Fun is a Universal Language | Volunteering In the Dominican Republic

Celebrating the Everyday, Travel  //  15th March 2013

With curious minds and hearts bursting with so much love, we boarded a huge bus and made our way to the school. We honestly had no idea what we were going to be doing or what the situation would be like when we arrived, but we trusted in our hearts that we had a lot of love to give and it was going to be put to good use! ;)

On the last day of the What If Conference in the Dominican Republic, a large group of the conference attendees ventured off the road well traveled by tourists and made our way to a school in one of the local villages. As we pulled up to the small school surrounded by barbed wire fences, we were surprised to see kids just hanging out… outside of the fence. The school has about 900 attendees. However, there is only enough classroom space for about 150 (that is my best guess, anyway)! It is small. They have to rotate kids in and out. However, the most surprising and heartbreaking thing for me was, not the fact that the kids are only in school for a portion of the day/week, but many of the kids do not attend the public school at all. Their parents choose not to send them. Sometimes those kids are busy working for their parents and/or they just don’t know any different.

We all gathered around the playground and were welcomed with open arms by the kids and the teachers who performed a little ceremony for us! They knew we were coming and they prepared a whole welcoming event, complete with dancing and prayers. We split off into groups and made our way up into the classrooms to hand out some school supplies that we had all gathered for the kids!

As the school bells rang, the kids jumped out of their seats and ran for the playground! We were all there eager to have some fun. But, there was just one challenge. We did not speak the same language! It was definitely a barrier. As much as I tried to pick up a few phrases here and there, I was not a quick learner! All I wanted to do was hug these kids and tell them how special they are! Without words, we definitely struggled at first.

There were a few What Ifers that spoke Spanish and could quickly communicate with the kids. As we watched them, having no idea what they were saying to each other, we realized something. With huge smiles on their faces, they all seemed to be having fun! They were running around, doing what most kids on a playground do… they play. It didn’t really matter what they were saying… they were having fun!

We definitely like to have fun! So we stopped thinking about the barrier and started doing! We picked up a random Frisbee looking thing (that I am pretty sure is typically used as a base) and started playing catch with two of the sweetest little girls! Before we knew it, a few others joined in and we were soon running around the playground playing tag! With no words spoken or understood, we were having fun! It was in that moment that we realized Fun is a universal language!

This day we spent hanging out with these precious kids from the Dominican Republic was a day we will likely never forget! They taught us so much about love that our hearts were even more full than when we had arrived! Next time we are in a situation where there is any type of barrier… we will likely smile bigger, give a warm embrace, and do something crazy fun… all in honor of those beautiful little kids in the Dominican Republic!

 

Ravens Win the Superbowl, A Crazy Morning, and Lots of Life Lessons

Celebrating the Everyday, Travel  //  4th February 2013

So, after that CRAZY, AWESOME, WAY TOO CLOSE, Ravens win last night, Ryan and I decided we would celebrate today on the blog with a special Raven’s post and delay our Amazing Life Manifesto post till tomorrow…

… However, this post has quickly become something a bit different! ;) Still a celebration, but the celebration has exploded a bit! Lol.

This morning started off a little bit like Home Alone. You know, when you wake up to your husband yelling words that we choose not to post on our blog and jumping out of bed faster than I have ever seen him move! “Liz, its 7:15! Hurry we are going to miss our flight.” Feeling the sense of urgency and actually waking up feeling pretty darn good because of the extra hours of sleep, I quickly respond, “Ryan, our flight left at 7:15 a.m.” Yes, that was the start of our morning. We were supposed to be on a 7:15 a.m. flight to Punta Cana to attend the What If Conference. Even though we knew in our minds that the flight we were supposed to be on was probably the last flight getting into Punta Cana today, we still got ready faster than we ever have before and literally within 5 minutes we were out the door and in the car to the airport. Ryan was driving safely, but fast… and I was searching my phone for other options! We had a layover in Atlanta so if we could get to Atlanta and still catch our flight- that would be AMAZING. Unfortunately, there were no flights into Atlanta early enough. So instead of freaking out and yelling at each other, we offered suggestions. We were on adrenaline and determined to make it to Punta Cana for the start of the conference!!

Somehow I came across a Punta Cana flight from Delta that could work. I called and with the help of a super sweet (Ravens fan at that!) lady we were booked on a new flight to get into Punta Cana today!!! Thank you God!

But wait- it get’s better!! Ryan dropped me off at the airport while he parked so that I could finish reserving the flight and get our bag checked. (The flight was scheduled to leave in less than 1 hour). As I am juggling my phone and two bags while looking for a pen to write down our confirmation number, I dropped my passport. I knew I dropped something, so I bent down and picked up what I thought I had dropped. I made my way to the check-in desk and all of a sudden, I could not find my passport! Somehow, in a matter of about 5 minutes and 20 feet, I lost my passport. I thought I was losing it. I thought it was one of those moments when I couldn’t find my belt but my belt was on! Lol. I asked the attendant if it was hanging off of me somewhere… and she didn’t see it either. She suggested that I ask the information desk to see if anyone turned it in. The nice gentleman at the desk said no one had turned anything in to him… but I could check the lost and found office that opened at 9:00 a.m. (9:00 AM… are you kidding me?! ;) My flight would have been half way to Atlanta by then!). By this point, we were coming close to the time where we wouldn’t be able to check any bags because it was getting to be too close to flight time. As soon as I started to panic, Ryan walked through the doors. I told him what was going on and he kind of smirked at me like I was crazy, but he knew it would work out. I gave him the bag so that he could check it and get our tickets. Meanwhile, a super sweet lady was sitting on the bench nearby watching this all go down. (Everything- from the very moment I walked in and had way too many things going on! Lol). She, so sweetly, said, “Ma’am, did you drop your passport? I saw a gentleman pick one up right here and he walked that way.” Ohh my goodness… at least I didn’t think I was losing my mind anymore. I knew someone in the airport had my passport- I just had to find them. (Keep in mind, this is around 7:30 a.m. and there weren’t many people in the airport at this time!) So I made my way back down to my new friend at the information desk. I was about to ask him to get on the intercom system and report a missing passport (In my head it would have been like a missing child report where everyone would stop what they were doing and someone would find that they had picked mine up by accident). Before I could even open my mouth to ask, he pointed to an older gentleman walking about 30 feet away from me with a passport in his hand. I took off running… seriously… lol. And I caught up to the gentleman. I said, is that a missing Passport… and with a huge smile on his face he said YES! He said he had picked it up and didn’t know what to do with it- so he was taking it back to where he found it! AHHHH! Once again, Thank You God!

Wow… so basically, this morning was CRAZY. But we are so thankful to say that we are now on a flight and will soon be joining our new friends in Punta Cana for what we are sure to be a week full of learning and growth! We are already well on our way… with many AMAZING life lessons that we will take away from this trip. #1 Always set two alarms… lol. No, but seriously, Never Panic and know that God will take care of you. #2 Be observant and never be afraid to speak up. #3 Be grateful for those incredible people that you unexpectedly meet along your journey through life who have a special way of turning your rough days into AMAZING ones! #4 And finally, no matter how bad something may seem, never ever give up!

With grateful hearts… we hope your day is pretty AMAZING! And for all of you Ravens fans… WAHOOOO! We are wearing our Raven’s pride extra proudly today!! Here is a glimpse of the scene in our neighborhood last night! Baltimore is happy!! ;)

AMAZING Travel Adventures: What’s Next Tour Scenes from the Road

Celebrating the Everyday, Travel  //  16th January 2013

Hello Everyone!  We are now one week into Justin & Mary’s What’s Next Tour and we have already travelled all the way across the US from Los Angeles, CA to Orlando, FL and up to Charlotte, NC.  Life on the road is CRAZY!  One of the strangest things is waking up each day in a different time zone.  We have been taking a ton of pictures and sharing lots on Instagram.  Today we wanted to share a few of our favorites so far.  Enjoy!

Yes, that is a man playing the violin with a scary wolf mask in the middle picture!  NOLA was crazy! 

Be sure to follow along on Instagram @Liz_and_Ryan and checkout hash tags #whatsnexttour #whatsnextcrew.  Have an AMAZING wednesday!

 

How to make your next road trip more AMAZING

Celebrating the Everyday, Travel  //  8th January 2013

Hey everyone! It’s Day 2 of our CRAZY adventure with Justin & Mary for their What’s Next Tour.  Today is the first day workshop day of the tour and then we pack up and head off to Phoenix! (We are finishing this post up will Mary is speaking and let us just say that she is definitely ROCKIN’ IT!)  Since we will be traveling quite a bit over the next few weeks and and we knew we would most likely start missing some of our favorite things from home, we decided to create a fun little travel box to make our adventure just a little bit more AMAZING.  Here a few of the things we’ve included:

Sour patch kids! These are probably Ryan’s all time favorite candy (not consisting of chocolate and peanut butter).

Hairbro Gummy Bears! In addition to sharing the bus with J&M, we are also sharing it with our good friends Ashley and Jeremy.  A while back Jeremy had posted that hairbro gummy bears were his favorite.  Say no more, we included these too!  Ok, I promise, our box of travel amazingess doesn’t just include candy!

Air Freshners! We LOVE to burn candles at home.  The smell of fresh linen, cupcakes, spiced pumpkin, and cinnamon are some of our favorites!  Although burning candles while driving might not technically be illegal (if anyone knows for sure we’d love to know!) it isn’t exactly the safest thing.  Hit one pothole and all of a sudden you have a flaming projectile flying through the air!  So instead, we picked up these AMAZING air freshners from Yankee Candle.  Now the bus will still smell like spiced pumpkin and cinnamon and we won’t have to worry about testing out the smoke detectors.

Vitamin C Energizing Face Spritz! The tour, although a super incredible once in a lifetime AMAZING fun time, is still going to be a lot of hardwork!  Last night already consisted of set design at midnight while using head lamps!  Yes head lamps!  Like the kind you would use while spelunking! So to fight off the urge to curl up in a ball and rest like a baby, we picked up energizing face spritz from The Body Shop!  One quick sprtiz is an instant pick me up of citrus AMAZINGNESS!

To round our the rest of our box we included Ghiradelli Chocolate, Cheez-its, gold stars, and Rolos.

Ok, so this wouldn’t be a “how to” post unless we shared a few tips on how you can create your very own travel box of goodness to make your next road trip more AMAZING. Below are a few ideas to help inspire you!

Find a fun box to store everything in! A boring old plastic bag or cardboard box just won’t do!  The goal is to make your trip more AMAZING and that includes the box.  We picked up a fun little rustic box at Homegoods then stuffed it with all of our goodies.

Include a few of your favorite indulgences!  Traveling and roadtrips are meant to be a break from your everyday lives so spice it up with your favorite chocolates and candies.  As we mentioned above, we included sour patch kids, gummy bears, Ghiradelli chocolate and Rolos.  Before your next road trip, head to the grocery store and spend a few extra minutes in the candy aisle picking out your favorite sweet treat!

Think therapeutic spa! Whether you are going on a road trip or traveling for business, travel can be rough on the body. Help rejuvenate your body and mind with fun things you world normally only find at a spa.  Pack your favorite body lotion, air fresheners, bath soap, and in our case, Vitamin C Spritz.  These little extra touches will make your trip that much more relaxing.

In addition to your box of fun, don’t forget to pack the essentials you simply can’t live without. Yesterday we asked on Facebook “What is the one thing you can’t go without while traveling?”  Thanks so much to everyone that responded!  We received a ton of AMAZING answers and we wanted to share a few of our favorites today.

Brad Slater –  A travel partner! Makes it so much more fun. Otherwise, my rollerboard suitcase. It’s been all over and makes navigating airports so much easier.

Natalie Franke – New music / a playlist for the trip!

Abby Field – fresh socks!

Have an AMAZING week and safe travels on your next trip!

Travel Adventures: North Carolina and Charlottesville, VA

Celebrating the Everyday, Travel  //  16th October 2012

This month, we will be out and about a lot!  Life is taking us on an adventure and we could not be more excited to be able to share these adventures with you all!

This past weekend, we found ourselves on a road trip to North Carolina and back, with a detour in Charlottesville, VA.  As we made our way to NC, we made the conscious decision not to rush.  We always find ourselves with a schedule packed full and when traveling, we always have it in our heads to just get there!  As much as we were super excited to get to NC to visit with my cousins on Friday!!!, we realized that life is all about the adventure and sometimes we just need to slow down!

Soon enough we found ourselves in Durham, NC surrounded by some of our favorite people ever!  ;) Our cousins (Tony, Mike, and Matt- all three that live in NC!!!  WAHOOO!), Brooke (the ever fabulous Brooke of Brooke and Tony! ;) ) and Michael’s super fun girlfriend Jessie!  We enjoyed an evening full of southern food… including fried pickles… and cupcakes too!  Awesome.

Recently, we have found ourselves getting super excited about the thought of repurposing old things to make them new again!  So, we woke up on Saturday morning and Brooke and Tony took us on an antiques store adventure!  Every once in awhile we have found ourselves in antique stores oooing and awwing over the fun little treasures we see.  But, to be totally honest with you, most of the time they just overwhelm us!  ;)  Until Brooke and Tony took us to one of their secret finds in the Raleigh area, Revival Antiques. Before we even stepped foot in the store I was drooling over the piece of furniture I saw through the window.  That should have been my first sign to stay outside, right?!  ;)  But life is all about the adventure!  And thinking about how we would get said piece of furniture in our car to take back with us is just a fun challenge among the adventure!  ;)  Unfortunately, we found way too many things in that store that we wanted to bring home with us…. including a whole warehouse of unfinished old furniture that was just looking for a little TLC!  Fortunately though, it did revitalize our faith in antique stores and made us realize that we just have to find the store that fits our rustic chic style!

After a few stops along the way, we made our way to Winston Salem for Darcy and Patrick’s engagement session!  More on that goodness to come tomorrow!!  ;)  But they shared Wake Forest with us and we always love exploring college campuses- especially when they have a resemblance of Bucknell!  ;)

On Sunday, we started our day off with a fabulous home-cooked breakfast by Tony and Ryan!  As you may have seen on Instagram, I am afraid that I almost lost my role as Ryan’s sous chef!  Tony is all about the idea of measuring the pancake batter out to make sure all of the pancakes are the same size and shape!!  :(  Ugghh… ;)  Seriously, I was very close to losing my job!  ;)  After a super tasty breakfast, and granola bars in hand (thanks Brooke!), we were on the road again.  Destination Charlottesville, VA!

Ohh my goodness I had no idea what amazingness was ahead!  We actually never made it into Charlottesville itself… but we wandered our way through the back roads stopping at little farms along the way to our final destination Veritas Vineyard & Winery!  Our couple, Amanda and Bobby, shared their excitement for this amazing place, but nothing prepared me for it! I seriously think I found my new favorite place ever!  It kind of ranks up there with Disney World- and that takes a lot!  :)

We will be sharing Amanda and Bobby’s incredible engagement session with you all soon!!! But in the meantime… we just have to share this picture of the chandelier in their special event space.  Rustic Chic at its finest!  But that is like the thing that I like the least about that place!  ;)  haha!  (Does that tell you anything?!?!  IT IS AMAZING!)  Lets just say- we walked in and it screams LOVE!  I will leave it at that until we share Amanda and Bobby’s Engagement Session!  You won’t want to miss it!

In the meantime… if you know anyone who wants to get married at a Vineyard or just wants to have photos taken of a fun adventure at one of the most magical places ever… please call us!  We would love any excuse that takes us back to Veritas Vineyard & Winery!

Or on that note… we would love any excuse that takes us on a fabulous journey to explore new fabulous places!!!  So grateful for the opportunity!  Next up… New England!  ;)