Cragbaby ready for some adventure!

A few weekends ago our family headed to the New River Gorge for some climbing and camping fun.  With a driving rain Friday night and a passing thunder shower Saturday afternoon, our weekend was definitely wet – but we had a blast nonetheless!  (You can read a trip report from our adventure here).  My husband Steve and I have always maintained that although truly good rain gear is expensive, it only takes one or two uses per season to make it worth its weight in gold.  Nothing can squash your weekend fun quite like spending the night in a puddle-filled tent with soggy underwear and pruned skin from head to toe.

First test run with the Adventure Suit - it sure didn't slow C down any!

Last year we didn’t have any rain gear for Cragbaby – he was only a few months old so when it came to outdoor adventures, he was always in someone’s arms or stretched out on a blanket.  We certainly encountered our fair share of rain, but it was easy enough to just zip him up, front carrier and all, right into my rain jacket along with me!  Now that spring rains are here again however, and our little guy is 12 months old and on the MOVE, I don’t think either of us could be confined together in a shared jacket even if we wanted to be!  We figured it was time for Cragbaby to get his own rain gear just like Mommy and Daddy, so when I saw these Adventure Suits by Oaki on sale a couple of months ago, I jumped on it!

It's also great for protecting little knees and elbows from getting scraped up during baby bouldering sessions!

We hadn’t gotten a chance to use the suit until this past weekend, to be honest I was a little skeptical considering that I only paid $14 for it, but  all I can say is WOW!  I am SO thankful that we had it on hand.  It turned what easily could have been a miserable mud-bath of a weekend into a wet and wild good time!

Here’s the specs on the suit, as taken from the Oaki website:

• Fully taped seams
• Separating zipper at ankle for easy on/off
• Light weight and packable
• Polyester with waterproof coating
• Built to give kids plenty of space to move around easily
• Easy to wear hood that doesn’t fall down in their eyes

Not the most icognito color choice for a game of campsite peek-a-boo, however...

We saw two main uses for the suit, both of which we utilized this weekend.
1.  Keeping Cragbaby Dry – Hopefully this was an obvious one…but we were really pleased with how it worked.  The suit was easy to get on and off over C’s clothes (even with shoes on), so he was dry and protected within seconds of the first drops of rain!  We hiked out from the cliff base on Saturday in  a torrential downpour, but when we put C in the car, he was soft, warm and dry as a bone!

There's a whole world out there waiting to be explored!

2.  Keeping Cragbaby (relatively…) Clean – Mornings around camp and at the cliff base were quite muddy and wet.  Even though it wasn’t raining, it would have taken C less than 5 minutes to morph into a mud monster had he been in just his his regular clothes.  The suit allowed C to discover and explore to his little heart’s content without us worrying about running out of clean, dry clothes before lunchtime.

I would strongly recommend this product to any parent with a little tyke that doesn’t want the weather forecast dictate what kind of fun he or she has.  And judging from the expressions on Cragbaby’s face, I think its safe to assume that he gives it two thumbs up as well.  🙂

Wet and Wild Adventures for the whole family!