parenting - The Random Adventure That Is Life (RATIL)

The Random Adventure That Is Life (RATIL)

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parenting

The life of raising a Little Dude

Why Parental Leave Is So Important

Why Parental Leave Is So Important

Hopefully by this point, there is no confusion about how important parental leave is for new parents. While maternity leave is unique in that new mothers often require time to recover and recuperate from the mental and physical trauma of childbirth, the more general parental leave is also supremely important

Toniebox Tonies Duration Python Script

Toniebox Tonies Duration Python Script

Maximize your value on Tonie figurines with this sorted list of Tonie durations.

Kids' and Wife's First Backpacking Trip

Kids' and Wife's First Backpacking Trip

If you know me or have read this blog, then you know that I like backpacking. Last year I tried to plan a backpacking trip for the kids into Rocky Mountain National Park but we got rained out by a storm that ended up being a Derecho Storm [https://en.

Family Road Trip 2021

Family Road Trip 2021

I had to be in Las Vegas for work for a few weeks. Since I was planning to drive anyways, we decided to make a road trip out of it and visit several National Parks along the way and finishing the trip off with a couple of nights in Vegas.

Skiing With a 2-Year-Old

Skiing With a 2-Year-Old

We took our son skiing for what could be the last time this season. As such, I thought it would be appropriate to recount the trials, tribulations, and celebrations of a season of skiing with a 2YO. Patience and Expectation Management The key to every ski trip with kids is

Squaw Mountain Fire Lookout

Squaw Mountain Fire Lookout

I am not sure where I first heard about them (probably some click-baity Facebook ad), but for the last few months I have been obsessing over renting a US Forest Service fire lookout tower. In their heyday, there were a couple thousand lookout towers. With the advent of modern technology,

Olive Ridge Campground - With A 2-Year-Old

Olive Ridge Campground - With A 2-Year-Old

With the weather being so outstanding, we decided to pack up the fam and head up into the mountains to get a weekend camping trip under our belts. We had previously taken the little guy camping [https://ratil.life/camping-with-a-1-year-old/] back in Texas for one night. This trip was a

Mount Falcon Park

Mount Falcon Park

We were looking for a hike on the west side of Denver so that we could meet up with friends in the area afterwards.Mount Falcon Park [https://www.jeffco.us/1332/Mount-Falcon-Park] was in the perfect spot for the time we had between nap time ending for the little

Saint Mary's Glacier

Saint Mary's Glacier

Being in Colorado, I felt the itch to get up into the mountains before our first month in our new home was up. On a suggestion from my brother-in-law, we decided to head up to Saint Mary's Glacier. The glacier is just past Idaho Springs on I-70 so

Friedrich Wilderness Park

Friedrich Wilderness Park

We had an uncharacteristically nice day this week after months of the Summer's oppressive heat and then a month of monsoon season. With a little bit of cabin fever from not having been able to go hiking for months, this was a perfect day to hit the trail.

Pikler Triangle

Pikler Triangle

First off, I am no wood worker, I just found this Instructable and followed it pretty closely. In the areas where I did the same thing, I will just gloss over it, but if I did something different or needed additional information, I will add that in. Follow this guide

Family Trip To The Big Apple

Family Trip To The Big Apple

So we decided that taking a 1-year-old on a family vacation to New York City would be a marvelous idea. Being late in the year, we had to decide what to do with my remaining days off and we settled on New York City because I had never been and

Family Vacation: Maui

Family Vacation: Maui

Lahain Pali Trail Haleakala Sunrise Flying - Maui County Road To Hana Deep Sea Fishing Koko Head and Diamond Head Traveling With The LO Our family vacation this year was to Maui, HI so that we could visit family that recently moved to Honolulu. The trip was an amazing opportunity

Hiking With My Baby

Hiking With My Baby

I love hiking. The idea of getting to trek to a place tat few people have been or getting to see a vista that requires some work and planning are rewards that are hard to rival. Unfortunately, in Texas, there are only a few hikes in the local area that

Flying To The Coast

Flying To The Coast

The last opportunity we had to fly the family to the coast was back in November and the plane had a leaky fuel sump and kept us on the ground, so being able to finally make the trip in January was a treat. We originally had plans to be in

November Is (was) National Adoption Awareness Month

November Is (was) National Adoption Awareness Month

(Collection of posts from my Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/brianasteen] so some of the formatting and emojis may look a little funny) November is National Adoption Awareness Month! 🎉 So this month I will be sharing a little bit about our adoption journey but I would encourage everyone to also

Baby Wearing

I had thought I would be posting more when Trevor started this blog, then baby, then life, and so here we are with the first guest post!!!! If you follow my Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/brianasteen/] at all, you might have guessed that I like carrying my baby, like

Baby's First Flight

Baby's First Flight

I was finally able to realize one of my life dreams...taking my family on a cross-country flight. When I got my Private Pilot's License, my goal had always been to fly my family somewhere. Mrs. Steen and I had certainly flown before but being able to do

Adoption Profile

As part of our adoption journey we are doing an adoption profile that will be given to birth mothers along with other families who are seeking a child. The birth mother(s) will then choose the family they want their child to be raised by based in part on this