Wanderwild: Macquel! We've known you for so long, but it's fun to back up and ask you some of these "getting to know you" questions! First up, tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

Macquel: Hello! I am a mom of three fun kids. My husband and I love raising our kids in the beautiful state of Colorado. I have always loved trying to do a little bit of everything as far as hobbies but I do know that I love to DO things, I love to TRY things, I enjoy many things! And at this particular point in my life, I absolutely love exploring and seeing the magic of the world through my children’s eyes.

Wanderwild: Aww, that idea of "seeing the magic of the world through my children's eyes", that means so much to us too! So why did you start Colorado with Kiddos?

Macquel: In my adult life I had found myself year after year planning our vacation days around getting outside of our home state of Colorado. There was one day when I was planning our next trip, looking at the map, I realized that we had visited handfuls of National Parks and cities all around the United States and that, although our own state has its own set of parks and cities, we had traveled past most of them without stopping dozens of times! I decided then and there to prioritize exploring my own wonderful state. This came at a time when I had young kids, and the more I looked into all the fun, family-friendly things there were around Colorado, my list kept growing and growing! I found myself posting pictures of our adventures to my personal social media, and after a push from some friends, I decided to create a public account to allow fellow moms to follow along on our adventures! @ColoradoWithKiddos was born and in our little corner of the internet we have a community of fellow parents where we love to share with each other all things #momlife, epic adventures, small adventures, parenting woes, products, tips and tricks, successes, failures, and mostly just a lot of fun things to do with our kiddos.

Wanderwild: This speaks right to our hearts. And it's one of the reasons why we always felt that partnering with you made sense. Our passion for encouraging families to get out and make memories is so aligned! 

What type of activities do you enjoy most as a family and why?

Macquel: Through our adventures I have found that our most favorites as a family are definitely revolved around unstructured outdoor exploring. Going on hikes and picnics, and being in nature is our happy place, at all times of the year! We love family bike rides, whether in our own neighborhood or on an epic scenic trail and finding ice creams shops in historic downtowns. We have loved finding so many fun amazing, playgrounds all over and also discovering museums, libraries, recreation centers and so many different places for kids to learn and play.

Wanderwild: What has been your most favorite adventure as a family?

Macquel: Our most favorite adventure to date as a family was a weekend in Aspen, CO. The stars aligned with great weather and happy dispositions from us all. We visited amazing parks, ate yummy gelato, rode our bikes through miles of trails, explored ice caves, swam in the pool, and there’s something that escalates all these seemingly simple things by doing them with a scenic mountain, blue sky backdrop and cool mountain air. We also hiked to see the famous Maroon Bells that weekend which was a bucket-list item for me, I had never seen them in my 30+ years living in Colorado!

Wanderwild: That's amazing! What advice would you give to parents who want to set out on adventures with their children?

Macquel: The best advice for getting out on adventures with your kids is to just go to it. The more you do it, the better it gets. Every outing will not be perfect, things will be forgotten, kids will throw tantrums, mom might even throw a tantrum or two. But opening the world to your kids and your family is such a wonderful gift. And opening the world doesn’t mean you need to jump on a plane and travel all the time, to me it means trips to the park, hikes in the fall leaves, an afternoon at the museum, all adventures big and small count and create memories. Just do it! 

Wanderwild: Love it! Thanks for the chat, Macquel. We love your mission and are so grateful you're part of the Wanderwild family.

Follow @coloradowithkiddos and @wanderwild to #gowanderwild with us!