1000 Hours Outside: Fall 2021 | Chesapeake Photographer

I guess Fall is over seeing as how it is now February. Ha! My bad. Better late than never, right?! I felt it was still important to update you on how we spent our hours outside this Fall. Hopefully it will give you inspiration on how to get your hours in! 

Here in coastal Virginia, we are really blessed with fantastic weather (usually). It's pretty mild in the winter (I'm cringing writing that because I am 100% cold intolerant and I am absolutely freezing below 50 degrees!) and in the fall we are still having really warm days. Although we can't really swim at the beach in the fall, we definitely are still making trips to visit and play in the sand, walk along the beach, and hunt for shells. This is an activity we all enjoy, from the oldest to the youngest.

For some reason, I feel like we don't get many foggy days here. But you better believe when the fog hit, the kids threw on their shoes and headed outside to play! And of course, I was more than happy to shoot in it! We talked about animals and birds and how they use their colors to camouflage themselves against predators or how they used the fog to their advantage in hunting. 

One of our favorite hangouts is a river shoreline and we can easily spend hours here! We look for fossils, spot river creatures, track animal prints at low tide, and enjoy the setting sun. The littlest loves to throw shells in the water. The younger ones bring toys to play in the mud with as well (trucks, action figures, sand toys, etc.). I do not expect to come home clean on these days!

There are a ton of other activities we did in the Fall that are not pictured here, mostly because I am still behind on editing my personal work. (Ooops!)
But here are a few of the things we did to rack up our hours:

• bike rides throughout the neighborhood
• fall sports (I count practices and games in their outdoor hours!)
• pumpkin patch 
• corn mazes
• pumpkin carving
• pumpkin painting
• helping to prep the yard and garden for winter
• nerf wars
• short, local hikes after school
• playgrounds
• skateparks 
• trash pick up/neighbor hood clean ups
• build a bonfire (collecting materials, chopping wood, building the fire, etc.)

We use these handy, printable trackers to help us have a visual record of our time spent outdoors. (They also have an app now!) They are free and the kids love them. Let me know your favorite outdoor fall activities and give me some ideas for next year! 
As always, learn more about the 1000 Hours Outside mission on their website!