For the longest time, his dream was to run the Rome marathon.
As a cross country athlete with two half marathons under his belt, Superhero 1 always imagined himself taking his long-awaited 16th birthday trip to Italy, where this foodie who once wanted to be a chef could taste his way through Tuscany and train for and tackle one of his earliest life goal: to someday run a marathon.
But although the famed race fell the very month of his 16th birthday, this long-distance runner soon discovered that the minimum age requirement to participate was 18, and even the Coliseum itself couldn’t make up for huge crowds in big cities for an introvert who was more interested in exploring in race-freedom by foot than being trampled by tourists.
So he pivoted to Plan B: A week serving with the Free Burma Rangers with our courageous friend Dave Eubank in Thailand.
With the crisis and conflict with the Burmese army escalating last year, there’s never been a more dire time to serve or fight for displaced people in this corner of the world, and after viewing the Free Burma Rangers documentary (if you haven’t seen it, you must!), Superhero 1 saw himself using his 16th to serve this ministry in whatever ways needed.
This guy who is the most quiet and committed behind-the-scenes servant had begun making plans directly with Mr. Eubank, and Super-Spouse and I had upped our running and lifting routine to, as our friend Dave advised us, “get in the best shape of our lives” to be effective members of any team serving, hauling medical supplies, telling the stories of the voiceless and the vulnerable in Southeast Asia.
But in December, the Omicron Covid wave reinstated Thailand’s previous Covid quarantines, which devastatingly reduced our ability to travel.
Superhero 1 bathed the big decision in prayer, and at the end of the day, didn’t feel the peace to continue with this plan for only one actual day in country. Our precious friend at FBR agreed.
That’s when Superhero 1 moved to Birthday Trip Plan C: A week exploring God’s creation in the state of his birth.
Which is why this spring, Superhero 1, Super-Spouse and I hopped on a plane (courtesy of equal parts generous-and-brave babysitting grandparents) and flew to Alaska to spend a week celebrating this adventurous, outdoors-loving, snow-seeking superhero and his much-anticipated Sweet 16.
No words could describe what this week with this dedicated, devoted, responsible, reliable, independent, incredibly capable, tenacious and trustworthy superhero meant to us.
(Clearly. Because it’s taken me seven months just to assemble a few for a simple blog.)
The experience was beyond priceless.
When God first planted the idea of taking each of our children on a 16th birthday trip anywhere in the world, we had no idea what to expect.
We just knew that we had littles who were sacrificing weeks, months and years without their soldier father physically present, and we wanted to redeem that deployment pay for something more than material goods.
We prayed God would redeem it for relationship.
So we started a vacation savings account before Superhero 1 hit kindergarten, siphoned portions of 11 deployments of combat pay into the fund and committed to take each of our superheroes on a Mom-Dad-son-only trip anywhere they wanted around the world when Dad retired. We prayed it would be a time not only for reconnection but for building a foundation for a new adult relationship that would long outlast our home. And we prayed it would equip them, empower them and inspire them to boldly and confidently follow Jesus ANYWHERE He would call in this great, big, wide and wonderful world.
Grandma and Pop graciously offered to babysit the youngers for the first trip, and, in return for one week alone with Mom and Dad, each superhero then had to commit to return to babysit the younger superheroes for the next brother’s week-long trip. It’s how we would ask them to pay it forward.
Because one of our goals for these boys is for them to learn how to independently budget, organize, schedule and plan long before they graduate high school (because these mean military parents are all about hard launching, sweet boys, and that involves moving those booties OUT), we decided long ago that we wouldn’t be taking THEM on their special 16th vacation; THEY would be taking US.
That means that for the 16th birthday trip, the birthday boy does absolutely EVERYTHING — Odyssey style, no-outside-assistance EVERYTHING..
He researches.
He plans.
He budgets.
He books.
We deposit the full pre-ordained amount for the trip into his bank account, and he is responsible for then paying for absolutely everything, from the airline tickets to any tour guide’s tips (yes, shocked newcomer to the adult world, even if you had to sell your left kidney just to pay for the helicopter ride, you do still need to tip the pilot) to the gas in the car rental and every morsel of food throughout the week. He presents his full itinerary with every budget line item before booking, and, as long as it falls within the timeline and the budget (and it’s not immoral or illegal — ain’t nobody trying to get stuck in jail in another country or state), we as parents are not allowed to say no.
Mom and Dad are just along for the birthday boy’s lead and ride. We just get the privilege of being STUDENTS of the celebrating superhero and his passions all week long.
And what totally-blown-away-and-in-awe guests of our personal teenage travel agent were we.
First, this avid deal hunter found multi-city tickets from the east coast to both Anchorage and Fairbanks for a round-trip cost of less than $500 per ticket before fees.
The Puffin Inn was less scary at $88/night than it sounded (minus the all-night, constantly-resounding car alarms and the intoxicated friends who classily cat-called out windows to nearly 40-year-old women traveling with husband and child), and Superhero 1 got his bang for his buck on free unlimited breakfast waffles and muffins before we left to explore Anchorage both of the days we spent there.
“Eat up,” he told us like a dad corralling his two reveling-in-irresponsibility kids. “There’s nothing else to eat until lunch.”
Thanks to suggestions from previously-stationed-in-Anchorage friends, Superhero 1 arranged for us to enjoy the best pizza and homemade cheesy breadsticks of our lives at Moose Tooth (twice, because when you’re traveling with a teen boy as cheap as you are, the hotel microwave serves leftovers for vacation dinner, and absolutely NOTHING goes to waste), and the crab-stuffed halibut at his one fine dining splurge of the vacation was literally the best we’ve ever tasted (although the introvert did momentarily panic when the server told him she needed to first decorate his birthday table before he could be seated — with five single strands of ribbon).
With the car Superhero 1 rented at the Anchorage airport with his dad’s military discount, we were able to hit up all the tourist traps in town, from the Ulu Factory to the Alaska Berry Factory to the Alaska Seafood and Salmon store, where this seafood lover wisely purchased locally smoked salmon we could then enjoy on a picnic lunch on our way home for a tour he booked us the following day.
Commissary grocery supplements and Walmart runs were his meager food budget’s best friend (that, and the massive package of teriyaki jerky our sweet former jerky-store-owning friends gifted him for his 16th birthday before his trip — thank you, Leia Capps, for saving my macaroni-eating soul).
At one point, as Super-Spouse and I cleared the package of Oreos from the Air BNB kitchen counter to warm up our Pop Tarts before making our ham and cheese packed sandwiches for the day, we found ourselves giggling. Super-Spouse glanced over at me and whispered with a reminiscent chuckle, “I feel like I’m in college all over again.”
Superhero 1, who carefully selected every single grocery item in accordance with his budget while we just waltzed hand-in-hand like giddy high schoolers with no adult choice-making responsibilities through the store, just shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m not here for the food,” he told us at one point. “I’m here for the adventure.”
And how he prioritized his budget perfectly for it.
With the rental car, we were able to visit, hike and explore three coastal parks along the Gulf of Alaska, one of them with such an arresting view of the Anchorage skyline that we found ourselves standing on quickly-melting icebergs in wonder, almost unable to move. Superhero 1 took us on a two-mile round-trip hike through Kincaid Park, where we spotted a live and active moose, and he led us down snow-packed hills at Earthquake Park without YakTraks to the most incredible view we would have never discovered had he not taken the plunge and encouraged us to hike off trail.
As I watched this confident and courageous kid who only lived in Alaska for the first year of his life own the terrain like a man who’d hiked here forever, I just found myself in awe of this young man. His spirit for adventure rekindled my own, and the way he dove in (actually, quite literally, in a Polar Plunge into the Gulf of Alaska, captured in video HERE) reminded me of what it’s like to relentlessly say YES to the adventures God has in store without being shackled to the rules, the expectations or the opinions of others.
Over and over again, he taught us that a little risk was worth big beauty, and that seeking out God’s face even in unique places (and without YakTraks on steep hills) was worth it.
And then he took us to the helicopter tour [that Super-Spouse and I independently verified for legitimacy and also our own longevity], and my standard for beauty will literally never be the same again.
The hour-long drive to the helicopter landing pad alone would have been a thousand percent worth every penny of gas that day. The Knik River paralleled the mountain-dotted road to the far side of Palmer, and it was all Super-Spouse could do to just repeat, “God bless,” over and over again under his awe-stricken breath. With traditional country hymns as our driving background music, we hardly talked on the drive there (a miracle and a gift for Superhero 1 from sweet Baby Jesus himself), because we were just so entrenched in wonder, worship and awe.
By the time we arrived at the helicopter pad, I felt like I’d seen some of the most beautiful landscape of my entire life.
Until, that is, the helicopter lifted off and landed on our first mountaintop glacier … and I felt like I must have seen the near face of God.
(See the video HERE.)
As I stood on the aqua-blue glacier of the tour I didn’t even know existed until a savvy 15-year-old man-child researched it from the comfort of his North Carolina home, my heart just stood still, and the still-small voice of God seemed to almost whisper in my ear.
Superhero 1 originally thought God might be calling us to use his birthday trip to SERVE.
When in reality, He may have just been calling us all to WORSHIP.
Because standing in the midst of such insane beauty and majestic wonder, there is no other response than to fall to your emotional knees in humility and thank a God who would love deeply and madly enough to create such insane beauty for human eyes to behold.
There is no other response when words flee and eyes overwhelm and you realize the vast vision before you cannot even compare to the great God behind you and you realize how very, very small and weak you are in a vast and wonderful world.
But just to worship and give thanks.
It became the theme God wrote in our hearts all week long.
We worshipped and gave thanks as we arrived in Fairbanks at literally the most adorable and well-equipped restful haven of an Air BNB we have ever enjoyed, booked almost immediately after it opened for a fraction of the now current-going price. (Superhero 1, this will forever go down as one of your best finds of all time.)
We worshipped and gave thanks as we soaked in hot tubs under star-dotted skies in freezing temperatures beside river backdrops.
We worshipped and gave thanks as we enjoyed God’s most beautiful (and tasty) creatures — from the moose we spotted alongside snow machine tours to the fresh fish we caught ice fishing straight out of Chena Lakes to the huskies that pulled us in dog sleds for 30-minute guided tours.
We worshipped and gave thanks as we drove the first 13 miles down Denali National Park after flying over the mountain of the same name just days before and hiking through the snow-packed beauty of the most majestic national park in the land.
And we worshipped and gave thanks as we treasured the times, the travels and the time together in the very city where the three of us started out as a young military family 16 years before.
By the time we boarded a plane home, we’d re-enacted old photos, hugged precious dear-friend necks, raced snow machines across frozen lakes (see the video HERE) and experienced nearly everything our once-home had to offer. We’d boiled spaghetti and baked Stoffer’s macaroni and toasted pop tarts and microwaved broccoli, and by the grace of God and the incredibly frugal planning of a 15-year-old man, by Day 7, we’d lived well under a budget that, by all rational accounts, should have gotten Superhero 1 only half of what it did.
With more than $150 in surplus.
What’s more, we’d gotten to view adventure and LIFE through the eyes of this active, independent, self-motivated and fiercely capable young man who teaches both of us something new every day.
Superhero 1, this trip you so perfectly planned and executed was literally one of the Top 10 most incredible experiences of both our lives. We’ve never felt closer to Jesus, closer to you or closer to God’s creation in all our years.
You MADE this experience, not because of your meticulous planning or your shrewd budgeting or your deep researching or your Air BNB hunting, but because YOU YOURSELF are this incredible gift who teaches us so much about courageously living out God’s adventure every. Single. Day. Of all the gems we spotted on this trip, YOU are the most precious and valuable of all.
We love you. We’re so grateful for you. We’re in awe of you. And we so deeply respect you. As you enter into this new season of manhood, we know Jesus is going to use you in the biggest, boldest and most beautiful of ways.
Because that’s how He’s used you for a decade and a half in our own lives.
Thank you for the adventure of a lifetime.
Editor’s Note: To get the update on Superhero 1 at age 16, not just the 411 on his 16th birthday trip, check out his blog entry HERE.