About Me

Hiking in Colorado

My name is Melissa. Most people just call me Mel. I’m a coffee-drinking, Twitter-loving, Pad Thai-eating mama to 3-year-old crazy boy Big Roo and Lil Roo who was born in Feb 2010. During the day, I’m a marketing mama with 10 years of experience in marketing communications and design. All the time, I’m a suburban mama living in Raleigh amidst BBQ, sweet tea and “bless your hearts.” I’m not making fun- I grew up in the South- but after living in Phoenix for 5 years, I learned that BBQ anywhere else means hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill (which I think is just plain wrong by the way).

I love the outdoors – hiking in a crisp fall day, camping underneath the stars, relaxing by the lake – all the things we sometimes forget to experience in a world of DVRs, Wii Sports and computers. But I’m sort of a paradox because I love all those things too. I don’t mind roughing it (ask this girl about her orange trowel) but I’m happy to get home and wash my hair three times to get the campfire smell rubbed off. Then jump on the computer and watch a Grey’s Anatomy re-run.

Before I was a mom, I had grand illusions of popping my newborn in a sling and hiking the Grand Canyon. Okay, not that extreme, but for someone who’s hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon more than once carrying 40 pounds on my back, I dreamed of life after baby to be full of hiking, camping trips and grand mini-ventures.

It was six months before our first baby hike. Um, yeah.

But now we’re on a roll. Hiking all over with a kid in a Kelty pack and a dog with those humiliating dog boots. I’ll share with you what I learn about our outdoor adventures, along with some random mommy moments, hiking trail reviews (around our home state of NC and sometimes beyond), reviews of the products we can’t live without and more.

By the way, I take lots of pictures so be prepared.

Oh, and if you wanna tweet with me, then follow me here! Of course, email works too: melissa (at) adventuroo (dot) com.