Gear List- An after trip review 

 My pack (Osprey Atmos 50) - Worked great again! Fits a pregnant body fine!

Our new Sherpani Rumba child carrier and backpack in one. It stinks! Its quality stinks. Our daughter weighed only 35lbs, which puts her well within the 70lbs weight limit for the pack, yet the waist straps clip continuously comes undone! This strap should bear the weight of the pack and yet it doesn't stay clipped at all! That means that the shoulder straps must bear the weight load, which is a major no-no for any framed pack or baby carrier! Aching backs and shoulders, this makes the pack useless! We would rather carry her in our arms at this point, and we do! The tiny magnetic clip is NOT the right clip for this bag, and I have never had this problem with any other waist strap on any other pack I have ever owned! 

The small detachable backpack/storage has begun to tear on both shoulder straps.
In addition to these 2 major flaws- which alone is enough to send me screaming into the woods after spending 140$ on a pack- its over all design is not at all what I would expect from such a pack. My daughters not comfortable in the pack and complains its poking her in her butt and chest. The shoulder straps are let out all the way and still don't sit correctly. The sunshade and rain cover would never work for an average 3 year old such as herself- its much to short, she can hardly see out or sit comfortably.  On a positive note they accepted the bag as a return, and refunded us.

Kelty Teton 4 person Tent Worked great! Kept us dry, cool(ish) and had plenty of room

Nook Color was great for reading in the dark tent, not any good for the guide books- I still prefer real guidebooks. But we were really going for light weight so this helped. 

Mostly we had to much stuff, again. Even though we had almost nothing. Always bring less then you think you need. 

Turn off screens and turn on life

As most of you know, our family have already chosen to live TV free. The TV our apartment came with has pictures of animals and nature taped all over the screen so we don't have to look at the ugly black screen. Saule had a brief February love affair with "Dora" on youtube during our move here, which thankfully is now a distant memory. 

We are also happy to be able to live phone free. I remember the good old days when telephones stayed at home, and if you needed to leave a message you could (if the machine was turned on which in our house it never was). I had a cell phone for a time, and I can say I don't miss it AT ALL. All that stuff that people think they get from cell phones is in my mind out weighed by the burden they come with. Did you know life was just as good pre-cell phone? You could still keep track of your family, talk to your friends, have an alarm, have a calendar, listen to music, and tell the time!

HOWEVER computers are very much a part of our family, and I really have a hard time with that. 

I justify to myself all the screen time I get from my 7 year old macbook but the truth haunts me- I should be doing something else MOST of the time I am on the computer. 

SO you can understand how happy I was when I found out about screen-free week. 

Here is the INFO: 

Screen-Free Week, presented by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood,  is April 18-24, 2011!

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Kids, families, schools, and communities pledge to turn off screens and turn on life.

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Did you know?

School-age children spend nearly twice as many hours with screen media such as television, video games, computers, and hand-held devices as they do in school.

Television use is at an all-time high among preschoolers—according to Nielsen, young children spend, on average, more than 24 hours a week watching TV.

Screen time is habituating and linked to poor school performance, childhood obesity, poor sleep habits and attention problems.

Forty percent of 3-month-old infants are regular viewers of television and DVDs—even though the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under two.

Children are spending way too much time with screens—and it’s not good for them. That’s why more than 60 leading health, education, and childcare organizations actively support this year’sScreen-Free Week (April 18-24, 2011), the annual celebration where children, families, schools and communities turn off screens and turn on life.