It’s no secret to those who know us well that we’re an adventurous family. The two suitcases full of adventure supplies in our kitchen the children have “packed for their next adventure”- TBD- can attest to our adventurous family identity.

My two, ages 2 and 4, remember our adventures remarkably well. They often work adventure planning and packing into their play schema, assimilating their memories into their childhood work. They talk your ear off about our most recent camping trips, and adventures in the White and Catskill Mountains. While I’m certain it’s not the only reason, I know that the intentionality I’ve put into bookending our trips with fun experiences is one of the reasons these adventures are such a large part of their identity.

Adventures are wonderful and are also a springboard and an opportunity for even more magical moments to precipitate. With thoughtful intention, we can extend our joy and draw additional positive energy. I don’t know about you, but I’m always down for positive energy.

Like a pair of bookends on a bookshelf—two pieces at the beginning and end of a row of books providing unwavering support- I like to stack trip-related experiences at the beginning and end of our trip.

Build Anticipation:

Once a trip or adventure is planned there is a general sense of looking forward to what’s to come. Excitement and anticipation can be just as enjoyable as the trips themselves. We really like to lean into anticipation in our household. Chatting about our future adventures brings our family joy. My kids are particularly fond of countdown paper chains, which I love to use for our trips. Here are several other ways you might like to capitalize on a planned adventure and crank up the excitement in your household.

Books

Read books with your children to learn about your destination. When we went to Boston this past winter, we nearly cleared out the library of their books on aquariums and exotic fish.

Travel documentaries

We love travel documentaries. It’s especially fun to keep these for our family pizza and movie night- a long standing tradition in our home. Since we don’t watch much TV in our home, these nights are especially special and an important bonding tradition for us. What better way to spend it than with some anticipatory documentaries and chatting. My kids loved watching the copious penguin documentaries before heading to the aquarium to see them in live action.

Travel books

Place a travel book on the coffee table for perusal. This is simple and requires little effort other than a trip to the library. You might be surprised at how much your little ones love flipping through the pages. Coffee table magazines and books is a lost art I’m happy to revive!

Watch a movie

Find something set where you’re headed. We have yet to do this one, but it’s on my list and has tremendous value, I’d say.

Cook a cultural dinner to sample cuisine

Do a little research about the cultural cuisine at the destination of your choice, and make a special dinner to celebrate your upcoming trip. Bonus here to get an idea of which types of dishes your little ones might like if the cuisine will be wildly different from home.

Give space to reminisce:

Our fast-paced culture makes it easy to fall into the trap of quickly moving on to the next exciting thing. However, I invite you to consider creating ample space to reminisce. We’ve found that when the family has space for enjoyable retelling or recounting of events, we foster deeper family connections, build a shared family identity, and add to the family lore.

Display and flip through pictures together

I have my mother-in-law to thank for one of our post-trip anchors. After we’ve settled back in at home, our family is eager to share. We all settle into the living space and bring up our photos on the TV using screen mirroring (for Apple), a fairly underutilized tool that helps share copious family photos without needing to break the bank printing many or clamoring around a small phone screen to share.

We pop popcorn, settle in on the couch together, and my husband and I take turns pulling up our photos. We relive our experiences through these photos and it’s a blast. Flipping through our photos naturally breeds great discussions about our memories as we solidify and build upon them together. As we do we work together to choose a handful of our favorites, that we then print and put in our travel photo albums that are kept in our living room. The kids often ask to take them down and we relive our joy time and time again together.

Print pictures and create a scrapbook together

While we display and flip through our trip photos, the family chooses their favorites- yes, everyone has a say. We then print these photos for a family travel album we keep right in the living room for easy access to some of our greatest memories.

Share the “pits” and “peaks” around the dinner table

Pits and peaks is a way to start a conversation about the highs and lows of a day or experience. Generally, we share our pits and peaks at the dinner table for each day. It’s also a great way to frame a conversation around everyone’s experience on a trip. A little synopsis can go a long way in post-trip family bonding.

Play travel critics

This is a conversation my husband and I enjoy, and our children are starting to get in on the fun. We share what we’d do again and what we’d avoid had we the opportunity to do it all over. This is different from pits and peaks in that these are the larger activities we might do inside of a trip which might contain their own pits and peaks. For example, we loved Diana’s Baths on our trips to the White Mountains this summer, even if one of the pits of our day was trying to scale some precarious situations with kids much too little for the task. We’ll be going again, but we’ll be more mindful of our route next time around. I’m excited to see how these conversations change as children get older.

Journal

Research has been done to show that the act of writing helps connect body and mind, and creates longer lasting memories. It’s also beneficial to have written words for future reflection. We’ve turned this into a pen pal activity since my littles aren’t yet writing. I had the pleasure of listening to their thoughtful recounts of their experiences in our last trip to the Catskill Mountains in NY while I transcribed it into a letter. I love a good frame for a conversation.

Cook an authentic meal.

Choose one of the dishes you had on your trip and recreate it at home. My husband and I took a trip to Thailand before we grew our family, and while there we took a cooking class. We received a cookbook of the recipes we made and now we frequently make those dishes, transporting us right back to that little farm in the middle of Chang Mai and all the lovely experiences (and laughs) that came with it.

I invite you to give it a try

It’s hard to quantify the ripple effect of the cherished bookended moments filled with anticipation and reminicing, but I truly believe bookending experiences produces stronger foundations upon which our children’s childhood memories can be solidified. It doesn’t need to break the bank and only takes a dash of creative forethought and execution. These little moments we build into our lives enriches our children’s childhood in a way that’s perhaps most important- stronger relationships and memories that can last a lifetime. A commendable goal for this one wild and precious life.