Written by Whitney Jordan of Polka-Dotty Place

I have fond memories of traveling with my family when I was young.  My parents planned several road trips -from Indiana to New York, Indiana to California and lots of little trips in between.  At the time, I wasn’t thrilled about spending hours in the close quarters of our car, but I always enjoyed the trips.  I have many happy memories of traveling with my family so I wanted to be sure to make traveling a priority when I had my own family.

My husband also loves to travel and we started making plans together as soon as we got engaged.  He planned our honeymoon to Disney World and loved researching great deals for hotels, rental cars and restaurants.  I loved planning the details of sights to see, road trip snacks, packing for the family and finding fun things to do while we were tourists.  Those roles have continued throughout our almost 10 years of marriage.   My husband gets daily emails from hotel and travel sites to keep him up to date on the current deals and we have also done some off season traveling to save money.  You don’t have to spend tons of money to travel with your family.  You can pack food to save money, stay in affordable hotels that serve breakfast and you can get local deals on-line for activities you are planning to do.

We have lived away from “home” our entire married life.  We were both raised in Indiana and have lived in Utah and Arkansas for our married years.  We’ve flown and driven home more times than I can count.  It’s important to us to make it home as much as we can especially for big holidays, special family events and for extended trips when we can.  We are lucky to have family come to visit us and we always enjoy being tour guides for their travels.

I am thankful for my husband because he plans so many fun adventures for our family.  I like to be home and enjoy routines.  He appreciates that, but also knows that we will have a great time together on the trips he plans.  We’ve always traveled on a tight budget.  We don’t stay at the fanciest hotels, eat the nicest dinners but we do splurge on special things here and there.  He will sometimes clear plans with me in advance and other times surprise me with a little getaway.  I love him for taking the time to do special things for us.  He’s a fan of making memories too!

We have a 9 month old baby girl and she’s already traveled more than 10,000 road trip miles in her little life.  We’ve moved across the country (Utah to Arkansas), taken several trips and she is an amazing traveler.  We pack all of her familiar toys, blankets and favorite items.  We try to keep her routine, bring lots of toys and snacks for the car and she does great in hotels.  She really doesn’t know any different and we’re hoping she’ll grow up loving to go on our family adventures.

We made the decision to decorate our home with pictures from our trips.  I take tons of pictures when we are traveling, print them and then decorate our home.  We currently have pictures on display from: Mt. Rushmore, Jackson, Wyoming , San Francisco, Indiana, Mexico and Utah.  We love reminiscing about those fantastic trips together and each time we glance at the pictures we are flooded with happy memories.  We even have a special travel themed Christmas tree.  We pick out a local ornament from all of the places we travel and add to our collection each year.

Do you travel with your family?  Where do you like to go?  I’d love to hear your family friendly travel recommendations.  I hope you plan some fun adventures for your entire family and make some special memories in the process.

Hello!  My name is Whitney and I blog at Polka-Dotty Place.  I am a new mom and my family recently moved to Arkansas.  We are enjoying the state and like to spend our weekends exploring our new home.  I love to take pictures, blog, organize, make lists, bake, accessorize, do DIY projects and watch football.  I am always looking to make new bloggy friends so please stop by and say hi.