This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, Felicia!
MyBlogSpark recently sent me this a “Snack Pack” prize pack featuring the new Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters to review. My kids were super excited to open the package we got in the mail. All three kids are too young to eat the nut-filled clusters, but they loved the bag, binoculars, cool self-charging LED (I think) flashlight, and stainless steel water bottle.
Nature Valley granola bars were the only granola bars my health-conscious mom let me eat as a teen. I overdosed on them just a little, and therefore hadn’t eaten any Nature Valley products until this review. I really like the size of these nut clusters. They are big enough that you can eat just one and feel like you ate something and small enough that you can eat more than one if you want (suggested serving size is about 7 clusters). I find them a bit too crunchy for my taste, but the crunchiness does encourage you to drink water, and that is probably a good thing. I’m not much of a peanut fan and usually avoid products with peanuts, so I was surprised to discover that I preferred the Nut Lovers and Honey Roasted Peanut flavors over the lower-peanut-content Roasted Almond and Roasted Cashew varieties. These are definitely something I would consider bringing along as snacks for a hike, but not something I see myself eating on a daily basis.
MyBlogSpark is offering is offering a “Snack Pack” prize pack identical to the one above for one of my readers (sorry, but you have must live in the U.S. or Canada to qualify). To enter, just leave a comment here telling me your favorite thing about the great outdoors. You can get an extra entry if you leave a second comment telling me the most challenging/fun/exciting hike you’ve ever been on (I’ll tell you my choice when I announce the giveaway winner).
This giveaway ends at 9pm US Eastern Time this Friday (10/9/09), and the winner will be chosen using random.org.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
My most memorable hike is from this Summer. People thought me and my husband were crazy when we showed up to hike Mt. Monadnock with a 2 and 4 year old. (we were fine, we had backpacks!) It was crazy hard carrying children, but we made it! I had my Polar HRM on and I burned 4000 calories!
My favorite thing about the great outdoors is getting fresh air. Walk outside, there is NOTHING like being inside and opening to crisp Fall air!
My favorite part of the outdoors is the freedom it gives our family. The smell of nature, the chance for my wild two boys to run and yell without issue. The opportunity to watch their minds explode as a rock becomes a ship or a dandelion as beautiful as a rose.
My favorite thing about the outdoors is going on right now. I love watching the seasons change, particularly from summer to fall and from winter to spring. It is the best time to be outside with the kiddos, there is so much to see and do.
I love the sounds amongst the quiet. Birds singing, water flowing, rain falling.
Most exciting hike: I’ll have to say whenever we are out with the kids on a trail, it gets more exciting than we bargain for. Almost always someone will fall down and need a bandaid which we don’t have. The most memorable one was hiking the nearby nature reserve with both sets of grandparents (one visiting from that hot tropical city-island I used to live on) and trying to find a river marked on a map. We never found it, and gave up and turned back. The kids didn’t care – they loved being with all four grandparents and getting lost!
Lovely giveaway! I love the fresh air, I think. Doesn’t sound very exciting per se, but I used to live on a hot, tropical, humid city-island where the everyday smells and sometimes the haze from forest fires in neighboring countries hung in the air and each breath always had a lingering scent of something on it. And not always pleasant! Here the air is really clear and clean, especially in the fall. So crisp and odorless. In a good way.
What a fun giveaway! We love collecting bits of nature (leaves, seed pods, acorns, etc) and using them in art projects. It fosters an appreciation for nature, and the frugal side of me loves that nature provides us with free art materials.
valerie (at) frugalfamilyfunblog (dot) com
The most fun hike I’ve been on was in Hokkaido hikes,Japan. It was a whole new and different experience learning the beauty of Hokkaido by hiking.
My fave thing would be sitting around the camp fire with family and friends.
Let me start by saying, my hikes have been a bit limited, but the trickiest Hike I went on was at the Giant City Nature Trail in So. IL. I almost got stuck in the Fat Man’s Squeeze. Not a pleasant feeling!
My favorite thing about the outdoors would have to be seeing the change in seasons– I really like to go out in the fall when colors are vivid and again in the spring when everything seems to be coming back to life.
My favorite outdoor adventure is without question the Grand Teton. It’s a 2-day trip full of hiking and scrambling and some very exposed rock climbing. I barely notice the pain because the beauty of Garnet Canyon and the Grand itself is unbelievable.
My favorite thing about the great outdoors is the peace. I am scared of many things in cities–noise, light, crowds–but as long as I have someone with me I feel completely safe in the outdoors. I feel secure and free when I can really see the stars, and I love feeling the strength of rocks and warmth of dirt and power of rushing water.
The most fun hike I can recall going on was a hike around Lake Geneva (in Wisconsin). The lake is gorgeous and the entire trip is about 8 hours if you walk the entire lake. There are definitely more challenging parts of the hike as the trail can get extremely narrow with a drop-off into the water. Yikes! But totally worth the challenge for a beautiful afternoon outside!
My favorite thing about the great outdoors is simply being outside with my 19-month old. She reminds me to stop and smell the flowers (literally). As an adult, I tend to get too busy and focused on what “needs” to be done even while on a leisurely walk and she keeps me grounded in appreciating the small things in life like observing a bug (at a very close distance) or investigating the fire hydrant. I’d miss out on so much without her to remind me to truly enjoy being outdoors.