Traveling the World

I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel to much of the world. I love, love, LOVE to travel and wish I could do more of it. I've always said that if I won the lottery (of course, first I'd have to actually purchase a ticket!) I wouldn't need a house. I'd never be in one spot long enough to bother.

I've seen Paris at night from the Eiffel Tower. I've had piping hot waffles off a waffle iron in Brussels. I've water skiied on the Mediterranean. Snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef. Cruised the Carribean. Toured Peter the Great's Summer Castle on the Gulf of Finland. Bought a cool ceramic sink in Mexico and convinced Robbie to bring it home. Watched a black bear scurry up a tree in Canada. Passed a sea turtle and octopus underwater near Venezuela. Swam in the Natural Pool in Aruba. Bought beautiful lace in Switzerland. To quote Joe Walsh, "Life's been good to me so far."

Now I want my children to have these same kinds of opportunities. They've already traveled way farther than I ever did as a child and done tons more things. So, we are off to a good start! One thing I realized when I started traveling is that schools here in the US do not teach much in the way of geography, especially world geography. When I began to see where France, Italy, Switzerland, etc fit into the world it was a bit embarrassing that I didn't already know that kind of thing.

Anyway, there is a reason for telling you all of this! My little blog has been discovered, dear readers! :) I have just partnered with CSNStores.com. I've agreed to test drive one of their toys from here: Online Toys. I chose to get the World Map Floor Puzzle, and now you know why! I'm going to promise to teach my kids at least 5 countries each and will be back to tell you about our experiences once we have had some time to play with it. I specifically used the word 'play' because I bought two huge world maps from Sam's years ago and they are still rolled up and in the plastic tubes! I couldn't figure out a way to make them fun. This map looks like lots of fun.

So, thank you CSNStores.com. We are all excited about this cool opportunity!