Photo credit-Travel Channel
Get out your kleenex and your credit card. This show is going to make you cry and then book a trip somewhere-anywhere with your kids.
I am obsessed with this new show on Travel Channel. You aren’t yet, because it doesn’t premiere until Sunday. But you will be. Trust me.
You know how passionate I am about travel with my children. Not because I want to expose them to the highest thread count sheets, but because I want to expose them to the world in all its messy fabulousness. I’m often asked to define luxury – to me – time is luxury – time to be with my children – time to really be together. You only get 18 summers, and I try to make every moment count.
We’ve done some amazing things as a family-JJ and I have worked with doctors in Rwanda, Macie and I have cared for orphans in Haiti, Wilson and I helicoptered over a volcano in Hawaii and Keaton and I have braved the lines at Disney without a VIP guide. We have yet to conquer 13,000 miles and four countries in just three months, but now I’m inspired to try.
JJ in Rwanda
I thought I was pretty much killing it until I saw Big Crazy Family Adventure, Travel Channel’s newest show. It tracks the epic journey of the Kirkby family. Without taking a single airplane, they travel more than 13,000 miles. With two small boys in tow. They say travel stories are only interesting when something goes wrong, this show is VERY interesting. But more than that, it’s touching. I actually got teary eyed watching it and had the overwhelming desire to pull my kids out of school and just start traveling with them. I know, you think I already do. But seriously, the bonds that happen when you are truly conquering the world together the way the Kirkbys have are rare indeed.
Photo cedit -Travel Channel
So if they don’t take a plane, how do they make it from Canada to the Himalayas you ask? For starters they board a cargo ship. Who even knew you could do that? When I first started watching the clip I thought they were literally going in a cargo container. Turns out there are state rooms you can book on cargo ships to get you across the ocean. In the 96 days they travel they actually take 15 different forms of transportation. None of them are an airplane. Did I mention how little their boys are? Bodi is 7 and little Taj is only 3.
Why do I love this show so much? It’s all about experiencing the world together, as a family.
Photo credit-Travel Channel
“Travel returns each of us to a state of childhood” ~ Bruce Kirkby
Research says that we make memories when we do something new, something out of the ordinary. That’s why we don’t remember if we fed the kids breakfast. But the first time you summit a mountain or learn to surf, these things you remember. New cars and new shoes don’t last, but extraordinary memories with your children do.
Travel Channel’s New Series ‘Big Crazy Family Adventure’ Premieres this Sunday, June 21 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
I hope you’ll watch it, I hope you’ll FB message me, tweet me, tell me what you think. And then I hope you’ll plan your own Big Crazy Family Adventure, even if that only means heading around the corner. It’s not the distance that matters, it’s the time you spend with your children.
Here’s a clip to inspire you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCqDNbdC0k4
And you can read more on Travel Channel’s website.
I was contacted by the Travel Channel and asked to preview this program and write about my personal connection. I was compensated for the post but would not have written it or endorsed the show if I didn’t think it was really fabulous, and I do.
