How to Build an Adventurous Family: The Secrets to a Great Marriage, Fearless Children, and Lifelong Memories

Adventures, big or small, can make the difference in building connections and setting a foundation of discovery for your children and your marriage. Each experience, trip, conversation, photo, and video will set up a trail you can retrace and celebrate as you look back on your life and family. Gain ideas and a path to adventure with How to Build an Adventurous Family by Don and Danae Owens.

“As someone committed to developing Christian leaders, I rarely encounter authors who so clearly translate conviction into lived examples. In How to Build an Adventurous Family, Don and Danae Owens offer more than ideas—they provide a compelling, faith-grounded vision for raising resilient, connected, and courageous families through shared experience and intentional risk. They will challenge and equip you to lead your families with purpose, building stories and character that endure for generations.” — Steven French, Interim President, The King’s College Executive Chairman, Lˣ Partners

“As a historian, I am less interested in events than in what they make of us. The true story is always the formation of a life. In How to Build an Adventurous Family, Don and Danae Owens recover the deeper meaning of adventure. Not the restless search for sensation, but the deliberate embrace of moments—sometimes risky—that open the way to purpose and to love. For life itself is the great adventure, whether lived on distant seas, high mountains, or in the far more demanding landscape of human relationships. Through shared experience and intentional time, they show how character is formed and how a family becomes a story worth telling—rooted in faith, sustained by purpose. This is not simply a guide, but a witness: That an ordinary family, choosing to live fully and together, may leave an extraordinary legacy.” — Kermit Horn

Don and Danae Owens met in 1987 while in high school in Fort Worth, Texas. Their second date was fishing in the middle of the Brazos River, and so began their adventures together. They were married in 1993. At the time, Danae was a social worker in Fort Worth, and Don was in the middle of a career in media. Their children Sarah and Don IV arrived in 1996 and 1999, and their family chose to homeschool so they could have the freedom to travel.Danae began a career in real estate after their children went to college, and Don has served as president of an insurance group for the past twenty-two years. Together, they manage The Port Royal Society, a nonprofit that introduces people to ancient books and ideas as a path to the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Both also lead various adventure-oriented groups designed to bring people together and build friendships.Don's previous books include A Trip to the Beach Won't Cure Your Worries and Ancient Friendship for Modern Men, a book used by men's groups and individuals for ideas on creating connection and community. The couple split time between Fort Worth, Texas, and Leadville, Colorado, and continue to build stories and connections through adventure.