Lifelong Memories

I grew up traveling with my extended family—grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins all made several trips a year together. Many of my most vivid memories as a kid are from big family trips. Those memories span funny moments, scary moments and deep moments, all of which collectively bonded our extended family and created a love for adventure even when things don’t always go as planned. 

We had regular trips that we took as a family to our favorite spots in Hawaii and Tahoe as well as special trips – Disney was a right of passage at age 5 for all the grandkids, a family tour of Yosemite, a wild adventure in Wyoming, gambling in Vegas, countless ski trips, beach trips, traveling to celebrate special occasions for different family members and ultimately traveling not only across the country but to new countries across the world.

I’ve never been bothered living away from family because we make it a priority to get together on trips every year and get to enjoy extended quality time away from all the distractions of every day life.

I love this tradition and luckily my husband does as well. We save time every year to do these trips even though sometimes it means less time to travel as just our family of 3 (soon to be 4!). But we see how much my son loves spending time with his grandparents, aunt and uncle and baby cousin and its definitely worth it. We collectively have a family bucket list of places we want to see together. This year we are headed to DC, Tahoe, Palm Springs and Hawaii as well as considering Alaska.

A few things that make traveling with the entire family easier. First off we generally rent a big house these days so we can be together easily, but everyone can also have a lot of space.  We try to go a few days early with just my husband, my son and myself so we can do something special just us. We plan individual excursions and dinners out and take turns watching the kids so we can get adult time in. We choose spots with a lot to do for adults and kids of all ages so everyone is happy and gets time to do what they like.  We bring a ton of games and puzzles that bring out everyone’s competitive side and create lots of fun hang out activities.

We look forward to sharing more about our upcoming big family trips and tricks!