eve party, we went camping and do so every New Years. This is great fun in most of Arizona but might be a little bit of a challenge in other parts of the state and much of the country on December 31st due to cold weather.

Finally, we've made it a tradition to go on a hike in each of the Maricopa County Regional Par

ks at least once a year. That's nine parks and at least nine hikes every year. When hiking we also bird watch, geocache, stargaze, picnic or any of a number of other outdoor activities we enjoy. If it gets to be Thanksgiving and we're behind on our hikes, we get serious and finish them off.

What are your outdoor traditions? If you don't have any, why not start one now? Do you harvest your own Christmas tree? Do you get a fresh pumpkin each fall? How about a family campout over the Memorial Day weekend? Maybe you can get involved with a group and plant trees, clean up roadways or build trails. There's lots to do outdoors. Start a Great Family Outdoor Tradition this year. The fun part about these traditions is that we are outdoors with people we enjoy. It simply doesn't get any better than that. Get Outdoors!

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