Traveling with Tots
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Annecy, France '15
When my husband and I got married we made a promise to eachother to embrace and encourage family travel, ideally going somewhere far away 1x a year.
Capri, Italy '10
Our pre-child adventures were always jammed packed with city explorations, picture taking and food/bar crawls.
Spain '09
The amount of sleep we got on vacation was usually minimal in comparison to our non vacation life, trying not to miss out on anything.
Tahiti, '14
The year Aiden was born was the first time since meeting J and I didn't travel out of the country. Although flying out of the country wasn't in the cards, we made sure to visit places in the US, providing Aiden the experience of travel. In his first year of life Aiden had traveled to 6 US states.
NYC '13
I remember the first few times we traveled one would have thought we were moving out of our house. We packed what we thought were essentials, the thought of living without such things seemed catastrophic. (Insert new parent mentality here.) It never failed, we return home with half the essentials untouched and unused. As such, within that first year each time we traveled our necessities pile decreased in size and our suitcases got lighter.
Last summer we went on a family vacation to the South of France. To an outside eye, traveling out of the country for a couple of weeks with a 2-year-old might seem nuts. On the contrary, it was one of the best experience we've done as a family thus far.
France, '15
Unlike J and my pre-kid travel, this vacation had a slower, very loose agenda giving us the opportunity to explore things on a whim - often leading to finding special things we would have overlooked if we had a pre-planned itinerary. Aiden was still on a consistent nap schedule so we often returned to our abode for a couple hours midday, which had perks. Aiden picked up some basic French just by being immersed in it, although the that new skill quickly evaporated upon returning to the States.
Lavender fields galore. Provance, France '15
Aiden may have no memory of this adventure, but I'm certain his life was changed forever because of it.
Provence, France 2015
I'm a huge advocate for traveling with kids, no matter how young. It seems overwhelming at first, but quickly becomes the norm. I view our time abroad as special time to reconnect as a family and experience new adventures together.