A few times a year, Sunil and I try to get away together. Nothing fancy or expensive, just quality time in a different part of the country. Or state. Or even city.

Sometimes that means packing up to drive 45 minutes north to a bed and breakfast…

And sometimes we head to a completely different city and become tourists for the weekend.

We make a budget, find a cheap Airbnb, try all the free adventures in the area, and spend as little time on our phones as possible.

Vacations don’t have to be expensive. Just memorable.

On our trips, I’m always torn between really wanting to capture the amazing time we’re having, versus wanting to just observe and be present.

Sometimes that means picking between being the moment or preserving the moments for later.

I tried to do a little bit more preserving on this trip; especially since we have a daughter now.

(I got them shirts that say “Brew Dad” and “Micro Brew” for Father’s Day. Cue all the heart eyes.)

Making memories with family is the best. And it’s free.

Don’t put it off until tomorrow.

Happy Monday and happy first day of SPRING! YAY SPRING! It's my favorite season, and I'm so excited! :)

Today I get to share with you the last leg of our travels in the beautiful countries of Turkey and Greece! We left Turkey one morning (our flight left at 5:50 AM - oofta!) and landed in beautiful Athens before breakfast, where we jumped right into exploring the beautiful city. 

Our first destination was the Areopagus - the actual location of Mars Hill, where Paul addressed the Athenians in Acts 17. We got to walk up the ancient steps used during Paul's day and hear about the uniqueness of the speeches that were delivered there every day. 

Further up the hill were temples and theaters, all surrounding the famous Parthenon!

Loved this temple! Such a gorgeous view! 

My momma is so cute!! It was so fun having her with us! :) 

The Parthenon is a mathematical legend! Each column was carefully designed to appear perfectly symmetrical, and the Greeks took into account the angle of the rock it stood on, as well as the sun's position in the sky throughout the year! It was WAY too much thinking for me to understand, but super impressive! 

It was fascinating to learn about how much work went into one structure - those Greeks sure knew how to build things! 

White houses everywhere! 

Windblown selfie! 

The film crew - minus Aaron! Love these guys. :) 

Food and resting after a long day and an early morning! We look a tad sleepy. (Naps were definitely had that afternoon!)

The following morning we wasted no time heading to Corinth! 

Soaking in the history about Corinthian culture... (see that little mountain in the background? You're about to see some amazing views from the top!)

We could NOT have asked for better weather during our travels! It got me so excited for spring! 

Hey look! A mountain! 

With only an hour remaining before the gates closed, we literally ran up as far as we could to get some amazing footage! 

Some of the adventurous members of our group made it all the way to the top, but I was content staying near the middle while keeping my lungs and legs alive... ;) 

Our roadie crew! #groupies #bouncers

I just can't even.

The following day - our last day in Greece - we did some shooting in the Agora: the ancient town square. You can tell from our faces that we were all pretty excited to almost be DONE! :) 

More ancient temples!! They start to blur together in my brain after a while... 

Our flight home turned out to be pretty interesting. We ended up flying back to Istanbul to spend the night, then getting up early the next morning to head back to the USA. We may have only had about 12 hours in Istanbul, but it was enough time to see the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia!! 

Who needs sleep when there are sights to be seen, right?? 

And with that, we hopped on a plane to the US (where we got delayed for another 24 hours, of course) before finally arriving home to our beloved Kansas City! And while I'm SO thankful that I got to see and explore two brand new countries, this little introvert is excited to be home. :) Thanks for following along on our adventures!!