Brian and I took the kids to Phi Phi Relax Beach Resort.  I’d heard about this spot over three years ago before our first trip to Thailand. Back then you could reserve a bungalow on the beach for $30!  It’s double now, but still, it’s pretty cheap compared to a hotel room in Maui.  If […]

We are home as of late last night.  I can’t tell you how good it is to be home, in my own bed, in my kitchen, with my mom bringing dinner over tonight.  Brian and I feel dead to the world from jet lag, but the kids act as if we just got back from […]

After we left the orphanage in Phnom Penh, we flew to Siem Reap to explore one of the seven wonders of the world with our cameras:  Angkor Wat.  We had been so involved with the orphanage, loving every moment, that we forgot to book a hotel in Siem Reap.  So there I was, sitting in […]

He was sitting next to me.  The plane was headed to San Diego.  It was the middle of December, and I felt so exhausted I chose not to introduce myself—just close my eyes and rest.  Little did I know our new friendship would lead to one of our best family travel adventures! But first the […]

“It’s peculiar, to reach your destination,” he told me.  “You think you’ll arrive and perform the thing you came for and depart in contentment.  Instead you get there and find distance still to go.” –So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger This quote couldn’t sum up the last few weeks of my life any […]

Nothing beats taking the kids camping! Yes, you have to take three showers to get the campfire smell out of your hair, and you freeze at night when the temperature drops, and you have nightmares about what things live in the bottom of the outhouse toilet–then your daughter drops her flashlight down there because she […]