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SHANNON & TYSON | Adventure with kids

@restlesscrusade

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🏔️ Raising kids beyond comfort zones
🥾 Showing what’s possible with kids
🌎 Trekking | Backpacking | Travel
@garmincanada
✉️ [email protected]

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If you’re new here, welcome.

Here’s a little about who we are, why we do what we do, and the family behind the adventures.

We are glad you are here ♥️ taken in Earth by @restlesscrusade

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5 months ago

We never wanted having kids to mean putting our lives on hold.

So we bring them.

To the mountains, the trails, the faraway places, and the adventures that challenge us.

Not because it’s always easy, not because every day goes to plan, but because we want them to grow up knowing that life is meant to be lived, and they are capable of being every part of it with us.

We are Shannon & Tyson, raising adventurous kids and building a life around more time together.

Welcome to our adventures. taken in Nepal by @restlesscrusade

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a day ago

We could have spent years waiting until they were bigger, stronger, or more capable.

But we started taking our girls day hiking at 5 weeks old. Camping at 6 weeks old. And as soon as they could walk, we let them find their own little feet on the trail.

We travelled internationally with them while they were little, took them on adventures that weren’t always easy, and learned along the way.

Were there hard days? Absolutely. Tired legs, big feelings, plans that didn’t go as expected. But we never needed them to be capable of everything from the start. We just needed to give them the opportunity to learn.

Those little girls who once took their first steps on the trail are now hiking in the backcountry, tackling mountain passes, and exploring places we once only dreamed of taking them.

They didn’t become capable by waiting until they were big enough. They became capable by starting small and growing along the way.

Don’t wait for your kids to be ready for every adventure. Let them grow into it.

We are Shannon and Tyson, raising adventurous kids and building a life around more time together. Welcome to our adventures. by @restlesscrusade

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a day ago

One day, you will wish you could go back to these days.

We have never wanted to put our lives on hold until the kids were older, we had more money, or the timing was perfect.

We want to live this life WITH them. The adventures, the quiet moments, the hard days, and everything in between.

Book the trip. Pack the car. Fill the backpacks. Take the kids and go.

An adventure big or small… it doesn’t matter. Just stop putting it off.

Because childhood doesn’t wait for the right time, and neither should we.

Consider this your reminder to stop waiting for the perfect time.

📍 El Salto de Malacatiupán - El Salvador

We are Shannon and Tyson, raising adventurous kids and building a life around experiences, time together, and making the most of the years we have.

Welcome to our adventures. taken in El Salvador by @restlesscrusade

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2 days ago

You can be incredibly fit and still struggle with altitude.

We have trekked through the Himalayas with our girls on the Everest Base Camp trek, Annapurna Circuit, Annapurna Base Camp, and the Manaslu Circuit combined with Tsum Valley.

We have learned a lot along the way, but one thing is always at the front of our minds when we bring our kids into the mountains:

Altitude doesn’t care how fit you are.

We love bringing our girls along for the adventures we love, but doing it safely has always mattered more than reaching a destination.

We also waited until they were old enough to communicate how they were feeling and tell us when something didn’t feel right before taking them on high-altitude treks. Being able to recognize and communicate symptoms is an important part of making these decisions as parents, even though kids may not always recognize or report altitude illness reliably.

Here’s what we pay attention to when trekking at altitude with our kids:

1. We gain elevation gradually - Above 3,000 m, we aim to keep increases in sleeping elevation to around 500 m per day or less, where possible.

2. We slow down - We don’t try to maintain our usual hiking pace. We take our time, breathe, and don’t rush to the next village.

3. We plan rest days - As we climb higher, we build in time for acclimatization. Rest days aren’t wasted days. They are part of the plan.

4. We pay attention to how everyone is feeling - Our girls are strong hikers, but fitness doesn’t protect anyone from altitude sickness. We watch for changes in how they feel or behave, and we never assume that being energetic means everything is fine.

These guidelines reduce risk but can’t eliminate it. If symptoms develop, we don’t ascend further. Severe or worsening symptoms require descent and urgent medical attention.

We don’t share this because we are experts or because we think every family should trek at altitude. We share it because we love these adventures, we want our kids to experience them with us, and we have learned that taking the time to do things thoughtfully matters.

We are Shannon and Tyson, bringing our kids along on all our adventures. Welcome! taken in Nepal by @restlesscrusade

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3 days ago

We definitely don’t have parenting figured out. And we are not trying to tell anyone else how to raise their kids.

We are Shannon and Tyson, raising adventurous kids and building a life around more time together, more experiences and showing our kids what’s possible.

After years of taking our kids into the mountains, travelling, trekking for weeks at a time and watching them figure out things we weren’t sure they could do… there are a few things we have come to really believe in.

We believe kids are capable of more than we often give them credit for.

We believe we can comfort them without always removing the hard thing.

We believe complaining doesn’t mean they’re incapable.

We believe being cold, tired, frustrated or uncomfortable sometimes is part of learning what you’re capable of.

And we believe our job isn’t to make our kids’ lives easy. It’s to be there beside them while they learn how to navigate the hard parts.

Our kids have cried on trails. They have wanted to quit. They have been exhausted, sick, cold and completely over it.

And we have listened. We have carried them when they needed it. We have changed plans when we needed to.

But we have also given them the chance to keep going when they were ready.

Because we don’t want to raise kids who think they need to avoid everything that feels hard.

We want them to know they can do hard things, and that we will be right there with them while they do.

If you are raising kids and want to see more of what that can look like, come along. by @restlesscrusade

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4 days ago

Lately, we have been reminding ourselves to slow down and appreciate the little moments.

The family walks. The long weekends. The traditions we’re building. The moments that don’t seem all that special while we’re living them, but might end up being the ones we miss the most.

We spend so much time looking forward to the next adventure, the next trip, the next big thing.

Our girls are growing up, and we know we can’t slow that down. But we can be more present for it.

We don’t want to get so caught up in chasing the next adventure that we forget to appreciate the life we’re living right now.

Because these little moments? They are not just the in-between, they are our life, too.

We are Shannon and Tyson, raising adventurous kids and building a life around experiences, time together, and making the most of the years we have.

What’s one little moment you want to slow down and savour a little more? by @restlesscrusade

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4 days ago

Want your kids to hike a little farther? Let them see how far they have already gone.

They can track their own distance without constantly asking how much further, and now they are starting to challenge themselves to see just how far they can go.

A little independence goes a long way.

Shoulder season hiking is here… although at 2,200m, it already looks a lot like winter. ❄️

⌚️ Garmin Bounce 2

#GarminAmbassador #GiftedProduct taken in Monashee Mountains by @restlesscrusade

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5 days ago

We didn’t wake up one day with kids who knew how to navigate risk.

It was something we taught them, little by little, over years.

We let them climb, scramble, balance, explore and make decisions with us close by. We gave them opportunities to figure things out while the consequences were still small.

So when we decided, almost on a whim, to trek to Everest Base Camp with our kids, we weren’t hoping they would somehow figure out how to navigate steep drop-offs and challenging trails.

We already knew they could. We had seen them do it over and over again.

The trek may have been spontaneous, but the skills they needed for it weren’t.

That’s why we don’t want to raise kids who simply hear “be careful” every time something looks scary.

We want them to learn how to stop, look, assess the situation and decide what feels safe for them.

Because eventually, we won’t be standing beside them, and we want them to know how to navigate the trail anyway.

Welcome to our adventures. by @restlesscrusade

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8 days ago

I wish I could freeze some of these moments in time.

The hiking can be tough some days, but there’s something about finishing a long day on the trail, getting into warm clothes and snuggling up together in a little teahouse dining room that makes it all worth it.

We have stayed in a lot of teahouses in Nepal over the years, and these simple places have become some of our favourite parts of trekking.

We journal, play cards, eat, drink tea, talk about our day and just enjoy being together. No fancy amenities. Nowhere else to be. Just tired, happy and together.

And the higher we go, the more basic things become. Eventually, the heat in the dining room comes from yak poop.

It might not sound luxurious, but after a long day of hiking, it feels pretty close to perfect to us.

We are Shannon and Tyson, raising adventurous kids and bringing them along for as much of this life as we can. We share the adventures, the hard days and all the moments in between, so come along with us.

Would you stay in a teahouse like this? taken in Nepal by @restlesscrusade

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9 days ago

They got themselves this far.

To the top of Thorong La Pass at 5,416m.
-15°C with the wind chill.
And now their little feet were freezing.

So they asked to be carried… and we did.

Tyson carried one, and I carried the other.

Because being capable doesn’t mean you never need help.

Our kids are incredibly capable. But sometimes they need us, and we are always there.

We still had plenty of kilometres to go to get down to Muktinath, so there was no reason to prove anything. We carried them when they needed it, and when they were ready, they walked again.

One day they won’t need us to carry them anymore.

Until then, we will continue to carry them when they need us.

⭐️ Kids carrier is: trailmagik (code RESTLESSCRUSADE will give you a little discount too) -affiliate

We are Shannon and Tyson, raising adventurous kids and showing what’s possible when you bring them along.

Welcome to our adventures. taken in Manaslu Circuit Trek by @restlesscrusade

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10 days ago

The goal isn’t to capture every moment.

It’s to be present for them.

Less distraction from our phones, more time looking up, getting outside, and experiencing it together.

The new GoPro Mission 1 Pro makes it easier to capture the moments we want to remember without missing the moment itself.

#GoProMISSION1PRO #gifted by @restlesscrusade

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11 days ago