A Utah Family Travel Writer's Adventures with Altitude
I’d love to hear from you!
Email: crazycanuck131 [at] yahoo [dot] com.
Twitter: @TheMileHighMama
Linkedin: Amber Johnson
Testimonial:
“Amber, reading your travel tweets is like watching a Chevy Chase Vacation movie….”
-@Monica2point0
I am an uproarious and fun-loving gal who has a passion for my family, travel, the outdoors and writing. Originally from Canada, I relocated to Denver via Salt Lake City when I gave up my wanderlust, travel-writin’ life to marry the real love of my life. Together, my American husband and I have two “half-breeds”: Hadley (age 8) and Bode (age 6). Go here for more details on the Crazy Crew.
I was the Grand Prize Winner in Microsoft Office’s Winter Games Contest and was their accredited blogger at the 2010 Vancouver Games. As an avid winter sports enthusiast, this was a dream come true! Be sure to read all my behind-the-scenes adventures that included how The Today Show’s Matt Lauer stole my moment in the spotlight and how I put my foot in my mouth when meeting Wayne Gretzky.
I am the founder and editor of Mile High Mamas for The Denver Post – an award-winning site that is touted as Colorado’s largest online network of mommy bloggers. I am a Snowmama for Park City Mountain Resort’s cutting-edge social media site and am coordinating a social media campaign for Colorado Ski Country this winter. I am also a Brand Enthusiast for Nintendo and have worked with top brands such as Frigidaire, Ford, Sara Lee, Feld Entertainment and Playtex.
I am a regular speaker at social media conferences and have received numerous awards including being honored in Westword magazine’s Best of Denver edition, as a Top 75 Moms on Twitter by American Express, Best of MSN, Blogtrepreneur’s Top 50 Mommy Blogs and startup powerhouse Sampa’s Top 10 Mommy Blogs You Should Read. I make regular appearances in the media and placements have included CBS 4 Denver, Martino TV, FOX 31, MSNBC.com KOA radio and The Denver Post.
After graduating from college, I spent a number of years working as a publicist for Utah’s ski and outdoor industry whilst moonlighting as the “Craaaaazy Canuck” radio personality and travel writer. I became infamous for detailing my humorous misadventures en route and continue to do so as a family travel writer. I was recently interviewed as a travel expert in Woman’s Day magazine.
My husband Jamie and I work and play together. As the former Director of Interactive at the Denver Newspaper Agency, he founded Pixo Web Design & Strategy where I oversee social media. We love climbing Colorado’s 14ers (14,000-foot peaks), backpacking Southern Utah, skiing, mountain biking, playing volleyball and roller-blading.
He is perfect for me in every way with the exception that he is obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. He was even interviewed in the October ’09 issue of National Geographic about Said Obsession.
Don’t mock him. That’s my job.
And apparently Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais’ responsibility as well. Jamie and I recently appeared on the premiere of Seinfeld’s comedic show, NBC’s The Marriage Ref battling it out over (what else) The Great Pumpkin.
I may have lost that battle on national television but this blog is about winning the war.
I found an audience as the travel editor of a monthly outdoor publication with my humorous narratives. Travel writing should be fun, not just a checklist of what to do. Add children to the mix and family travel becomes an unpredictable yet gratifying adventure. I write about the real story, infusing levity as I highlight the best that destinations have to offer.
My young children have traveled all over the Western United States, Mexico and Canada and I am always on the lookout for family-friendly destinations. We may occasionally receive discounted or complimentary rates on hotels and services, which I disclose while striving to give an accurate review.
In addition to publishing articles on my personal blog, my writings regularly appear in the Family Travel section of The Denver Post’s Mile High Mamas and I also freelance for various travel publications and blogs. As all my writings are personal narratives, I do not write about destinations I have not personally visited. To see an example of my work, be sure to read this compilation of my favorite articles as well as my family’s Tour de Colorado, a series of road trips that highlighted the best that Colorado has to offer.
And also divulged a few of my family’s worst (but utterly hilarious) moments.
You may contact me at crazycanuck131 [at] yahoo [dot] com.
My header has gone MIA. Last week, all my pictures went up in flames because the Photobucket account my graphic designer used went up in flames due to inactivity. We managed to fix that but still haven’t figured out our latest problem. I think this is the universe’s way of telling me a blog redesign is in order!
My Mile High Mamas post today is a pretty heavy topic. It’s not something I usually delve into but I haphazardly posted a Facebook status update about it a couple of weeks ago and lo, were there ever some heated comments. I used some of them in the post so be sure to come on over and share your opinion!
Hadley has been an independent soul from Day 1.
Of course, babies by nature are required to be dependent so you can imagine what a joy our little irascible spitfire was that first year.
As she has grown, she has blossomed and is becoming more enjoyable every year. She is both a social butterfly and also one who needs to be left alone to play, often for extended periods of time. Once, when her friend Alex was over, Hadley shut herself in her room claiming her needed some privacy.
Alex, the younger of five children, came and asked me what this “privacy” thing was all about.
I’ve never really worried about Hadley in social settings. She has been able to adapt to any situation we put her in and make friends. I had planned to have her ride the school bus on Mondays and then drop her off at school the other four days of the week prior to taking Bode to preschool. A few days after school started, Bode was having a rough morning so I left him with Jamie while I drove Hadley to school early. As we pulled out of the neighborhood, we spotted the school bus. I saw Hadley longingly look at it.
“Do you want to ride the bus?”
“YES!” And with that, she hopped out of the car and trotted over to the bus.
In retrospect, I probably should have double-checked to ensure it was actually going to her school. 
The point is, she needed no preparation whatsoever. I debated tailing the bus to school to ensure she figured out where she was supposed to go. But she was just fine.
Sometimes when I ask her who she played with at recess, she nonchalantly said she didn’t feel like playing with anyone. If this was Bode or anything other kid, I would be worried. “Oh no! She’s turning into a recluse!” or “Why isn’t she making any friends?”
But the great thing I’ve come to realize about her is she has plenty of friends. It’s just at the ripe ol’ age of 5 she’s already comfortable enough in her own skin to not need them around. Jamie and I are both the same way. When we were both single, we took huge vacations solo–I did Lake Mead and Colorado, he did Hawaii and Mexico. We figured if couldn’t find anyone to go with us, best to just go it alone.
But I don’t ever remember being quite as independent as Hadley at such a young age.
In case you have been living under a rock, President Obama will address the nation’s children at noon today from Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.
I first heard about the the debate that is swirling around his speech as I listened to NPR’s riveting social commentary in the car.
OK, so it was a call-in session on alternative rock station Alice 105.9. Don’t let that impact my street cred.
My first thought was that these opposing people were crazy. I incredulously posted on Facebook about how could anyone object to THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES trying to encourage our children to stay in school?
And then the plot thickened because I heard back from so many of you:
COME VOICE YOUR OPINION HERE. Will you be watching? Do you think everything has been blown out of proportion or do you think the government is overstepping its boundaries?
Tad is dead.
It was only a matter of time given the circumstances he was to endure in this mortal fish life. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, scroll down to my previous post where Hadley named her goldfish Tad, Rad and Cad–likely after the names of her first three boyfriends.
When we brought them home from the store, we let them stay in the bag and float in the tank for a couple of hours to adjust to the water temperature. We instructed the children that under no circumstances were they to feed the fish without our permission, or touch the tank.
Seem like simple instructions? Fess up: how many of you have ever caused a goldfish’s demise?
It was only a few hours after this lecture when Hadley’s friend Alex walked into the den where Jamie was working. She covertly closed the door behind her and confided in Jamie, “I didn’t do it.”
This is always a bad sign.
“Didn’t do what, Alex?”
“Promise not to yell at her, OK?”
This is a worse sign.
Jamie bolted out of his chair and raced into Hadley’s room. Nothing could have prepared him for what he encountered. Hadley was nekkkid, sitting atop her dresser. She had dumped out one-third of the tank’s water all over her drawers as she tried to scoop out the petrified fish with a Tupperware container.
Note: when I say petrified, I mean Scared Out of Their Fins, not the kind of petrified fish you find frozen in time against an ancient wall.
Though at that moment in their lives, I am sure they wished for the latter.
“I just wanted to pet them,” Hadley explained.
She really does need a dog. Last I checked, fish aren’t exactly snuggly.
The fish survived Round 1 but a few days later, Hadley observed that Tad was taking a nap in his cave. Or so we thought. Evidently, fish aren’t cave nappers. Or too smart. Turns out poor Tad met his demise by getting stuck in his man cave.
Let this be a lesson to men everywhere.
As you know, Hadley turned five last week. Since her birthday fell on Memorial Day this year, we had two parties: one a week early for friends and a family BBQ on the holiday.
Because I didn’t have anything better to do than plan two birthday parties.
Hadley has been asking for a dog for three years. And for three years, we have been telling her, “Not until everyone is potty trained.” One of the only good things about our son 2-year-old son Bode’s aversion to the toilet is we do not need to cash in on getting a dog. Yet.
Jamie’s sister Lisa approached us about another option: she wanted to buy Hadley a fish tank and some goldfish for her birthday and we agreed. She was beyond ecstatic and named them “Tad, Rad and Cad.”
Not to be mistaken with the names of her first three boyfriends.
Even funnier was when my sweet, quiet dad suggested the names “Joe, Moe and Hoe.”
Hadley received some really great presents from family and friends and each was welcomed with excitement and gratitude. But I was not prepared for the backlash I received on Facebook last week when I flippantly posted the following status update:
Do I REALLY need to send “thank you” cards to all of Haddie’s peeps from her birthday? It’s not that I’m ungrateful. I’m just lazy.
Now, that is only partially true. I was lazy but I also very busy. In years past, I have sent thank yous out of obligation. But this year, many of the kids we invited to the party are school chums and I don’t have their last names, let alone their addresses. I really had no way of contacting them because school was out for the summer. Plus, the majority of birthday presents we give are not acknowledged with a thank-you card, nor am I put out if I do not receive one.
Many of my friends commiserated with me and a few burned me at the stake. Here are a few of the responses I received:
“Everyone I know sends a thank-you card for the birthday gifts their kids receive at their party.”
“We always write down what people give my kids, but we never seem to get farther than that…Maybe next year.”
“I don’t think birthdays warrant thank-you cards, I took your kid off your hands for 2 full hours, fed him, entertained him and sent him home happy and full of sugar. Really I feel like you should be thanking me….”
I laughed at the latter comment because I just returned home from a friend’s huge pool party and BBQ for the entire neighborhood in honor of her child’s birthday. Afterward, I felt like I should be the one sending her a thank-you card.
I don’t know about you but I never sent out birthday thank-you cards out when I was a kid. Social etiquette dictated that I do so for my wedding gifts and baby showers and these days, I do it if someone has gone above and beyond to help me with something. My thank yous are always sincere and unexpected.
But should I be sending them more regularly? I have friends who are like clockwork. If I do anything for them, I can always count on a thank-you note. A nice gesture? Sure. But I have to admit I sometimes roll my eyes because I feel like it is done out of obligation, not sincerity.
And so I am curious to hear your take on the whole thing. Do you send out thank-you cards after birthday parties? Do you expect to receive them? What camp do you fall in? I hereby promise to implement whatever the majority rules!
On Hadley’s birthday, she slept late (my gift) and I made her favorite breakfast: oatmeal cookie pancakes (her gift).
As we were piling into the car afterward to go to Grandma’s, Jamie commented,
“I just want to warn you about something.”
“Oh no. What?”
“I may be a little emotional today.”
“Why?”
“Wellllllll, first my little girl is turning five.”
“Yeah right, whatever. What’s the real reason?”
“My back-up pumpkin plant is running into my main one. I will have to kill it today.”
An “Incredibles” birthday party….like you’ve never seen before.
And which you won’t see yet because I’m too tired to write about it.
Just who is this masked woman behind the secret identity?
Only time will tell….
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. Learn More