Madeira Archives - Weary Wanderer

A very, merry happy New Year to all you lovelies 😉

It’s that time again. An introduction. A blank slate. A chance to start over, continue being amazing, set new goals, or aim to keep the old ones. AND …. it’s reflect-on-the-past-year time, too. 2025 was a good travel year, for us, with lots of love, laughs, cuddles, and adventure. Here’s what we got up to.

January

In January, Chris and I booked it to Florida for a quick 48-hours so he could run his 10th marathon. We hadn’t been away from the girls overnight in about two years, so it was really quite fun to take that time <3

Chris ran his marathon in three hours and eight seconds. LEGEND.

February

In mid-February, Steph, Rosalie and Robert flew out for President’s Weekend to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Rosalie’s 6th birthday. We had such a blast!

We checked out the Bubble Planet Immersive Experience in Denver!

Lotte, Steph & Ro got their ears pierced!

Lotte sang the National Anthem at a CU basketball game with her school choir!

March

In March we headed off to Taos, New Mexico, for spring break! It was a new state for the girls, and we had such a blast.

Pottery at the Imagine Children’s Museum was an unexpected delight.

April

I posted an ode to winter at the end of April, with highlights including lots of Lotte choir singing at fun events, art exhibits, author events (both mine and other authors!), plays, fancy tea services, tons of skiing .. and lots more!

The Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Denver Art Museum!

Easter tea at The Brown Palace in Denver was delicious!

Lotte performed with her choir for a festival and we got to hang at Elitch Gardens!

June & July

You guys. June and July were epic. We met up with all three grandparents for a month in Europe that did. not. disappoint. There was the press trip at an insane resort in Portugal. All the culture and food in Barcelona. Italy. (More specifically the Dolomites and Venice. Enough said.) Driving from the Dolomites to Paris, with a stop at the city where I was born. Paris and the French countryside. The shocking adorableness of Brugges. The out-of-this-world salty attitude of Amsterdam. And the gorgeous, glorious greenery of Ireland. It was the trip of a lifetime, to say the least.

As if that weren’t enough, when Lotte and Grace had their horse camp canceled last-minute, I booked a quick trip back East for the week before Lotte’s birthday! Grace was meant to come, too, but after a month in Europe, girl needed some R&R at home, which was totally fine. She’ll catch NY next time round!

We had a lot of good food and drinks AND a lot of time to chat, which was so much fun and so different from how it usually is. My brother-in-law was a doll and watched the twins a bunch, and Lotte & Ro entertain themselves, which left my sis and myself to our own devices on several occasions. I do not take those times for granted.

August

I wrote a farewell to the Summer of 2025 covering the final few weeks of our break before we were back-to-school. It included a birthday, camp, a visit from our NY loves and one final out-of-town trip.

Phew. What a summer it was!

Just a couple’a cuties at the Denver Zoo.

Rainbows in the mountains? Can’t beat that.

You also can’t beat a National Park. This one — Rocky Mountain National Park — is near and dear to our hearts.

September

September started with a bang when we celebrated Labor Day in our own Colorado backyard. Sunshine. Hikes. Moose. Bear. Glaciers. Lakes.

Oh, Colorado. You beautiful beast, you.

November

In November we hopped on the earliest flight possible to high-tail it to New York for the Thanksgiving holiday! We saw Wicked, had tea at the American Girl Doll store, drank hot cocoa in an igloo in Bryant Park, hung out with Bluey, deep fried a turkey … and so much more <3

Hot cocoa and cocktails in a cozy igloo by the Bryant Park ice skating rink? YES PLEASE.

December

Less than one week after getting home from our New York Thanksgiving, we were back on a plane! This time, it was to Knoxville, for the AAU Youth Track & Field Championships, which Lotte ran with her team, the Colorado Coyotes. We were so stinkin’ proud of her, I could cry. Oh and also … how cute is Knoxville?!

Then we spent Christmas in Hawaii with Chris’ parents, and it was SO FRIGGIN’ WONDERFUL!

And that was our near in a nutshell, friends! We had pretty amazing travel experiences and I never stop being grateful for all of it for even just one second.

I hope you all had a wonderful year … and cheers to an even better new one!

Insanely gorgeous views from Madeira Island in Portugal

Hello, friends! Welcome to installment one of our European Summer Adventure! We started our travels off with four days on Madeira Island in Portugal. This was a press trip, so I can’t share all of the details, but what I can say is that it was the trip of a lifetime. So gorgeous. So special.

But first, we flew from Denver to Montreal and had a six-hour layover, which gave us a bit of time to explore. Here’s what we did …

Saw the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal!

It was super quick, but I’m glad we got a chance to check out Montreal a bit and stretch our legs before our seven-hour flight to Lisbon. The girls were so great. Emilia slept the entire flight (so jealous), and the two bigger girls know how to keep themselves entertained on long-haul flights by now. (TV and more TV, basically ;))

We had another 2-hour flight from Lisbon to the island of Madeira, and then we were here! In paradise! It was so breathtaking. We really did feel so luck to have been able to experience it.

Here’s a bit of what we saw and did.

The view from our balcony was spectacular.

There were so many pools! We made the most of … all of them!

Such gorgeous views, everywhere you look.

The ocean pool was a BIG HIT, particularly since it had fish and snails in it!

Chris and I even put the kids in the kids’ club and had a private wine & cheese tasting on Father’s Day. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon 😉

The hibachi restaurant was a massive hit!

We went for a hike in Laurisilva, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it was perfection.

Our guide, Nelson, showed us so many beautiful things.

Then he took us to a local cafe, which was so yummy!

This view is incredible. That road … yikes 😉

Back in the pool … aka their natural habitat.

Crab-hunting in the natural pool was so cool!

Then we made Chris’ dreams come true … we went on a dolphin tour and saw. so. many. dolphins!

So many! This photo does not do it justice. They seemed so happy, too! The dolphins swam along with our boat for the longest time.

They were jumping in the air, swimming right up next to the boat … making new baby dolphins 😉 It was a very surreal experience.

Then we stopped here, which was incredible, and went SWIMMING!

I’m so proud of this girl, who ALWAYS gets in the water and ALWAYS loves to explore <3

We had our final dinner of the trip in a working lighthouse.

And that was it, friends. Three full days went by way too quickly, but we were so happy to have experienced it. And now, we’re off to Spain! We can’t wait to see what adventures that city holds for us. Until then … bis bald, friends!