Roaming Brood

315 days, 27-30 countries, 17-20 flights is a lot to keep in your head.  We use MS Excel to manage it all... with a little help from websites like  http://triphappy.com .  Trip Happy lets you map out your route with an insanely high level of detail (unlike Google which limits you to a fairly small number of destinations in a single 'route'). Here's an example route using Trip Happy's routing tool. It is very useful to visualize the big picture now and again to help keep everything in perspective!

This is my first post.  My name is Nathan and I am a 9 year-old boy (almost 10) and can't wait for this trip.  My older sister Chelsea is 12 years old and my younger brother Parker is 7 years old.   I am looking forward to sharing pictures and stories with you over the adventurous year ahead! This picture was taken a couple of years ago so we are all a bit bigger now!

Microsoft Excel saves us so much time! If you're an office dweller or a small business owner, you're likely well-acquainted with Excel.  You likely either love it or hate it. The thing about Excel is that it puts incredible power at your fingertips.  We've been building a whopper workbook since "day 1" (4 years ago)!  Cheryl was initially a nay-sayer, but she's on board now :) Here are its important tabs and what they do: Overview - A 10,000ft expense and decision-making dashboard Legs - Our comings and goings in an easy-to-use list that helps with quick 'what if' scenarios  Accommodations - A list of confirmation numbers and the websites used for bookings Flights - A list of confirmation numbers, check-in/boarding times, airlines, durations, etc. Car Rentals - A list of our car rentals/leases with confirmation numbers, companies, kiosk locations, pickup times, insurance  Destinations - A list of cities and the countries they&#