Every December, amid all of the holiday busyness, I love to sit down and reflect on our year. And, naturally I love to share a little bit about it.
So…here’s a 2019 year in review of Mom With A Map travel:
- 6 new-to-us states: Nevada, California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana (bringing our grand total up to 48!)
- 15 states in all this year
- 1 new-to-us Canadian Province: British Columbia
- 8 stamps in our National Park Passport book: Fort Sumter NM, De Soto NM, Death Valley NP, National Capital Region, Cape Lookout NS, Lake Mead NRA, Red Rock Canyon NCA and Olympic NP.
- 4 stadiums: Camden Yards (Orioles), Nationals Park (Nationals), Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays), and Suntrust Field (Braves)
- 1 Mission Trip: Lighthouse Family Retreat
- 3 new-to-us “major” cities explored: Las Vegas, Seattle, Vancouver (and countless smaller cities!)
Take a look at this year’s highlight reel…
In addition to some pretty cool travel experiences, we also published a book!
We’re looking forward to sharing a lot of details over the next few months as Cricket Catches The Travel Bug officially releases into stores in March 2020. However, the bulk of the work took place this year so I would be remiss not to mention a few timeline highlights:
- January 2019: Signed contract with Morgan James Publishing
- February 2019: Interview illustrators, apply for copyright, work with publishing team on marketing copy
- April 2019: Illustrations mostly complete and book moves into design phase
- June 2019: Sign off on final design and layout of book…Book goes to print
- August 2019: 1st copies of book arrive, at this point I don’t have a lot of involvement but the Publishing team works with distribution and bookstores for placement
- September 2019: Book announcement on Mom With A Map social media
You can read more about it here.
2019 Year in review personal reflections :
I think I say this every year, but WOW! Looking back over our year I’m in awe. In January I had no idea how many cool places we’d actually get to visit this year. I’m so appreciative of all of the opportunities. We have amazing sponsors!
I could never anticipate how much our children loved Vegas. In fact, previewing this video Miller made the comment that he really hopes we can go back to Vegas sometimes soon. (I mean, really, who would guess it would be such a family hit?)
Although, if you ask the kids about their favorite travel experience of 2019 they both instantly say “Lighthouse.” Amazingly, this was the week we served families living with childhood cancer. We worked our tails off cleaning, loving, helping, and serving. The week wasn’t about us or our agenda. I love that this particular week had such a big impact on Mary Grace and Miller!
It’s always hard to close the door on a great year, but we are very excited about what’s to come in 2020!
You also may enjoy reading:
Booking Airline Tickets: How To Avoid Overpaying
My Kids Choose Adventure, Always
Strange Things We Bring On Family Vacations
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