This is my first blog post, and I’m struggling to even format the page and figure out how to get started. Here goes nothing…

We are getting prepared for our forth international trip with the kiddos — Costa Rica!!! I am currently booking some of kid friendly travel tours, trying to pack, for the trip (we leave in less than four days and I’ve packed nothing), organize our paperwork (yes, I still print everything just to be safe), put away Christmas decorations before we leave, clean the house…. the list goes on. Sound like the same list as yours? Did you have kids basketball games this morning, were you running out the door last minute, forcing your children to eat breakfast… yes, how many of us are living parallel lives? Well, I want to shake things up. I want to break the pattern of the predictable and make the most out of every day while we are here. I want to satisfy my wanderlust and inspire my children to have the same curiosity, and perhaps I can inspire you to do so as well. I want to provide family friendly travel options, give you tips, save you the work of doing your own research and share mine, and make traveling with a family and traveling with kids fun and easy (easier, at least — it’s never going to be cake)!

I’ve been very frustrated with my job lately (as we all likely feel the burn of being parents in the 21st century, or even just human beings in the 21st century), and I’ve been seeking out ways to change my life in meaningful ways and find something that will allow me to do what I love and actually enjoy my job instead of dreading going in. Don’t get me wrong, I have been very fortunate and my career was exactly what I wanted to pursue, so maybe it’s just a midlife crisis, but here I am, about to turn forty in a few months and trying to find that passion and vigor I felt twenty years ago when I left for Australia. While other families are taking their kids to local indoor water parks for the weekend and theme parks centered around popular animated characters (which is completely understandable) my husband and I want to keep living the adventurous life we started together when we met in New Zealand 19 years ago. And I am focused on that… laser focused on living my dream and shaping my life into a fulfillment of my desires, to make it exactly what I want it to be. I don’t want to wish away the next twenty years looking towards retirement and spending the time I’m working being miserable. It is not healthy. I haven’t had a goal in a long time. I need a new goal, a life goal, one that goes beyond looking at retirement. I want to make traveling part of my job, and I want to help other families who are afraid to take big adventures with their children feel more comfortable, learn from our experiences (both successes and failures) and be inspired to wander the globe together with their children, be courageous, be bold, and give you and your family exposure to different cultures, customs, time away from screens and away from the stresses of the modern world and to create a new world for your family. I want to help make wanderlust with a family a reality.