Paris, France - Election Night

I hope that your kids have made you breakfast or your family has arranged for you to do something special.

breaking bread with my favourite guys

I hope that on this Mother’s Day you’re pampered and feeling loved.

30 seconds after this was taken E gave me worst headbutt ever. Still love it.

But the truth is I wish this for you everyday.

Why settle for one day out of a year to feel this way? To realize how much you are cherished and to marinate in it? Why not take the week, the month, the year..

Varanassi, India

We are 320 days into our trip around the world. Along the way I’ve met a lot of moms and have often stopped to marvel, worry or admire other people’s children. I’ve seen in India, South Africa, China and Portugal that we have so much in common as mothers but nothing more than this: We love our kids.

It only takes an instant for a mother to fall in love with someone else's child.

That love is sometimes apparent in the ways we indulge them and sometimes in the ways we don’t. That love is unbreakable even when it seems broken from the outside.

A mother’s love is everything.

I’m lucky enough to have a mother  (and father – but hey that’s not until June!) who demonstrated in many ways and daily her love for me. She’s told me often but she’s shown me more. I see those things now – the small sacrifices, the didn’t-have-tos-but-did-anyways and the only-because-I-love-yous.

Twyfelfontein, Namibia

On this trip I hope my kids have felt my love for them in that same steadfast way. We’ve spent more time together on this trip than ever before. I’m grateful for every single day with them even when they’re way too loud or ordering the lobster.

Some Airport, Somewhere

And so while I hope you do receive the Hallmark cards and such if that’s what you’d like today. I bet you’re also a lot like me and I’ll be just fine this mother’s day if my kids do as they’ve been doing for the last 320: Come and find me in the morning. Snuggle into me at the least expected moments. Give me plenty of reasons to laugh loudly at unexpected quips and hang off my neck right until they fall asleep.

I'm not heavy I'm their mother

It has been an incredible year of Mother’s Days and a lifetime of them  is truly what I wish for all of you.

Happy Motherhood. (and thanks mom.)

Our Eco Cabin at ZMAR

In our room, there were two bunk beds, a double bed and a big flat screen TV.

Welcome to our room.

The meals were delicious. At dinner, they were three choices: grill, pasta and pizza. My favorite was pizza. The breakfast had banana bread, vegetables and sausages. We rented three bikes (one for dad, one for Cameron and one for me.). We used the bikes to tour around the resort.

Riding our bikes

Cameron and I did treetop climbing because we were lucky. It was like a high obstacle course. (Pictures below.)

The weather was partly sunny, partly rainy, on and off and on and off.

This was the pool at ZMAR. It was too cold to go in but it was super long.

We met David and Sabrine in the resort at dinner. David was only 4 years old, and Cameron and I got along really well with him even though he only spoke Portuguese.

Playing with David

Sabrine was David’s mother. She sometimes translated for us.

Our new friends Sabrine and David!

We ate lunch outside the resort with them in a small town nearby.

Before lunch we went to see the beach with David

Staying at ZMAR was a lot of fun and we were helping the environment because they use solar panels, recycling and good practices for nature. I hope we get to go back there one day when it’s sunny!

Here are some more pictures for you

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This was the third time we tried to visit!

The first  time it was too late at night.

The tower was lit up but it was too late to go up.

The second time  it was raining and the line was too long!

I was sad.

The third time my mom couldn’t come but my dad and my brother Ethan came and we did it!!!!!!!:)

We did it!

It was awesome because we went to the top and we had hot chocolate.The hot chocolate was so hot!

The hot chocolate was hot but good.

We climbed to the top! There were 1,665 steps. It was hard! Just kidding. We took the Elevator.

Hello down there!

Then we started to go down between one to ten steps and we saw a dome. It was cloudy so we decided to go back up. It was hard. It made me glad I was never going up all the stairs.

Here's what we saw from the top

It was really really fun

We took some photos and videos  ( I’ll post more later) then we went back to the hotel.

They had them at Nintendo...

We had spent two uncomfortable nights out on the outskirts of Seville (more on that later) and had almost given up on Spain entirely, but from the moment we got into the city proper,  things began to turn around.

The one thing the cab driver had told us that was true was that the Febria de Abril was happening this week in Seville. By the time we walked out the next morning in search of breakfast there was no denying it.

Everywhere you looked people were dressed to the hilt.  Women wore traditional Sevilliana dresses. The form fitting numbers that end in a cascade of ruffles aren’t for the faint of heart. Many men wore suits and ties.  And quite a few people were on horseback or in carriages driven by Spanish cowboys or cowgirls. All this – against a backdrop that became more and more festive as we got closer to the fairgrounds – made for the feeling that we were truly going back in time.

It was incredible.

And when it was all said and done and the boys had had their fill of bumper cars and ice cream, we made our way back to a bed that didn’t squeak and the promise of a better Spanish experience on the horizon.

Here are a few more pictures from the event. ( My favourite is the one that shows the hidden pockets among the ruffles. Genius! )  Have you been? Would you go?

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and sunsets that only furthered the infatuation.

And just outside of Odemira where we uncovered Zmar eco camp and spa it was more of the same beauty  plus plenty of activities to hold the boys’ attention.

Portugal was magical. It has somehow retained an innocence that I thought was long gone in the world.

And so yes, our quick stop in Lisbon of “3- 4 days max” quickly became 5 and then we had to have more and so two weeks later – and only with some prodding and a lot of regret – we prepared to leave Portugal.

On the bus out of the Algarve and into Seville (Spain), the countryside continued it’s magic. For much of the trip the two places looked the same:  Red tiled roofs, white walled homes, rolling hills, smiling people.

And so it seemed, when we finally arrived in Seville, that we really hadn’t left Portugal at all -more smiling people; couples kissing EVERYWHERE,

the artistic graffiti that seems more art than vandalism and look! There!  A taxi ready to take us to our new digs!

Along the way we chatted with the driver about the city. What luck! We’ve arrived on the eve of one of the biggest festivals in Seville (which explains why we could only find a place to see outside of the city) and our driver even shared news about the big game between Barca and Real Madrid. (Love meeting locals!)

I almost asked for his card, this wonderful man, thinking we could call him if we needed anything further but we were all exhausted from late nights, much too big (but still gonna finish it)  seafood lunches and the emotions of leaving new friends in Portugal. And I forgot, amongst my excitement about another new city to explore, to ask him.

We were tired and when we arrived at the hotel it was all we could do to gather our bags, navigate the enormous hotel and check in. By the time we got into our room hungry and tired, we basically scrambled to find something to eat and crawled into bed.

And  it is only as we sat in the dark and began to process the day that it occurred to us: The taxi driver ripped us off to the tune of 40 euro for a 15 euro ride.

We are awake now.

People said we’d be overwhelmed in India. They swore we’d get bored in Cambodia. They even suggested that parts of China would be too much.

But no one, not one person, cautioned me that I might fall in love with Lisbon….and I did.

I fell hard.

I fell after a 2 am flight from Petra that dropped us in Frankfurt for a 2-hour stopover (where a burly woman prided herself on removing the kids’ juice boxes as a safety concern) *insert eye roll*. I fell despite arriving at Lisbon airport and making our way to Hotel Ritz Four Seasons  in a complete sleep-deprived fog.

But when the hotel surprised us  (as part of the research I’d need to write for the hotel’s Have Family Will Travel blog) with a trip out 2 hours later to see the city by motorcycle and sidecar, we all splashed water on our faces and prepared to go again. And I’m so glad we did.

The moment we saw our rides we were all wide awake.

For me, the love affair began almost as soon as we took off on a chauffeured motorbike and sidecar through it’s cobblestone streets. And I definitely was in love before we hit the first roundabout.

I knew little of Portugal before we came.

And I’ll be the first to tell you that Europe as a whole was moved to the end in part because it felt less adventurous than places like China and Australia and Namibia. I knew what I’d be getting in Europe, I thought.

But I was wrong.

Lisbon offered up everything I love, and had forgotten I loved, about Europe.

Delicious foods. Beautiful wines.Fantastic architecture. A delightful way of doing things.

And the people! Kind beyond belief. Taxi drivers who don’t scoff at your short distance fare but regale you with stories despite the language barrier.  Front desk staff that walk you to the door when you’re leaving not because its’ protocol but because that’s the polite thing to do.

There’s less exasperation here. People don’t seem to get as easily frustrated as home. They’ve got problems too. The economy is the pits and they have good reason to worry but they haven’t let that stop them from enjoying life and sharing their love of it with you.

Lisbon is infectious.

Within five hours of being here I asked Ish if he’d consider a move. He would. We might.

Take a look for yourselves. I dare you not to fall in love.

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Big thanks to Hotel Ritz Four Seasons in Lisbon and SideCar Touring Company for arranging this amazing introduction.

1. It’s not an area we’d heard a lot about from a tourism point of view and what we had heard tended to focus on wars, bombs and fighting;

2. If we were skipping Egypt because we trusted what was being said on the news – which at several points in the trip we believed we would be – it wouldn’t make sense to ignore the news and head into a “war zone” (see point #1)

But when our perspective on Egypt changed we couldn’t help but think that chances were high CNN was getting it wrong in the Middle East too. Plus we kept looking at each other and saying “It’s right there! How can we not go?” and so we made plans to head over and see for ourselves.

And guess what? It was incredible.

Take a look at the photos from Sharm el Sheikh, Amman, Petra and the Dead Sea for a taste of what was an incredible few days in the region.

We only barely touched it and I’m looking forward to a return trip to dig even deeper.

No scary places, remember?

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A few days ago I went for a ride in a hot air balloon.  There was a fire and there was a captain. He pushed the button to let the fire make the balloon go higher.

They used fans to inflate the air balloon too. They use hot air and cool air. The captain can make the balloon go up or down but it’s up to the wind outside how far we go. We saw King Tut’s tomb where King Tut buried all his stuff. We also saw some houses and one balloon crash landed on the farmer’s lawn! That balloon had to pay the farmer some money.

It was a perfect trip.

Here are some pictures from our day.

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Globetrotting Mama Note: Big thanks to Mahmoud Ali our guide in Luxor for making it possible.

Recently one of those people  @akonthego reached across the Twittersphere and “tagged” me to participate in a shared blogging experience where I have to choose one photo for each of seven pre-assigned categories and post them here.  I agreed immediately  – and then took about two weeks to to write this – but I am taking part in HostelBookers 7 Super Shots.

And then the hard part: I had to choose.

Seven.

Over the last nine months Ish and I figure we have taken approximately 50,000 pictures. I have to choose seven.

Sigh.

Here goes:
1. A photo that…takes my breath away

Masai Mara, Kenya: Our driver mentioned that there was a pride with cubs somewhere in the Masai Mara but stressed that the chances we’d see them were slim. We believed him. By this time we’d been through Namibia and seen so many animals that we weren’t really expecting to be awestruck in Kenya. Then we saw them and all four of us couldn’t stop taking pictures. Watching this lioness with her little ones in the wild will stay with me forever.

2. A photo that…makes me laugh or smile

Luxor, Egypt: That grin! This photo of Cameron, my youngest, makes me smile. The little guy tried to play it cool but had a hard time masking his excitement as we rode in a balloon over the farm fields and up past the Valley of the Kings.
3. A photo that…makes me dream

Beautiful beachfront in Langkawi

Langkawi, Malaysia: This picture so perfectly captured what this day was like. The beach outside of the Four Seasons Langkawi was stunning. The flower in my hair is courtesy of my two sons and the boat waiting on the pier will take us through the Mangroves to an incredible experience with nature. A very good day.

4. A photo that…makes me think

Buenos Aires, Argentina: The kids at COR – a home for children whose families have been afflicted by HIV and AIDS – was the first volunteer experience we did as a family on this trip. We were all a little nervous but when we told them about our trip  one of the kids brought out a map. Suddenly kids who might never get to see many of the places we were headed were dazzled by how far we’d come and spoke of their own dreams. Language barriers fell away and the ice was broken.  We are so lucky to have met them.
5. A photo that…makes my mouth water

Watching your kids learn to cook is one thing. Having it be mouthwatering and drool worthy? Priceless!

Chiang Mai, Thailand: The food in Thailand is incredible but traveling with a picky eater threatened our chances of really getting to enjoy it. When Ethan, my 9-year old, turned the corner and began loving food right before we landed in Thailand I knew we were in for good times. Cooking classes sealed the deal. Now both sons can make Thai food like no one’s business and for that I am very grateful.

6. A photo that…tells a story

Delhi, India: She wasn’t the first woman at my window holding a baby and she wouldn’t be the last but the moment when I looked into her eyes and still said “No” to her repeated requests for money something in me shifted. I know that it is dangerous to give to beggars here. I know that it can lead to real harm but I didn’t like that part of who I had to be in India. I will never forget this face.

7. A photo that…I am most proud of (aka my worthy of National Geographic shot)

Siem Reap, Cambodia:  We were outside of Angkor Wat when I began snapping pictures of the group of monkeys that were captivating tourists. This one was my favourite. He  is eating a banana AND sticking his tongue out at the sucker he stole it from. Priceless.

I’m supposed to tag five bloggers to share their 7 Super Shots but I’m so late in the game I’m not sure there are many left who haven’t participated. So below you’ll find five blogs who always have something great to share:

1. 1dad1kid

2. Act of traveling

3. Snapsandblabs

4. Life in Pleasantville

5. New York City Mama

A few days ago we went to The Four Seasons Cairo First Residence.  It was awesome.

When we got to our room there was a hamburger made out of cake and chocolate and french fries made out of marshmallows! There was also an invitation to come to the Kids For All Seasons Kids Club.

When we got to our room there was an invitation to the kids club and so much more!

Rheem was the host in the Kids For All Seasons club. She came to our room on the first day with a wagon filled with toys. We were allowed to choose one to keep. There were a lot of toys!

When we went down to the kids’ club it was like a secret hideout. You wouldn’t know it was the Kids’ Club suite from the outside. It looks like a regular room. Inside there were lots of things to do. We played video games. We made chef hats.

Rheem was fun. We played cars and made hats!

And we also had a big tour.

Here’s a video we made backstage:

Kids you should ask your parents to take you here. Trust us. It’s amazing.

Goodbye!!!!!!

Great Wall of China

That’s it.

And by the time you read this we won’t even have that.

Cooking on Hayman Island

In less than 100 days we’ll be home.

We talked about that idea as a family a few days ago and in many ways we’re torn. We are loving this trip.

Thailand

Everything about it has been incredible: The people we’ve met and the places we’ve been;

Masai Mara, Kenya

the way we’ve worked together as a family to overcome tough situations and the way we’ve laughed and loved harder than ever before.

India

In so many ways it is hard to believe that a big part of our experience – the traveling that has pushed us to rely more on each other -  will be over in 100 days.

Egypt

The way I see it we’ve got two choices, we can start the countdown to home or we can make these last 100 days every bit as incredible, inspiring, educational and exciting as the others have been.

We vote for the latter.

And so we’re taking these last 100 days to do what calls us: No firm plans, no set dates. We’ll move as we feel like and as the flights and hotel rates allow.

India

We know the big picture.  Time in the Middle east and Europe. Stops in the U.S. and Eastern Canada but which cities or for how long remains to be seen.

Malaysia

We’ll live out the rest of this amazing time together and take it as it comes.  We’ve got no regrets for choosing this year and we have no intention of creating any now.

New Zealand

 If you had 100 days where would you spend them?

It has around 11 floors including B1,E and F1.  It has the world’s largest reading centre (on floors B4, B3, B2 and B1), a children’s library for ages 6-12 and a young person library for ages 12-16. Those libraries have fairy tales, Arabian books and more.

There is a museum for Anwar Sadat. He was an important man. He was the third president of Egypt.  There is also a planetarium and the library has its own international free website named www.bibalex.org which has over 200,000 books online.

We took a photo with a statue of Alexander the Great. He found this piece of land and named it after himself.

The entire library has over 1,000,000 books.

The library has a roof that looks likes it’s going down like a slope. It was built to work like eyelids and help keep the glare out of the library while letting in the light. Also the library has walls that suck the noise into them so that the library stays quiet even when there are a lot of people.

There are three buildings including the planetarium and did you know that you can access all three buildings without moving a foot outside?

I would have stayed longer to tell you more but we did not have enough time.

Remember: The library is in Alexandria, Egypt.

I wanted to live in it.