Once in a Lifetime Travel Experiences

With the travel industry coming back to life I am constantly daydreaming about our next trips! It also has me thinking about past trips and past once in a lifetime experiences. 

Seeing the Northern Lights in Iceland
We were so fortunate that even on a cloudy night we were able to see the auroras! To view more pictures and read more about our trip to Iceland, click > here!

Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef

I have a like/dislike relationship with swimming or snorkeling in the open ocean. On our trips to Hawaii and Florida the water is typically colder and I really don't like that. But I like seeing all the fishes once I get in! But the Great Barrier Reef was a different story, the water was warm and felt really nice! This was a fun, possibly once in a lifetime experience. I say possibly because we are already thinking about our next trip to Australia and this time taking our daughter. Read about it > here!

Seeing the Twelve Apostles 

This was a MAJOR bucket list item of mine! I'm not sure why but I just had to see the rock formations before they disappear. It was the main reason we visited Melbourne during our 2019/2020 trip to Australia. Read about it > here!

Christmas in Italy 

A long time ago, in 2008, I was fortunate enough to get to take a trip to Italy with my then best friend. Since we were both in college we only had Christmas break as an option for travel. We took a Trafalgar tour called, The Best of Italy, and it was wonderful! It also marked the first time we were both away from our families for Christmas. But Christmas in Venice, Italy! 

Traveling with my Husband

As sappy as that sounds, this man has followed me around the world because I love to travel and see new things. When we first got together it wasn't easy to get this guy to take a vacation. Our first vacation was a quick weekend trip to Key West, Florida and then the next year I FINALLY convinced him to go to Hawaii and we haven't looked back. A few years after our first trip to Hawaii is when we started "the points game" and now we travel on points 80-90% of the time! 

So far, I haven't found a place I don't want to go back too, I'm always ready for a trip! One of the biggest dilemmas right now for us is wanting to take our kiddo along. She is officially in school and we don't want to be those parents who pull her out of school for a vacation. But I am also not one of those people that wants to pay ridiculous high prices for travel during traditional holidays... oh, what to do?! 

Do you have any amazing travel experiences? 

2021 Bucket List Update

With traveling starting to tick back up I thought it would be fun to update my travel bucket list!

Within the United States, where I am from and currently live, I have 12 more states to visit in my effort to visit all 50 states that make up the United States! I will add another state to the "Been There" list later this year. I also have in my "Been There" list two sates that I have only been to the airport. Do you count airport layovers as a visit? 

{map created at https://www.amcharts.com/visited_countries}

In addition to wanting to visit all 50 states I would also like to visit a good portion of the National Parks. To date I have visited 10 of the National Parks in the Untied States. We're visiting Glacier NP later this summer and I am hoping we can take a road trip next year to visit the Dakotas and see Badlands, Wind Cave and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks. The problem with this bucket list is that it is always growing! The National Parks Service adds new parks every year! The latest, New River Gorge in West Virginia, was added to the list in December of 2020. 

Other destinations that are on my list to visit next are: Puerto Rico, St. John, USVI, Croatia and Slovenia. I would also LOVE to visit Austria and Paris again, but this time around Christmas, and we are hoping to visit Australia again and take our daughter this time.  

{map created at https://www.amcharts.com/visited_countries}

Where are you heading to next? 

...Hello 2016!

Goodbye 2015 and Hello 2016! Hope your New Year is off to a great start! Ours is, Alana slept through the night on her new feeding schedule (we went from 5 feedings per day to 4).

2016 will bring so many milestones for our family. Alana will start walking, she will say her first words, she'll turn one! We're going to start swim lessons! It will be amazing!

I also have a Travel Wishlist for 2016! We will be heading to Boston early THIS year (cant believe its already 2016!) and I would like to take Alana to a nice beach so a trip to Florida is needed but I'm not sure when. And we would like to get back to doing Thanksgiving away but I'm not sure where we'll head. See our previous Thanksgivings here: Key West, Hawaii 2011, Hawaii 2012. We stopped this tradition in 2013 because we bought a house, in 2014 I was pregnant with horrible morning sickness and 2015 was Alana's first Thanksgiving so we wanted to spend it with family. But hopefully in 2016 we'll be someplace new :)

{Boston Source - Destin Source}

I also hope to keep the baby weight loss journey going, I have 5 more pounds and it will all be gone. Hoping it will be gone by her first birthday. I got a fitbit for Christmas and I have already noticed that I am pretty much inactive during the work week because I just sit at my desk all day. I need to make it a better habit of taking the stairs (p.s. I work on the 4th floor).

Hope your 2016 Wishlist comes to fruition! Have a great and amazing weekend y'all!

To participate in this month's link-up click here.

5 Things I Love about December

I love December! I love it because I like getting presents and what month is better for that than December when you celebrate Christmas AND my birthday! 

1 – Presents! Call me materialistic but I just love getting presents and giving presents! My husband and I usually open our presents sometime before Christmas since we travel to see family but this year the celebrations are at our house and we must wait! Plus Alana is with us now and I am so excited to see what she will be doing by the end of the month!

2 – Christmas/Holiday cards! Call me old school but I just love getting cards in the mail. And this time of year seems to be the only time people actually send cards; it’s wonderful! This year I am sort of cheating and I am creating the cards online and they are going to pre-address them for us, I just don’t have the time.

3 – Watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music! Having Christmas movies on in the back ground is a must. Elf usually always makes it on the TV a few times this month (one of the only DVDs my husband and I both had when we moved in together). We had Home Alone on the other night and last year we watched this really cute, newer movie called Arthur Christmas. Now I do think some of the radio stations start a little early with the holiday music but it’s fun to start getting into the Christmas spirit!

4 – Decorating! As much as I wish I could pay someone to decorate for us, I love having the decorations up. I love looking at the lights in the yard and the ornaments on the tree that remind me of past travels.

5 – Time with family and friends! I have only spent one holiday without my family and that was when my best friend and I went to Italy for 2 weeks back in 2008. It was quite the trip! We missed our family but we had fun and it was a trip we will never forget! Buon Natale! And one year I hope to spend Christmas in Hawaii :)

joyeux Noël | god jul | Maligayang Pasko | Nollaig Shona | Frohe Weihnachten

Feliz Navidad | Buon Natale | Mele Kalikimaka

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah

How to link up your post

Just pop your post up over the first week of the month (the 1st - 7th December), add it to the link up widget found on Kelly's, Rebecca's or Emma's, or our twinkling guest host Ayla's blog at Mrs Ayla's Adventures from the 1st of the month.

Raindrops on Roses...

...and whiskers on kittens. Now is that song stuck in your head?! It's in mine :)

Sometimes I participate in a monthly link-up and this month is it all about our favorite things! Here is my current list of favorite things:

1 - Being a mom and having a daughter. When you become a new parent you are full of new emotions, schedules, and priority changes. My best friend said that she has never seen me look more happy than I do in the picture below (and she should know, next to my family she has known me the longest). Perhaps motherhood looks good on me! I read a quote the other day that went something like this:

The days and nights go by slow but the years go by fast

And it couldn't be more true! It feels like just the other day we were rushing to the hospital because my water broke 5 weeks early...fast forward today and our little sweet pea is over 6 months old! Where does the time go?!

2 - Traveling, well duh! We have a trip to Boston planned for early next year and I know with the holidays fast approaching that trip will be here before we know it! I am also trying to plan a big family get together for late Summer of 2016. I am thinking Florida! Alana needs her first beach trip to be someplace nice, not the shitty beaches we have here in Galveston.

3 -  Nerium AD! This stuff is the bomb DOT com y'all. I just love the way it makes my face feel! You won't be disappointed! But if you are, that's okay because Nerium offers a 30-Day money back guarantee! And if you are interested in getting free product (...this is the home of the brave and land of free gift with purchase...can you name that movie?) I can totally help you with that too!

4 - Running, I am finally getting back into my groove and trying my hardest to run 3 times a week. Its best if I can get home, changed and get back out the door within 15 mins or so or it ain't really happening. If I have Alana with me and I have to feed her before my husband gets home and then it's pretty hard to get off that couch. I also purchased another round of Pure Barre, they were offering a deal I couldn't pass up for their new location.

5 - Halloween! I was really excited about Halloween this year because we were getting to dress up as a family! We decided to be minions and Gru! I'll be posting how I got our costumes together later this week!

To join the link-up click here! And tell me what are some of your favorite things? 

Travel Link Up: A Place You Can’t Get Out of Your Head…Australia

When thinking of where we wanted to go to next we immediately thought of Hawaii, BUT, when we fly using points there usually isn't any business/first class seats available since its such a popular destination.

So...

We are thinking of Australia! In 2017...can you tell that I am an engineer and NEED to plan things?!

{source}

Here is why we picked 2017:
- We need more rewards points. We still need about 100k more airline rewards points before we can book this wonderful vacation
- In 2017 we'll both have more vacation time. Next year I will get an extra week of vacation for my time spent at my company. And in 2017 my husband will get his extra week; so we'll both have more time off.
- It gives us a chance to have a little more time to save up for this trip. Even though we will be using points for the airline and hotel we still have to pay taxes on those tickets and the dreaded "hotel/resort" fees. We also need to pay for rental cars, gas, food and whatever activities we decided to do...like take a picture with a koala!

{kangaroo source - koala source}

Right now the plan is to spend 4 nights in Brisbane and 3-4 nights in Sydney. But those plans may change. If anybody reading this has been to either of those cities I would LOVE to hear about it!

Australia, you are in my dreams!

Travel Contrasts: Luxury vs. Budget

If you followed me over from travel mi amor then you know travel is a passion of mine. Some months I would link up with some lovely ladies from overseas where we would all post on the designated topic for the month. This month is Travel Contrasts and I will be talking about Luxury vs. Budget travel. We have done both - and we love both!

Budget Travel

Budget travel is a no brainier for obvious reasons, it doesn’t cost much. But most people think that budget travel means visiting a beach or lake 3 hours from their house or even doing a stay-cation. READ MY TEXT - You can travel to nice places on a budget, it just takes planning. Here comes my soapbox talk on rewards points. Our last vacation to Hawaii was almost 100% booked with rewards points. The only things we paid for was our rental cars, inter-island flights (which could be booked with points) and our AirBnB rental. Our flights to and from the main land were booked with rewards points and so was our hotel stay on one island.

What is the main reason to go to Hawaii? The beaches; and guess what - they are all FREE! All beaches in Hawaii are public beaches. There is also plenty of hiking you can do for free on all of the islands! Hawaii is actually really budget friendly if you plan it right.

{the beautiful garden at our AirBnB house, our 'welcome' treats}

Luxury Travel

Our trip to Europe in 2014 was pretty luxurious one might think. We flew business class there and back (but with rewards points so that was free), we took a coach tour of Europe via Trafalgar, and we stayed one extra night in Paris in a hotel room with a view of the Eiffel Tower. It's probably safe to say that that hotel room was the most we have ever paid for a room. But it was worth every penny and for just one night! We were upgraded to the Executive Suite where we had an inviting jetted tub, comfy bed and a two story terrace with views of the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur in the distance. Once we were checked into our room in the late afternoon we only left to grab a few bottles of wine for the night. Who would want to leave that view?!

If you want to join the link up head on over to Around the World in 80 Pairs of Shoes and post your link on her blog :)