Three weeks ago I launched out on an Adventure Buddies trip with my daughter Kaitlin. I took her backpacking for the first time and she absolutely loved it. We drove up the Mirror Lake Highway into the High Unitas about 90 minutes from where we live and we backpacked 1 mile into Wall Lake.

Did I learn anything from her on this trip? You bet. The mosquitoes were bad on this trip. As bad as I’ve ever seen. We had only hiked 1 mile. If I were alone, I would have bailed. But she wanted to have the ’sleep over’ part of the trip so bad. So we stayed by the lake in the sun and with our repellent and a slight breeze we were fine for a while. But as evening progressed, they started swarming. Again, we were only 1 mile from the car. But I really wanting to let her experience her first night in the backcountry, so we headed to the tent. I knew we’d be in there for about 3 hours before it was dark enough that she might go to sleep. So we hung out. Took some pictures (she even took one of me with our massive Nikon digital SLR - see below). Told some Dillie-Willie Bird stories. And had some really amazing daddy-daughter time. The next morning, she literally jumped out of her sleeping bag and yelled, “Dad, it’s daytime! It’s time to wake up! We had a sleep over!” And then looked over at me a little bit later and said, “I love you too, dad.”, without me having said anything to her. That’s when my patience all paid off 100 times.

So when on an Adventure Buddies trip with a 3 year old, sometimes you have to be really patient. That’s a lot like business. When you look forward, seems like you’re not moving at all. When you look backwards, you’re completely blown away by how much you or your company has done in the last year. Patience is key. Kids are great, they teach us more than any adult could ever even come close to.

Here are some pictures of our adventure:

Are you okay? How’s everything going? Where in the world have you been? Is everything okay? How come you’re not blogging anymore? I miss reading your blog, when will you be back?

While these are the sorts of questions I had hoped to receive as a result of taking two weeks off from blogging, clearly, I’m not popular enough yet to warrant that sort of attention. Oh well, fortunately I know my place in the world, and making it in the big-time world of blogging was never my intention. Being a great husband, father, boss, co-worker, and member of my community have always rated higher, and these past couple of weeks are proof of where my energies are best directed.

A weeklong break quickly turned into two, and the break was definitely worth it, since my wife and I welcomed our second child and first son into the world. Alexander Hanks was born late in the afternoon on June 23rd, and I’m both happy and proud to share that Mommy and Baby are doing fine.

As for me, I’m counting down the days until I’ll have two ‘Adventure Buddies‘ as sidekicks (I think I’ll take Alexander camping with his big sister Kaitlin and me this fall)!

It’s good to be back. (Oh, and here’s wishing everyone a safe and happy 4th of July.)

With this weekend being a long one and with my wife headed down to southern Utah to visit her side of the family, our daughter Kaitlin and I are headed north to Jackson, Wyoming, for what’s sure to another epic version of Adventure Buddies. The plan for this trip is to camp out tonight in the Bridger Teton National Forest, and then head up to Jackson tomorrow morning where we’ll find a hotel to store our non-essentials and perhaps take a quick shower and bath, and then take off to explore the Grand Teton National Park, followed by a trip on Sunday up to Yellowstone National Park to show Kaitlin the buffalo (she’s been talking about “the buffalo�? for over a week now, so I’m realy hoping that “the buffalo” will choose to cooperate by making an appearance or two, or three or four).

Some people might think it’s a little nutty to take a 2-year-old to Grand Teton National Park and/or to Yellowstone, but when you stop to think about how outdoor-minded parents who live in the local area choose to spend time with their children on the weekends, there’s really nothing all that out of the ordinary about it (aside from the fact it’s now late-May and the weather forecasters are calling for snow in the region both tomorrow and Sunday). In any event, rain-snow-or-shine, we’ll be back home on Monday with just enough time left in the day to still enjoy Memorial Day off from work

Here’s wishing everyone a great weekend, and if I’m not back in time to post something on Monday, Happy Memorial Day!

One of the greatest experiences and joys in my life is being a dad. My wife Amy and I have one daughter, Kaitlin, and are expecting a son this June. One of my really good friends, Chris Knudsen, told me once about something he did with his kids prior to me having any of my own. Rather than just sit at home and play with toys or hang out in the backyard together, Chris would take his kids out on mini-adventures. He called it Adventure Buddies, and I liked the idea so much that when Kaitlin came along, we started going on Adventure Buddy excursions of our own.

By design, we’d leave Mom behind, and head off on our own. When she was younger, I’d throw Kaitlin in the Baby Bjorn and we’d head out on a hike. Sometimes, it’d just mean going down to REI, Cabelas, or Best Buy (three of her absolute favorite stores). Well, Kaitlin turned two last month, and I said, you know what; we’re going to kick things up a notch; we’re going camping.

I think most people thought I was plumb nuts. A two-year-old and her crazy Dad heading off to Arches National Park by themselves? I know Amy initially thought I was out of my mind. Buy hey, a side benefit of Adventure Buddies is some alone time for Mom, so she was on board.

Arches is about a three-hour drive from where we live in Utah. We headed out on a Friday afternoon, and to say that Kaitlin was pretty excited about the whole deal would be an understatement. We had been spending time playing with “daddy’s toys,�? i.e., tents and sleeping bags in the basement, and she definitely thought they were cool. I even bought Kaitlin her own sleeping bag from REI for her birthday (trust me, it’s wicked cute). When we got to our campground, she helped me set up camp in the dark using an extra headlamp I’d brought along as a backup. Kaitlin absolutely loved that thing, and all she did for the first ten minutes or so was run around in the dark with my nifty headlamp adorning her tiny forehead. She was so excited to be there that we ended up walking around the campground in the dark—with our headlamps–for a good hour before I could convince her to head back to the tent for stories and bedtime.

After a pretty uneventful night, Kaitlin was up at 5:30 am, ready to roll. We walked a bit (she chased a cottontail bunny rabbit on the trail behind our camp for a while), made pancakes for breakfast, and then headed off to see the park.

One of the best parts of Adventure Buddies with a two-year-old is that she feels none of the urgency or pressure that we adults do. She didn’t need to hike to Delicate Arch to feel like she’d experienced Arches. She just liked climbing all over the “big rocks�? and sliding down them like a water slide.

It was a great experience to set out on several small hikes with her and to see her having as much fun jumping around on the man-made steps on the trail as she was in getting to the actual Windows Area and seeing the arches for herself. A far simpler and less stressful mindset; and one we should all work towards.

After a half-day of playing around, we headed back home. We had a ton of fun together, and I get really excited thinking of the many Adventure Buddy trips I’ll be talking in the future with Kaitlin and her soon-to-arrive brother. In fact, I’m already planning our next camping trip–to either Yellowstone or Grand Teton–sometime within the next few months.

So, what does any of this have to do with entrepreneurship? On the surface, not much, really. But if you dig deeper into the entrepreneurial mindset, you’re bound to find that true entrepreneurs do similar things at home as they do at work (and I’m not talking about workaholic type of stuff either). True entrepreneurs have a spirit of adventure (the word “adventure,” in fact, is derived from the Latin word meaning “to venture”). The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter said that an entrepreneur is someone who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation, forcing “creative destruction” across markets and industries along the way.

Honestly, that’s how I view myself, both at work AND at home (and I know my wife would back me up on this… especially on the “creative destruction�? part). I’m just as entrepreneurial when it comes to tinkering around the house as I am when I’m at the office, and that’s what separates one entrepreneur from another. People like me have an entrepreneurial gene that impacts 100 percent of the things we do. There’s no accounting for it and there’s certainly no rhyme or reason why me and not someone else.

You see, when I look at Adventure Buddies, I see way more than just an awesome way to spend time with my Daughter. And if you’re like me, and you’re thinking to yourself, hey, this Adventure Buddies deal might have some legs, there might be a business there. Don’t worry, I’ve got those bases covered already. <<>>

In any event, if you have kids of your own, get them out on some Adventure Buddy trips. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did, and it will be really cool way to spend time together someplace other than inside your own house.