The Whole Trip in One Post

We packed our whole lives into 4 bags and some backpacks. Then we headed off on our family adventure around the world!

Our first stop was Santorini.

Mykonos had a quaint old town and scuba diving with ancient pottery.

We had a Family Olympics in Athens.

Then we went to Rwanda to see gorillas. So huge — yet so gentle.

Hazel and Hugh loved meeting kids in new places.

“The World Is Our Classroom” is the motto for our homeschool. For some reason, the kids like to call Ashley “Mrs. Butterball” when she is their teacher.

We had breakfast with giraffes in Nairobi.

So many amazing animals in Kenya.

We loved getting to know the Samburu, Maasai, and Malagasy people.

Ashley’s 40th birthday in the Maasai Mara. Here is the moment she found out that her cake was made from elephant poop!

Off to Madagascar. There were lots of lemurs in the jungle around our hotel.

Next, we slowed it down with a month in the Cape Town area.

We went shark cage diving on the coast.

In Dubai, Hazel loved indoor skiing at the shopping mall. (It was 85 degrees outside.)

The Rub’ al Khali desert - the world’s largest sandbox!

Then off to the Great Barrier Reef.

Sydney gave us a long stay to slow down, meet marsupials, and even have a visit from Santa!

Myanmar was full of history and mystery.

In Thailand, we spent a whole week with elephants. They became our new favorite animal!

We loved Laos, where we found a tranquil slice of Southeast Asia.

Sailing and diving in Raja Ampat was a trip of a lifetime (even within a trip of a lifetime).

Queenstown was full of natural beauty and wacky adventure sports.

We outran the virus for a while, but we ended up getting locked down in New Zealand for 70 days.

After a crazy 66 hour journey home, we finally made it to the USA on Day 282. We learned and grew so much on the trip. The US had changed a lot when we were away, but we were still happy to be home!