I am a small business owner with a husband, two teens, a dog and some guinea pigs who lives in Minnesota, USA. I am obsessed with our planning our next vacation, and I am often planning several vacations in advance. So far I have hit four of the seven continents.
1972, Glacier National Park. I’m the little one on the run.
Growing up with parents who were successful small business owners was a true blessing. I learned so much from them about hard work, focus, how to treat customers, and prioritization. And despite not having any other staff for their store (and therefore not having any income when the doors were locked), they closed up for two weeks every summer to take my sister and I on a road trip vacation. The value they placed on showing us the world really impacted how I parent today and how much our family prioritizes travel.
You can take a girl out of her parents’ business, but I guess you can’t take the business out of the girl. In addition to travel writing, I own World is Wide Keepsakes, where we sell travel and family keepsakes we create on our laser engraver. I remember the joy of customers who received gifts from my parents’ jewelry business. Now I get the same satisfaction when creating the perfect personalized gifts for travel lovers!
Recently my sister and I cleaned out our family home to get it ready for sale, as our dad has passed away and our mom is in memory care. It’s such a difficult process, deciding what to keep, what to donate, and what to sell. In my business I try to make the kind of keepsakes that I definitely would have wanted to keep and that, someday, my kids would want to keep when going through our belongings. Our store offers treasures that capture memories of special times together.