Crayons and Carry-OnsTell Us About Your Family!
Hello! We are the Reibert Family and we are born and raised in Maryland. My name is Ashlee – I am 31 and a full time Emergency Medicine Physician assistant. My husband Jake is 34 and is a full time software engineer for VMware. We have one little boy, Finley aka Finn who is 2.5 years old. Jake and I have been together since I was 16 years old! We started traveling with each other when I was 17; we went to Cancun and he had to sign a document accepting parental responsibility for me! Insane! Through high school, college, and grad school we have traveled to one big destination at least once every year. We got married 5 years ago and now have Finn. We promised ourselves we wouldn’t let having a kid stop us from traveling. And actually… I think we have traveled more since we have had him. I guess trying to prove it to ourselves? Haha we travel with and without him. We are very big on the fact that you can travel with a kid and still vacay like an adult. And also, you need to travel without the kids too and remember you are a couple, not just parents.
What led you to the decision to become a traveling family?
We are not a full time traveling family. Heck, I don’t think we are even a part time traveling family. Jake and I both are fully invested in our jobs right now and aren’t ready to let that go. But… it is my DREAM to start off with a 3 month sabbatical from work and go travel with Finn! Probably Southeast Asia or Africa. I feel like that may be the trigger for us to move towards a more part time travel life. Jake has the luxury of working remotely which is amazing. I, of course do not but I would love to do some medical mission work while traveling if possible. We just launched our travel blog, instagram and Pinterest 3 months ago so who knows where this will take us! I can only hope we will take off like some of the other travel families I idolize like The Worldwide Webers!
What are some of the highs and/or lows of being a traveling family?
Our biggest high: We took Finn to Napa when he was 11 months old. One of the vineyards we went to allowed you to pull grapes off the vines and taste them. Finley wasn’t even walking yet and he pulled himself up on the vines and started plucking grapes and eating them. Then he did that adorable little dance babies do when they bounce up and down. Jake and I were just sitting back, in the sunshine, tasting wine. It felt like life couldn’t get any better.
Our biggest low: When Finley was 1.5 we went to Italy. A large portion of our trip was driving through Tuscany. We rented a car and brought our own carseat. Which everyone knows, these things are a BEAST!. We were catching a train from Florence to Venice, we had a stroller, car seat, 1 large suitcase, and 1 small duffle bag (pretty good for 2 weeks in Italy!). We got onto the wrong train cart after loading everything. Jake then had to carry everything 9 carts down to where we were supposed to be. It was insane. I felt so bad. Needless to say, Jake had a few beers on the train ride!
What are some places you think every traveling family should visit? Are there any places you wouldn’t recommend?
I would definitely recommend Italy, Turks and Caicos, Savannah, and Napa Valley. My number one recommendation though is Holbox. Holbox, Mexico is the ultimate toddler beach destination! There are so many shallow sand bars that you never feel scared about your child being on the beach and running towards the ocean.
What advice would you give to other families looking to take the leap into long term travel?
We haven’t taken the leap toward long term travel as of yet but it could definitely be a possibility in the future. It’s the DREAM! Just thinking about raising Finley in different countries and exposing him to different cultures makes me so motivated to make it happen somehow.
How do you afford to travel long term?
As previously stated we do not travel long term as of yet. We do travel often but we still work full time. Jake and I are lucky with how flexible our schedules can be. We have chosen to make travel a priority in our life and feel spending money on travel is important to us. We save money of course (gotta have money for an amazing retirement) but we do not put every penny in long term savings. We have a travel account that we automatically deposit money into every month from our paychecks. That money is not touched unless we are booking travel!
You can follow their adventures on their Instagram and head over to their blog to see what they’ve been up to!
