Category — Family

It’s not often for us who live in Atlanta to experience snow. But with the recent winter storm that swept through most the country, we got a chance to really enjoy snow in our own backyard.

It was a short experience indeed. As soon as the snow fell down and accumulated enough, we headed out to our backyard. Based on my past experience I knew we have to seize the moment. Otherwise, you won’t have any snow left to play with the next day.

Lucky for us, the next day was cold enough for us to enjoy a second round of Winter Olympic – Snow Sled in our backyard. I didn’t think Miss J will be a dare devil type kid. But she proved me wrong. She opted to slide down head first and even attempted to slide down with 2 lids. Oh! By the way, we didn’t have a sled so we just use the plastic container lid. Work like a charm!

And yes, we (or actually Mr. Rojo) were able to build a good size snowman. He was big enough to tower over Mr. Z and guard our backyard for a few days afterward.

The best part about snow in Atlanta is there is no clean up necessary. The heat took care of the snow a few days after. No snow shoveling to break your back.

As we say good bye to 2009 and give a warm welcome to 2010, I can’t help but look back at our family adventures that we have done through out the year.

I have to warn you that it will be a long post so why don’t you go grab a cup of coffee, get yourself comfortable and come back to join me as we walk down the memory lane together.

March – Gatlinburg, TN

We start the first quarter with our last minute trip that we planned with a group of friends. That was the first time we ever vacationed together but it won’t be the last for sure. 5 Families, 10 adults and 11 kids in one house for 2 days was a great fun. The only thing I wished we could change is to stay a bit longer. Kids had fun Snow Tubing down the Ober Gatlinburg and we had a nice and a bit scary scenic drive along the Great Smoky Mountains.

April – Washington DC

During Spring break, we went on a road trip to Washington DC. A full week in our capital city allowed us to enjoy introducing the kids to great history. We hit the ground running the first night checking out the Cherry Blossom along the Tidal Basin at night. The next day, we covered 2 museums in one day!!! The Natural Museum of American History was a big hit even though we only spent a couple of hours in there.

Yes, there are more things to do and see in DC BUT I couldn’t help planning a day trip to Baltimore. The Port Discovery Children’s Museum was a perfect escape from all the museums. It let them loose and be kids once again.

Back to DC, we had a little mishap to visit Capitol Hill so we just took it in stride and enjoyed our DC by Foot tour. By far, it was one of the highlight for me. A visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Lincoln Memorial gave me the sense of  deep appreciation for this country.

Another break from our museum visit was called for the next day. So we hopped on the Metro and checked out many little (or not so little) furry friends at the National Zoo.

The last day was not at all the least memorable. We spent time checking out the Air and Space Museum.

May – Disney World, Orlando, FL

At the beginning of Summer, we headed down to the land of Mouse to celebrate Mr. Rojo’s Birthday. There was no other places he would rather be than Disney World.

We had a great time in Disney’s Animal Kingdom even with a rain storm at the end of the day. Our friends came up to celebrate with us and we enjoyed our hot Florida day at Disney’s Water Park.

Orlando is not all about theme parks so we spent a leisure day wandering and shopping at the Downtown Disney.

July – Outdoor Adventures

We stayed close to home in the midst of Summer. But we did challenge ourselves to new adventures. We started off slow by hiking closer to home.. really close to home. Then we took another step out of our comfort zone to plan a camping trip. Camping in the backyard was another baby step before the real off-site camping. We did it and it was a blast. We also learned a few tips for our first endeavor.

September – Camping by the Lake

We did our first off-site camping at the campground by the lake nearby our house. Kids were a trooper in helping out in the camp and they enjoyed fun activities. Mr. Rojo got over (just a tad) his camping phobia.

September – Asheville, NC

What a month of stepping out of my comfort zone! After a camping trip, we headed North to Asheville for me to attend my FIRST Blogging conference. I was nervous! Asheville was such a beautiful town to visit. Good food.. no.. GREAT food!!

We continued our outdoor adventure by hiking up the Chimney Rocks. Then a quick visit to Biltmore Estate confirmed that I want to go back there again.

I enjoyed learning from and meeting new bloggers. And oh.. yeah.. we took the kids with us. So I learned a few things along the way to have a great business/family trip combo.

November – San Diego and Los Angeles, CA

We ended our 2009 adventures with the most memorable trip for the whole family to the West Coast. It was our first flying trip in a couple years. With all the changes in TSA that going on daily, I was very nervous.. Alas, we made it without lost child.

Mr. Z couldn’t stop talking about his visit to Legoland. I still have several posts I will do for our visit.. We didn’t even scratch the surface yet.

Whew, still with me? What a year we had!!!

As I look forward to the New Year, I don’t know if we will be blessed to be able to afford that many trips again. We already know we will go back to Thailand next year. I still would love to add a couple trips within the US if we could manage. Who know?

Hope you guys will stick around to see what adventures we will get ourselves into. :)

Happy New Year 2010! Have A Great Year Ahead!!

You might have noticed a break or a rather long absent on my blog. It’s the same time every year that I tend to check out and unplug from the Blogosphere and focus on family holidays.

I hope everyone has a great time with their family and friends during the Holiday season.

I really don’t want to do the year-in-review to sound like a broken record. But I couldn’t help to look back at my accomplishment this year.

Plus, January will be a mark for my 2nd year for The Q Family Adventures Blog. Happy Birthday to ME!! :)

Why I Blog

I first started blogging purely for  my own selfish reason. I want to find a way to document our family vacation trip.

The first year in blogging was in no specific direction. You will find me talking about our grocery saving, 5K Walk or even our fun day outs. I was just out there by myself with no sense of community or friendship.

What a Year

Then this year, after a quick break in the beginning of the year I started blogging again with more direction. I setup my goal to focus my posts more on family travel and activities around town and to be a great resource for other families who look for ways to travel with kids in a budget.

This time, I ventured out to the world of travel bloggers. I have met (online) so many great travel bloggers with different travel styles from Adventures travelers, RTW travelers, Family travelers, Solo travelers and many more. I have found a great community that embrace me as who I am. It might sound so cliche but I have found my tribe.

Later this year, I even attended my first Blogging conference. There I have found and met other fabulous bloggers friends IRL. It was a great conference where bloggers from different niches (travel, food, money, mommy, music.. or whatever you want to call yourself) got together and learned from each other.

I have also seen a lot of dramas played out over Twitter and Blogosphere. BUT what I have seen more is how bloggers rally together to help each other or people who is less fortunate from a mom who is fighting for her life to a group of blogger raise fund to build a school in Cambodia.

Looking Forward

It has been a year of many many first for me. And I’m looking forward to next year.

I’m looking forward to meet many more blogger friends who I have stalked for a long time.

I’m looking forward to share our travel stories and tips to our readers.

Most importantly I’m looking forward to get to know more and hear more from my readers.

Hope You Have a Great NEW YEAR!!!!