A little about our travels origin

When my children were young, my husband and I never thought we could travel. Traveling cost a lot of money and while working part-time and raising children, traveling seemed so far off the radar. One day, the youngest asked me "Mommy, what is it like to fly in an airplane and will WE ever fly in an airplane?". At that moment, it hit me, that maybe just maybe our little family of 6 could find an adventure that wouldn't be so costly. So I made it my mission to find a way to make my daughter's dream of riding on an airplane a reality. I started researching, saving, and planning, looking for an affordable time to travel and decent accommodations for 6. And one year later, the first time my 9 year old stepped on an airplane was in February 2018 to Denver, Colorado. That first trip was definitely cost conscious, however, we all had so much fun together as a family and fell in love with discovering new destinations and experiences. We have found that traveling gives us new and open perspectives on life and understanding different cultures. Now 3 of the 4 kids are adults which presents even more challenges for budgeting travel adventures. We also enjoy bringing the extended family (grandma, grandpa, aunt, and uncle-to-be) along with us to add to the excitement. Lodging, airfare, and tickets to experiences are all essential pieces to the travel puzzle which can add up to be quite expensive for a large group, however, half of the fun for me is planning the trip and making the itinerary. We haven't stopped traveling since we took that first trip to Colorado and we don't plan to stop any time soon. The kids are now getting older now but as long as they want to come with mom and dad, we will most definitely take them with us. Which I suspect that as long as mom and dad are paying, they will have no problem tagging along. Whether it's a great summer trip with all the family or a couple trip during the school year, we have so many more places to travel and lots of budgeting to do to stretch our money as far as we can go!

Lisbon, Portugal 2024