MEET OUR FAMILY
Hello! We are a family of five travel journalists known as The Bucket List Family. Our journey began at a crossroads after Garrett sold an iPhone app he built to Snapchat. We found ourselves asking the life-changing question : What should we do next?
In 2015, we made the big decision as a family. We sold everything we owned and set out to explore the world together.
What began as a single trip quickly grew into years of learning, traveling, and discovering what matters most as we experienced different lifestyles across cultures around the world. Along the way, we started sharing our journey through Instagram and YouTube as The Bucket List Family, and what we didn’t expect was how many people would begin traveling alongside us in their own way.
Since then, our journey has grown into the Bucket List App, the Bucket List Collection of destinations, a shop filled with products we use ourselves, and new storytelling projects including our children’s book and animated series.
It was not an easy decision to reset our lives and sell everything, but we are thankful every day that we were brave enough to begin. We’re grateful you’re here and hope you’ll continue with us as this adventure keeps growing.
Much love,
The Bucket List family
An old screenshot of the family goals we set on August 15, 2015
GARRETt
Hey, I'm Garrett :) I used to be called Captain of my soccer team. Then I was called CEO of my own company. But, now I have the best title of all, I’m Dorothy, Manilla, and Calihan’s dad.
Before we began our Bucket List adventures, I was a attending school at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. While a Freshman at BYU, I built my first app, Scan. Together with my talented team, we grew Scan into a successful business. After 3 special years, we sold Scan to Snapchat and joined Snapchat for 1 year in California.
While at BYU I also played for the soccer team. Once my college soccer career was complete I decided to continue my education outside of formal schooling and drop out. Soccer will always be my love. I've been searching for hobbies that might be able to replace the competition, camaraderie, and health that soccer provided my life for the past 20 years. Currently a lot of my focus has turned to natural body building. We'll see how that goes :)
My role in The Bucket List Family is mostly creative work including all the photography, videography, and editing.
FOLLOW GARRETT ON INSTAGRAM : @GARRETTGEE
JESSICA
Hi I’m Jessica. Sometimes I let Garrett wear the captain’s hat but c’mon, we all know who’s going to get this ship safely to shore! ;)
I'm originally from Denver, Colorado. When I was 21 I moved to Vladivostok, Russia to serve a mission for my church. That's where I learned a deep LOVE for serving others and experiencing new cultures. I graduated and began working as an online marketer and web developer. For 2 years I worked to support our family while Garrett worked on his crazy ventures. His hard work began to pay off and instead of getting comfortable with our success we just decided to dream even bigger!
I love exercising, nutrition, and cooking. I'm always excited to try new workouts and learn some great cooking from different cultures around the world. I also like dark chocolate, Michael Bolton, the Denver Broncos, gardening and looking at the stars.
I'm really close with my parents and siblings, they gave me a great foundation of love and family that I have strived to carry on in my own family. Dorothy, Manilla, and Calihan have my heart and I would do absolutely anything and everything for them.
My role in The Bucket List Family is to run our main social medias and work together with our sponsors and other business collaborations.
FOLLOW Jessica ON INSTAGRAM : @jessGEE
Dorothy
Hello and kon'nichiwa! I’m Dorothy! My friends in Korea call me “Dodoshii”. My little brother Manilla calls me “Dorfey”. Since day 1 (actually even day 0) my dad has kept a very tedious photo journal of my life. Most of it lives on my instagram. Some day I'll take it over and disappoint my father when I stop posting pictures of myself and post nothing but pictures of mermaid and all things turquoise! ;)
When we initially left our home in August of 2015 I was only 2 years old! By the time I was 5 I had traveled through 65 countries!
I really love swimming (in the ocean or the pool or the bathtub or a fountain at the mall..I’m not picky I just LOVE to swim!). I also enjoy gymnastics, soccer, dancing, and probably most of all, playing with friends! It’s not always easy to have friends while we travel so much so I’ve had to learn really well to step outside my comfort zone and makes friends quickly.
My role in The Bucket List Family is helping raise my 2 little brothers, being brave during our adventures, and more and more I’m beginning to help dad with the videos and taking photos!
FOLLOW Dorothy ON INSTAGRAM : @dorothygee
Manilla
Hiya everybody! My name is Manilla. Some people call me “Mia” or “Manilla Bean”. My parents named me Manilla because my dad's ancestry comes from the Philippines. Also, because the word means "Faint hint of Vanilla".
I was not even 1 year old when we left home! It was the week before we left home that I learned to walk at 10 months old. My parents didn’t know this at the time, but I quickly taught them that the most difficult age to travel with a toddler is that 1yr-2yrs old. Don’t worry..they survived ;)
I’m really quite shy, but our travels have helped me learn to be more brave. Some of my favorite things include swimming, skateboarding, sports, and anything with cars and planes. Oh, and I tell people that my favorite country is the airport ;)
Some people doubt that I’ll be able to remember much of these travels but I disagree. My dad gives me “challenge questions” all the time and quizzes me on WHERE we did WHAT adventures. I’m really good at that game. Sometimes my dad thinks I got something wrong but I usually correct him until he double checks and it turns out I am right ;). In case I ever forget, I will have lots of photos and videos to remind me of these good ol’ days.
My role in The Bucket List Family keeping that family smiling and laughing, especially during crazy travel days when the parents are stressing.
FOLLOW Manilla ON INSTAGRAM : @manillagee
Calihan
Hello my name is Calihan! Most call me “Cali”. Calihan is an Irish name (my mom's heritage) and my middle name is Matisse. In Russian, that means "mix."
Honestly, I’m still not totally sure what's going on here. I wake up in all sorts of new different places. But I've always got my mom nearby, a dad that makes me smile, a sister that loves me more than anyone and a big bro that always is watching out for me.
I wasn’t even born yet when my family began this adventure around the world. I think it was South Africa when my mom told my dad that she was pregnant with me. By the time I was born my 2 older siblings had already traveled to 50 countries! But it’s okay, I’m starting to catch up. Before my 1st birthday I had traveled to over 25 countries and still counting :)
It’s still early in life, but so far it seems that I really like smoothies and acai bowls, and mommys milk. It always puts a smile on my face when my dad throws me high up into the air. Also, I’m started to really love swimming, balls, crawling, and making messes. Really big messes!
My role in The Bucket List Family mostly is mostly just smiling because it seems to make the rest of my family smile. Also, sometimes my dad has me hold on to the passports through the airport but it’s only a matter of time before that proves to have been a terrible, terrible mistake ;)
FOLLOW Calihan ON INSTAGRAM : @caligee
Happy travels. Sincerely,
The Bucket List Family