IronKids is going AROUND the WORLD!! 

 We are excited to announce that the amazing  Davis family will be leaving on June 30th to travel  around the world and will be trusting IronKids and  Adult Essentials to keep them healthy on the road  for an entire YEAR!  Read all about their travels  and keep up to date on not only the countries they  visit, but the opportunities they find for IronKids to  give back and to help children around the world  stay healthy.

  It's going to be an amazing year & we can't wait to share it with you!  
 

FOLLOW THE GLOBETROTTINGMAMA, HER FAMILY & IRONKIDS Vitamins!!
The trip has begun, the photos & blogs are rolling in!! Get to know the Davis family below, but follow along their travels here:

Eating Better on the Road

Heather Greenwood Davis April 2012

How do you handle the witching hour at your house? You know the one I mean; that time around 4:30 or 5 pm when you realize that any minute now one of the kids is going to ask what’s for dinner and you really have no idea.

I haven’t cooked dinner for my brood in nine months because of our around the world trip but I have still had moments of dread.   Eating out 7 days a week has its upsides (delicious foods, no dishes) but it also has its downsides (growing waistlines, fries as a universal side dish option).  The experts would say that we need more balance.  We’ve given up on balance.  There’s no way on top of everything else that we’re planning and coordinating that we would be able to ensure we’ve had a totally balanced 3-meal day. Instead, we stopped striving for perfection and just aimed to be better instead by: 

• Stopping to think for a minute before just ordering what made our mouth water
• Not giving in to the usual but asking for suggestions from the waiter. 
• Asking “what would the chef eat ?”
• Eating local – fresh fish when we’re near the sea; greens when we’ve spotted an organic garden 
• Considering leaving some of those French fries on the plate or replacing them altogether 
• Splitting unhealthy meals into 2, 3 or 4. 
• Keeping a few oranges or bananas tucked into our bags to ward off bad impulse buys. 
• Taking our IronKids and Adult Essentials vitamins regularly to help fill the gap for the inevitable poor choices. 
• Actually making time to go to the hotel gym and not just peeking in on it

It’s helping. 

Now that we’ve learned to be better at life on the road we’re taking steps to make our return home less harried too.  Family cooking classes in several countries have opened the kids up to new flavours and dishes, which mean everyone is looking forward to adding some variety to our dinner time rotation.   Here’s hoping the witching hour will be a lot easier now that even the hungry little gremlins are willing to lend a hand. 
 

The Things you Take for Granted
Heather Greenwood Davis December 2011

Every morning when I wake up I can count on a few things. 
1. I’ll be confused as to what day/time/place it is and 
2. Ethan will be standing over me asking me where the vitamins are.
3. Within 30 minutes of any of the three square meals we eat each day one of my children will tell me they’re hungry again (growing boys)

Every. Single. Day.

The date confusion goes without saying. 

Ethan’s newfound role as vitamin wrangler is pretty easy to understand too. He took on the job early in the trip partly because he thinks the IronKids Gummies are yummy and partly because he likes having the responsibility of making sure we all do what he says. (Mother’s child.) 

It’s the three square meals thing – and the act of simply feeding my kids whenever they say they’re hungry - that has recently given me reason to pause.  In the almost six months since we started this year long trip around the world we’ve been to some incredible places and met some amazing people. A group that I think of often are the kids at Cor Fondacion House in Buenos Aires.  The home, run by Silvia Valerio de Martinez, houses about 24 boys and girls whose parents aren’t able to care for them. Most of their parents are either dying or have died from drug use and complications of Aids. Some of the children at Cor inherited the illness; others simply got the by-products – brains mottled by drugs in utero, bodies physically mangled by parents who should’ve known better. 
They are tiny little people with incredibly large personalities. They are, in a word, amazing. 

We had the privilege of visiting while in Buenos Aires. We sat with Silvia to learn more about her initiative and then we hung out with the kids.  They were happy to have the company and we laughed and shared broken English and broken Spanish phrases in search of understanding each other. They showed us their rooms, and one girl found a schoolbook map so that we could show them where we lived and how far we’d come to see them.  It was a day I knew I wouldn’t forget.  But it was when Sylvia talked about the costs involved with keeping them all fed, healthy and medicated that we realized how much we take for granted.

From one day to the next Sylvia isn’t sure how the kids will continue to be fed, clothed or medicated. 

Government subsidies help, but their isn’t enough for everyone which means she has to rely on her own money and any that comes in from donations to make ends meet. Sometimes the ends don’t meet. 
I asked how we could help.  Donations are welcome as they are the most direct and tangible way to get the kids what they need. That includes more space so that the few bedrooms in which kids crowd together can be expanded to help more families – as well as clothing and food and medications.  But even beyond direct monetary donations, people can help in other ways.

I’m proud that IronKids has offered to help. Those kids who have long learned to make do on the food they are given will soon have a little extra boost to get through the day. IronKids will be sending along a care package of vitamins as soon as Silvia gives word of which of the vitamins are most in need.  You can help too. If you do and you’d like to share what you’ve done or why I’d love to hear it but if you’d rather it be private I totally understand that too. Either way, I hope you’ll read this story, look at the pictures, think of your own kids and reach into your heart, your wallet or your imagination to find a way to help. I’ve met these kids. I know how much they’ll appreciate it.

The Energy to Keep Going
Heather Greenwood Davis November 2011

When we started out on this yearlong trip around the world there were a few things we knew we would need to stay healthy.   Vaccinations were key for certain parts of the world and of course diet and rest would be necessary to make sure we didn’t find ourselves too sick to enjoy the trip.   I also knew that keeping our energy up would be key.   Cranky kids too tired to  walk along the Great Wall of China or  up the side of a volcano do not a fun trip make.   It was one of the reasons I was happy to carry our IronKids & Adult Essentials Gummy vitamins with us. 

Three months later I can tell you they’ve made a difference. 

Here’s how I know. 

Not one of us has gotten sick since we left and our energy levels are way beyond what they used to be.  We walked 20 km uphill, through mud to the top of a volcano in the Galapagos Islands – the kids led the way, but we all made it and no one complained.  We’ve walked for hours on end through the streets of Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.  We rode 27km through the bumpy back country of Yangshuo, China – we were on tandem bikes but the kids pedaled too and again no one complained. (I was sore the next day but my energy during the trip? Like I never knew I had.)  

Having the strength to do these things has changed our experience on the trip.   Sure, it’s great that we’ve all stayed healthy but this trip has been a long time in the planning and it would be a shame if it was ruined because we were all too sick or tired to get out and see it all.  But the added boost has also helped us all go a little further out of our comfort zone physically. We’ve done more on this trip than I imagined and our memories will be  all the more vivid because of it.  

This whole “being an active family” thing is starting to grow on me. ;)

First, here is an introduction from The Davis family themselves:

Healthy Travel Making a Difference
Heather Greenwood Davis July 2011

For more than 10 years my husband Ish and I have talked about taking the trip of a lifetime. We’re both big fans of travel and have made new friends and tried new things in places all over the planet. We wanted more. What if we could travel for months at a time?” we’d fantasize. “Or even a year!”

Time passed and we had two sons, Ethan and Cameron, and settled into the life we were supposed to have: work, school, soccer practices, repeat. 

It was fulfilling in some ways but we knew something was missing. 

Five years ago, Ish came home from work one day beaming. His job was offering a pre-paid sabbatical: Let them hold 20% of your pay for the next 4 years and in year five you could have the year off at 80% of your salary. We took it. And on June 30 we’ll head out to travel the world for that year. 

The decision to travel was easy, the decision to take our kids required a bit more thought. We have a responsibility to keep them healthy and safe that, like all parents, we take very seriously. And as committed as we were to showing them this planet we also wanted to make sure they were going to be as healthy as they could be along the way. 

So in the same way that we researched war zones and vaccinations, we thought long and hard about what we’d want to do about their general health on the road. 

We’ve been fans of the Life Science Nutritional line of vitamins for a few months now and the fact that I don’t have to chase my boys to get them to eat their vitamins appealed to me. We decided to take them along and then Deb Lowther took it a step further. 

What if we could provide vitamins to kids in places where nutrition is always an issue? What if we could share the gift of health?

And so that’s what we’ll do. Over the course of the year we’ll be looking for people and places who are open to us making a delivery of IronKids to their orphanage or school. We’ll also be sharing our adventures and their stories with you.  I hope you’ll join us on this trip both here and on our website www.globetrottingmama.com. 

We’re so proud to be affiliated with Deb and Stuart and the entire Life Science Nutritionals line of products and can’t wait to take the brand around the world. 

Who is Heather Greenwood Davis? She is a Globetrotting Mama literally . . . .read what has her so excited for this trip around the world here.

 Wondering just how Heather Greenwood Davis is going to make a difference as she travels around the world? She has a few idea's on her recent blog.

 Where is the Davis family heading first?  Follow along with their travel plans here! 

And the Journey Begins!! 

Canada They started in Canada, first in Canmore and Calgary Alberta & shared amazing stories of The People You Meet & Kids vs. Nature in Kananaskis!  Then we hear from the Kids in Winnipeg, Manitoba they post their first blog post from the The Globetrotting Kids . .  .Speak.  In Whistler, British Columbia & Heather shares her packing list How to Travel Around the World with One Bag & More About a Bear!

Galapagos Islands and the photos are amazing . .the stories even better!

China and the amazing photos and blogs continue! Day 60 and the Great Wall like you have never seen it. Beijing and The Not So Forbidden City. Do you know How to Stand Out in China? A must read is The Good People of China and Just Another Day in China: The Haircut .  From the kids we get a photo essay from Cameron on the Panda's in Chengdu, 7 Days in China, The Movie and they chat about trying new Foods in China.  Heather recently wrote a post wondering if Travel can Cured a Picky Eater? And something not to be missed A Different View of the Terra Cotta Warriors

The First 100 Days 100 days ago the Davis Family left for their Around the World Trip.  Read what each is grateful for: Ish, Ethan, Cameron & Heather

Still in China and looking for a quiet place to stay still for a few days, the Davis Family found themselves in Yangshuo Unexpected.   The photos will pull your heart strings So Much More Than Lunch: Our Time at a Shanghai Children's Hospice.

   
                                              Panda's in China                                             Panda from China at San Diego Zoo

     
         China                                          Olympic Pool, China                         The Birds Nest

Australia The Davis Family is moving on after a month in China.  Read about their Bumpy Start and a Fabulous Finish to Apartment Rental Down Under and how they are learning their way around At Home In Woollooomooloo.  They share a photo Essay of the beauty Down Under Davis Family Style!! Family Adventures in Australia then the kids take over - as seen through the eyes of Ethan & Cam - a super cute Photo Essay Australian Animals!  When you travel for an entire year, the kids have to fit school work in. Heather passes on her favorite websites Online Homework Help.  The Davis Family moves on to Hayman Island and finds Paradis Something for each of us on Hayman Island

     Sydney Bridge, Australia

India - You have to see for yourself, as the photos get even more spectacular! The Next Six Weeks: India & Dare To Dream of India & Globetrotting Kids Camel Riding. The best photos by far have to be the Ish family having way too much fun with the Taj mahal . . I am not kidding - have a look for yourself Taj Mahal Family Fun! And its amazing how much the Globetrotting Kids know about the Taj Mahal, amazing facts!  Then is comes to a close with Ghandi & their heartfelt Farewell to India post.  What an amazing journey.

Coming up, Dubai then Egypt. For now, Heather shares How To Create The Best Trip Ever.

Egypt - the pictures almost speak for themselves as The Davis family explores Egypt in The Spring and the Globetrotting Kids offer their own Pyramid Post.  And a slide show that looks back at the photos they almost didn't get to take The Middle East.

Only 100 Days are left in their trip around the world, how is the David Family feeling on The Last 100 Days?  

Portugal - A quick visit to Lisbon turns into weeks as this is where Heather falls head over heels in Love!  The Globetrotting Kids had their own love affair with their ZMAR Eco Adventure.

Spain - Feels like home as the love continues in Seville. 

Then Heather takes pause and looks at Motherhood from around the world as we all celebrate our Moms on Mothers Day and shares with us a story of a family in India, one that we all should read.  This is what Heather was hoping her trip around the world would do, educate us at home, how we can make a difference by learning what others are doing in other parts of the world.

Canada - And just like that, they are back on Canadian soil.  It's been 11 amazing months and coming back to Canada is a bit of an emotional border crossing.  In Canada Ish celebrates Father's Day and shares what it really means to be a Dad, Caped Crusaders Need Not Apply.   

The Last 10 Days. That's is it. That is all that is left!