In 1993, Nicole road tripped with family friends to visit Canada's beautiful maritime provinces. In this picture they're at the fabled home of Anne of Green Gables, in PEi.

Long before we moved west, my brother and sister set out to find their adventure. We've been able to swing a couple visits -- many more when we lived in Seattle, but we still try to get out that way every other year, this was one of our first trips in 2013.

Driving the west coast provides some beatiful scenery, but having Vancouver as a destination was a real treat. Here's our little ones, in 2013 when they were still little, near the science center.

In 1998, Nicole went on a youth group missions trip to Puerto Rico, where they helped paint a drop-in center, and helped clean up around an orphanage construction site.

In 2006 two Canadians decided to seek our fortune south of the border. I got a job in Albany, New York and we pitched our tent there. Our 3-year stint gave us plenty of opportunity to explore both ministry, and the east coast. From here we frequented New York City, and took road trips to Boston, Washington D.C, and Virginia -- amongst other places. Two of our kids were born in New York, while #3 wouldn't arrive until we'd moved back to Canada.

Like many folks who live on the eastern seaboard of North America, we've made plenty of trips to Florida. We even rented a house and lived there for a month. This was a work trip in 2019 that the kids actually got to come along on.

Our second forray into American living came after 3 years back in Ontario, Canada. This time, with three kids in tow, we moved to Seattle, where I took a job. Although this was only another 3 year stint, we love this part of the world, and visit as often as we can.

While on the west coast we spent as much time exploring as we could. This trip, in 2013, involved importing babysitters from Canada, then hauling them and our three kids down I-5 to Hollywood and DisneyLand. Another trip brought us camping in Oregon at Crater Lake.

After visiting friends in Ohio in 2008, then again in this picture from 2011, we couldn't imagine ever living in this State. Weren't we surprised 7 years later when I got a job outside of Cleveland, and we ended up buying the very house we'd visited!? Ohio doesn't have the mountains or the oceans to recommend it, like the west coast did, but the cost of living is great, the State Parks are all free, and the kids are happy and safe here. Not a bad home base to launch out on adventures from!

We were married in 2001, at the ripe old age of 21. Since we were too broke to go anywhere, our parents helped a lot -- Nicole's with the wedding, mine with the honeymoon. We went on a cruise with a number of wonderful stops. Here's the crazy kids in Cozumel, after snorkeling.

After 8 years of not-really-retired in Malaysia, my parents decided to move somewhere else. They picked Grand Cayman, where my dad could still be busy as a teacher. We've taken every chance we could get to go visit them there. Here's our three kids by a beautiful beach.

We travel with the kids whenever we can now, and most family-free trips are work trips. But in 2019 some old college friends convinced us that it was high time we went with them on an adults-only vacation. They selected Mexico, and we were happy to meet them there!