Stamps in My Passport

Hey friends, I’m glad to have you here and I’m so excited to share my travel tips & stories with you in the following pages. I’ve been traveling all my life, and had my first cross country trip at 9 months old. You could even say a love of travel has been ingrained in me since the beginning 😉 I grew up in a family with parents who were born on opposite sides of the country, met in college, married and spent my childhood traveling across the US to visit extended family & explore. At 17 I was first introduced to international travel during a 3 week adventure exploring around England. Since then I’ve made several treks to multiple provinces in Canada, multiple visits to Mexico, several transatlantic travels to revisit almost a dozen European countries and thoroughly exploring 45 of the 50 states.

In my early 20’s I got married and had two children, then after more than a decade in that relationship I was finally able to flee (with my two young children) from that abusive marriage & home. I never expected to restart my life as a singleparent while also a college student, but somehow I survived.. we survived all the upheaval & transitions and started the long road to healing from the traumas we had endured. Eventually, I married a childhood friend and over the past 14 years we’ve raised our children (he has adopted both children) and been on this wild adventure together making the best out of life as possible even in the midst of chaos.

Part of our family journey involved lengthy court ordeals (fighting for our childrens saftey for almost a decade within the tainted family court system) that stretched us thin and left us exhausted and worn out. During this time I also began homeschooling both kids (we completed our 12th year when our son graduated last spring) and discovered that it provided ample opportunities to get out and explore. As a homeschool family our flexible schedule allowed our family to work around the chaos caused by court and to actually enjoy having freedom in our schedules and the ability to travel as a family whenever and wherever we wanted. As a family we’ve enjoyed many marvelous roadtrip adventures, cross country expeditions and most importantly, created fantastic memories together.

Through all the hurdles, obstacles and stressful life situations one of our main sources of joy has been carving a way for us to get away to create special moments together and just breathe as a family. Over the years that grew from hunting for the best hikes, day trips and mini road trips around our home state (Oregon), and stretched into cross country travels, lengthy roadtrips across mulitple states and driving up the entire east coast!

As a couple we’ve traveled around multiple European destinations as well as 23 US states together and as an individual I’ve thouroughly explored 11 countries and 45 US states. I live to travel and travel to live. For me they go hand in hand. There is nothing quite like seeing a destination for the first time after you’ve been reading & dreaming about, researching for months or years and planning & saving for. It is one of the best feelings to check off locations from the bucket list!

Currently I’m in the middle of planning an epic international trip to celebrate the end of a decade long family court battle that finally ended when my husband was able to adopt our son last year. It was a very very long road to this point, but we’re so grateful for all the special moments and lifelong memories we made along the way.