The Perfect holiday for Adventure Junkies #MarkWarnerMum

The video above is the embodiment of my little adventurers, each and every time we leave our house, regardless of what our plans are!  That look of pure happiness, eyes full of glee and literally shaking with excitement is mesmerising to watch. I love that they have this unspoilt view of the world where everything they see and experience  is an adventure and resonates with magic.  As their mother seeing this attitude of life just makes me want to show them the world!

As I sat down to think of a unique and creative post as an our entry into the Adventure Junkie category in the #MarkWarnerMum ambassador programme, Maya came up to me and really wanted to help.  Maya came up with the idea of making a video of what she would love to do and what would be her perfect holiday and the adventures it would contain.  She decided to base it on one of the our favourite family books “We’re going on a Bear Hunt”.  Maya tasked herself with writing the words and wanted to also do the voice over the video.  Our finished entry is below and I am so proud of her! I loved, loved her story and it sounds like a perfect holiday (well perhaps without the super adventurous encounter with Loch Ness Monster).  I think the video is a perfect summary of why we are Adventure Junkies!

Our perfect holiday consists of spending quality time together, embarking on new adventures and trying new things, whether it be skiing for the first time or washing elephants in a sanctuary.  Its having a break from our busy lives and enjoying life at a calmer pace whilst having the privilege of sharing these moments as a family.  The destination for us is an element but for it to be a perfect holiday it needs to have trying things for the first time, lots of adventures, fun and chances to make memories to last a lifetime!  My little adventurers have been dreaming day and night about snow and skiing and it would be something that I would love for us to all experience it together for the first time.

We coined ourselves as the Five Adventurers when I launched my blog and love the adventures that we take with our children all over the globe.  Adventure is very much like success and everybody has different ideas of what this constitutes.  So below is what I think adventure includes and why we are adventure junkies:

• Adventure is doing something that is outside of the normal 9 – 5 lifestyle and trying to break traditional conventions.  We strive to show our children that life is full of endless opportunities and hope to travel the world for 12 months (in a few years), showing them how little they need and how rewarding life can be.
• Adventure is going somewhere you have never been before.  Every year we try to go at least to some place we haven’t been both at home in the UK and abroad.  In 2016, we are going to visit Kent and Newcastle in the UK, follow in the footsteps of the Greek gods in Athens and road trip through France.
• Adventure is doing something daring.  I personally hate heights and roller coasters and whilst in NZ a few years ago, my husband wanted to try hand gilding as long as we both did it.  Jumping off the cliff is the craziest feeling in the world but it makes for one amazing story.  For my 4 year old, a daring adventure is packing two pairs of sunglasses and a few mirrors to check every nook and cranny as we explore Athens to ensure he doesn’t look into Medusa’s eyes.
• Adventure is learning a new skill or trying an experience for the first time!  I loved that my children got to play in the real monsoon rains in Thailand and enjoyed every last second of the glorious downpour with complete and utter delight.
• Adventure is to be unexpectedly stranded or lost and overcoming the hurdle and carrying on without it putting you off adventures in the future.  Being stuck up a mountain with a 6 month old baby in the middle of the Malaysian Summer are worrying times but you soon realise that these are the tales and memories that will stay with your forever.
• Adventure is sitting under a star filled sky with nothing around you and realise how vast the universe is and how much of a small part we all play in the greater scale of things.
• Adventure is going somewhere with all your heart, whether it be at home or across the globe and making it a truly memorable adventure.  I genuinely sharing the experience of any type of adventure strengthens the links between all the members of the family!  The arrival of each of my little adventurers brought new adventure and excitement into our lives and I have vowed that we would be making their lives filled with wonderment and adventure!

With the arrival of our children life changed but our adventures have remained as widespread and exhilarating as ever.   Some of our adventures have included:

watching the sunrise in the red centre in Australia

rice planting in Thailand with all rice being grown donated to orphanages,

our 2 year zipling at 60 mph across glorious islands and pleading to do it all again,

our 4 year old going crazy high on the bungee jumps!

climbing Moses mountain in Egypt,

doing a round the world trip with each day waking to endless opportunities of adventure!

camping out under the stars and having nothing around you for miles and miles

being filmed by a drone camera in the Yorkshire coast

our lives have been truly enriched by each and everyone of our adventures and 2016 promises to be as adventurous as any year we’ve had! We are super excited with trips to Athens and a sleepover with the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum in the next few weeks.

We would love to be considered as the #MarkWarnerMum for the Adventure Junkie category.  The adventures that are offered through Mark Warner are some of the ones we would most love to try and are high on our bucket lists!  Heres some more information about Mark Warner holidays.

Our little adventurers may be small but adventure is out there for everyone, its just a matter of seeking it!  In the words of my favourite saying “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all!”