On our trip to Australia and New Zealand last month, we used miles and points for our flights and some of our accommodations. The one big exception was our vacation home rental in New Zealand. Even though we shelled out quite a bit of cash for this one-week rental, I have no regrets! Why We […]

Confession: I’m not a big fan of kids’ birthday parties. I don’t like planning them, and I don’t like the stress of the actual party day. However, my kids love birthday parties, so most years I suffer through them. Two years ago, I offered my daughter a trip with the family to Great Wolf Lodge […]

My husband and I love the Summer Olympics. Every four years, we obsessively watch the Olympics on TV, vowing that we will travel to see them in person the next time. Plans for Rio 2016 This seems like an eternity ago, but my husband and I had big dreams of going to the Summer Olympics […]

For some of you who have been following this blog for a while, you may remember that I have been trying to get my sons’ Russian passports renewed so that we can visit Russia again (see Returning to Russia: It’s Complicated!) To make a long story short: We adopted my boys from Russia. They have […]

After I returned from Australia and New Zealand a few weeks ago, a blog reader emailed me a question: Which is better for kids, Europe or Australia? She had been planning on taking her kids to Europe, but after reading about me raving about Australia and New Zealand, she was having second thoughts. It’s a […]