Hello! My name is PJ, and I’m so excited to be contributing to Hither & Tither while Ashley and Aron get to know their new addition. Hudson was born about a week after my own son, Levi, and I’m excited that my new blogging friends and I will be experiencing our little ones’ milestones at around the same time.

Reading Hither & Tither frequently leaves me with a sense of wanderlust, so I thought I’d write about travel. I didn’t get a passport until I was a sophomore in college, but once I had my hands on that little blue booklet, I quickly became an international travel junkie. At 19 I swore that when I had a family I would take my kids to Europe when they were, well, kids and not make them wait until college to experience the world like I had.

However, at 31-years-old, I now understand why mom and dad didn’t fly to London or Paris with me and my younger sister: time and money. They both had full-time jobs and chose to spend their extra money making sure we were well dressed, involved in all the extracurricular activities we wanted, attended overnight summer camp, etc.

That’s not to say we didn’t take vacations. I have great albeit random memories of traveling with my family: In Washington, DC, we were obsessed with the National Children’s Museum. In Wildwood, NJ, I bought two bike shorts and t-shirt outfits on the boardwalk (hey, it was the ’80s). On one of our two trips to Disney World, we and the friends traveling with us with all got sick on the Body Wars exhibit at EPCOT Center. In California we saw Wayne Gretzky honored on the ice for setting a new NHL record for most goals, and I fell in love with the San Diego Zoo. And in Puerto Rico, we subsided mostly on iced tea and french fries, as my sister was a terribly picky eater.

I would still love to travel the globe with my own family, but now that I’m an adult (when did that happen?) I understand that it’s not the destination that matters, it’s who you’re traveling with. As a new mom to a 4-week-old son, I look forward to adventures big and small with him and my husband. And I can’t wait to read about the adventures that Ashley and Aron take with Hudson!