Mahalo, Hawaii!

There is something about island life...it's a little more relaxed, laid back.  We spent a few weeks in Hawaii this summer and I have to say, at first it was too laid back for me.  I was wanting to go, wanting to sight see, but after a few days I settled in.  I read a few books, laid in the sun, and really, really relaxed!  These Hawaiians really have it right.  No stress, no rudeness, just a bunch of friendly islanders.  They could teach the rest of the world a thing or two.

Well, it seems that I'm not the only one who thinks this!  Take a look at what Hawaii can teach you
and if you can't move there, just see if you can incorporate a few of these things into your daily life!

A Little Slice of Heaven...

A few weeks ago I asked what your favorite summer vacation spot was.  Mine is Kauai, Hawaii.  We have explored this amazing island four different times, and still never get bored.  If you ask anyone in my family where they want to go on vacation..."KAUAI" is always their answer!  It is the one place my husband feels that he can completely disconnect and relax.  My kids love to explore the island, finding waterfalls and swimming with turtles, and I just love that I don't have to be in charge of planning an excursion.  It is a peaceful, tranquil, little slice of heaven.
Take a look and tell me what you think?

"And so this is Christmas...

and what have you done?"  John Lennon asked us this question, and as I was listening to Christmas carols this year I started to think..."what have I done?"

Honestly, I haven't done much!  I give to a regular charity, I donate clothes and toys to local charities, but aside from that I haven't done anything.

We have been given an amazing opportunity to see all of the things we are seeing.  I try to help my expats realize that they are seeing things that people save their whole lives to see, or in some cases may never see at all.  They don't get it, and they probably won't until they are older.  All I can hope is that at some point they will realize how lucky and how blessed that they are.

What can we as parents do to help our kids realize this?  

My kids have more time off of school then you can believe and I have been thinking that we need to do something...something that makes a difference in some one's life, as well as our own!

I had heard about volunteer vacations before, but never thought much about it, until this year.  There were no more excuses, the expats were old enough, we had enough time.  2013 will be the year!  

There are hundreds of websites that can help you decide what volunteer vacation you can take...if nature is your thing, you can help clean up the forests.  You can help the homeless, children in need or animals.  You can make at as easy as taking a Saturday and picking up trash at your local beach or local hiking trail, or you can spend weeks digging water wells in Africa!  

Take a look at the links below and see what you fancy!  We will be making our volunteer vacation decisions over the next few weeks, so tune in to see what our expat family decides to do!

http://www.volunteerguide.org/vacation

http://globalvolunteers.org

http://www.gviusa.com/volunteer-options/volunteer-vacations

http://www.americanhiking.org/volunteerVacation.aspx

http://away.com/features/top-ten-volunteer-vacations.htmll

You lose some...

This ranked as one of my not so favorite all time vacations! Barcelona, Spain October~2012!

This had a little to do with Barcelona, a lot to do with circumstance, and a whole lot to do with attitude.

The youngest expat was at the end of being very, very sick, the weather was horrible, and so was my attitude.

I do the family vacation planning and I have to say 98% of the time, I do a pretty good job. Well, this was one of my failures.

Barcelona is ranked as one of the best cities in the world to visit, and even through my negativity, I could see it! It would be an amazing city to visit on a sunny day, or for a long romantic weekend with your spouse, but not with 2 very grumpy kids, a husband who now had the flu and mom who was well...done with sick!

I investigated Barcelona, got advice from friends, heard all of the wonderful stories. Although, I have to admit, when I booked for five days, I did question if it may be a bit too long. It was, by about 3 days.

We visited the Boqueria Market, the Park de Guell and the Sagrada Familia all in the first two days. Great, we had 3 more full days to go. There was no chance of a beach day....it was raining! The kids were sick of looking at "old" things...in the rain, and my husband was getting sicker by the day, how much would it be to change our flights???

La Boqueria Market

Sagrada Familia

Everyone had raved about this vibrant, colorful city and I just kept wondering; "Are we in the same place that they were all talking about?"

The Barcelona that I experienced was FULL of tourists, souvenirs and con-artist street performers. It was so crazy that one night after dinner as I sat reading my book, my husband took the boys "hooker hunting". Apparently the area that we were staying in was known for their evening entertainment~again, great planning on my part! So off they went. They never did see any, but my husband had the oldest expat convinced that the scantly glad lady with the dinner menu was actually handing out menus of her services as opposed to the different paella that her restaurant was serving, and I won't even get into the make-out session my youngest witnessed through the window of our hotel!

When we boarded our flight home, we were all more then ready. All of the illness was over and the sun had begun shining again, but we were beyond ready for our home. Barcelona wasn't all frustration. The food was amazing and the Sagrada Familia blew us all away. I guess if we had to "lose some" this wasn't a bad place to be!

Sagrada Familia

How has your travel year been?

I have visited 23...how about you?

http://travelblog.viator.com/top-50-travel-destinations/

It could use a coat of paint...

One of my favorites from the archives!!

My husband and I just spent an amazing weekend in Venice, Italy! It was our seventeenth wedding anniversary.  A friend said that she would take the kids and Venice is a sixty minute flight, so why not?

We haven't had a weekend away in a year and it was much needed.

After our incredibly quick flight we arrived at our hotel. The hotel was right on the grand canal and was well, let's say "charming", in an antique sort of way!

One of our favorite things to do when we travel is to play "spot the...American, Brit or... You fill in the nationality." sometimes this game is really difficult, other times not so much.

Venice is full of tourists unloaded from cruise ships and it's not hard at all to spot them. Most have large cameras, me included, most were waiting to get a gondola, me included, and we even got the occasional black socked, sandal wearing tourist...I can't be included in this stereotype...

The tourist that shocked us the most came on our final day in Venice. We had successfully eaten and drank our way through this amazing city, we had seen the sights, taken our gondola ride and experienced all that Venice had to offer a couple in love. Our final morning we were sitting at a quiet breakfast in our hotel when I had to break my husbands rule of "no talking to strangers" and asked the couple next to us where they were from. After telling me, and I won't say it here as to not offend anyone from that city, she asked me how I liked Venice.

"I love it, " I told her, "I love the charm, the architecture, the people, the food...I love all of it!"

"Don't you think it could use a coat of paint? Where we come from they have a covenant, and they would have had to paint the buildings by now."

Okay, at this point I was about to break into laughter, and I almost had to pick my husband's jaw off of the table...did she really just say that?

Yea, it is over 700 years old and I think that it's fallen at least a foot into the ocean over the past 40 years, but come to think about it, it really could use a good power washing...really lady, go back to your covenant controlled neighborhood and let me enjoy Venice!

What do you think...does it need a coat of paint? I think not!

only 2 more sleeps...

when my kids were little they would count down the days in "sleeps".  how many more "sleeps" until their birthday, how many "sleeps" until vacation and how many more "sleeps" until christmas...

as i sit here and listen to my boys fight about how to upload a movie on the apple t.v. i am counting down the "sleeps" until school!  there are only 2, yep, only 2 and i may really be a horrible mom, but i can not wait!  i can not wait until the only noise i hear is myself breathing and the birds chirping.

i know that this seems very un-mom like, and you may say that i will "never get these years back."  oh, i know and i thoroughly enjoy my boys and we thoroughly had an amazing time together this summer vacation, but i think that is the key word....together!  we had a lot of time together...all 3 of us together! sometimes stuck in a studio hotel room, together.

i think they are ready too!  if they ask me "what are we doing today?" i pull out a list of chores and put them to work;  either entertain yourself, or do some work is my philosophy this week.

there will of course be a last summer sleepover, one last night of staying up late, a pancake breakfast....and then, there will simply be me sitting on my patio with my cup of coffee in silence!

are you waiting too, or am i the only "horrible" mom?