48 Hours

Dear Mom and Dad,

We are leaving in less than 48 hours. Holy. Moly. I am starting to get scared. Oh well, here goes nothing. I can't visit every continent if I don't proceed to Asia. Two full days of traveling start Wednesday. One of our flights is 15 hours and 10 minutes long. A lot of rock, paper, scissors will be played.

Our ski trip was AWESOME! Wiley drove the entire way to Colorado, so he wasn't feeling the pictures the first day. I think he was a little tuckered out. We stayed at Andy's uncle's cabin. The first day we enjoyed skiing in Arapahoe Basin. The second day was a little bit more pricier but completely worth it. The powder at Breckenridge was incredible. Andy's friend hooked us up with cheaper lift tickets to Copper on the third day. I loved it all!

With love,

Three friends who are going to spend A LOT of time together.

XOXO

11 More Days Until Departure

Dear Mom and Dad,

It's time to update the blog! We are leaving in just a few days with so much planned that I don't know how I'm going to finish all my classes in time. Relax. And. Breathe. Here's what we have been up to thus far.

Halloween was the last weekend that we spent with Andy before he took off to Colorado. It was sad to see him go, but I'm sure we will see plenty of each other in the next few months of traveling.

On the following day, the boys were able to watch the Iowa game with each other while snap chatting me updates because I was busy working on my school work. I'm not sure which one is the "douche." Maybe both.  

Charlie and I were able to go to the Iowa/ Minnesota game. It was a great weekend for the Vaubels, not so much the Hawkeyes. 

We were even able to take the family Christmas photo before Charlie and I take off to Asia. Cards will be in the mail soon. Fortunately, we were able to snap this photo on John's new bed. The lighting just seemed right. 

Vegas was my next big adventure. I couldn't of asked for two better people to go with to see the Michael Jackson show. 

Rolling in the dough from $20 to $100. I think I'll quit my day job now...or wait...I already did. These gambling winnings are for dad.

Michael and his lead back-up dancer.

What's a vacation without any sun?

Always trying to cram in school work regardless of where my adventure is.

 The question of the trip became...spend $7 for a bottle of water or $5 for a can of beer?

Last night in Vegas, Emeril seafood for dinner and a comedy show for the nightly entertainment. 

Currently, we are in Iowa City for the Iowa/Wisconsin game. When the game is over, Wiley, Charlie, and I are traveling to Denver, CO to pick up Andy to go skiing for a few days. We are going to A-basin, Keystone, and Breckenridge or Copper. Then we return to Boji for Thanksgiving and take off that following Wednesday. Holy moly this going fast. 

Love,

The Go-Getters 

Culturing Andy

Dear Mom and Dad,

The boys and I have been diligently planning our trip. Currently, we are deciding which vaccines and medications we need. The Center for Disease Control is a great place to start and with the help of our doctors, I'm sure we will be adequately equipped. Charlie and I have our Hep A and B, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and Tetanus from traveling South America. We will probably need another Typhoid booster shot. Of course mom, I'm sure we will also update our flu shot. We are also looking into vaccinations against Japanese Encephalitis and Malaria. The three of us will be taking a trip for some shots... and not of alcohol... in the near future.

While we aren't working or planning our trip, we do find time of go on "mini traveling excursions." Our latest trip was to the Clay County State Fair. It was Andy's first time going to a fair, which I could hardly believe until I actually saw him at the fair. After eating an ungodly amount of food, we decided to go look at the animals. Andy's first question, "Ooo are there bears and tigers to see?" My mouth dropped to the floor when realizing he was serious.

Umm not exactly. More like cows, pigs, and sheep. "Cooooooool," was Andy's response. For his mother's sake to document in his baby book, I took pictures of the first time Andy petting a cow and a pig.

Andy, age 23

Apparently, in Colorado there aren't county or state fairs. Andy's vocabulary was also increased when he learned the term "cow pie" and had first hand errrrrr foot experience in stepping in it.

A few more pics from our experience.

Here's my favorite farmer:

 John, Charlie, and Andy checking out the award-winning largest pig.

 My favorite part was the horse races.

Charlie and I next to the award-winning largest pumpkin.

Leave it to Charlie to get involved in the shows.

We still haven't figured out why the performer had to take his shirt off during the show.

My souvineer from the fair was a peanut-butter beef pastry. She loved it. I'm really going to miss this little princess.

With all this working, planning, and teaching Andy the way of life in Iowa, we are hardly finding time to relax.

Cheers to the upcoming weeks!

Love,

The travelers

The Travelers

Dear Mom and Dad,

Here is a few pics of the travelers.

And both boys are Ellie "approved"

Hopefully, we can get a few of all of us together throughout our stages of planning the trip!

Work, Work, Work

Dear Mom and Dad,

The boys and I have been working our butts off to save money for this trip! The one thing I have learned so far about traveling is bring half the stuff you think you should pack and twice the money. It's actually a quote from somewhere, but it couldn't be more accurate.

We have a travel guru that will guide our trip with helpful advice and tips. I'm excited to be in contact with Tom Bedell for this very reason. I think he will be able to give us valuable insider information about traveling Southeast Asia. From the brief 15 minutes I have spoke to him about traveling around the Asian countries, I gained information about ways to go through the different countries, food to try, and places to visit. We now have a tentative plan of where we want to initially travel once we have landed in Singapore. Our route is going to consist of traveling South along the coast through Jakarta, Indonesia into Bali. We will stay in Bali for a week and travel back up North to meet Jordie. This should take about month to do this.

After googling pictures of Bali, I can't wait to explore! I am going to look into getting scuba certified since Charlie is dying to do some diving. There are packages for snorkeling and diving that cost anywhere from $30 to $150 not a bad price if you ask me. Another reason to pick up an extra work shift. It's how I have started to rationalize working all the time. I think, "I could do this for a couple hours now in exchange for the cost of scuba diving in Bali for an entire day." I guess I'll pick up the extra shift! :)

Love,

Your workhorses

Here We Go Again

Dear Mom and Dad,

It’s time to fire the blog back up because we are TRAVELING again! I’m so excited to announce Charlie and I are leaving December 3rd to Singapore. We aren’t going alone this time. Our good friend, Andy Wilms, will be joining us. We will also be joining forces with Jordie Willison January 5th in Jakarta, Indonesia. This will be such a fun experience, and I just can’t wait to get started! Let the planning begin!

Charlie and I will arrive into LAX at 630 pm, where Andy will hopefully be meeitng us. His flight arrives a couple hours before our flight. The three of us will then fly out at 10:30 pm to Guangzhou, China where we will have a 3  hour layover. Our next flight is at 5:40 am and we will arrive in Singapore on 12:30 pm two days from our original departure date. Between then and January 5th, we have to make our way to meet up with Jordie in Indonesia, and the four of us will take on Asia. 

This experience will be completely different than our travels through South America. One, we have friends along! Two, none of us speak any Asian language or anything remotely close. I’ll have to admit, when we first booked tickets, I thought Singapore was in China. Clearly, I need to brush up on some geography, which may or may not help beings I’m the most directionally challenged person. Dad, it’s time to buy another map. 

Countries I have been to or should I say lived in: 

• Mexico 
• Ecuador
• Peru
• Bolivia
• Virgin Islands ... and those other islands we visited (Does this count?)
• Spain
• Morocco
• U.S. (obviously)
• Chile - Charlie and I technically did step and cross into the boundaries of Chile, when Charlie and I were traveling through Bolivia for about a strong 5 minutes. 

Continents I still need to visit:

• Antarctica
• Australia
• Asia - Crossing this one off the list with the upcoming travel plans! 

I can’t wait to update this with new information!

Love,

Matti and the boys