I don’t mean in the traveling sense (although I do need to catch you up on that). I am referring to my absence in the blogosphere! It has been almost 20 months since my last post. So where the heck have I been? Well, I am excited to report that I have embarked on my greatest adventure yet…..MOTHERHOOD!

My lack of blogging does not mean I have not been traveling. Let’s just say that becoming a parent was all–consuming for quite some time. From the moment I knew I was pregnant, all of my focus revolved around my baby and keeping her safe. I simply didn’t have the mental capacity to keep up with this blog. Maybe it was the hormones? I don’t think I am too off the mark in admitting pregnancy-brain probably wouldn’t have permitted me to write coherently anyway. (Pregnancy-brain is a real thing!) Needless to say, after our daughter was born things just got worse, as far as this blog was concerned. Pregnancy-brain promptly turned into Mommy-brain (also real) and no matter how much I wanted to keep this blog updated, I just couldn’t make it happen. But Ella is about to celebrate her first birthday and I am finally feeling like I might just be able to do this thing again. So bear with me while I try to learn how to blog again.

Back to traveling – people always say that traveling is a dream instead of a reality once you have children. Clearly those people have never met me. I am determined to prove them wrong and continue my quest to see the world! And so far, I think it is safe to say that I am actually making it happen. When Ella was just 2 months old we took a road trip to Bar Harbor, Maine to hike in Acadia National Park. When Ella was 6 months old she took her first flight and she traveled like a champ! More recently, we traveled to Chicago and I was even brave enough to fly one leg of that trip with an infant, by myself.

Ella’s very first flight – 6 months

Our solo flight home from Chicago – 11 months

This summer we have lots of travel plans on the books. In just a couple of days Ella will get her first passport stamp when we fly to Canada to go hiking in Banff National Park. Later in July, we are taking a road trip to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Finally, in August we are going to Aruba. And we might actually be a bit crazy for this last one, but we are in the early planning stages for a trip to INDIA next winter! So stay tuned to hear about our upcoming travels and hopefully I will even get around to catching you up on these last couple of years.  And maybe I can inspire others with children to travel too!