Welcome & Thanks for Stopping By!
HI! We are Chip, Lindsay, Reid, & Bennett and in 2017-2018 we set off to discover new places, meet and re-connect with people, and help spread kindness
while enjoying a family gap year together. This is how “We Hit Pause” came to fruition.
Since then we have embarked on countless mini-pauses: 3 months in US/Canada, winters in Hawaii and Mexico, summers in Europe.
Here on our website, we share our experiences, challenges, memories, photos, and hopefully some decent tips for you.
If you want to start at the beginning of our journey, start HERE!!
---Hot Off The Press---
Coming up next: Blog posts on Budapest, Costa Rica, Berlin, and Biarritz, France
Blog Posts At Random (Or Click Here For All Posts):
Want More From The Blog?! Click HERE
Meet Our Family:
We are Chip, Lindsay, Reid, and Bennett. A Family of four who enjoys “hitting pause” on our life in Durango, Colorado as often as we can to re-connect as a family and seek out those unforgettable travel moments. We’ve explored North America and Mexico by VW van during our one year sabbatical, Canada on a 10-week van trip, and so many other beautiful places in-between!
Wanna know why We Hit Pause? Start here…
Top 6 Reasons Why We Chose to “Hit Pause”
- Arizona 4
- Baja 5
- Beaches 17
- California 4
- Canada 11
- Central America 10
- Colorado 4
- Costa Rica 2
- Europe 14
- European Cities 5
- Family Travel 28
- Finances 2
- France 5
- Germany 2
- Guatemala 5
- Hawaii 8
- Holland 1
- Idaho 2
- Ireland 4
- Mexico 10
- Minimalism 4
- Missouri 1
- Mother-Daughter Trip 9
- National Parks 11
- New Mexico 2
- Oahu 8
- Oregon 5
- Previous Trips 10
- Road Trip 25
- South Pacific 1
- State Parks 8
- Surfing 5
- Switzerland 1
- Texas 2
- Tours 9
- Travel 13
- Turkey 1
- UNESCO 2
- US Cities 6
- USA 29
- Vacation 10
- Vietnam 5
- Volunteer 1
- Washington 3
- Wyoming 3
- lessons 3
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I arrived in Guatemala 6 weeks ago and like many things in life, the time flew by!! I've said it before and I'll say it again...I honestly feel like I just stepped off the plane yesterday (with my kind Texan friends that I had just met, by my side). To tell the truth, thanks to the latest news headlines I was unbelievably nervous about traveling in Guatemala. Leaving my husband and the comforts of the US was going to be a challenge, I thought. But the minute I stepped outside my host family's house that first day those feelings of worry vanished and I realized Antigua is just like any other city in the world. There are friendly tourists, food vendors selling food and hand made clothing, colorful buildings, kids gossiping as they walked to school, and locals to greet you with a pleasant 'buenos dias.' Sure, the noisy and unpleasant-looking chicken buses and the armed guards with gigantic guns were a bit of an eyesore at first but I admit, they kind of grew on me (well, maybe not the chicken buses...). My point is, I had a few terrifying internal moments before I left the US (thank God, I didn't share these with my mom). At one point, I actually thought to myself 'is it too dangerous for me to travel to Guatemala?' I now can honestly say no, it's not too dangerous...it's a fantastic country to explore! Fearing the unknown is normal. But not pursuing it is worse.