And then there were five

Travel

Mar 18

Many know we never intended to have my parents join us for a whole year of travel. Now, we did say to them and my mother-in-law that we’d love to have them for as much of our trip as they could make work. We just assumed that would be a matter of a couple weeks here, maybe a month there, over the course of the year.

However, somewhere along the way, my father, who always said he was in for a couple weeks, shifted to a couple months, and then was game for staying with us for 8 full months! This made my mother, who was set on staying with us for the full year, both happy and disappointed. In the negotiation between 2 weeks of travel and one year of travel, she definitely tipped the balance in her favor.

So, after being with us since the beginning (actually leaving the US with us on August 8th) and traveling through 27 countries(!), my parents went their own way on March 13th. As we headed to Singapore, they flew up to Bangkok for one more night before flying back to the United States. Before reaching home (Hebron, CT), they’ll be making stops in Honolulu, LA, and Tampa to visit family.

As hard as it was for us to imagine traveling with them for 8 months before we left, it is now impossible to imagine not having them with us. Our time together has been a true blessing. For our kids to have so much time with grandparents they previously only saw 2 times a year is priceless.

Collectively we came up with a list of what we’ll remember most from our time with Naunie and Papa. Here it is: