As a child, my fondest memories are of travel with my family.  My family always believed that material things were far less valuable than lasting memories of experiences when we would travel together.  I am so thankful for their philosophy and desire to do the same with my family.

Just mentioning a few adventures which have led us to Maui, where I was certified at age 12 to scuba dive.  I still remember how my mother would tell me that she didn’t get to travel to Hawaii until she was almost 40, how fortunate I was to be able to travel there several times starting when I was in high school.  Our family was  also led to Saint Vincent in the Grenadines, where my dad (who was a dentist) and the family performed missionary dental work and we had the good fortune to scuba dive almost every day at the beach right outside of where we stayed.  Now the contrast of Maui and Saint Vincent were great to say the least.  I know how fortunate that I was to be able to travel do my certification dive in Maui instead of Blue Hole New Mexico, I was able to pet a moray eel on my first dive in the ocean! It was so exciting, and an opportunity that most don’t get at the early age of 12. 
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