Brooke's Adventure

Cheyenne Erickson

11/6/2024

Adventurer Brooke's Instagram feed inspires joy in anyone who’s ever seen her photos. This mom is an outdoor guru, sometimes skiing with a baby strapped to her back, other days with all three kids out on a paddleboard.

Happiest outside, Brooke has created a lifestyle for her family that fits her personality and passions. I had the opportunity to talk to Brooke about how she brought boldness and adventure to her parenting style.

An Unexpected Entry Into Motherhood

A Colorado girl with a passion for science and exploring the outdoors, Brooke started a career in human genetic research and everything was falling into place. Then her life took a turn in an unexpected direction.

"I was almost 30 when I found out I was pregnant. And it was becoming more and more clear that I was going to be a single mom. There was a lot of uncertainty about finances, about what my lifestyle would look like. I wondered, 'How do people actually afford to have a child and work?' And how do you find time to get out and do things?"

I asked Brooke what it was like facing the prospect of being a single mom. She said, “If you weren't necessarily planning on being a single mom before you got pregnant, it can feel scary and impossible.” Her advice to women who are becoming single moms? Lean on your community.

I think the big thing is to find your community. Maybe you don't have a traditional full-time partner. But maybe you'll have a couple of friends who will do things at your pace or women you trust who you can lean on, whether there are other pregnant moms, other close friends.

I actually moved in with my parents for a couple of months, which was pivotal for me to be able to get back on my feet financially. It can feel challenging to go out of what you think you're supposed to do. Moving in with my parents felt like 100 steps back, but it was an important thing to be able to move forward in a smart way.

Adventures with a Growing Family

Fast forward a few years, and Brooke is now married and a mom to three cute kids. I have two children, and I wondered if transitioning from one to two kids is harder than two to three. Brooke said:

"The transition from one to two felt really hard. I felt like I had a decent amount of control over my life with one. And then with two—oh my gosh, I'm not running the show. They are. That was really hard for me to swallow.

But then from two to three, we're kind of a dumpster fire all the time. Someone always has jam on their face all the time, whether it's me or one of the kids. So what's one more person to the mix? It's more of the same beautiful chaos."

Beautiful chaos in Brooke’s family looks a little different from a normal household. While she was pregnant with her first child, she decided that being a mom wouldn’t hold her back from an adventurous lifestyle.

"I decided it wasn't going to change. I selected, with my OBGYN, what could be safe to keep doing during my pregnancy. I was actually cross-country skiing up until about a week before my son was born and was running and hiking up until the day my son was born."

Brooke clears many of her family’s activities with their pediatrician. The children’s doctor has been a great resource on everything from what sunscreen to use to what to do when the kids are at a high altitude.

At first, she could strap on her baby and the infant would ride along as she hiked and skied. But as her kids got older, she had to gauge her kids’ interests and desires. Her motto was to live the same lifestyle as much as possible, exposing her kids to activities and letting them communicate their interests and readiness to participate.

Now with a seven-year-old, a toddler, and a baby, exercise and being outdoors isn’t a passion just for Brooke anymore. Her kids love the outdoors just as much as she does.

"My son who's seven, his favorite things are lizards, insects, or frogs. He’s curious about wildlife and nature. My daughter loves all things speed. She's the one that likes to bike fast and ski. And the little one loves being in the baby carrier doing whatever we're doing. He's been on all kinds of adventures, just right up against my chest, and he's happy as long as he's being held that way."

Secrets of exploring with kids

Just getting out of the house to go grocery shopping with kids can be stressful. So, I asked Brooke how she gets everyone out of the house for a day of skiing? What if she drives to a ski resort, gets everyone in snow clothes, and then the baby has a blowout diaper? Here’s how she handles these inevitable situations.

"Going to Target with three kids is just about as hard as going skiing. If your kids are screaming in Target you're horrified, right? But when you're out in nature it's not that big of a deal. You just wait it out for a minute. And they calm down more quickly.

You change diapers in the snow really, really quick. Or sometimes you call it a day early. We’ve had a blowout and I didn't want to continue to try to clean up so we got back to the car and went home. That’s reality sometimes too."

Brooke also has a great outlook on what having an adventure is. As a task-oriented person, if I plan on hiking a trail, that is what I want to accomplish. But Brook explained that the journey has to be part of the adventure, especially with kids.

"I try not to focus on the objective at all. Instead, I try to focus on an experience. Maybe we're just going to move for 30 minutes. You can do almost anything with kids for 30 minutes, even if you've only gotten five feet on the trail and someone found a river that they were really interested in.

There are seasons of life where you might have kids who really like to hike, or might not have a lot of fitness so you have to go at their pace."

Even though Brooke’s Instagram features fun days with paddleboarding, camping, skiing, and hiking, their adventures sometimes are closer to home. They don’t always do incredible things—the day I interviewed Brooke, she was planning to do laundry and go to the library. But getting outside is a parenting strategy she uses to keep peace in their family.

"If we have a couple days where we're inside just because we've had stuff to do at home, or I've had deadlines, I definitely notice that there's a lot more chaos and contention at home.

So we just take a break and go for a walk. We have a little Audubon center by our house, a little flat open space where there is a pond and lots of birds.. We just go run around there for a little while. It's such a big reset and difference. It brings a lot of peace in our home to be able to step outside and kind of reset."

It was a joy to meet Brooke and hear about her family’s journeys. Brooke is anAdventurer— and not just because she lives close to the mountains and loves a good adrenaline rush. 

"Adventure is putting yourself in elements you don't have control over. Motherhood, for example, is very adventurous because you have no control. You're letting go of the reins and adapting and finding joy in those moments. Going to a museum with my children is a freaking adventure because you never know who's going to wet their pants when you're far from the restroom."

"I think to be a resilient adventurer, you really have to learn how to adapt and how to find some humor and some beauty in those moments."