We are a family of three who recently moved to the Big Island of Hawaii after living high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado for many years.
Ever since our son Eli was born, we have tried to take advantage of every opportunity to travel as a family. We’ve found spending time together without the distractions of day-to-day life to be invaluable.
Here is our story –
Hi, I’m Diane, the author, and creator of this blog. After years of hard work I finally have my dream job – full time stay at home mom. I adore spending time with my family. I’m in my element when I’m outdoors hiking, snowboarding, stand up paddle boarding, and camping. I’m a passionate cook, an avid reader, and a huge fan of anything travel related. My parents always loved to travel and instilled the travel bug in me at a young age. Growing up my family moved a lot so life on the go has always been normal for me.
My husband Chad is a restaurant owner, fisherman, snowboarder, chef, and the most wonderful husband and father in the world. He is an avid hunter and not only hunts but also processes his own meat and makes homemade sausage. Our freezer is always full of elk, deer, and fish. Chad grew up completely opposite me. He lived in the same house from the time he was born until he moved away to college.
Our son Eli is a happy, outgoing, fearless, adventurous kid. He’s quite a talker; we always joke that he started talking really young because he has so much to say and needed more time to get it all out. Eli has loads of personality and is constantly making us laugh. His favorite things are riding his bike, baseball, skiing, playing outside, skateboarding, and nerf guns.
Chad and I met and got married when we were both very young.
I opened Chad’s eyes to travel not long after we met and he was instantly hooked.
We went on so many adventures and traveled all over the world every chance we had, while still working full time and building our life in Colorado.
A Family Of Three
After Eli joined our family, we knew we still wanted to travel but weren’t sure about the logistics of bringing a baby along.
The opportunity to travel came when Eli was four weeks old. My brother’s wedding in Alaska was planned for two weeks after Eli’s due date and there was no way we could travel with a two-week-old baby. Well, it turned out that Eli arrived two weeks early.
We were hesitant to even ask our pediatrician if we could bring Eli (we didn’t want him to think we were completely crazy). But, he surprised us by giving us the green light to go. So, off we went to Alaska for 10 days for my brother’s wedding when Eli was one-month-old.
I’ll admit it was hard at times but it was such a great experience. It was amazing to spend those 10 days adjusting to life with baby Eli, surrounded by family, in a place that we love. Ever since we’ve been traveling as much as possible, learning as we go.
Has our travel style changed since becoming parents? Definitely. Although we still traveled a lot; for the first few years we chose to travel close to home. Hawaii, Alaska, and Mexico were as far as we ventured. When Eli was three we started traveling into Central America.
Is traveling with Eli always easy? No, traveling, in general, can be difficult at times. When you throw a child into the mix it’s definitely harder. I’ve had Eli’s diaper blow out onto my lap on a flight (without a change of clothes handy for either of us). Then there was the time we were in a highrise hotel in Cancun Mexico. Three-year-old Eli ran down the hall ahead of us to push the elevator button. The elevator happened to be open and he got in and the door shut before we could stop it. He was gone and we had no idea where he was headed. After a frantic 15 minutes of going floor to floor, we finally found him waiting patiently on a bench near the pool.
Is it worth it? Absolutely! Seeing the look on Eli’s face when we’re on a hanging bridge in the jungle of Costa Rica and the howler monkeys start their spooky chorus all around us; or, Eli’s excitement roasting marshmallows over a volcanic vent in Guatemala is priceless.
What does the future hold?
Like everyone who loves traveling, COVID drastically changed our travel plans over the last few years. Instead of traveling the world, we were exploring our beautiful home state of Colorado.
Then, everything fell into place for us to move to Hawaii (something we had been planning for years) and now we have a new amazing home state to explore.
We’re hoping to soon plan travel out of the country again, but for now, we’re loving exploring the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii.
Come join us on our adventures.
