SO NICE TO MEET YOU

5 FAMILY TRAVEL JOURNALISTS

Welcome! We are the Gee family, just your “average” family working from all around the world as Family Travel Journalists! Our story began on the 15th of August, 2015 when we decided to sell everything and leave home for a journey around the world together. We started an Instagram and a YouTube channel called, The Bucket List Family.

2009, Garrett and I initially met during service missions to Vladivostok, Russia. We briefly crossed paths in a small flower shop, but didn’t start dating until years later while attending the same university in Provo, Utah. I was studying Advertising and Garrett was “studying” on the soccer team while building an iPhone app. After we got married, Garrett sold his iPhone app to Snapchat and that brought us to a major decision point in our lives, “WHAT SHOULD WE DO NEXT?”

It was a difficult decision to reset our lives and sell everything but we’re grateful everyday that we took that chance and were brave. We’re grateful to each of you for being a part of this journey and we hope you’ll keep with us as our little family and this big adventure continue to grow!

AUGUST 15, 2015

Here is an old screenshot of the family goals we set on August 15, 2015. It’s so crazy to think back to where our mindset was at the very beginning. We had no idea what this family adventure would eventually become.

Here are some words from our original ABOUT US page when we initially left home:

“We were going to take the typical next step in life and "grow up" and build a house and settle into careers..buuut how bout not! We're not quite ready for that. We feel like we still have so much to learn about life and happiness before we can set up our future life and home.  That's why we started our family bucket list. We decided as a young family that now was the time to form healthy habits and create traditions that will hopefully shape us into better people the rest of our lives.”

It makes us proud to read back on these goals and see how well we’ve stayed true to our values and worked hard to become better people, little by little, each and every day.

EXCITED FOR THE FUTURE WHILE FOCUSING ON THE PRESENT

After 3 years living full-time on the road and visiting 65 different countries together, we finally found a place to call home. We renovated a little bungalow on the beach in Hawaii. It’s a special place where our family can continue to explore, be healthy, and grow old together ;) This most definitely does NOT mean we will stop traveling, but now our family has a home base where we can be a part of the community, around close friends more often, and be more consistently involved in activities like soccer, gymnastics, surfing, and school.

It will be an interesting challenge to find a balance between home life and continuing our travels and work as Family Travel Journalists around the world. It will be a difficult challenge but we’re ready to take it on! Really, we understand how unique and AMAZING this opportunity is to take on the adventures of life TOGETHER as family. We gratefully remind ourselves on the daily and continue to humbly work hard and remember, it all started by making the decision to step outside our comfort zones, step way outside the norms of society, and follow our hearts for what we felt would be the best path for our family.

Thank you for being an important part of our story. We hope you will keep in touch always..

Sincerely,

The Bucket List Family

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