One positive thing about Covid was we spent a lot of time outside and at the beach. By Summertime we were ready to travel beyond the beach and mountains where we had family to visit. Since our 20 countries in 20 years Scandinavian wedding anniversary trip, we had to postpone a scheduled trip to Cuba as well as hopes of traveling to new continents in 2020.

Playing it safe but traveling as far away as possible in the United States, we spent a chunk of our summer in Hawaii. We basically lived in the water, and I was so proud of my family for trying so many new things. Esther Kate was 5 and became a great snorkeler. Lydia June was 11 and had her first ocean scuba diving experience since getting certified at age 10 in a quarry in East Tennessee.

We all had a day where we kayaked up a river in the rain, hiked a mile though the mud and swam a cold waterfall.  It was an empowering day. It was cold, kids were cranky, our picnic didn’t work out as planned, and the one-mile hike did not advertise hiking through a river. But we did it! And something inside of me switched that day. It said, “YES. We can do hard things!” I was so proud of us and grateful to have that experience together while traveling. I documented our island hoping trip in Hawaii on my Instagram account, with plenty of photos in my feed and saved on my stories. 

Our Hawaii trip was all about building us up to do a very big cool thing as a family.

To visit Belize and the Blue Hole

While in Hawaii, I realized was tired of watching my family scuba dive. I admitted was scared to scuba dive. I was scared I would run out of air. I knew that fear getting in my way of adventures, because I love to swim in the ocean. I decided to be brave. And I got certified to scuba dive one week before we visited a scuba diving report in Belize. I wanted to dive with Lydia, my older teen Haiden and my husband Brian.

But hmmm….if I’m not on the surface to be Esther Kate’s snorkel buddy who will swim with her? Her teenage sister Aubrey who was afraid of sharks and eels and things that slither in the water? It was going to have to work. We can be brave. Yes, our family can do hard things.

On my first dive, Lydia was already in the water waiting for me to jump in. I looked at Esther’s scared face and I said, “You got this.” I looked at Aubrey and I said, “This is going to be fun!” And I left them on the dive boat with a snorkel guide who had the big job to make them feel safe and have fun.

I descended down to the ocean’s floor for the first time as a scuba diver, in charge of my 11-year old. And leaving some people I just met in charge of my nervous snorkelers on a boat off the coast of Belize. I reminded myself about dropping small children off at school, and the how the drop at the door and walk away trick works better than the sticking around for too long mistake. And how children listen better to teachers than their parents sometimes. And I swam. Fifty feet below the surface. Trusting that a 5-year old and a 15-year old could be brave together.

Eventually I looked up and saw Esther and Aubrey waving down at us from the surface. The snorkel guide Carlos had worked his magic just like I put all my hope and faith into him to do. They were having a blast.

“This is going to work.” I thought to myself as I lived out my mermaid dreams swimming though beautiful coral reef. “It’s going to be a great week. We can do hard things together!”

On the third day we made it to the Blue Hole. We snorkeled the rim together since we are not advanced certified divers to go down 120 feet. The reef system in Belize is the second largest in the world, to The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. While snorkeling with Esther Kate, I asked the guide if I could take off her life jacket. He said sure if I was comfortable with it. Immediately Esther started free diving 6-10 feet deep. She never wore her life jacket again that week.

The next stop was an island where we dropped off the snorkels, and the boat headed back out to deeper waters. Carlos showed my not-scared-anymore girls a shark, an eel, and taught them to free dive even deeper.

We spent a week on a remote island at The Blackbird Resort. We cannot say enough wonderful things about the dive team there, and all the staff. We took a tiny plane from Belize City to get there. We traveled with all our snorkel gear and scuba gear for four people. Yes, four. We can do hard things. We can learn amazing things from traveling.

To see all our amazing pictures from our trip to Belize, visit my Instagram account.

I’m not sure when we will make it to Cuba and that level of off the grid travel that I want to experience with the kids. But for this summer, Belize was amazing.

We flew in and out of Iceland for our Scandinavian trip mainly because Iceland Air offers the cheapest flights in and out of Europe. Especially when booking a last minute trip in July. So from Sweden, we went back to Reykjavik for two nights before flying home.  On our first stay in Iceland we did not visit the city. We had a rental car and explored the Golden Circle for three days. This time we did not rent a car. Instead we took a taxi to the city and walked everywhere we went. It worked out great. Our Airbnb was small, no frills and in the trendy harbor district.

In one full day in Reykjavik we went to Aurora Reykjavik to learn about the Northern Lights, the Whales of Iceland museum, a whale watching tour, walked around the old city and visited Hallgrimskirkja Church and went on the rooftop of our Airbnb for a final goodbye to our trip. We did a lot in Reykjavik and felt one day was enough time for us to explore the city.

From the rooftop of our Airbnb, we said goodnight to Iceland and goodbye to all our travels. We loved all the sunsets, all the boats, being around all water even if it was cold, all the family dance parties even if the words were in Swedish, trying all the local things and wearing ourselves out going place to place.  The end of our trip was bittersweet because we were going home to face the sad days of Brian’s dad passing. We didn’t want to go home but home was calling us. We made a 10-hour pit stop to toss our dirty clothes in the laundry room, repack, drive to Georgia for funeral arrangements.

During this trip we learned our family does well going with the flow together, because we really love to travel. We learned a month is a long time to be together 24/7 and we do get cranky sometimes. But it brings us all together!  Our older girls feel like they were missing out on life with friends being gone this long, and are protesting my goal of traveling the entire summer next year. Surprisingly, I learned I’m not as attached to my home as I used to be. Through my yoga practice I’ve learned to feel grounded even when everything around us is moving. Practicing non-attachment is working because we can easily live out of our carryon bags and a 10 piece wardrobe for 24 days. I could honestly sell everything and travel around the world full-time. But the girls have to go school and our time for untraditional schooling is closing as they age out Montessori school, start public high school and have to follow attendance policies.

As we move into the school year, I’ll be doing more writing about Home Life and Yoga Life. But the next time we hop on a plane or take a good road trip, I’ll be here to tell you about it.

Here’s a link list to each post from our Scandinavian Trip

2o Countries in 20 Years, Adventures for Six

Iceland, The Golden Circle

Faroe Islands

Copenhagen, Denmark

Tallin, Estonia 

Stokholm, Sweden

Reykjavik, Iceland

Norway trip from 2013

Sweden was our 20th country visited for our 20 Countries in 20 Years Anniversary Trip. Traveling with four children presents it’s own unique challenges but we find it worth every penny to experience this life with our children. Prioritizing experiences over things has become a way of life for us.  I envy young families becoming full-time travelers and being creative with non-traditional schooling options. Earlier in our marriage we didn’t have the ability to make that choice. But we are grateful now, that Brian his own business which allows us the time and means to have this grand experience lasting 24 days abroad. We are most grateful for our health and ability to travel. We are choosing to live in the moment and travel now. We are not waiting until EK is older or LJ is older or until the kids are grown or until we are retired. The days spent with our children goes fast. Just like that, 20 years has past and our oldest child is starting high school.

I say all of this with reason. Neither Brian nor my parents ever traveled abroad. We both high school graduates when we boarded our first an airplane or got a passport. Both of our parents retired to take care of a spouse. Brian’s dad had a stroke at 63 and faced limitations ever since. My mom has MS.  Both celebrated 50th Wedding Anniversaries making memories at home and unable to board an airplane to take a trip of a lifetime.

One of the reason’s we waited till the last minute to book this trip is because Brian’s dad’s health was wavering. He had been in and out of the hospital with heart and lung complications. But we thought he was getting stronger. Unexpectedly, his dad’s health declined and while we were in Sweden Brian’s dad passed away. His mom insisted we finish out our trip. His dad would have wanted us to do that as well. Sweden will always have a special place in our hearts.

We planned our time in Sweden as a vacation from our vacation. We booked an Airbnb in the island Storholmen in the archipelago of Stockholm, and planned for some down time on the water. It was a peaceful place to process what was happening at home. We did our best to keep traveling with open and grateful hearts.

Below are photos of the sweet cottage we rented and memories of our sweet times on the water. When we got off the ferry, our directions to find the house were good but limited. It was like this: go down the path, turn right, pass the brown house, turn by the trash cans, walk down the path to the door, enter in the basement and look on the grey shelf for the key. You can imagine the adventure! Eventually Aubrey climbed through an open window to open the door, while LJ bravely sifted though the basement to find the key. We loved every second of the adventure.  The cabin was built in 1900 and had a perfect old school Swedish feel. The water was cold but we went from jumping off the dock to hoping in the sauna. On the first night as we sat in the sauna we got asked THE question.. “What’s the Wifi password?” From the sauna Brian said, “Um it’s by the TV.” Four minutes later Haiden reported back, “There is no TV!” We never got the Wifi to work either. It was a glorious reset of family time. That little cabin behind the main house was where the older girls stayed. They had to walk around the main house to the basement where the one bathroom in the house was located. It was good for them. There was an old school CD player in the living room. We found a Dolly Pardon CD and mixed in some 9-5 with our Swedish listening. Games were played. Puzzles were put together. Sunsets were better than at the beach. This Airbnb was pure bliss.

We took a ferry into Stockholm to go to the city. There was no grocery store or cars on the island where we stayed. There was one restaurant at the marina, which was quite good. A mom of five children ran it. We enjoyed learning about the way of life there in the winter where children walk over the ice to the next island to go to school, wearing an ice pick around their necks incase they fall in the ice! Children drive boats to friends’ houses before they can drive a car.

I have always been enthralled with Sweden for it’s family friendly values. Every time I saw an opportunity, I would strike up a conversation with mothers on boats and trains and in restaurants. I learned yes it’s true…mother’s receive 1.5 years maternity leave with up to 80 percent of their salary paid by the Swedish government. After that, childcare costs less than $100 a month for working mothers. Public schools are loved. Everything is covered and paid for by the government tax program, from lunches, books and pencils. Healthcare is free. Blended families of other nationalities choose their Swedish citizenship hands down, and move back to Sweden to have a family. Swedish children prefer to speak English to each other and they start learning English in school by age 6. Although most homes speak some English, children pick it up from cartoons on YouTube before they go to school. The world is much smaller than you think. Basically, I love Sweden. Just as I always knew I would. We often found ourselves asking people to speak English because they assumed we were Swedish with our blonde hair, blue-eyed children.  Then the Swedish people would laugh for mistaking us Americans for their own. The people were so nice to us. We felt right at home.

Despite being in shock and grief, we did have some fun while we were in Stockholm. We went to the Abba museum, which had an exhibit on Mama Mia and was a big hit with the older girls! The Museum of Children’s Literature was darling. We took a walk around the old city of Gamla Stan, bought some Fjallraven rucksacks, visited the bohemian trendy area called Södermalm, and the girls discovered their love for the Swedish based H&M clothing store. Basically that’s what traveling with four girls ages 3-14 looks like in a big city. I would have visited the Museum of Photography and the Museum of National History. But our time in the city was limited do to following the ferry schedule and not missing the boat back to our Airbnb. Our trip to Paris in October was chockfull of art museums so we went for more light-hearted fun on this trip. Modern Swedish architecture, art and their way of life could be felt everywhere.We loved the woman on the crosswalk sign above, and the male holding the hand of a child sign! Next photo is us swooning over the stroller culture in Scandinavia one last time since EK has officially outgrown our 14 year old Bugaboo stroller. But wow that thing came in handy this trip! She napped in it everywhere from the subway to the boat during a whale watching tour in Iceland. And subway stations were all stroller friendly, unlike old the metro systems in Paris and London. 

We lost count on this trip how many metros, ferries, taxis and Uber’s we took. But the public ferryboat in Sweden was my favorite mode of transportation.

It was not easy saying goodbye to Sweden. Plus our hardest physical travel day of the whole trip was getting from the island, through the largest metro station we have ever been through, while hauling luggage and children up and down about 15 super long escalators – making our way the commuter rail, to the Stockholm airport, then a layover in the Oslo and back to Iceland. Traveling the world teaches children amazing resilience and to always seek out the adventure in the things. It definitely helps that EK is about the cutiest thing ever riding her red suitcase through airports. Next was our last leg in Iceland before flying home, which was not going to be easy knowing what waited for us. But again, we did our best to keep a steady and calm peace of mind, while appreciating deep in our hearts this life we are living and cherishing.

Here’s a link list to each post from our Scandinavian Trip

2o Countries in 20 Years, Adventures for Six

Iceland, The Golden Circle

Faroe Islands

Copenhagen, Denmark

Tallin, Estonia 

Stokholm, Sweden

Reykjavik, Iceland

Norway trip from 2013

One of the reasons I love my husband and we’ve been married 20 years, is because when I say things like, “Hey honey lets go to Estonia this summer.” He says, “Okay!” And he knows I’ll really do it! So just like that, an overnight ferry to Estonia was added to our last minute Scandinavian summer. 

I have a growing desire to take our family to far away places that will stretch our comfort zones and offer cultural experiences to learn the diverse ways people live on earth. I have big long-term travel goals. And Estonia was a baby step in the right direction to see how we all handled a foreign city in Eastern Europe while we learned about Russian occupation and how the Communist hold changed the lives of people in Estonia. 

Our girls are at the ages where impressions will be remembered. It’s hard for them to fathom a life of no choice or luxury. We were all rightfully moved during our visit to the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom. The curators did a beautiful job creating an interactive walk though the country’s sad and dense history of occupation by Germany and the Soviet Union, which combined, lasted from 1940-1991. 

The museum began with four separate videos of 100-year-old Estonian’s telling their stories about survival. The museum portrayed the lives and different paths people took of that time, from becoming refugees, being sent to concentration camps, or staying in Estonia. The museum was filled with artifacts portraying life living with the propaganda and fear under Hitler’s rule, to examples of what communist life looked and felt like under Russian occupation and the Iron Curtain. 

The tour ended with a 3-D apartment where the girls enjoyed wearing the 3-D glasses to design and choose how they lived, a luxury that didn’t happen for Estonian’s until 1991. They felt the importance of that significant achievement of choice. We felt what people of that country lived though to experience the freedom’s they have today. When we walked back outside and got back on the public tram we viewed the elderly people we saw as heroes to have lived though that history, imagining the grit they must have, as well as the bright outlook to find joy in simple things in life that got them through dark times. And I smiled at the lady sitting across from me on the tram, dressed in bright flower tights, a red dress, a flowered raincoat and bright yellow shoes. She carried a shopping bag and badge of joy that was well deserved. I had nothing in the world to complain about and I wondered what she thought about us Americans.

Mostly, the people we talked to in Estonia were very surprised we were there on vacation with our four children. They admired and appreciated us for bringing our children there to learn about their country. We didn’t encounter many other Americans and very few tourists with children. The old city of Tallinn is the main tourist area where people visit while taking day-long tours from cruise ships. But we stayed a night in a hotel there, took a local cab, rode the free public transportation, played in a very strange playground and ate in restaurants that didn’t offer menus in English. Because as travelers, that’s how we get to have the most interesting experiences. 

In the Old City we visited the Estonian History Museum and learned about medieval life in Estonia leading up to the occupation years. There was a scavenger hunt for children to find a dragon through the museum and it kept the girls interested in learning this history. 

We also enjoyed the walk around the Old City, along the wall of the medieval city, the old town square, getting cake at the oldest bakery in Tallinn and more. The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is what lured me to Tallinn. The onion-domed structure perched atop Toompea Hill is Estonia’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral. It was built in 1900 under Russian empire but now stands as an architectural piece of history in Estonia’s complicated past. No photos were allowed inside so you’ll have to go see for yourself. I loved it. St. Petersburg is now on the bucket list to visit.

We explored the Old City on our first day in Tallinn. On our second day we visited the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom, as well as Kadriorg Palace. Once built by Russian Czar Peter the Great as a summer house for his wife Catherine, the palace had a long past of abandonment but was restored in the 18th century and now functions as the Estonian Art Museum. We toured the outside then ran to the park and visited the strangest playground we have ever seen.

We walked past the playground to get to the palace and there were reports of a roller coaster sighting which meant we had 27 seconds to see the palace before the girls took off running for the playground. Which was fine. This is travel with children and we know what we signed up for. There has to be a balance of museums and fun. This experience was worth all it’s weirdness and we will never forget it. It was actually a pay to ride park but the girls had us looped in by the time we figured that out. We had the girls running around trying to remember the names of the rides they wanted to do so we could figure out how many tickets to buy, which was all listed in Estonian and Russian. Thankfully the nice woman inside the ticket booth finally took pity on us and spoke English explaining we should just buy a book of tickets since it looked like we were going to need them. Hahaha. We were almost the only people there, with the four people working the park. But we all survived the carnival type rides including the bungee jumping for which Haiden admitted the cords were a bit dry rotted. To say the place was stuck in time was a perfect description. It felt straight out of the communist era. And we loved it! For the full affect  you need a video with sound affects of EK riding that awesome train all by herself. Click the link and let’s hope it works. IMG_0915

We also had a strict time limit to catch the tram back to the hotel, to pick up our bags, call a Taxi and make it back to the dock to board the boat by 4:30. We made it.

Tallinn was the only leg of our 20 Countries in 20 Years Anniversary Trip that we did not stay in an Airbnb. From Copenhagen we took a train to Stockholm. Then from the train station we took an Uber to the dock to board our ship. We used the overnight ferry (which is more like bargain cruise line) as a hotel to Tallinn and back to Stockholm. We have never been on a cruise as a family. The girls LOVED the ship life of buffets, duty free shopping and the indoor play space. We loved the views and sunsets from the ship decks as we sailed across the Baltic Sea. We had two rooms of bunk beds. The accommodations are basic and better than sleeping in an overnight train. Overall the ferry was an affordable option, a fun adventure and a huge highlight of the trip for the girls. But that might have had something to do with the spa night they had in their bunkroom using all the goods they bought at the duty free shop! I’m grateful they have that memory together.

In Tallinn we stayed one night at the Radisson Park hotel in a wonderful and affordable family suite. And I’m grateful that Tallinn made such a big impression on them that my teen said she wishes we could have spent more time there. Next up is a five-night stay in Sweden – our 20th country together on this trip of 20 years of marriage.

Here’s a link list to each post from our Scandinavian Trip

2o Countries in 20 Years, Adventures for Six

Iceland, The Golden Circle

Faroe Islands

Copenhagen, Denmark

Tallin, Estonia 

Stokholm, Sweden

Reykjavik, Iceland

Norway trip from 2013