Traveling

Traveling has always been something vague to me - something I have always wanted to do but don't really know how or what it means. I think I'm figuring it out in small steps just by seeing new places in the United States. I got to drive with all my boys down to Delaware on the most beautiful roads through trees, lakes and rivers, and humungous farms filled with crops and horses. A good majority of it was spent listening to the two littlest boys whining, but the trip back wasn't so bad. Dave's parents rented a beach house for a week in Bethany. The picture above is when I caught my first fish at Bethany Beach. I was really, really happy about it. We went early in the morning and watched the sun float higher and higher over the water. I had never seen the sunrise on the beach before. It is easy on the eyes and so satisfying. It reminded me why I like mornings. The Atlantic ocean is warmer and calmer (usually) than the Pacific - although, there were LOTS of sea creatures in there! Usually you don't run into anything or even see much on the west coast beaches, but we all at different times stepped on something much bigger than the fish in this picture. That's when I decided to get out and dry off. That morning fishing trip we saw a whole lot of dolphins, and every day we went we saw rays, horseshoe crabs, and sharks (not huge, but... big enough).

I saw so many new things even though I've lived ten minutes away from the beach almost my whole life. It's experiences like that that make me feel alive. I was quite the home body by the time the boys were born and it took me a while to start going out with them. Now we've seen lots of new places, we try new things all the time (roller derby being my personal new obsession), and they're growing freaking fast. I am so grateful for being able to see new things and I can't wait till my kids can really enjoy new places and remember them. I'm pretty sure once my kids are all older Dave and I are going to drive them around the entire country making them see and do new things with us as part of their schooling. That'd be great.

I've heard people say that you should travel and do everything you want to do before you have kids, but I've done probably way more cool things than I did before getting knocked up! It may be harder to do with kids but I see it as a challenge. And I love a good challenge. I want my kids to challenge themselves and not be afraid of new things. To me, there is nothing more satisfying or relieving than facing your fears alongside the ones you love. And since my closest obvious encounter to death was on a big, scaly rock surrounded by ocean, letting my kids even go near it was a huge accomplishment.

You 

can 

do 

it

(with kids!).

- Wannabe traveler/go-getter