Who Are We?

Written on

February 24, 2019

Hi! We’re the Lost Bells,

a full-time traveling family of 5 with three kids ages 0–5. We got lost at the end of November 2018. We are currently in Costa Rica for a month and planning to head somewhere new each month. Our itinerary so far includes Costa Rica, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Thailand, & Taiwan. If you have travel recommendations for us or would love to work together send us a message! We would love to hear from you.

We will always think of Utah as home. Prior to leaving we sold both of our cars, most of our possessions, and rented our home in Farmington for a year. We even left our beloved cat Lucky with our renters. We dearly love our friends, family, neighbors and ward in Utah and are sure to return.We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we love our religion — Central to our religion is a belief in the Savior Jesus Christ, an Eternal Father and the Holy Ghost. We believe family is our most important blessing and work in this life and are committed to working hard to be our best selves for each other and hope we can help light the world too.

We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we love our religion — Central to our religion is a belief in the Savior Jesus Christ, an Eternal Father and the Holy Ghost. We believe family is our most important blessing and work in this life and are committed to working hard to be our best selves for each other and hope we can help light the world too.

Here’s a little more about each of us!

Hi! I’m Emily.

I’m a wife, mother, daughter, sister, teacher, baker, decorator — a girl of many titles. I grew up in Utah with 7 awesome siblings and amazing parents. I’ve always been a big schoolgirl who loves reading, writing, math, science, art — basically the whole gamut, and loved kids so it was no surprise that I graduated college with a degree in Early Childhood in 2007 and left to Taiwan for my first teaching contract at a private English school. Colby and I met and became good friends before I left and our friendship really grew as we corresponded across the sea over e-mail and messenger and eventually began Skyping every day. He came to visit Taiwan for my last day of school and then we traveled the island together with several of my fellow teacher friends. Our Taiwan adventures really instilled in us a love of travel together and we got married a year after we returned from Taiwan. We have been anxious to return ever since!

I taught elementary, grades K, 1 & 3, and created teacher products for the next six years while Colby completed his undergraduate & graduate degrees, and I also completed a masters degree in Education. I loved teaching and viewed it as a life calling and loved my students almost as if they were my own which was good because our little Zoe took several years for us to get here and then Crew was a happy surprise right after! We adore them and are so thrilled our little Marley joined them earlier this year. I have been teaching preschool from our home for the last 4 years and loved being able to meld my roles as mom and teacher. I’ve always loved art and baking so a few years ago I threw the roles of baker and decorator into the mix as well when I started selling custom cookies and cakes (check them out @tangledwithtinkering on IG or YouTube) This fall is the first time in 11 years that I’m not teaching, but nature is my happy place so I’m stoked about the adventures in store for us!

Colby is our sugar daddy.

He’s a big ball of skills and fun. He keeps us all laughing and keeps life light. He grew up in Long Beach, CA before moving to Utah in jr. high. He’s always had an artistic flair and began pursuing a degree in Architecture after returning from a mission for our church to Iowa. We went to Davis high school together, but didn’t meet until January 2007, a year after his return from serving a 2 year mission, and mine from a semester in upstate, Palmyra, NY.

After our escapades and adventures in Taiwan together in 2008 we courted, got engaged and got married in 2009. In our early years as newlyweds we both worked full-time and pursued masters degrees. After graduating from the University of Utah with a masters degree in Architecture, Colby felt like a switch of field to software design, or UX, would be a better career fit for him and for our family and lifestyle. His first job in that field was for HireVue. We will be forever grateful to HireVue and the team that helped him initially transition fields.

He then went on to work for Imzy, and subsequently Jane.com. He now works full-time remote for Rev, which is based out of San Francisco and is the reason we are able to travel full-time.

Colby has all sorts of mad skills and is super handy. He designed, built, and installed several things in our home before we rented it and he’s constantly working his magic to whip up fun stuff on his computer. He rocks a skateboard around town and plays basketball several mornings a week. He’s not the most chatty guy, unless your feet are sliding in the sheets and your head is hitting the pillow, then he’ll chat your ear off, but he is hard working, loyal, humble, kind, generous, creative and the best friend I’ve ever had. We’re lucky to be a team and have lots of similarities to make us jive, with enough differences to help us blend and balance each other.

I might be a bit biased.

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Zoe is our spirited 5 year old.

She’s got a passionate, tender heart and like both her mama and daddy, loves to create. She loves people and makes friends easily. She loves to learn and is fascinated with nature and science. She’s a wicked little artist, writer, reader, biker and swimmer. She loved playing soccer this past fall for the first time and has loved several years of preschool with mom and other teachers too.

She cried and cried saying goodbye to her primary teachers on our last Sunday in Utah and misses fiercely her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Her little brother is her best friend (most of the time) and she adores her baby sister.

Crew wins the affection

of many with his big blue eyes and glasses and makes us all laugh with his humor and wit. He’s constantly saying funny things, talking in goofy voices and pulling faces.

He has always loved letters, numbers and colors and has an impressive focus for things he’s interested in. He loves to read with mom and blows me away time and time again. This past year he made huge strides in his swimming and is finally confident swimming by himself. He also loved playing soccer for the first time this past fall and going to preschool with Zoe. They have been together since before they can both remember and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He is our snack man and treat monster for sure. He will turn 4 in just a few weeks.

Marley joined our family

in June of 2018 and has enamored us all with her good nature since. She loves to jabber with us, be a part of the action, and be upright watching whatever is going on. She loves mama and tries to swim through the air to me anytime she sees me and is such a sweet little snuggle bug when she’s sleepy. We wish she was sleeping better through the night but can’t get enough of her either way. We are excited to watch her grow as we travel around the world these next few months.