How did you get here?
Maybe you are looking for family travel inspiration or looking for the next big outing with the kids? Perhaps you were attempting to ignore your mounting to do list by creating more things to do on Pinterest? Or maybe you landed here by a search engine mishap while surfing for something completely unrelated to family travel? Whatever web wanderings brought you to Suitcases and Sippy Cups, I am glad you are here and I want you to stick around.
Let me show you around the place, so you can make yourself at home.
My name is Jessica, and I will be your tour guide. Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and hold all questions until the end of the tour.
First off, let me tell you a little about our location. Suitcases and Sippy Cups is the story of family who lets the world be their classroom as they travel together making memories. Travel tips and guides to great family locations are served up with touch of humor on the side, along with stories to inspire families to pack up and go.
So that’s my elevator pitch, but in plain English, Suitcases and Sippy Cups is where I keep a record of my memories and musings of family travel. This is the place where I remember the moments that have inspired us and the places we can’t wait to get back to. This is the place where I hope to prove that traveling with children is not only possible, but the best possible fun you could ever hope to have. This is the place where I insist –sweetly of course, I am a proper southern gal-that you create some adventures of your own.
And while I want you to be inspired to travel with your family while hanging out here, I am all about keeping it real. So you are just as likely to read a story of when mishap and mayhem won the day, as you are to read about the sheer joy of traveling as a family. And if I happen to have a traveling momma meltdown, you’ll probably read about that too.
Of course, I could never take these journeys by myself, and I am privileged to be joined by my high school sweetheart and our wild and wooly band of brothers. Five boys (and even three male dogs) certainly makes me the odd (wo)man out, but I do my best to tame the testosterone jungle even when I don’t completely understand the species.
Every traveler has their own style, and at our next stop I’ll tell you a little bit about how we roll. In a nutshell, our adventures are cheap frugal, fast-paced, non-stop, whirlwind tours of some of the best the world has to offer. Of course, we do like to slow down from time to time and there is always enough room in the itinerary for trip off the beaten path to check out some off- the- wall roadside oddity. Historical tours, animal encounters, or world famous landmarks. We love it all.
It’s impossible to know where you are going until you know where you have been, so we’ll check out a little bit of history at our final stop. We didn't start out to be a traveling family on purpose. In fact, we started out as parents who were scared to even take our kids to grocery store! Eventually, it was obvious that our wanderlust was as ill content to stay quiet as our increasing number of children. The only option was to find a way to make traveling with kids possible, and when we learned that it was not only doable, but the best thing we could do to help our kids become the adults we wanted them to be, well, we just kept doing it. By starting small and dreaming BIG we made our family hopes and our travel dreams come true.
We have reached the end of our tour. It has been a delight to serve as your guide. Please take some time to browse around our gift shop and let me know if you have any questions. Buh-Bye now!