Many people come here for the mountains, maybe intending just to stay for a few years and end up making lives here. They get jobs, buy houses and most importantly raise families. So how do people make time both for the things that originally drew them to Teton Valley, and their children?

Chris Jensen has been a licensed fishing guide in the summers for 19 years and got a job with Pro Guide Direct in 2011.

He and his wife Jenny have two kids, Grady who is 6 years old and 2-year-old Penelope. Jenny, who works at Intermountain Aquatics, said even though they are not able to ski or bike as much as they used to, they are still able to get to the outdoors, even if it is more of a challenge.

“We do things earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon and take turns, we’re definitely pushing each other out the door because we want each other to do those things because we know how much we each enjoy them,” she said.

They both agreed that one of the big changes is how they have to plan out their outdoor adventures, going as far as to put together a Google doc to organize their outdoor time. Recently, they were able to have a full ski day, but it took Chris taking time off work.

It has also affected what specific activities they do. Chris, an avid mountain biker has taken to running more often, instead of hitting single track. He said he can bust out a run in the time it would take to drive to the trailhead, and he just has to throw a pair of running shorts in his work bag, instead of loading up the bike.

Even on runs, his frame of mind has changed, too, and even though he often feels the urge to get outside, once there, he feels another pull.

“Oh jeez, I should just hurry get this run over with so I can hang out with the kids,” he often thinks.

Zahan Billimoria who lives in Jackson, is an Exum guide and has two children ages 5 and 8. He said he gets out just as much as did before they were born, if not more, because guiding is how he provides for his family.

That does not mean, though, that he has not had to reduce his time outdoors and that being a parent did change how he conducts himself in the mountains.

“After I had my first kid I went through a period when I really I just didn’t feel comfortable dealing with risk and everything that I did in the mountains, involved a fairly high level of risk,” he said.

That lead him to step back a bit from those high risk activities and focus more on running and racing, “pushing himself in different ways.”

He said he eventually was able to come back to the mountain pursuits that drove him to the Tetons in the first place. He, like the Jensen’s, has had to adjust what activities he does in his free time. In his case, like Chris, switching to running saved time. For Billimoria’s that meant less rock climbing, which require more gear and time.

Like any parents of young children Chris and Jenny say they always could use more sleep, but sometimes it’s not a fussy baby that keeps them up.

“Most of the time when we feel like having a nap, it’s like should I have a nap or go out for a run. We usually end up going for the run,” Jenny said, explaining that even if she is running on little sleep “you get out and do that run, because that’s just what you do.”

This article appeared in the Teton Valley News on May 15, 2014.