Have Passport, Will Travel

My laptop and I have grown closer in the past couple weeks, mostly because I have spent so much time researching and booking upcoming travel for our family. At this point, we are booked on at least one trip each month until April. And while that's good news for someone who enjoys seeing new places, I may have given myself more work than I anticipated all at once.

First, the Dean family is spending Thanksgiving weekend in Bali. Four days off from school for an American holiday is a great time to travel in this region. No one else cares it's Thanksgiving so it won't be a busy travel weekend. I expect to run into a few SAS families at Changi Airport next week. Brian is due in Houston the following week so he will come home from Bali, switch clothes in his suitcase and head back to the airport within 5 hours for his next flight. And I'm encouraging his US trip because I've been buying winter clothes online for the girls for him to bring back to Singapore for our next travels.

We'll stay in town for a few weeks while we move into our new condo and then on December 20th we head to snowy Japan for 10 days. I'm excited about that adventure and also a little concerned that we will freeze into human popsicles after living so long in the heat (hence the need to buy snow boots from Lands End!) Regardless, the entire family is excited to experience a different culture and play in the snow for a few days.

We are thrilled that Brian's parents have booked their flights to visit us in late January and that brings the next series of trips. They arrive shortly before Chinese New Year, a 4-day weekend here. After looking at all sorts of travel options (and getting a bit frustrated at the lack of flights available already!), we ended up booking the destination we initially wanted. We're taking the family to Krabi, Thailand, for some beach time with Gran and PaPa.

Brian and I are thankful his parents offered to take care of the girls so we could travel on our own to Hanoi and Halong Bay the following weekend. Vietnam was an easy choice because we have no desire to bring 3 young children along to that particular destination! I was surprised that when we used Singapore Air miles for the flights, I actually had enough in my own account to redeem my plane ticket. I guess when each leg of a flight home is 10k miles, they add up quickly.

We'll give our passports a break until Spring Break in late March when we hope to head down to New Zealand for a solid week to explore that beautiful country. My mom would like to join us for the trip and when she recently emailed me about it, I actually responded that I needed a few weeks to get all these other trips planned first before I can even start thinking about that one!

It's definitely a packed travel schedule for our family but since it's likely our last year in Singapore, we feel a sense of urgency to see as much as we can before our time is up. So, if I'm not posting on the blog much in the coming days, all is well here. I'm probably just busy checking out hotel recommendations or figuring out exactly how a family of five can get from Osaka airport to Kyoto without too many tears. As always, I look forward to sharing our travel adventures on the blog when we return!