bigbluedot.xyz

Mary and John in New Zealand, 2005

Colebrook 5, Nicaragua, 2017
For those who know us, they know we are passionate about travel, adventure, and FOOD! Our first round-the-world trip took place in 2004/2005, shortly after we got married. We quit our jobs and moved to New Zealand where we worked and traveled for 8 months. We took the long way home by backpacking through over 20 countries in 10 months. Now almost 13 years later we will do it again, this time with 3 kids in tow! We are now the Colebrook 5: Mary, John, Finn, Nico & Milo!
Life is short, and the time we have to spend with our children flies by much too fast. We are amazed at how quickly the years pass when we are absorbed in our everyday lives: work, school, etc. Therefore, we are hitting the pause button to slow things down, and to experience life in different places. In light of the current global political climate, we believe it is more important than ever to show our children that people from all over the globe are but people after all. Our need for connection and security are universal, making us more alike than different. At the same time, it is the diversity in our cultures and customs that make the world so interesting and worth celebrating.
Surprisingly, making the decision to quit our jobs, pull the kids out of school, and go traveling was easy. For years we knew this was something that we wanted to do, and neither of us hesitated to commit to it. Once we decided to go, we had to decide when. The kids are now ages 7,9, & 11, and it seems like the perfect window.... they are somewhat self-sufficient and they still like us!
The difficult decision was figuring out where to go. We really toyed with the idea of settling somewhere for a year, and then doing a few months of traveling. However, after many many many discussions, we listened to our peripatetic hearts and realized that we want to simply travel. There are just too many places in the world to see and experience with our kids. Please see the itinerary page for an outline of where we plan to travel.
We hope that you will follow us in our (mis)adventures around the globe. We would love to hear you so please feel free to drop us a line! Adios for now!
Mary, John, Finn, Nico, & Milo
The "Colebrook 5"