Life with Dylan

Category: bucket list

  • Checking Things Off the Bucket List, Tiger Style

    Now that Tiger Trail is open we can cross one more thing off the Family Bucket List …

    Item #36 is now half way complete. Way to go Dylan!

  • Time to check sunsets off the bucket list

    Part of the fun to making a bucket list is getting to check things off the list. Although we have checked a few things off our family bucket list, the one I completed last week was a long time coming. A year to be exact. Ironically, I took the final sunset picture on my birthday.

    With the help of doing Sunset Sunday for a few months, which kept me on track, I was able to take a picture of the sunset every month. The goal was just one picture of the sunset each month, but I got hooked and often took one a week.

    Sunsets are so beautiful and after completing this family bucket list item I have learned that it is true – no two sunsets are the same.

    Birthday sunset on the bay

    One of my favorite sunsets was in September overlooking the Back Bay, also know as the Upper Newport Bay. The colors were phenomenal and I was truly thankful to have my iPhone that day.

    Another favorite was when the skies turned bright pink. I was walking the track at the local high school and looked up to see a sky filled with cotton candy clouds.

    Although beautiful sunsets are associated with summer and tropical islands, I will admit that winter sunsets aren’t too shabby.

    Have a fantastic week and don’t forget to take time to watch the sunsets.

    Oh, and when the golden hour ends … be patient and wait for the magic moment that occurs just as the day is ending and the night is beginning.

  • Sunset Sunday – Looking Back

    This week I decided to reflect on the beauty that was captured through the lens of my camera over the past 4 months of sunset pictures. One of the items on our family bucket list is to take a picture of the sunset every month for 1 year. So far, we are one-third of the way there.

    Have a fantastic week and don’t forget to take time to watch the sunsets.

  • Our first family bucket list

    After what seems like months of talking about it, we have finally created our family bucket list. Not just what we want to do for the summer or this year even – we went bigger than that. Our bucket list is a big one with far off places and dreams bigger than big for a 9-year-old. Some have been on my unwritten bucket list for years.

    Rather than confine our family bucket list to a single post, I decided to give it a page all of its own. A bucket list page that will remind us of our dreams and places we want to go. A page that we can track and cross thing off the list as we go.

    Take a look at our Family Bucket List page …
    and come back often to see if we have crossed anything off the list.

  • What dreams would you pursue if money were no object?

    Everyone has dreams – things they want to do and places they want to go. For some it is to climb the corporate ladder, for others it is to raise a family or maybe travel the world. We all have different dreams, but most of us have one thing in common – money. Ah yes, the almighty dollar that seems to control our wants and desires.


    The other day I was thinking. Well, really I was daydreaming. Dreaming of all the things I wish I could do and the places I wish I could go. Then I remembered a promise that I made to Dylan a few years ago – to take him to Africa. Yes, way back when he wanted to visit Africa and see the animals he loves so much in their natural habitat.



    What I wouldn’t give to make this dream come true for both of us, but that little thing we call money keeps getting in the way. I have never been one to like the word no, so I will keep this dream alive, for me and for Dylan. One day we will make it to Africa.

    Then I got to thinking. Yes, this time really thinking. What else would I do if money were no object? 


    Five years ago I probably would have said buy a big house on the beach and spend my summers living in Maui. Today my answers are a little different – actually, a lot different! Maybe I have matured, or maybe I just see the bigger picture now. Maybe a little of both.

    If money were no object I would:

    • Buy a small home and live the simple life. 
    • Volunteer my time teaching others about conservation.
    • Give more than $25 a month to non-profit organizations that I believe in.
    • Travel to Australia and see the Great Barrier Reef before it disappears forever.
    • Give my son the best education possible so he can be whatever he wants to be.
    • Travel to all the amazing zoos around the world.
    • Spend time on the open ocean and see the whales and dolphins living free.
    • Create a scholarship for college students studying the environment, zoology, and wildlife conservation.
    • Travel to Africa.



    Not once did I think about buying designer clothes, a fancy car, or a big home. When I asked my friends on Facebook what they would do if money were no object, I was pleasantly surprised by their answers. Volunteer more, fund projects that change the world, pro bono work, feed and clothe the homeless – none of which are selfish answers. Now I’m not saying there is anything wrong with wanting to buy a big house or designer clothes; it is just nice to know that other people see the bigger picture too.


    What would you do if money were no object? 


    Think about and make your own list. Then take that list and make it a to-do list or a bucket list. Turn your dreams into realities because nobody likes to hear the word No. 




    Photo courtesy of zrim under the Creative Commons License.