Budget Travel Tips (you can make it happen if you really want to!)

  

I've had a lot of people ask me about how we manage to travel a lot on a tight budget with a bunch of kids. Here are some answers to commonly asked questions:

OVERALL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY:

I was lucky enough to be raised by parents who wanted to raise "citizens of the world." They taught us to value and embrace diversity, to realize that "different is interesting and good," to understand and love the nature and art and culture of our home and every place we visited, and to seek after truth and beauty in every situation.

While we can bring the whole world into our home through the Internet and great books and documentaries these days and that is a huge blessing, there's still nothing like actually experiencing things first-hand. A big part of who I am comes from the travels I was lucky enough to experience with my family growing up so naturally, I want some of that for my own children. And I never feel more alive and more "on" as a mother than I do when I'm traveling with my children.

I love seeing the kids' excitement mirror my own as we explore new places together!

HOW DO YOU AFFORD TO TRAVEL?

For many years, we realized we needed to be content with very inexpensive roadtrips - sometimes in Utah, sometimes stretching to California, often in conjunction with family weddings or reunions (our budget was super-limited with employment ups and downs for quite some time - but we literally lived on rice and beans in order to protect some money for travel that was important to our families and to us. Plus we pretty much always drink only water in our family - which saves us at least a dollar a day over families who drink juice and soda and milk a lot more - that $365/year we might otherwise spend on drinks goes a long way towards family travel when we do it on the cheap!).

Then we were so excited when we were able to do a big cross-country road trip a few years back, funded by the Power of Moms Retreats I put on along the way. We paid like $65/night for hotels thanks to Express Deals on Priceline and stayed with friends and family many nights. We stopped at grocery stores and ate out of the cooler in our car and stretched the $100 gift certificate Subway gave us when we asked them to sponsor our trip as far as we could (everyone paired up to share $5 footlongs, drank water, no chips, no cookies...). We did fabulous free things in every city we visited and spent no more money on food than we would have if we'd been eating at home. And our inexpensive hotel costs and gas costs were covered by what we brought in from our Power of Moms Retreats.

Once our employment situation became a bit more stable, we started putting aside money every month towards a hoped-for Europe trip and while it was a big stretch, we felt like we were close to making a trip work for this spring or summer. Bulgaria and Italy were first on our list since Jared and I served missions there long ago and since the kids have been raising money to help orphanages in Bulgaria for many years now and I've been involved in a non-profit that works with Bulgarian orphanages for 10 years now and needed to do some fact-finding and training at the orphanages. But England and France were right behind (I grew up in England for 4 years, most of my and Jared's ancestors are from there, my little sister is moving there soon, I have a couple dear friends there, and for France -  I learned French in school and travelled there a lot when I was growing up in England - fell in love with the countryside and castles and Paris and all that). Plus my brother lives in Switzerland now and Jared and I both have Swiss ancestry. And my other brother was moving to Spain. So there were SO many places we really wanted to visit in Europe for many reasons.

AIRFARE

We tried to figure out how to maximize getting miles from credit cards but that proved to be too complex for various reasons (we couldn't figure out how to get enough miles to get us all on the same flights and we realized we'd need a lot more lead time and would need to put a lot more on credit cards to make it work - just too complicated in the end...).

Then we realized we could get a small grant to help with a portion of our airfare expense in going to Bulgaria since we'd be doing a lot of work, training and infrastructure-building in orphanges (as I've been working for 10 years with One Heart Bulgaria, fundraising and serving on their Board for part of the time, it was really time for me to get back to Bulgaria and do some assessment and training and research). After MANY hours of researching airfares on the internet, we were able to find some decent deals that could make our dreamed-of trip to Europe this past summer actually happen. When we were trying to actually book the best-deal plane tickets that we'd been able to find after weeks of searching, the website we were on froze up so we called their customer service line and to book on the phone. After going through each flight number on the itinerary that we'd pieced together so carefully, the agent quoted us a price that was almost $800 cheaper than what we'd been just about to pay when booking on the website. We went over it again and again and confirmed that everything was correct and yep, that lower price was correct. What a wonderful blessing to pay less than we thought we were going to have to pay!

At the SLC airport - headed out on our adventure

During our 12-hour layover in Paris that was supposed to be 2 hours.
Mechanical difficulties. Wish we'd known we'd be stuck so long and we'd have
figured out how to to explore a bit of Paris! But they told us we had to stay close...

TRANSPORTATION

We rented a car in Bulgaria for the week we were there. We shopped around a lot on the internet and finally found a car for $350 for the week. It was a 7-seater but had NO luggage room so we had the twins sit on some bags as booster seats and put other bags on our laps and under our feet (glad we didn't bring much luggage!). It worked out OK since we seldom had to travel with our luggage as we were mostly doing day trips around the country. But we learned that what the rental companies call a "mini-van that seats 7" isn't at all the same as what we'd call a mini-van here in the US.

Our car in Bulgaria (no luggage space but 7 seats!)

In Italy, the best price we could find for a vehicle that would seat us all for the 10 days we'd be there was $450. Initially, the keys the rental car place gave us were for a car similar to the one we'd had in Bulgaria. We asked if they had anything bigger and they gave us a full-size van for the same price. It was huge - a nine-seater with tons of luggage space. I was worried we wouldn't fit through all those tiny streets and  that it would be hard to park but Jared was sure it would be OK and thanks to his excellent driving skills - it was! (We did have to fold in the rear view mirrors on the sides to get through some extra narrow streets...)

Our Fiat Scudo in Italy

We chose to stay in places where there would be free/cheap parking for the van. We lucked out to find good, free street parking (probably not the norm) and ended up only paying for parking when we were in Sienna for a few hours (like $2/hour maybe?) and when we left it at the train station in La Spezia (I think $2/hour also?) to take the train to the Cinque Terre towns (quick train ride to the first town, then we hiked from town to town and took the train back to La Spezia at the end).

Train ride through the Cinque Terre (wish you could see how brillant blue that water was!)

When we weren't driving from one city to another, we parked our car near our apartment and walked pretty much everywhere. You see so much more when you walk! And we've got some good walkers. We put 84 miles on our feet over the 17 days we were gone. We took the subway in Rome one time but really, Rome is very walkable. We walked everywhere in Florence. We walked all over Sofia and Plovdiv. We found so many great things and soaked in the culture and sites so much by walking everywhere (plus it was free!).

Walking along the Arno in Florence - love that Ponte Vecchio!

PLACES TO STAY

We booked apartments to stay at throughout our stay in Bulgaria and Italy. We had help from a generous supporter of the charity we were working with in Bulgaria while we were there and he paid the $55/night that the apartment there cost (and we just paid for a couple nights at a cheap hotel in another city we visited). In Italy, we found some great apartments that slept 7 for an average of $100/night. So all in all, we paid about $1000 for lodging during our 2.5 week trip.

The very Italian house we stayed at near the coast 

the view from our apartment in Florence

FOOD

We spent only slightly more money on food than we normally spend at home because we bought food at grocery stores to eat breakfasts and some dinners at the apartments where we stayed and we packed along bread and cheese and cucumbers and carrots to eat for lunch while we were out and about.

picnic of cheese and bread on the street

We ate at a few restaurants in Bulgaria since everything was half as expensive there as it is in the US (so nice to go to a restaurant and tell the kids they could order anything they wanted! Usually we're giving them a low dollar figure on what they can order or telling them then need to pair up and order something together if there isn't a cheap kids' menu).

But we also ate at the apartment we were staying at quite a bit. Shopping at local stores and trying local foods is a great way to really experience the culture - and it's sure a lot cheaper than eating out! Here are the kids enjoying some traditional Bulgarian cheese called sirene, excellent tomatoes and this red pepper spread called lutenitza on delicious Bulgarian bread.

We loved shopping at the very open market where I shopped as a missionary - Crasno Selo.

the bread in Bulgaria and Italy is SO GOOD!

I told these guys that this brown stuff was chocolate milk, It wasn't. It was actually a very popular Bulgairan drink made of fermented yeast or something like that called boza. Nasty! But fun to watch their faces as they tried it!

We saved a lot by eating breakfast and dinner at our rented apartments -
here's some fresh pasta and salad we had one night in Florence.

In Italy, we thoroughly enjoyed inexpensive street pizza (about $4-5 for a big slice) and lots of great gelato ($3/day per person to get a big bowl or cone each). We splurged for dinner at one of the Cinque Terre towns after a full day of hiking and it was probably an average of $14/person for fresh pasta and seafood. Jared and I went out one night on our own and spent about $20 each on a really authentic and delicious Italian meal at a great place our Airbnb host recommended.

Here are a few shots of some gelato moments - makes my mouth water just looking at it!

Gelato in Genova

Gelato in Sienna

Gelato in Florence (joint wine/gelato place)

ACTIVITIES

Almost everything we did was free or close to free - hiking the Cinque Terre cost a small fee per family for the hiking pass and about $3/person for the train, going to the Colosseum and Roman Forum was $15/person but free for kids under 18 so the whole family went for about $30, gorgeous and fabulously interesting churches and cathedrals were all free except for the very biggest ones. We paid to go into the Uffizzi Gallery which was not super cheap but it was the one museum we did. We paid to get into a castle in Bulgaria which cost $10 for a family ticket.

Here we are at the castle in Bulgaria:

And here we are at a few of the 50 or so churches (free) that we visited in Bulgaria and Italy (There's so much beautiful art and so much culture and history to experience in churches!)

yes. wrestling is always necessary somehow...

My favorite church in Bulgaria - Alexander Dnevski. Got to sit in on a
Bulgarian Orthadox service there - so interesting.

The Sienna Cathedral charged a small price for admission for older kids and adults
(a few of the most amazing cathedrals do) but it was SO worth it!

There's a lovely church like this around every corner.
The kids were interested to note that it seemed that the more plain the church
was on the outside, the more elaborate it was on the inside.
And vice versa.

High baroque church in Genova

Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Sofia, Bulgaria

Bulgarian Orthodox church in Old Town Plovdiv in Bulgaria

One of the kids' favorite things we did in Bulgaria was to explore some old communist-era block apartment buildings where I served much of my mission. They were delighted to ride in the rickety old elevators and it was super exciting when we found that we could get onto the roof of one of the buildings where we had an awesome view of the whole area. Totally free.

Roman Amphitheater in Old Town Plovdiv in Bulgaria ($10 for a family ticket)

Here are some shots of our epic (and mostly free) day-long hike through vineyards and olive groves and amazingly beautiful towns in the Cinque Terre:

Here we are at a couple gorgeous off-the-beaten track hill towns in Tuscany. Wandering is so fun - and totally free!:

Driving over and hiking through the Apuan Alps was so beautiful - and so un-touristy. The marble quarries were really interesting and the vistas were breathtaking (as was the tiny windy road!).

Loved entering these gates of Genova and exploring the tiny twisty streets of the old city

The kids just had to see the leaning tower of Pisa. And it did not disappoint.

We listened to great Rick Steves audio tours of various areas in Florence and Rome (free - just downloaded them when we had wifi at the places we were staying and then listened later when we were at our destination).

Palazzo Vecchio in Florence

Climbing to the top of the Palazzo Vecchio cost like $3 per person but was worth it!

The Colloseum was SO cool. And so worth the $30 we paid ($15 each for adults and kids under 15 are free)

Magical night-time walk through Rome - awed by the Pantheon

Maybe our favorite night was when we wandered through Florence late at night, watching excellent street musicians, then came around the corner to see the Duomo all lit up - priceless.

We love street performers - some amazing talent and it's free (but we always give the a couple dollars). And in this photo below, you can see that if you're out and about and it suddenly gets really cold, a plastic bag makes a pretty good little jacket...

I have such fond memories of going to the Uffizzi Gallery in Florence when I was on study abroad in college - loved sharing some of my favorite art with the kids. It was expensive (I think like $15/person which adds up when you've got 7) but I think every trip needs one or two splurges for something you really value. And with the help of the Rick Steves free audio guide to the Uffizzi, we were able to go right to some of the most interesting stuff and not drag it out and make the kids dislike it.

We decided against going to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel in Rome. The line was 4 hours long and it was expensive and there were SO many other wonderful free things to see in Rome. We did wait for about an hour to get into St Peters in the Vatican - great to see that crazy huge opulent place with the kids and enjoy the amazing art and architecture there while learning more about the Catholic church.

The twins' big souvenir purchase (the kids all brought their own souvenir money that they'd earned) were these Roman soldier and gladiator costumes. They had to put them right on and got a lot of smiles as they walked around Rome in these get-ups. They're all set with Halloween costumes now!

PACKING:

When we travel, we pack light and that makes a big difference in how burdensome traveling can feel!

I shared my best tips for packing in this post - these tips work for road trips or trips around the world:

https://powerofmoms.com/tried-and-true-road-trip-tips/

I read the post above and expanded on the ideas there in this podcast that went up on Power of Moms this week:
Radio Show: Road Trip Tips

In a nutshell, we just don't bring much when we travel and we lower our standards about what constitutes "clean" clothes. We wear socks again if they aren't that dirty or stinky. We wear shirts and pants again if they don't smell and spot clean small spills (plus we pack darker colored/patterned things that won't look dirty as quickly). We try to stay at places with laundry facilities so we can wash stuff when needed. Also, we try to find shoes that are good for walking and that look decent with all our outfits so that we don't have to bring more than one pair of shoes plus maybe some flip flops. Shoes take up the most space! And we don't bring books - just a kindle or books loaded on our phones. We always bring a hoodie/light jacket for each person and bring a few raincoats/ponchos - take so little room and often come in handy!

CONCLUSION

Travelling to places that your heart yearns to go is something just about any family can do if they make up their minds to do it.

Yes. There are trade-offs. You can't really have it all (at least most people can't). But you can prioritize in a way that makes room in your budget for the things that you feel are most important for your family.

We keep Christmas and birthdays small (up to maybe $50 for birthday presents and maybe $50 for a birthday party every other year and our Santa has a $100 limit). Our clothing budget is small (the fact that the kids wear uniforms to school and that none of them are into brand names and that I really hate dislike shopping helps). We're OK with sort-of-worn furnishings (we like antiques and they're supposed to be a little dinged-up, right?) and basic cars (in fact, the one time I had a new car, it just stressed me out - every little ding or spill was so painful!). We seldom spend money on entertainment (family movie night and family game night and hikes and bike rides are our favorites - all pretty much free. Plus we live in a place where there are always so many awesome free events that we can walk to - downtown Ogden never disappoints!).

We've chosen to prioritize travel above many other things. We have so many precious memories from family trips and we've got a bucket list of family trips to work through on into the future. Maybe we'll make it to India and Africa (a couple of our bucket list places) but maybe we won't be able to afford that (it's just the airfare that's so expensive - everything else is pretty darn cheap in the 3rd world...). I feel quite sure that we'll make it to places that don't cost so much to get to like Mexico and Montreal and Chinatown in San Francisco and other awesome places where we can experience different cultures and languages more fully and build the kinds of special memories that come from stretching and growing as you navigate new places and experiences together as a family. 

Parenting the Lord's Way

So I have like six posts partially written but never seem to have time to finish and post! I've got one on healthy eating, one on how you can make serious travel dreams come true on a budget, and a list of things I've finally figured out about life and about myself. But one thing I do have ready to post today is the talk I gave last week in Sacrament Meeting at church. I thought I might as well share since I really spent some time on it and it may be helpful and applicable to people beyond those who were there to hear my talk last Sunday.

I speak all the time for Power of Moms, but I'm always careful to only include the most generic references to my faith so as to be inclusive (as I'm usually speaking to people from many walks of life and want to focus on principles that are universally applicable without throwing in any lingo that might not be familiar to some people). It was so nice to be able to share my feelings about families as related to my specific religious convictions - and I think much of what I shared applies to all families regardless of their religion or preference to not be part of a religion.

Anyway, here's the talk in case you're interested. And I'll get those other posts up one of these days (I've been working like crazy on this big online Mom Conference that Power of Moms is co-hosting in October plus working on Joy School - got a sale on Joy School going on until midnight tonight in case you're interested. Kids go back to school on Monday and then maybe, just maybe, I can get my feet back under me again! But I sure will miss them. Summer seemed so short this year!)

Becoming Goodly Parents 

I was asked to talk to you today about an address that Elder L. Tom Perry gave in the October 2012 conference called “Becoming Goodly Parents.” I’ve so appreciated the opportunity over this past week to really think about what I am doing as a parent and what more I can and should be doing. I’ve also enjoyed reflecting back on what I learned from my own “goodly parents” and recognizing what a huge difference “goodly parents” have made in my life.

Elder Perry points out that “The first instruction to Adam for his mortal responsibility is found in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

God went on to command Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.

So the very first act that was performed on the earth was a marriage and the start of a family! Clearly, marriage and family is of utmost importance to our Heavenly Father. And isn’t it interesting that out of all the titles he could have asked us to call Him, God chose for us to call him our Heavenly Father. This shows us that God puts his role as our Father above all else.

Elder Perry goes on to explain:

“Lessons taught in the home by goodly parents are becoming increasingly important in today’s world, where the influence of the adversary is so widespread...Parents must resolve that teaching in the home is a most sacred and important responsibility. While other institutions such as church and school can assist parents to “train up a child in the way he [or she] should go” (Proverbs 22:6), this responsibility ultimately rests on the parents. According to the great plan of happiness, it is goodly parents who are entrusted with the care and development of Heavenly Father’s children.”

“In our remarkable parental stewardship, there are many ways that goodly parents can access the help and support they need to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to their children. Let me suggest five things parents can do to create stronger family cultures:


First, parents can PRAY in earnest, asking our Eternal Father to help them love, understand, and guide the children He has sent to them.

I know that when I pray with real intent about specific concerns I have about my children and take my ideas to the Lord for confirmation, I am a much better mother.

2. Parents can fully avail themselves of the CHURCH’S SUPPORT NETWORK, communicating with their children’s Primary teachers, youth leaders, and class and quorum presidencies. By communicating with those who are called and set apart to work with their children, parents can provide essential understanding of a child’s special and specific needs.

3. Parents can SHARE THEIR TESTIMONIES often with their children, commit them to keep the commandments of God, and promise the blessings that our Heavenly Father promises His faithful children.

I have such fond memories of the testimony meetings we had each fast Sunday as a family when I was growing up. After church, we’d gather in the living room and everyone had a chance to bear their testimony. In this more intimate setting, we felt comfortable sharing the feelings of our hearts with our family members. I loved that I got to hear my parents bear their testimonies every single month. Plus they bore their testimonies in less formal ways all the time through their actions and as they read scriptures with us and said prayers with us and taught us in Family Home Evening.

4. Parents can hold FAMILY PRAYER, SCRIPTURE STUDY, and FAMILY HOME EVENINGS and EAT TOGETHER as often as possible, making dinner a time of communication and the teaching of values.

5. Parents can organize their families based on clear, simple family rules and expectations, wholesome family traditions and rituals, and “family economics,” where children have household responsibilities and can earn allowances so that they can learn to budget, save, and pay tithing on the money they earn.

These suggestions for creating stronger family cultures work in tandem with the culture of the Church. Our strengthened family cultures will be a protection for our children from “the fiery darts of the adversary” (1 Nephi 15:24) embedded in their peer culture, the entertainment and celebrity cultures, the credit and entitlement cultures, and the Internet and media cultures to which they are constantly exposed. Strong family cultures will help our children live in the world and not become “of the world” (John 15:19).

To explain a bit more about what it means to have a strong family culture, Elder Perry shared excerpts of a letter he wrote to his Mother on Mother’s Day 1945 from his marine outpost on the island of Saipan in the Pacific during World War II. The letter demonstrates how much he valued not only the physical comfort that his parents lovingly provided but also the family culture that his parents built.

“Dear Mom,

“For the last four years I have had the great misfortune of spending Mother’s Day away from you. Each year I have wanted to be with you and tell you just how I love you and how much I think of you, but since it is once again impossible, I will have to do the next best thing and send my thoughts through the mail.

“This year more than any of the others I can see just what having a wonderful mother has done for me. First of all, I miss the little things you used to do for me. Whenever I got out of bed in the morning, I never had to worry about whether I’d find a clean shirt and clean socks. All that I had to do is open a drawer, and I would find them. At mealtime I always knew that I would find something I liked, prepared the best way possible. At night I always knew that I would find clean sheets on my bed and just the right amount of covers to keep me very comfortable. Living at home was really a great pleasure.”




Sometimes it takes having to live without certain things to really come to appreciate them! His letter continues:

“But deeper is the feeling for you because of the example you set for me. Life was made so enjoyable for us as a family that we wanted to follow in your footsteps, to continue on through experiencing the same joy that had been ours in our younger days. You always found time to take the family into the canyon, and we could count on you to do anything from climbing mountains to playing ball with us. Now that I am away from home, I always like to talk about my home life because it was so enjoyable. I couldn’t turn from your teachings now because my actions would reflect on your character. Life is a great challenge to me to be worthy to be called the son of Nora Sonne Perry. I am very proud of this title, and I hope that I will always be worthy of it.

“I hope that next year finds me with you to show you the good time I have been planning to show you on Mother’s Day for the past four years.

“May the Lord bless you for all the wonderful things you have done for this troubled world.

“All my love, Tom”1

Through this letter and throughout his talk, Elder Perry helps us see that it is not only important to provide for our family’s physical needs, it is also important to create our own special family culture that involves fun things that we do together as well as regular practices that bind our hearts and help us learn and grow. I especially loved hearing Elder Perry mention that his parents took them up into the mountains and played ball with him. These kinds of family activities are important alongside family scripture study, family prayer, family dinner time and going to church each week together as a family. I know that some of our greatest family bonding experiences have come through hikes up the canyon, simple after-dinner walks around our neighborhood, or through simple activities like playing football together on the beach at Bear Lake yesterday when we were up there for part of Girls Camp.

Building a strong family culture doesn’t need to involve elaborate traditions or fancy vacations. In fact, time and time again, we find as parents that the things our children remember and cherish the most are the kind of very simple things that Elder Perry mentioned in his letter to his mother. Our children will remember the feeling of warmth and security in their home. They’ll appreciate the laundry we did for them and the meals we prepared for them once they have to start doing that for themselves. And the times we laugh together and play together will bind our hearts together and make us actually WANT to be together forever as a family!

I’d like to focus the bulk of my talk on the regular traditions that our leaders have instructed us to have in our homes - family prayer, family scripture study, family home evening, family dinners. We’ve all heard that these practices are important time and time again. And we may have tried and felt like we’ve failed with some of these things. As our children zone out or bounce around the room while we try to read scriptures or as they grumble about family dinner or family home evening or as we try to cram in a rushed family prayer, we might feel like our efforts are in vain. But they matter. We may not do a perfect job with scriptures or prayer or family home evening or family dinner. But if we do our very best and keep trying things different ways and turn to the Lord for guidance about how to make things work better, we will teach our children important habits and have opportunities to find many important teaching moments. Plus these regular activities offer us daily opportunities to capitalize on teaching moments and strengthen family relationships.

In the end, our children may not remember a whole lot of specifics about what they learned during family scripture study or what they discussed at family dinner or what was covered in family home evening, but they’ll remember the feeling and they’ll remember the pattern and relationships will be strengthened.

I remember that my parents tried lots of different ways of doing family scripture study and family prayer and family home evening. Some of the ideas worked. Some did not. But the important thing was that they kept trying.

I remember we struggled to have consistent family scripture study growing up and tried lots of different times of the day. We had family scripture study at 6:54 every morning when I was in high school (my parents picked 6:54 because they thought a specific and sort of odd time involving descending numbers would be easier to remember - and they were right - I still remember it!). I remember that as my mom or dad would read, the younger kids in their PJ’s snuggled with their blankets and sort of fell back asleep while my parents tried to keep us older kids engaged by having everyone read one verse. I don’t remember anything specific that I learned in our family scripture study. But I remember that we read scriptures together and I remember feeling the Spirit as we did plus feeling the happy warmth of family time.

I remember that Family Home evening was often chaotic and that for several years, we had it on Sundays instead of Mondays because it ended up working better that way. I only really remember one family home evening lesson in particular. One time my parents were teaching us about the Holy Ghost and they had one of us pretend to be the Holy Ghost and then had a few of us pretend to fight. Then the kid pretending to be the Holy Ghost ran away. Then they had a few of us pretend to read scriptures together and the kid pretending to be the Holy Ghost came and sat down by us with a smile on his face. Out of hundreds and hundreds of family home evenings, this is the only one I can readily recall - and it really helped shape my understanding of the Holy Ghost.

I remember that dinner time was a serious thing in my family growing up. With 9 children and two busy parents, it was tricky scheduling a time for dinner when everyone could be there. But very nearly every day of the week, we had dinner together (sometimes at 5pm, sometimes at 7pm, depending on the day!). We discussed the best and worst things that had happened to each of us that day (our sweet and sour), we’d learn the definition of a new word or work on memorizing a scripture, and often my parents had us stand up and give one-minute speeches about some random topic like doorknobs or what would be the coolest family vacation (being speakers themselves, they wanted to start us early!). But ultimately, the exact content of our dinnertime conversations and activities wasn’t important. What was important was that we were together and we were learning from each other and building our own unique family culture.

I remember kneeling on the floor together every evening to pray before family dinner. I remember my parents praying with us individually at bedtime and often reminding us to pray with real intent and to avoid vain repetitions. I remember that as teenagers, whenever one of us was heading out the door on a date or to work, whichever parent was handy would call whoever happened to be around to come join in a quick “huddle prayer” where we’d stand together in a circle with our arms around each other and pray for safety and for the Holy Ghost to be with the person who was heading out the door. I remember my dad giving us father’s blessings on or around our birthdays each year and giving us blessings as a family whenever he let on a business trip. I remember that before each blessing from my father, my mother would offer a prayer, inviting the Spirit to be with us and to send the right words to my father’s head and heart so that he could pronounce the blessing Heavenly Father would have him pronounce.

While I couldn’t tell you the exact details of what I was taught and when I learned it, and while we weren’t totally consistent, and while sometimes family time involved sheer chaos, I know that each family scripture study and family dinner time and family home evening and family prayer and priesthood blessing was a small rock in the foundation of my understanding of the gospel and the foundation of my relationships with my eternal family. And thanks to all the hard work my parents did, my foundation has been able to hold up to all the crazy stuff that life throws my way. And now my husband and I are working to build that same foundation for our children.

I know that as we work to build our family cultures as directed by our church leaders and as directed by God and as we pray for guidance to know what sort of scripture study and family prayer and family dinner and family evening would be the best for our unique family, we will find great joy and we’ll be able to set our children up for happiness and success in life. In our family, we are far from perfect with our family scripture study and family prayer and family home evening and family dinner time, in fact we’ve been off-track quite a bit this summer. But I think our children can see that these things are important and that we’re trying. And with school schedules starting up again, we’ll get back on track now!

Our Heavenly Father is there to help. These are HIS children. He wants nothing more than the success and happiness of each of our families. But we have to reach his reaching and do our part. And when things don’t work out the way we wanted them to work out, we need to tweak what we’re doing and try again.

I wish you the very best as you build your family culture and keep working towards becoming the goodly parent that God needs you to be.

Videos from Bear Lake

Ashton has become quite an amazing videographer lately and he's captured so much of what we've been doing here at Bear Lake so well in the beautifully captured and edited vlogs he's been creating almost every day. Here are some of Ashton's best (with his comments proceeding each):

The renunion kickoff!


A really fun scavenger hunt that Ian and Charity set up for us to do during the Reunion:


My video on 7/11 - sadly no free slurpees but I got to fly a quadricopter for the first time and we had the Eyrealm Olympics. My team came in third on the Olympics.


Our trip to Bloomington Lake to enjoy the scenery and the awesome rope swing there:

June Part II - What we've been up to

We're into our typical July activities now. We're in Ashton, Idaho with Jared's family this weekend (kids rode in the parade yesterday and we had a fabulous firework show last night plus we've had, wonderful times floating the river, doing watersports at the reservoir, playing games, all the good stuff). This evening we take off for Bear Lake. The Eyre reunion is July 8-12 - everyone will be there for those days except Jonah and Aja's family since they're still in Europe - then whoever can stay around will stay until around July 24th. I captured our time in Ashton on Instagram (and blogged about very similar wonderful 4th of July weekends here and here). And I'll be Instagramming Bear Lake stuff.

But before moving on, I want to capture hightlights since my last "summer so far" post. So here's what I can recall off the top of my head. Photos on Instagram if you want to get some visuals (search sarenloosli).

• Twilight concerts: This summer, Ogden launched a series of really excellent concerts with big-name bands at the amphitheater downtown. We were able to go to 3 of the 4 concerts and they were so great! Wonderful atmosphere - families, singles, young and old, amazing talent. So fun to have some concert experiences with the kids - and we went with friends and saw so many friends there which made it extra nice.
• Football for Ashton: Ashton decided to join the Ogden High football team. He figured it all out himself, biked himself there, and signed himself up. He came home from each practice the first week describing all the grueling workouts they did - but he loves it! He's met some great kids that he'll be going to school with next year and seems to have suddenly started to embrace the mantra I've been suggesting all his life - "Hard is Good." He sold all these discount cards to raise almost all the money he needs to pay the team fees and has been getting himself to the school and back on his bike, even when I've told him I'm happy to drive him. I love seeing him take so much responsibility and really be excited about it! And he got quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune in an article about how Ogden High is doing some exciting new things to revitalize their struggling football program (you can see the article and some photos with Ashton in them here).
• Weber State Leadership Academy: Eliza had the opportunity to attend this wonderful week-long program at Weber State with her Junior Junior League group. They learned a ton from some top-notch instructors and had so much fun. Such an awesome group of girls.
• Loosli Kid Camp: For the 5th year in a row, the big kids put on a "Kid Camp" for all the little kids in our neighborhood and ward. This year, Ashton had football camp during the one week we could do it so he helped make the fliers and recruit attendees but Isaac and Eliza conducted all the activities. They did such a great job! They had 21 kids sign up and come and showed them a wonderful time - for three hours on three afternoons they did art, building, sports, science, music and water activities. I helped a bit with snack time and helped if there were kids that needed a little one-on-one attention (acting up or feeling sad or not wanting to do the activity at hand), but Isaac and Eliza really took the lead, coming up with all the activities and executing things so well. Our house was pretty busy and noisy and messy with so many cute little kids around but everyone was pleased with the outcome and the kids made some good money while providing a great service for quite a few families.
• Deborah's wedding: One of my dear friends and companions from my mission got married in the SL Temple. It was SO wonderful to see her so totally happy. She's had a really hard few years after a difficult divorce, mothering her five children in the midst of some hard stuff. Then she found this wonderful guy and the wedding was deep and beautiful in a whole new way. Loved seeing a bunch of missionaries from my mission at the wedding and reception - especially meaningful after getting back from our trip to Bulgaria recently.
• Mount Ogden Hike: It's been on our bucket list for years to climb Mount Ogden so when we had a free Saturday a couple weeks ago, we decided to go for it. It was a hot day and we got a late start but we packed up lots of water and snacks and headed out. We made it to the 1/2 way point, wetting the boys' shirts in streams and splashing ourselves to stay cool. The second half was going strong until the trail got fainter and fainter until it disappeared. But GPS showed the trail up on the ridge above us and we figured we'd just missed a turn off. So we bush-wacked up a steep slope through the underbrush to try to meet up with the trail and continue on. After over an hour of serious climbing through brambles and shrubs (wishing we had a machete...), we made it to the ridge where the trail was supposed to be according to the map. But it wasn't there. We searched the area. No luck. We climbed higher to see if we could see trails from up there. No trails to be seen anywhere. We were pretty
• Will and Lori's wedding: Jared's oldest sister Kathryn's son Will got married in the SLC Temple and we had so much fun being with family and being part of the rehearsal dinner with great toasts, lovely wedding ceremony and picturesque and fun reception. We threw in an impromptu game night after the rehearsal dinner and everyone danced up a storm at the reception. Great, great event.
• Trek for Ashton and Isaac: Our stake pioneer trek for the youth ages 14-18 at Martin's Cove was week before last. The boys had such a great experience learning about their ancestors and their faith while building their own understanding of the gospel and getting to know a lot of great youth and adults in our stake. 
• Mountain biking: The three oldest kids have been practicing with their mountain biking team every week plus Jared has been taking them on quite a few rides to improve their skills and endurance. Ashton and Isaac did their first real race at Snow Basis last week and placed 5th and 6th in the adult beginner category - so they're off to a good start. The mountain biking team is such a great group of people - most of the team members and coaches came to see Ashton and Isaac start the race and wish then well even though Ashton and Isaac were the only ones doing that race. Oliver and Silas raced as well (in the same division) and their little bikes and lack of opportunity to practice much before hand made for a pretty tough ride for them but they finished and we were so proud of them!
• We sent Eliza off to DC:  Jared's sister Michelle lives in Washington DC and has invited all the Loosli grandkids who are close to 12 years old to join here there for a week of learning and fun and bonding around the 4th of July. Ashton got to go with the grandkids closest to his age a few years back. Isaac got to go two years ago. And this summer it was Eliza's turn! She was SO excited to go with her cousins Abbie and Annika and they have been having the time of their lives with super-fun Aunt Michelle who's taken them to Jamestown, Williamsburg, Smithsonian museums, Mount Vernon, the beach, Busch Gardens, you name it! Plus they got to see the fireworks on the Mall last night. SO grateful for Michelle and this awesome tradition she started that has provided such a great experience for all the grandkids. Out of 29 grandkids, after this group gets done, there will just be 5 left to go on their big DC trip! 
• Launch of Joy School 2.0: After TEN YEARS of working on revising the Joy School lesson plans off and on, I've spent a lot of time over this past year working with my sister in law, Aja, to finally completely overhaul and update this great program. We launched the program last week and I'm so excited to share this excellent co-op preschool program with a whole new generation! Here's the info on the program.

Thoughts on Blogging - and some updates on what's happening in my brain

Did you know I started this blog 8 years ago? And I was pretty darn good at blogging up our family adventures, our every day life, and some of my thoughts and ideas with at least three blog posts a week for many of those years. I was looking back at some blog posts the other day (while finding photos for the tribute I did to my dad in the last post) and found some great posts with photos and stories and ideas from long ago and I felt so glad I'd taken the time to do those posts.

After taking a walk down memory lane through this blog, I started to feel pretty conflicted about the current state of this blog.

I didn't really consciously decide to stop blogging so much. I just started using Instagram a lot and then blog posts about our regular daily life and special events seemed sort of redundant if I was capturing things on Instagram. Then I started feeling extra overwhelmed with life in general and felt like something had to give - and perhaps that something was being so conscientious about journaling via this blog. So I decided to just write a blog post whenever I felt like I had something to remember and/or that needed to be written out and didn't really work on Instagram. And the more I didn't blog, the more I got out of the habit. Which I generally think is fine. But seeing those old posts that I value so much got me thinking about what I should be doing with this blog moving forward. I don't really have any conclusions. But I do think I'll start trying to blog about my thoughts and ideas and keep track of more of an overview of what we're doing as a family more often.

So anyway, here are a couple things that have been on my mind lately:

Importance of kids interacting with nature

After a crazy hiking adventure a couple Saturdays ago (we tried to climb Mount Ogden - a goal we've had for a while - and we lost the trail. What was meant to be a 4-hour hike turned into a 9-hour hike with some pretty hairy moments and some pretty exciting adventures - serious family memories built in the end!), I stumbled across a podcast on Radio West (I always listen to podcasts while running) that solidified a lot of things I've always thought about parenting and made realize how important our crazy hiking adventure was for our kids.

Here's the podcast I listened to:
How to Raise a Wild Child (featuring the author of a book of the same name)

And here's the podcast I made for Power of Moms that details our crazy hiking adventure plus interesting research and statistics about how important it is for kids to interact with nature:

Putting more Nature in your Nuturing

I'm so glad we live in a neighborhood where all the parents are quite united in supporting lots of outside adventuring for our collective kids. And I invited the whole neighborhood down to the nearby river for an afternoon of serious fun interacting with nature last week - loved seeing the kids explore cause and effect and test limits just have a great time together as they built boats of leaves and sticks to float in the current, swam against the flow, found bugs, and splashed each other with the cold cold water on a hot hot day. We're going to go down to the river a lot more (it's only 5 minutes away!).

How to "be" more by "doing" less

I'm realizing more fully that I can't be all things to all people. I can't act on every good idea (and can't seem to control the fact that I have so darn many ideas come into my head, most of which seem viable, helpful and important!). I need to spend a lot more time thinking and being - right now I spend almost all my time doing. As someone once wisely said, we are human beings, not human doings.

For years now, I've been trying to figure out where to draw boundaries. There is always PLENTY to do for Power of Moms. I used to think that at some point, Power of Moms would sort of start running itself more and I could stand back a bit more and enjoy watching it continue to move forward. But I'm realizing lately that Power of Moms is like a needy baby that never grows up - brings lots of joy and goodness and is totally worthwhile on so many levels but involves constant attention and has so many unpredictable and urgent needs. It's been 8 years now since my Power of Moms journey began and I'm just pretty darn tired and my kids need me more than ever as they go through puberty (I thought the hardest time would be when I had 5 preschoolers but nope, having 5 teens and pre-teens is harder in many ways - so much mental and emotional energy required!).

Our numbers of newslettter subscribers (50,000), podcast listens (6000+/week), and pageviews (120,000+/month) are solid and growing. Our Board of volunteer moms do such a great job running social media, editing content, and more. We get beautiful letters saying that Power of Moms has changed people's lives and we've seen so many moms sign on to our programs in the past year. But managing the overall functioning of the website and all our great Board members, figuring out what opportunities to take and which to leave, planning and executing marketing, writing the weekly newsletters, overseeing customer service, making new podcasts, and much more falls squarely on the shoulders of me and April. And sometimes it's just so heavy and overwhelming, especially when all our best efforts don't seem to be leading us to a place where we can get ourselves out of the hot seat of having to do so much ourselves.

I love Power of Moms and I know it's an important part of what I should be doing. But I have to figure out how to do what I uniquely need to do for Power of Moms and pass off or eliminate the things that I shouldn't be doing - and that maybe no one should be doing. Easier said than done!

I've always felt strongly that as long as I was doing my best, everything would be OK. The big problem with that, though, is that I don't know what constitutes doing my best. For much of my life, I've thought that doing my best means working efficiently every possible minute on something totally productive and tangible. I've protected my sleep and my exercising pretty well (because I've learned the hard way that I'm a disaster if I neglect those things). But I haven't protected hardly any time to read and learn, to relax, to laugh. I know I need to come to a new and more healthy understanding of what it means to do my best. And I'm getting there - but I'd love any insights you care to share in the comments! What does doing your very best mean to you?

I'm prioritizing more time to think and learn and search and pray and just be there for the people who matter most to me - rather than just doing, doing, doing when it comes to Power of Moms. That means I push back some deadlines and adjust some committments (I used to be such a stickler with myself on doing exactly what I said I'd do in a super-thorough way by exactly when I said I'd do it - even if it meant putting in way too many hours and squeezing out sleep and family time for a period - and personal time, what's that?). More time to think, learn, search and just be also means I don't get around to answering every email - which used to make me feel so very guilty but now just makes me feel mildly guilty as I admit that all I can't do it all and should stop trying so hard to do everything.

Still, I have a lot more questions than solutions right now. I'll let you know any ah-ha moments I have moving forward!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

OK, so it's a little late. But I just have to take a few minutes to share some favorite thoughts and memories and photos of this amazing man who I get to call Dad.

My dad is truly unique. In fact, as my sister Charity pointed out when we got together on Father's Day, Dad is so unique that there needs to be some sort of new uber-unique word made up just for him. He thinks outside the box, he does what he feels is right, he dresses in his own special style, and he couldn't care less what anyone else thinks. He's also about the most deliberate person ever. He makes plans and goals and makes things happen like no other. He oozes purpose and drive. He has about 100 exciting new ideas every day. He offers amazing advice (and has gradually learned to offer it mostly just when asked!). He loves and cares more deeply and passionately about more people and more things than most people can even imagine.

He's raised us to be the change we wish to see in the world, to dream big and then think and plan carefully to bring things to pass. He's raised us to be "citizens of the world" and has instilled us with an insatiable desire for experiencing new things and new places and new people.  He's sent us on plenty of guilt trips and been somewhat of a control-freak at times, but all that helped point us in the right directions and for that we're so grateful. He's showed us that being a parent and a grandparent is the most beautiful and powerful and important role we can play. He's taught us to love more and to find great joy in serving others.

I love this photo-booth shot. Dad always did photo-booth pictures with us when we were little. And he could get us laughing like no other.

On a cross-country road trip

Dad was great about getting us out in nature.

Dad dressed up as a clown and did all sorts of fun magic tricks at all our birthday parties. This is Shawni's 7th birthday party - she's in the middle on the back row.

Josh made dad some cucumber glasses and he wore them with pride.

Here we are with Dad on a picnic up the canyon (Saydi, Josh, Jonah on the ground, Dad, Talmadge, me, our dog Canie, Shawni). Can you see the mutual adoration going on?

Dad fulfilling his dream of building a log cabin together

My kids think their beloved Grandfather is about the coolest and most fun guy in the whole world and I'm so grateful we live near my parents now and relationships have been able to deepen. Here the kids are with Grandfather a while back. The great relationships are pretty apparent in the photos.

Here are a few of the quotes my dad had us memorize as kids that I still think of all the time and that I can type out off the top of my head:

"See how the masses of men worry themselves into nameless graves while here and there, a great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality."

"True joy comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to think freely, to enjoy simple, to risk life, to be needed."

"Good is the enemy of best."

"You wouldn't worry so much about what other people thought of you if you realized how seldom they did."

"Some people look at things that are and ask 'why?' I dream of things that never were and ask, 'why not?'"

Cast aside the old phrase "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well" and replace it with "If a thing is just barely worth doing, then just barely do it."

"We don't own anything. We are mere stewards. An attitude of stewardship creates gratitude and generosity while an attitude of ownership can make us selfish or prideful."

"Live with an attitude of serendipity. Serendipity means 'when, through sagacity and awareness, we see and act upon something better than that which we were originally seeking.'" (My name comes from the word "serendipity," my parents' favorite word at the time I was born.)

Thanks for being who you are, Dad, and for being it so completely. Thanks for doing so much to help us be all that we are. And thanks for all you do for my children. You have influenced SO many in such important ways. I'm eternally grateful that you are my dad.

Summer so far

So the kids have been out of school for one week now.

Oh how I love summer! I love not having to be places at a specific time. I love having time to learn things with my kids and help them work on their goals. I love the long cool evenings when all the neighborhood kids are playing happily together until it gets dark. I love all the great events that are always going on all around us in Ogden, making it so that there's something exciting to do any time we feel like venturing beyond our neighborhood.

After a busy, busy amazing time in Europe, it's so nice to take a few weeks to just sort of go with the flow. The kids and I made a "bucket list" of things that we'd like to do this summer and we've been going on our "must-do's" to keep everyone reading and writing and helping with housework and getting physical exercise every day (see all about that here). So we do have some structure to our days and some plans. But the kids can do all their "must-do's" in a couple hours so there's plenty of time to play with friends in the neighborhood and just sort of hang out.

I'm finding that I can get a couple of hours of Power of Moms work in each day at some point - but I'm deliberately not planning on exactly when I'll work. So far it seems like quiet times naturally occur each day when the kids are off playing with friends or building a fort in the backyard or working on their "must-do's" and I can work during these times. I've had a few times I need to head into my room and do a phone call or record a podcast, but that has slipped quite nicely into our days w/o being a big deal. I'm really focusing on my "word" for this year - Enjoy. I want to soak in these great kids of mine and follow their lead more often and spend more time being by spending less time doing.

Of course, we're only one week into summer so who knows how I'll feel about everything in a couple weeks. But so far, so good (other than the inevitable moments of kids bugging each other and everyone needing something from me at the same time on occasion).

Anyway, here are a few of the things we've done so far (mostly unplanned - just things that felt like a good thing to do at the time - good mix of fun and getting stuff done - in a no-pressure fun way):

• Weeded the big patch of weeds in the back corner of our yard (everyone worked together and the kids had a good time seeing how nicely the roots of the huge weeds slipped out of the ground thanks to the rain)
• Took a couple kids out to special lunches to celebrate their great grades this past quarter and really enjoy some one-on-one time (I've still got some lunch dates to do - I so love one-on-one time with these kids!)
• Had a good meeting with my dad to brainstorm how to best market the Joy School 2.0 lesson plans I've been helping with all year and that we'll now be offering on Power of Moms (check it out here if you want). So excited to get this great program upgraded and shared with a new generation.
• Cleaned out closets (put away school uniforms for the summer and cleaned out stuff that is too small or stained)
• Stumbled across a big-deal tree climbing competition at the park down the street - serious stuff as these guys from different power companies and tree trimming companies competed against each other in different events from seeing who could climb a set tree and ring a bell at the top the fastest to seeing who could climb straight up a 50-foot rope from a tree limb using a special sort of knot they had to do. My kids LOVE climbing trees (especially the twins) so they were totally into watching. Plus they liked the key chains and baseball hats that a chainsaw manufacturing company was giving away. 
• Went to a really great concert at the Ogden amphitheater - the first in a brand new series of Ogden Twilight Concerts. Watched two great bands and enjoyed a fun concert atmosphere with all the kids (while poor Jared attended meetings - but luckily there will be another concert next week and he'll be able to join us!)
• Learned to make gelato (see post with details about that here).
• Watched a newborn for a friend and learned all about babies (she's been wanting to add "experienced with newborns" to the flier she's making to help her get more babysitting jobs). Eliza became a pro at feeding and burping and soothing and changing and Oliver and Silas were quite enamored with the little guy. Then Isaac rocked him to sleep. Oh, there's nothing like snuggling a newborn! And there's nothing like seeing your older kids dote on a sweet little baby.
• Ashton finished making a whole series of awesome videos about our time in Italy (you can see them here). I think he's pretty darn talented and he captured a lot of great stuff I didn't think to capture. Plus he made a great video about our time in the orphanages in Bulgaria. (He shared that here.)
• Isaac had a friend teach him to juggle and now he's working on juggling WHILE riding his unicycle. I told him he'd better get a clown costume.
• Cleaned out all the cardboard boxes in the basement (how in the world did we get so many down there?) and the kids built a big fort in the playroom with them.
• Eliza, Isaac and a friend spent a whole afternoon building a great brick patio area with bricks laid in a nice pattern in the back of our yard using a bunch of old bricks we've had piled up forever (it was going to be the floor of a fort but then they thought it would work better as a patio)
• Oliver and Silas had about 100 Nerf wars with their buddies in the neighborhood and after saving up for a long time, they were finally able to purchase their own nice Nerf guns so they wouldn't have to borrow from friends anymore (a couple friends have a whole arsenal but having your own gun is just way more special. When we got back from the store with their new guns, they were SO excited to show their friends and when I tucked them in bed that night, they said thanks for taking them to the store again and again and said "this is almost the best day of our whole lives!") I've never been a fan of guns and didn't really let the older boys have guns but seeing these neighborhood boys have so much creative fun with their totally harmless and totally non-realistic-looking Nerf guns won me over.
• Ashton spearheaded a great Nerf war video with all the neighborhood boys (you can watch it here). Loved seeing the big boys and little boys working together all day.
• Went to a really big and super interesting and fun classic car show downtown - just wandered on down the street and found like 300 cars - beautifully restored old cars - some 100 years old, creative mash-up cars, muscle cars, cars with amazingly huge fins, cars with crazy and beautiful paint jobs, super low cars, super high cars, interesting stuff!

Learning to make gelato

We all fell deeply in love with gelato while in Italy. It's just got so much more flavor than regular ice cream and we wanted to figure out why. We did some research and found out that gelato has less sugar and more fruit or whatever flavor you put in there - hense, more flavor. We also found out that while ice cream has twice as much cream as milk, gelato has twice as much milk as cream. And gelato has egg yolks in it.

So one of our shared summer goals was to learn how to make gelato. And we've done a pretty good job figuring it out! So far we've made banana gelato and Nutella gelato (super good to have a little of these two flavors in the same serving!).

Best recipe we found:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chocolate-hazelnut-gelato-recipe.html

Video showing how to make it:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/chocolate-hazelnut-gelato-0170364.html

To make the banana kind, we followed the same recipe for the chocolate hazelnut gelato but mashed up two very ripe bananas and put that in instead of the Nutella.

We learned that it's very important to put the "custard" in the fridge for a couple hours before putting it into the ice cream maker. We poured the custard in hot when we did our first batch and it barely made it to milk-shake consistency - but it did set up OK when we put it in the freezer. When we cooled the custard on the second batch, it froze nicely in the ice cream maker.

Mission Accomplished.

Hey all, it's Ashton again!

Once again, thank you all for the amazing help with my Eagle project and our family orphanage projects. I was able to rasie $573 thanks to your donations and those of other kind people! This translated to 1,003.90 Lev (Bulgarian currency) and I was able to buy lots of books and a new computer for the orphans.

I also invited people in my area to donate toothbrushes, toothpaste and gum and my friends and family helped me to put together 115 little gift packets with the toiletry items, the gum, and a nice personal note. We took these packets over to Bulgaria with us and delivered them in person.

Here is a video that I made that shares overall information, what I learned, and lots of pictures from the orphanages we visited.




The orphans were absolutely thrilled about the computer and books that you helped to buy.

We went to an outdoor book market and got lots of great books for the kids (luckily they had lots of our favorite books, translated into Bulgarian, and they gave us a great discount on the books when they heard what we were buying them for).

We got to deliver the computer to the orphanage and I got to turn on the computer for the first time for them. It was a really nice computer - it ran up-to-date software and it was perfect for what the kids needed. They immediately used it to log on to Facebook and added me as a friend so that we can keep in touch. Then, after we delivered the little gifts with the notes, they used Google Translate to see what they meant.

 Every single donation helped, and I'd like to personally thank you all.

We're home

It seems unreal to be home. It seems unreal that we were in Italy just a couple days ago and in Bulgaria a couple weeks ago. Part of the unreal-ness is probably due to the fog of jet lag. But part of it is that it's just plain amazing that we've been able to go on this trip. It was a dream come true. And it was a TON of work. And everything at home looks and feels a little different now.

I was trying to focus on really being in the moment on this trip and that combined with how jam-packed each day was with adventures put this blog on the back burner.  Instagram proved to be the best way to capture highlights of the trip w/o intruding too much on the trip itself. It's tricky finding a balance between enjoying what you're doing and processing what you're doing so you can savor it on another level and capturing what you're doing so that you can enjoy the memories.

This trip was a LOT of work. I feel like I could really use a vacation after this trip. Trips and vacations aren't the same thing, are they? It was hard packing and unpacking and not leaving anything behind (I have to pat us all on the back for not leaving anything behind anywhere we stayed!). It was hard finding food and water for everyone in a timely way (there were a few pretty hungry moments when grocery stores and restaurants were closed or when we wound up far from food when it was well past time to eat). There were lots of times when someone needed to go to the bathroom somewhat desperately with no bathrooms particularly handy. There were surprises - pleasant ones like a rainbow or an amazing street performer or a super delicious meal at a good price right when we needed it - and unpleasant ones like lots of rain making us wet and cold when the forcast showed no rain, one of the places we stayed turning out to be sort of scary, getting stuck in an elevator, and finding that some routes we took were a lot longer than we'd anticipated. There were times when we got on each other's nerves (being together 24/7 was wonderful most of the time but sometimes that much togetherness and bathroom and space-sharing was hard).

But every bit of work was repayed in abundance. We bonded over the beautiful and crazy things we experienced together. We learned so much about history and art and cultural differences and human nature. We shared big parts of our personal histories as Jared and I shared Italy and Bulgaria with our kids. We felt great compassion together for the orphans we met and learned so much about how important parents are. We realized how tough and adaptable our children are as they walked and walked and walked and literally never complained. We realized what a good team we make as we figured out so much together during our travels. We saw our children wonder and learn and grow by leaps and bounds. We ate fabulous things (amazing produce, great bakery treats, excellent bread and cheese, great pizza, heavenly gelatto). We saw such an abundance of beauty - both God-made and man-made.

Anyway, here are some stats on the trip that Ashton helped me compile on the plane home:

• 18 days
• 267,629 steps covering 81.25 miles (and the twins did about twice that since they climb over everything and run ahead and back to us - amazing amounts of energy!)
• 6 orphanages visited
• one computer donated to an orphanage in need
• 51 books donated to two different orphanages
• 1 training completed for orphanage workers
• 1 new reading program set up at an orphanage
• 115 little gifts handed out to orphans
• 8 new Facebook friends - orphans we met and really connected with and want to stay connected to
• 30 churches visited
• 8 places we stayed/times we unpacked and packed
• 0 times we left anything anywhere (other than a mostly-used thing of shampoo)
• 9 times we ate gelatto
• 8 times we ate pizza
• 12+ times we ate crusty bread and cheese and whole cucumbers and carrots for a meal
• 2 times we got really hungry because we couldn't find any food
• 93 tunnels we drove through
• 36 hill towns we drove past on the freeway
• 1243 photos taken (just by me - we're in the 2000's if we count everyone's photos)

And if you want a representative sampling of 150 of those 2000+ photos we took, click below to see our best shots that we shared on Instagram:

#looslieuropeanadventure on Instagram