Hello and welcome to Everywhere They Roam! We are a family of five who enjoy spending our time traveling—on a budget! My husband, Mike, and I have been together since high school and we have three boys ages 14, 11 and 8. Both my husband and I enjoyed traveling before we had kids and we didn’t let our babies hold us back. We started out slow with just road trips. Our first big family vacation was a 12-hour road trip from Ohio to Myrtle beach with our 13-month-old son. By the time our third kiddo came, we were traveling out of the country pretty regularly so he had his first passport when he was only five months old.
We love all destinations from little overnight stays to all-inclusive resorts, road trips, camping and cruises! We have a timeshare at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, which was our yearly vacation spot for about five years. Then in 2016, we introduced our kids to cruising and now they’re hooked. We learned pretty quickly as we added more members to our family, that our vacation costs increased substantially. So, we got creative and found ways to travel more and spend less. Hopefully we’ll get to cruise again soon, but in the meantime, we’re excited to share our adventures with you and show you how to save money along the way!
Michelle
I am a full-time working momma who manages a team of creative ladies! Our team creates eLearning Trainings, and marketing materials. When I’m not traveling—or planning our next trip, you’ll likely find me in my craft room creating my next masterpiece or in my kitchen baking up something sweet. I am creative by nature so I’m always making something–whether it’s designing custom shirts, refurbishing some old piece of furniture or finding some new dessert to try!
Mike
Mike is an Electrical Design Engineer and when he’s off the clock, he’s usually playing video games, helping me with some DIY project or smoking meat! Anytime we travel, we always end up at a BBQ joint because it’s food that we all love. Now that we’ve been cooped up, Mike found a new hobby making his own BBQ! I’ll have to say, his new hobby has certainly made dinner easier for me! Every weekend he is excited to plan our next meal—from pulled pork, brisket and short ribs to chicken wings and prime rib. He’s even had me whip together cast-iron skillet pies and cookies, which were great too!
Michael is our oldest and is never hard to find—he is always gaming. He and his friends are always playing Fortnite or Ark Survival. He is now in High School and enjoys playing Trumpet in both Marching Band and Jazz Band. He is also in Ski Club and works at a local kids’ gym. When it comes to travel, he’ll choose cruising any day! Our Oasis of the Seas cruise was his favorite trip. Our resort in Mexico, Sandos Caracol, is a close second. And he loves to travel with family—he loves when we do big family trips with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Cohen is our middle child and is also a gamer. He is in Cub Scouts and also plays soccer. Cohen’s favorite vacation was Universal Studios. He rode everything he was tall enough to ride. The Mummy was the only thing left on the list and he was nervous to ride it. He literally waited until the last possible minute to get on it! When he was done, the park was getting ready to close, but he was happy he faced his fears! His second favorite vacation spot is Disney. Cohen is our thrill seeker so he loves rides and roller coasters!
Tyler is our youngest child and he is our huge animal lover! He is our biggest cuddle bug and probably the biggest Momma’s boy 😊 He also plays soccer and wants to be just like his older brothers and play video games. I asked Tyler what his favorite vacation was—I was assuming Disney or Universal—but he said cruise (Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas). I asked what he liked most about that trip and he said, “probably the food!” I said “really?” He’s like “I like food—they have good food!” Tyler’s second favorite vacation spot was Myrtle Beach—he said there were so many fun things to do like putt put, go-carts and swimming!