• cruising
    active family travel - Travel

    Our First Cruise #WordlessWednesday

    January 8, 2015 - By 

    We ended 2014 and started 2015 with our first cruise together ever. It was fantastic. Service was amazing and there was always something to do. The ports were stunning and the excursions each topped the next until we landed in Grand Cayman near the end of the trip and it was beyond gorgeous. This is my Wordless Wednesday post. It’s hard to be wordless about something so incredible. This is my new favourite form of family travel. It was our first cruise ever, but I am pretty sure it won’t be our last. Our first impression here the day we…

  • tampa travel
    active family travel - family travel - Travel

    New Feature Tuesday Travel Photo #linky – Leaving Tampa

    January 6, 2015 - By 

    I don’t know if I can even put into words how much I love active family travel. We just returned from a New Year’s cruise. It was our first cruise ever and after a week at sea I am slowly getting my land legs back. My heart is still warm from the time spent with family and the many awesome excursions we did together. Swimming with stingrays on a reef just along the coast of Belize rocked. Snorkelling alongside my husband and daughters while stingrays, looking prehistoric and unfazed by our presence, swam just beneath us was something we all…

  • active family travel - family - Travel

    Five Quick Facts About Colombia #Travel

    September 14, 2014 - By 

    Courtesy of Shutterstock Five Facts about Colombia 1. The official name for this country at the top of South America is the Republic of Colombia. It comes from the last name of the explorer Christopher Columbus, who arrived in 1499. It was originally called New Granada and only took its modern name in 1861. 2. Colombia is the only country in South America which has coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Carribean Sea. It also borders five countries: Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. 3. Colombia is known for its emeralds and coffee. 4. The official language is…

  • active family travel - family - Travel

    Parkbridge Resorts Lakes of Wasaga Stay

    September 2, 2014 - By 

    I am a cottage girl. I have been doing that from the time I was born actually. I don’t think we have ever missed a year. So, cottage season is a big deal here. We are renters. Every single year. We have talked, but never seriously, about buying a cottage. Buying a cottage costs a lot of money and really, how long would we use it? Would we do well with all that upkeep? Would we travel each weekend in the summer to the cottage 3-4 hours away just to cut the lawn? I am not convinced. We love travel…

  • active family travel - parenting - Travel

    Reflections of Summer 2014 #KinderMom

    August 31, 2014 - By 

    How do you capture a summer? Is it a series of snapshots on an iPhone? An entire deck of tiny Instax mini photo cards tucked into the border of a child’s bedroom vanity mirror, with bright red hearts and flowers, decorating the names scrawled on the border? How do you measure July and August? Is it the inches your children grow when they are free to imagine, run, travel, swim and draw without limitation of time or bells? Is it the height of the green grass on your front lawn, the length of the ivy trailing down the side of…

  • active family travel - family

    The Beach #WordlessWednesday linky

    August 20, 2014 - By 

    Every summer we travel to the beach with kids. Most summer vacations mean that we all get together and meet up with cousins in Georgian Bay, Ontario’s cottage country. It’s not possible every single year but it is something we enjoy doing as often as we are able. The beach is a happy relaxed place where we can always connect with family and just chill. Last week we went to the beach with my bother-in-law and sister-in-law. The highlight of that type of break is always all about seeing the cousins play together. This year there was swimming, but as…

  • active family travel - family - parenting - special needs - Travel

    Five Tips for Train Travel with Special Needs Children

    August 12, 2014 - By 

    I love to travel by train – usually. I can work all the way and my wasted time is minimized. Plus, typically train travel is very economical. This summer my kids and I travelled to Montreal and Ottawa by train. That’s a substantial amount of time spent riding, and also a lot of transferring to different connecting trains. We travel every year by train together at least once. As some of my readers know special needs kids require a bit more planning when travelling anywhere, in any mode of transport. I have one anxious child, and another with a brain…

  • active family travel - family - family travel - Travel

    Canopy River Tours in Puerto Vallarta #travel

    July 25, 2014 - By 

    Looking for a fun adventure in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico? Canopy River Tours is the perfect way to spend a day exploring rain forest from above. If the flip flops fall off, they will most definitely plummet 600 feet to their demise in the Sierra Madre mountains. I find myself wondering: will they whirl like maple keys do, or dive straight down into a rocky canyon below? Together? Or one at a time? Flip flops were the first questionable choice we made this morning. I am excruciatingly hopeful that this two hour zip lining Canopy River Tours adventure is not the second. Comfortable…

  • active family travel - Travel

    Vintage African Lion Safari #travel

    July 24, 2014 - By 

    (I just found this in my drafts file as I was travelling by train this week with my kids. My older daughter was sleeping on the train when Ainsley asked me to tell her a story from my childhood and I quickly remembered going to African Lion Safari every single year until I was in high school. It is such a memorable backdrop for so many of the times I spent with my Mom and brother, that I knew when I was a parent I would also take my kids to see this awesome destination. This is a story I…

  • canopy_river
    active family travel - Travel

    Canopy River Tubing #wordlesswednesday #pvpresstrip

    July 15, 2014 - By 

    Canopy River Tubing is the subject of this photo essay today. At the end of a brilliant day spent zip lining and swimming with dolphins, Payton, my 12-year-old, at that time, had the chance to tube down a river in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The excursion was at Canopy River, and it was a solid two hours adventure. Highly recommend. More about that later. Together we travel often as a family but this was one of our first ever Mother – Daughter Trips. Wordless Wednesday is a photo meme. Link up your recent photos, or a photo that is meaningful to…