Episode 101: Rethinking Family Travel: It’s Not Just a Vacation
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Most families think they’ll “travel more someday.” But what if someday comes faster than you think?
In this episode, I’m talking with a working mom of two teens who has made travel and experiences a consistent priority—even with full-time work, busy schedules, and all the logistics of family life. We talk about how she approaches it, what it looks like in different seasons, and why these experiences matter more than we often realize.
If you’ve ever wondered how to make travel work for your family—or if it’s even worth it—this conversation will shift your perspective.
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
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You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the podcast my guest this week for you is a super fun one. I've known for a while that I wanted to have Lindsay on the show. Not only because I'm always curious about how other women manage work and life, and I certainly wanted to get a behind the scenes glimpse of her life with two teenagers because while I am not there yet, I know it's coming for me.
And if you are listening, thinking I have really young kids, or just a baby, or a toddler or preschooler or elementary age kids at home, Lindsay's. Perspective on parenting teens and the journey that she's been through as a parent is so refreshing, and it has me really excited for those years. But in addition to that, I have always admired Lindsay's commitment to travel and experiences and adventures with her family.
And so I am so excited to bring you. A truly behind the scenes look at what it takes to make travel a priority, how she thinks about experiences for her kids, what she wished she'd done earlier, so that you can learn from her in that way. This is just so fun, so interesting. Also very tactical and will leave you feeling inspired to.
Book your next thing, whether it is hopping on a plane and taking a big trip, or just spending time together, experiencing something new as a family with your kids. These are the core memories that they will take with them for the rest of their lives. And so please listen in all the way to the end.
There are so many nuggets in this conversation and. As always, if you appreciated this episode, , comments or questions that you wanna share back, please send me a DM over at Instagram. I'm @LoveMotherNurture. I love talking about these conversations and what resonates for you.
So with that, let's get into the episode.
Hey Lindsay, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much for having me. It's lovely to see you again and be chatting with you today.
It is. We were just catching up before we hit record. I'll let Lindsay introduce herself, but , spoiler alert, we did used to work together back in the day and she is someone that I have continued to.
Virtually keep in touch with and follow her story as her career has changed and, , her kids have grown and a lot of life has happened. And so, , I'm really excited to catch up and to ask you some questions that I think will be really helpful for everyone listening. So with that, , do you wanna do a quick intro of who you are, what you do, and then we'll get into it.
Sure. Absolutely. , so my name is Lindsay. I, , am a mom of two. So I have two in high school. My son is a senior and my daughter's a sophomore. , I'm married to my husband Kyle. We've been together since college. We just celebrated our 20th anniversary this past September, which is wild. And professionally, I started my journey in elementary education in the classroom, primarily in fourth grade.
And then through the life twists and turns that happened, found my way into sales. That's where we started crossing paths and more higher education ed tech, sales. And then for the last. , seven plus years am now working in K 12 education, technology solution sales. So I work with district curriculum directors to help them choose and implement the best solutions to help their teachers and students be successful.
I forgot that you were in the classroom.
Many moons ago, but you, you, you know, once a teacher, always a teacher. I can still, , bust out a clapping pattern and attention getter when I need to. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. My parents were teachers. I do not have that. We always joke, I host a local book club and everyone looks to me like when we're done chit chatting, it's time to start discussing the book.
And I'm always like excuse me. Hey everyone. And I look to my friend who's also a former teacher, and I'm like, can you please call this meeting to order?
Can rally rally a group of adults? Like they're fourth graders there not much difference. Yep.
Yeah. Yeah. And I cannot believe, , senior high schoolers,
baffling. Yeah.
It's baffling.
Yeah.
So I imagine, well, I can't even imagine, but I am. I will have to at one day.
What does a day in the life look like for you? It's probably a lot less handholding. Let me get all your things together for you so that we can all get to school on time or work on time. Like what? What does it look like now to have teenagers?
Yeah, it's a, a little bit different, I would say busy, but in a totally different way.
And I will give you also the peace of mind. I think a lot of people try to scare you about the teenage years of like
mm-hmm.
Oh, it's like I will argue I'm, I can look back and be nostalgic about when they were little and I was their sun, moon, and stars. And like, wish I could go back to it for like a day.
, but I'll argue the teenage years have been probably my favorite as well, because they're just coming into their own, they're their own individual people. We get to have some really real conversations and, , like we'll talk about today, a lot of adventures. With them as well. So I think day to day, , both my husband and I work in sales and we both work from home, so that looks a little bit different.
Right now. He's coming back from traveling. Sometimes I'm traveling, sometimes we're both in our separate home office locations. But I'm very thankful that, he's normally the up early in the morning does better with sleep deprivation than I do as he was prior army for eight and a half years.
So I say that Uncle Sam trained him for that. He is up and at him to make sure they're kind of out the door fed early for high school.
Does their day start early? Are they
in early high school? They're out, out the door by like 7:00 AM Wow. So it's, it's early morning there at this stage. And then we have the advantage of, we have a little time then of that might be, we work out, it might be we enjoy a cup of coffee and catch up on one of my favorite SMUD Bravo shows in the morning.
And then we're typically starting our day, in front of our computers. Eight, 9:00 AM doing our full workday. I will bug him throughout the day to be like, Hey, you have 15 minutes. I have 15 minutes. Let's like walk the neighborhood if it's a nice day. So we take advantage of those moments.
Nice.
And then kids are getting home 1 30, 2 30 depends what sports activities, whatnot.
That is thankfully one's driving. So manages a lot of that themselves. Terrifying responsibility. Awesome benefit to not have to be, you know, , the pickup drop off all the time.
Yeah.
And then, evenings we kind of divide and conquer of, he's primarily the, , chef in our household. I'm primarily managing more of the household bills and responsibilities and checking to make sure, you know, homework and due dates and what's the schedule and all of those pieces.
And then rinse and repeat.
Yeah. Since you mentioned schedules and calendars mm-hmm. What does that look like with teenagers as well for a family calendars? Are they in charge of their own activities and you're just aware of it? Especially if one of them's driving
So we have a, I like the shared Google calendars, like is the gospel in our household.
Like I manage that, so I'm putting things in, but we have like. And Amazon, whatever, it's with the screen in our kitchen. So there's visibility. They have it on their like phones as well. So communication with like alerts, reminders, so everybody kind of knows who needs to be where or when. And then typically on like, Sunday evenings, we're probably gonna look at the week ahead and sit down or ping each kid with like who, what do we need to know?
Who's getting who? And then the day to day, it's sometime a flex of like. Who has the meeting and who doesn't for , who needs to pick up. Like he's coming back from the airport now and I'm like, Hey, I'm talking with Katelyn. Can you swing by? And Peyton had to stay after school. Can you pick her up? So, yeah.
Yeah. It's all, the tools, but then a lot of communication logistically.
Do you both have access to each other's work calendars or are you communicating like I'm unavailable at this time?
Yes, so we don't have access to each other's work calendars, but we communicate each day probably in the morning of like where there might be interruptions, and then also like on the Google calendar, if we're gonna be out of town.
That's the bigger part where that story need to know like you're solo. So, yeah.
Yep.
I love that you take advantage of both of you being at home and that it works for you. I see it go both ways. My husband and I tried that, well, we were forced to do that during COVID and. I love having the house to myself and I felt like he was in my way all of the time.
No, I have plenty of friends that are like, oh, I could never, and I think we are freaks of nature that we've been together and like he's the only person on the planet I can spend as much time with and not, you know, I'll still have moments but not wanna murder eventually. And I think we also do have, separate spaces.
Yeah.
So. We can be in our own bubbles and busy and doing what we need to do, but we do really love that. Like we can go for a walk together and debrief on our day and get that time together and you couldn't pay me enough now to have to go into an office.
Yeah. When was the last time you worked in an office?
When we worked together.
Yeah. Which was 2019. Everybody
before COVID, so. Yes, fully remote and I can't imagine a life where I wasn't, because it's the balance of we both travel a fair amount. It's not obscene, but it's a balance of, then I have the advantage of home and managing also the ability to change over a load of laundry or empty a dishwasher and do all of those things.
While still putting in the hours at work, it's also learning to find balance of shutting my office doors and we both have to kind of check each other at times of like, you're done for the day. I'm done for the day. Like, Hey, we're picking up our computers on the weekend 'cause we need to play catch up.
Okay, we're in agreement on this. Or like, Nope, it's family time.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Since we were talking about calendars.
How do you approach. Your work calendar. So I imagine in a sales role, there are a lot of external or internal meetings that get put on your calendar. So those are those commitments that you have to honor.
But how do you approach getting all of the work done? Do you make a plan for that? Do you just kind of know like, what's your thought process?
I'm a list maker. I am type A. I float near OCD and self proclaim on that. So if it's the end of the week or over the weekend to kind of prepare for the following week of like, what's on my horizon?
What do I have coming up, what are my goals for the week of what I need to get done, and then if it's highlighting my priorities, I love nothing more than the satisfaction of striking through something on the list of getting my way there. But it's a combination of wide angle goals and then like what are the, I have to have these done to be prepared for the meetings I have the next few days.
Yeah. Is your day pretty full or your weeks pretty full of. Incoming emails. I don't know if you use teams or some sort of messaging tool. How do you navigate that onslaught of needs from other people while also still making your way through the list
I think that's, you know, all working professionals challenge and the, you know, in onslaught of communication and tools and resources that we have.
So yes, Outlook's going off and Slack is ping. So it's a combination of intentionality of focus, but also like there are certain times where you do need to like, Hey, I need to, I need to respond to that email right now. So it's more of a radar of like, does this need to be responded to right now? Can I flag this and finish the focus work I'm doing and come back to it?
Is this a Slack message like Slack scheduling or slack reminders? I lean on that a lot of , come back to this or. Respecting people's, I, I could be picking up my laptop at eight 30 at night if I'm playing a little catch up, but I don't need other people to get pings from me at eight 30 at night, but I can schedule it to , hit them at, 9:00 AM tomorrow morning.
So. Awareness of the tools, but also using the tools to be efficient while being focused and nimble, which feels like an impossible task every day. Yeah. But we just do our best.
We do our best. I know, yeah. that's been coming up so much in conversations about that balance between the two , and.
Viewing the responsiveness as a responsibility, as a part of your role, while also having this other work that needs to get done and I'm just always curious. I feel like I've heard it all from I have office hours or I have set times of day where I do these things or I am constantly living in my inbox or my Slack or team's messages, and then nothing gets done.
It's. It's all over the place.
You know, it's whereby time blocking and whatnot. I've tried different things of that, but it's, I think my like never ending to-do list strategy and prioritization is the way that works best for me. So I think it's figuring out your own system.
Totally. You talked about. The boundaries that you have to be really aware of and firm on around work time versus family time, especially when you work from home. Not getting sucked into spending too much time on the house or whatever's going on there, but also, leaving the office when it is time to do that.
, do you find yourself, like if you are working in the evenings as you mentioned, or you do need to work on the weekend, is that a common thing that you do? Do you do that by choice?
Yeah, I think there's seasonality to my job and part of the business that I'm in. I think both, my husband and I are in, sales, individual contributor roles, so there is a probably more of a push to, like, your efforts show up and there's time sensitivity.
So I think with age, with maturity, with experience. Finding what balance looks like for me, because let's acknowledge like work life balance is a fallacy. It's, I heard someone recently describe it. It's a continuum like
Hmm.
And it ebbs and it flows, right? So some days it is your, it is more work and it is less life.
And others days it's more life and less work. Yeah. So I think. Having more of a pulse point of what that day or that week looks like, and then acknowledging what I need to do, and then also being clear in communication especially , with our kids who are older to understand, which makes easier.
And they're also able to be very independent in most parts of their life. So if it's stopping at, four o'clock, , or I have to like run my daughter to a thing in the afternoon. Then I'm ending early that day to spend time with her. But then after dinner, there's no harm, no foul of, Hey, I gotta hop in my office and I need to do, you know, 40 minutes of work to be prepared for a meeting and a half tomorrow morning.
So,
yeah,
that's the advantage of work from home, right, is like, I'm getting, you're getting the hours out of me. Trust me, you're probably getting too many hours out of me, but I'm gonna flex them and fit them in the way that makes it feel like. My family comes first and that's not sacrificing. They, you know, my job doesn't love me back.
My family does. So prioritize. Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah.
I remember too. And I'm sure this is probably part of your communication with the kids or with your partner that. You know, in a sales role, month end, quarter end, year end, again, that kind of pressure or timeliness to getting things over the quote unquote finish line and, I would imagine setting those expectations like, Hey, this is gonna be a big week for me, or you might see me logging more hours because yeah, we're coming up on the end of the quarter and there's some things that I do actually have to wrap up.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's a nice balance as well of like. We have understanding we are totally different industries of what we do, both being in sales, but we also understand like the rhythm of it, which is nice to have. Like, you know, it'd be probably a little trickier if he was in a more traditional, like when the job ends, like my, you know, like my sister's a pilot.
Like when she's not flying for Delta, like she doesn't have a whole lot of other things. She has like she's, I'm like, you're very off or on.
Sounds so nice.
I don't have off and on. Like I have constant like, and you have to make off and on happen.
Yeah. Yeah. You do have to create that. That's so true. It's not handed to you, but you can do your best to kind of imitate what that could feel like.
Yes.
So one of the things I'm most excited to talk with you about as I've followed and kept up with you over the years, but even when we worked together, I remember thinking this about you. When you think about intentional family time and the continuum, there are seasons where you are prioritizing.
Travel and adventure and experiences, which as you said earlier, does maybe get a little bit easier as the kids are older. But I don't know. I feel like you've always done that
Can you like start us off by telling a little bit about your, what I view as a priority of travel and experiences as a family?
Yeah. Absolutely. I love that you observed that and reached out about it. 'cause it's definitely a topic that I have a love for and a passion for. It shows. Yeah, I think I was, it shows, I think it starts back to and those are the more exciting pictures to put on social media. Oh, of course.
Right? Like, I don't, I don't, you know, post pictures of like, here's me in my home office.
But I, I think it really, I was fortunate growing up to. Have a fair amount of travel experience. And also my husband was as well, so similar that my mom was a travel agent back in the day, which, you know, sounds like
Yeah.
In kind of today's world. And so like late elementary, we started even doing some, like we had traveled. You know, continental United States in different capacities, typical things, but we even started going to like Europe in later elementary and that I think just opened my eyes to like. The value of getting to see the world and how much that helped that and other experiences.
Like I went to camp every summer for a month and I've gotten to give that to my daughter and like the value of getting out of your bubble, right? We spend a lot of time in our home, in our community, in our day-to-day of school and work and the hustle and the bustle and all the busy things. But what happens when you
step away from that is pretty magical, and it can be small scale and big scale. So I think that was something we both had grown up with. So it was something we started even doing. As we were a young married couple. We got married at 23 and Kyle was, enlisted in the army and I was a school teacher and we thought, we were living high on the hog back then, and it was a very different world than where we've grown to, but we still would prioritize.
Now, the trips looked maybe a little different and the budget might have looked a little different, but we still knew the value of . Stepping away and having experiences together. Mm-hmm. So I think from day one, it's been something. We both value and it's also something I have definitely learned in myself, like mental health wise.
For me to have something to look forward to is such a motivator for me . Having something, even if it's five, six months down the road, like that's a goalpost of like, yes. Like I get to step away. I get to, have this magical experience.
Not all gonna be perfect, but it's gonna be, memory making. And then I almost always have one on the horizon. Tiny, tiny, big, big whatever it looks like. It's huge for me mentally. And I think we all feel that way now as a
family. So it wasn't. A sit down? Or was it, I guess I should ask as a, was it a sit down question of like, Hey, we wanna make sure that as a family, we're at least going on a trip every year, or we're taking advantage of weekend adventures?
Or did it just kind of like, since you were both accustomed to it. Hey, what if we do this this weekend? Or what if we go here next
month? I think more that, I mean, I think, like I said, we were married at 23, had kids at like 25, 28, so we just like jumped into the deep end of the pool. That I don't think we were as conscious about those things, but I think that I both knew, and I'm sure Kyle saw in me, and we both saw in each other of.
It was, we enjoyed those moments. , I've always been a scheduler and a planner. Like, I like to have even things around the community to look forward to so I think travel just kind of became part of our routine, but in a more outside of the day to day normally.
Hmm. Yeah. So I've followed you or known you since your kids were probably like upper elementary. To now you've got high schoolers and I've seen what I would categorize as bigger trips. You're getting on an airplane, you're going to big cities, or you're traveling internationally for a stretch of time.
What were some of their early trips what was an adventure and experience like when they were really young or your budget was different than it is today?
I think starting out we had. Grayson at, we were stationed at Fort Campbell, like Kentucky, Tennessee, near Nashville. And then we had Peyton when we were living in Colorado.
And so a lot of, when we had two young kids at home and, and Kyle also deployed to Afghanistan for a year right after she was born. Yeah, it was wild times. So. I think a lot of bigger travel then was like flying back to Chicago, where my family was at the time. Right. Or his parents were in Florida for part of that.
So it was more to see family at that, because that was priority and that was also budget and like sometimes there might be help with that. So those were like the big trips back then. And then locally, we always tried to be like wherever. Wherever we are planted, it's the whole bloom where you're planted thought process.
So we were in Colorado Springs, which, you know, not a, not a bad place to be. And yeah, the great spectrum of the army life. And so it was going up to the mountains and going up to rent a, like YMCA resorts had these amazing deals for military at the time and stay in a cabin for a weekend.
So it wasn't like. A big to-do. And we drove down to Albuquerque, New Mexico one time and scaling it in that way where we were definitely not doing like what we have done more recently, but it still was just as meaningful, just in different ways.
And we still do a combination of little small things versus bigger things.
Yeah. Are your kids still excited and happy to travel with you even at their age?
Yes. So much so that we're, we have a big, we're going to Asia for the first time in May.
Wow.
And it is kind of a, you know, post graduation, like really
it's how I'm mentally coping with my oldest Yeah. Leaving me and. I wanted it to be part of a holiday gift surprise. 'cause that's also part of like we've, we pulled back on stuff and we leaned in on experiences and travel and that. So part of , one of a wrapped Christmas gift was telling them, like, we had talked about it, so like kind of nos coming, but wanted to tell them that hey officially we're going to Korea and Japan.
Wow.
So my son was like in his Delta app and I'm like, why are you in your Delta app randomly, we have nowhere to go. And he saw that I had booked the flight and like spoil. So I was like, don't tell your sister.
But he, you know, knew it. So yes. So they definitely are like, and now , they're like, we're this many days away. Wow. They look forward , to the opportunities , and the chance to get away and have time together as much as we do for sure.
I have so many questions.
I just am here to soak it all up and learn that was actually a question I wanted to come to our conversation today and you just, , teed it up so nicely when you started to make that shift away from gifting things or stuff. And I'm sure there's probably still some of that. Kids require things, , or want things.
Do you remember, how old were they? When did you start to do that? Was it, was it challenging? Did you have to overcome anything of like, oh, there aren't as many gifts under the Christmas tree or the birthday isn't unwrapping a box. It's, or maybe it is, but inside is a, you know, certificate for travel or a plane ticket.
Yep.
Well, like how, how did that evolve?
It's hard to remember exactly when we, I'm
sure
did. I think it was, you know, probably more close to probably when we met or a little after, maybe more as they're finishing elementary and. , moving on to like, they're coming a little bit more into their own at that age.
Mm-hmm. I don't know, maybe 10 ish. Yeah. There's always still something, right? 'cause that moment of, you know, I think everyone should have something to unwrap on their birthday, right? Cake. Those sort of things are required. But it was, , an intentionality of like eventually, they have most of the things and throughout the year, like we're fortunate and we are appreciative of that, that they're getting the new clothes roughly, , as they need them, but like, do we need excess of those things? No. Eventually, they have the basic electronics that they need. Do we need more? No. Like, let's, let's invest in different ways. And, and it's just been a matter of balance , and they've understood that as well.
, and part of even, especially with like. The Christmas piece of it as well was that three years ago we did our first bigger international trip with them to Europe and we did it over winter break because as kids get older. Especially kids that, you know, my son's like a TH three sport athlete and between camp and schedules and all of this, like it's hard to do and find the time and even though you have summer, but that's hard to do too.
And I balancing that out.
Yep. So.
We were like, oh, if we go over winter break, that's two and a half weeks where school's not happening, sports aren't happening. The whole world kind of shuts down. And so we travel over the holidays and we had friends to go see and actually spend like Christmas with Army friends of ours.
So it was nice that it was still like very family and celebratory. But there weren't gifts involved. There were like couple tiny little gifts. The gift was that we went on an airplane and we got to spend one Christmas in Italy and one Christmas in France. Like that's, and our friends have younger kids, so there was like a 2-year-old to a 16-year-old at that first one. And I think it was, them seeing too of like, oh, it's fun to see other people have a little bit of this, but obviously like the trip and the travel and the time was far more valuable than, you know, three more sweatshirts and an iPad.
I love that as I asked that question, I started to listen to you answer. I thought, yeah. I actually am already starting to feel that shift. My oldest will be 12 this summer, and there isn't a ton that he puts on his list.
Mm-hmm.
And I feel like we're often kind of just
like, like pushing them to make a list.
Yeah. Like trying to come up with something. Whereas my 7-year-old who's in first grade. You know, he still wants the little things and the whatever and so I don't wanna .
Rob him of that, of opening the things. But also, you're right, I, I can see probably very natural unfolding of a transition to that. If that's what our family chooses to do as well. I, that makes sense to me. But I appreciate you walking me through that. the other question that comes up for me when I think about travel with our family is.
How do you choose the places to go? , I'll walk you through what goes through my mind, because again, I feel like we've done some travel, but we are starting to get to the age where bigger trips could be possible
And so I'm like, does everyone, do we contribute to a family bucket list?
Is it just what I want or what. My husband wants, is it, is there like a standard list of places that kids should see? How do you make those decisions?
Yeah, I think it's a combination of multiple things.
So one, ultimately we're the grownups and we control the bank, we control the budget. So some of it's driven there, but they have absolutely had a voice in some of the things that we have prioritized. And it's not always. Trips with all four of us, right? Like those are a priority. So I will say like when we kind of look at the year, right?
Like what's our big family trip? That's all four of us. But also over the last few years as their individuality, spears, again, in their teenage years, we've prioritized individual experiences with them. Which has been really fun as well. Like my daughter found a passion for Formula One racing and became very interested in it.
And so. The next year I was like, oh, you know, it'd be really fun. Was, , for her, she wanted to go to a race and there's a few in the US Yeah. And so, her birthday gift last year was her and her dad went to Austin and went to Formula One racing in October.
I love that.
So like that was all about her. Right. And then at the same time, obviously my son's a senior, so over the last few years, giving him exposure to different. College opportunities for his next step has been a priority, but we've woven that in organically with travel, which I like because it hasn't been like a grind of looking at school after school, after school. 'cause I'll tell you, that's not a lot of fun. And most college tours are very similar. , but we started being like, let's go on a trip with just you, what's a part of the country where maybe you could see yourself?
Mm-hmm.
And let's go look at some schools, but also go do some things that would be fun for us to all do together. So that's been a big priority. And then with the bigger family trips, one I wish I would've started earlier, that's a lesson learned. Like we didn't start doing our bigger international ones until, like when maybe Peyton was in like seventh or eighth grade, our youngest, we probably could have started. When would you start?
Like what If you could go back and do it over?
I think probably once, like they're like maybe 12 and up. They have to be, able to pack themselves.
That's a gatekeeper. Right? And be able to move place to place, unpack what they need, put back what they need, right. With some supervision, but manage that.
Yeah.
Heavy walking, right? Yeah. For most movies, these is, it's a lot of that. So we started, we did DC first when they were younger.
Yeah. Then we did New York City. Right. We could see how they would handle like public transportation and movement , and then we started doing like some ones where we would change location every few days, But I probably would've started. A little earlier.
'cause now I feel like I'm running out of time and that's, I don't like that feeling of like, it will be harder, especially the route my son wants to go for his next chapter of getting time for all of us to do things together.
So a, a part of it that is like pushed us to do this was that like I mentioned, Kyle served in the Army for eight and a half years.
Our two dear friends to the two husbands he went to Afghanistan with, and the two wives are like my best friends. And all formed a bond at a really pivotal time and this was when neither of them had kids yet. I was home with a toddler and a newborn.
So those gals helped me raise those two kids for a year, like wouldn't have gotten through it without them. And then we call them our family. It's the people you choose that are in your lives. And so. Kyle got out of the military over 10 years ago now and they stayed in
and so that helped us prioritize this and it gave us, then let's all meet up. And that's where we did the two Christmases while both of them were in Europe . And then now part of why we're going to Asia one. Wanna go. Never been super excited. New continent, new countries, totally different culture.
Very excited about all of that. But one of them is now stationed in
Korea.
And so we're going there first, and then we always look at where we're going and what's nearby and what are things that are of interest? And logistically what makes sense and , , where do we wanna go?
So Japan was the obvious with that one.
Okay. Yeah, I, I was wondering whose bucket list that was on,
and I think regardless of our friends weren't there, probably still would. There's more than enough places still on our list that we would love to go to.
It's just always really nice to have the opportunity to see people you love, be a part of it.
Yeah. Yeah. One of the challenges that we face right now in this season of life, again with an 11 nine and 7-year-old is.
Do we do what we know and love it is travel. To be specific, we love to go up to Michigan and be on Lake Michigan in the summer. It's idyllic, it's beautiful. , I. We have for the last few years gone to the same place and it feels, you know, , like a traditional summer memory. We go and we do the same things and we follow the same formula and I love it and I'm able to fully relax.
It does feel like a vacation.
I don't have to put together an itinerary, I know what to pack and all of those things, but. As we are starting to be on that cusp of, I've had that same thought. Will we feel like we're running out of time for some of these bigger experiences?
Do we do it again and repeat what we've always done? Do we try something new? Do we go every other summer? And for the summer we decided to do what we've always done again. But I feel like we are on the cusp of probably making some change to that.
And I think a lot of people do that. I think we've learned, there's some places we love to repeat, like all four of us could go to New York City multiple times a year and never feel bored. But it's a place that there's always so many new, like there can still be new experiences there, but I think we've learned, what works for us is like things on repeat.
Don't feel. As different. And we really love the experience of , newness. If it's, new restaurants, new culture, new things to see.
Yeah, so it's, I'm hearing know how you want the experience to feel. And for someone it might be enough to just do your life in a different place, even if it's a place you've been before. And if that feels relaxing and is something you can look forward to or know if what you're really craving out of your travel is a completely new experience, to be a little bit out of your element.
And that's gonna be obviously a very different choice in terms of what you're doing, where you go.
Absolutely. I think also too, like there's trips and there's vacations and those are different things like we've done cruises, that's more relaxing 'cause it's easy, right?
It's one place. You still get variety 'cause you pop into some different ports, but it's chill . But then there's trips that we think of as more adventure, right?
But it's not as relaxing. But learning where we sacrifice. On either end , and also it's learning what works for your family.
Did the two of you, , prioritize travel together without the kids? And have you always done that?
I think that's one that's always the hardest, I think to prioritize.
Right? It is because it's logistically trickier.
Yeah.
So we have, I feel like it was maybe almost sometimes easier when they were younger because. Our parents were younger too, so we had help to, help in that way. And so we did more of that. As they've gotten older, we still do prioritize it.
It's, maybe once, maybe twice a year that we get away together, just the two of us. But we also get way more time together in our like, weekly, daily life, because our kids are independent. We've had a rotation this winter where almost every weekend on Saturday or Sunday, we kinda look at our schedule.
Like we keep going to sweat house and doing the sauna cold plunge, where we just go and spend an hour there together. Like we can do date days and kind of date nights like every week, and that's no big deal. Like we don't have to get a babysitter
you know that part's so much easier that you don't feel like when they were little, I felt like we needed that. Like, Hey, grandparents come and we need to go out of town, because we didn't get that break and it was a lot harder. So it's that.
Yeah.
Change of season.
That's such a great point.
I hadn't thought about it like that, and I could imagine for sure if you are able to get out regularly or have time together without the kids, it doesn't feel like as much of a necessity. But I, I can say from coaching all of the women that I've coached still, even though you feel like you really need it, it is a challenge and.
To do once a year I think is great compared to what I see. It just, it is really hard for people to prioritize.
It is, I think it's hard to prioritize, it's hard to ask for the help.
Yeah. Who are you the itinerary person? Do you enjoy that? Does everybody contribute like, oh, I wanna check out this place, or go to this restaurant, or who owns that?
It is my baby. And I love that baby. I, I, I joke like, if you were gonna be like, Hey, we're gonna New York City, I would send you by itinerary. I love the process of it. I think I have really like. All things in life. I like to iterate and change and learn from and do something different. So I've really learned a flow that works well for our tempo. key things are a structure to it, but it's not too structured.
The people that just like fly somewhere and don't have anything planned that sounds nightmarish rain, because then you're just stressed when you get there like, I wanna have enough plan that , I know we're gonna have a great time, but there's not too much.
So there needs to be downtime. There needs to be flex time. A balance of like, we're gonna hit the highlights of all the key things and then for sure seek input of you know, my kids are older too, to look on YouTube or via TikTok you know, tiktoks not all bad of, especially in travel of like, Hey, what are the things you've seen that looks interesting?
Let me look into that. To identify a plan that we're all excited about. And sometimes they want me to share the whole thing with them. Sometimes our kids really like it if I don't tell them the full plan until like. Normally the dinner of the night before, I'll be like, okay, here's the plan for tomorrow.
So everyone's informed, but they somewhat like that element of surprise there.
Ooh.
Mm-hmm.
I think maybe that's why travel feels intimidating to me still, as I just haven't had enough practice to mm-hmm. Figure out that flow. You sound very much like my sister, who I would call if I needed help.
Yeah. Putting together an itinerary. I'd be like, how do you do this? Yeah, I, I think probably practice and asking your friends or the people that you know that do trust, I
don't know. Also say AI is a really, I use that now as part of my process, especially for like going to a Asia and places we've never been plugging in.
I'm going here on these dates like with, this is our age of our people. These are things we like to do as a starting point, can take off that immediate lift of just like. Oh my gosh, I have no idea where to start. And then I always say, do big bricks first like the international flights, right?
The where are we gonna go? How long are we gonna stay? I always want , typically two to three night minimum before we're moving. 'cause we're also just feels too rushed and , too stressful to be in and out of places and suitcases all the time.
Yeah.
Then once we know where we're going, where are we staying, we've learned that hotels with four adult sized people, especially with children of different genders in one bathroom isn't our ideal way to stay.
So Airbnb is our friend. So, finding those pieces and then . Using ai, using Airbnb experiences. I plug out as great ways to find tours and things to do or with locals is a great opportunity. We love food tours. I will sing praises of a food tour in every new place you go to is the best way.
To learn a culture, learn it from someone who loves where they live and everyone's happy, even if they're walking a ton, if they have food. So it's a win win across the board. So
those are great ideas. I wouldn't have
thoughts,
any of Thoses
stuck from there. Yeah.
So you said one thing that if you could go back would be to start earlier.
Yep.
Is there anything else that you have learned along this journey of prioritizing travel and trips and adventures with your family that you feel like you wish you'd known or that somebody who is growing a family and I want to prioritize that. What would you share?
I think that's a great question.
I think big picture wise. What happens, like when you get out of your day to day what happens when you step away is what matters, right?
We're out of our routines. We're out of our home. We're just going through the daily motions and we don't tend to, you know, we're busy. Like you don't tend to always get to sit down and eat and have this thoughtful conversation or go out to eat or sit down and play a game together. Or go on a hike together.
It doesn't need to be big. It doesn't need to be expensive, but go somewhere and be in the moment with each other and that matters. , and then I think like as they got older and why I wish we would've started some of the bigger stuff wasn't 'cause it was like big, it was because showing them the world is the best gift I think we could ever give them in terms of life experience.
I think, in the world we're living in to raise good people, the more exposure you have to. Outside of just the bubble of your own community and your schools and your friends and realize there's so many people in this world, there's so many cultures, it's been huge for them. And for us, like these are like core memories, right?
You think of what's the inside out, right? Like those, those, those glass balls. Yeah. Like I guarantee you my kids are filled with like, it's the trips, it's the adventures, it's the experiences because. It's just separate and so special on what it is. I said, I wrote it down, it sounds cheesy, but it was, you know, Anthony Bourdain's, RIP.
But I love that he always said, travel's not reward for working. It's education for living. Mm-hmm. And like I think we often treat it as this like. I work hard, I need to go on this vacation. And it's like, no, take advantage of making, go to the beach, have your chill out time, but then make one trip a year, starting out being something that's different that pushes you outside of your comfort zone.
'cause you model that for your kids and you also help them grow to be independent. So with them, in this chapter of Flying the Nest. I have no, you know, they've got things to learn plenty of, but I have no worry that they know how to handle themselves. They know how to manage like a challenge.
We were in New York over Christmas and I said, could I just plop you in the city and tell you you needed to get from here to there and could you do it? They're like, yeah, absolutely. Like that's a pretty fantastic life skill to have that they wouldn't get in suburban Ohio.
Mm-hmm. I just, it's been, it's the only thing you can spend money on that makes you richer is, is, is my opinion of that. So it's, it's my happy place
and it's so true. , the memories that. I have, and I think my children do as well. Even so far of little driving weekend, few day trips that we've done within a radius of Cincinnati where we are, are the things that they still talk about.
Mm-hmm.
Even now too, they've gotten older too. Like it's been like going to concerts together with them, right? Mm-hmm. Like, let's go have this experience where like, we're not on phones, we're not on devices. We're in the moment, we're all together . It's, it's just special. It's worth that more than like stuff.
Stuff is just stuff.
Yeah. I feel inspired to go. I so
travel. Well, you tell me travel, you tell me where you wanna go, and I'll give you some pointers to get you started. I promise it won't be Yeah. Like overwhelming as you think.
No, you're right. I don't think it will be, and I think my kids will navigate that very well.
They already do so much. I'm always in awe of their capabilities and yeah, I don't wanna, I don't wanna wait
It goes by I feel like he was, the toddler the other day and now it goes too fast. So.
I'm gonna cry.
I don't even have a, don't, don't get me started.
I'm like graduation and counting.
Oh my God,
Ling. Yeah.
But then you have an amazing trip too.
Yes. That is like, but see, that's the mental health thing of like, I'm not crying about graduation. 'cause right after graduation, I get to go have this amazing adventure, so Yeah,
yeah, yeah. With him, with your whole family.
Yes.
Yes.
Thank you so much. I learned a lot as I knew I would. I appreciate all of your insight, your tips, your wisdom, your perspective. , and it's been so fun. Even if those are the pretty pictures to put on social media, I don't care. I'm here for it. I love to see it, but, , I hope it's affirming for you that it really shows through as a true value and priority for you and your family.
Well, I love to hear that. And I think I post the pictures as well like, it's my own favorite memory book of, to go back. I'm like, at the end of the day, it's 'cause I want those time hot memories to show up because those bring me joy of , even the past trips and adventures of remember those moments?
'cause we don't take pictures. In the day to day of life, but we do in those moments.
Yeah. Yeah. Love those photos. Well, thank you again for being here. I appreciate it so much.
Thank you for listening and as always, for being a part of this working mom community. You can find everything related to this episode in the show notes at themothernurture.com/podcast,
you can also find information about how I support working moms just like you through one-on-one, and group coaching, as well as access a number of resources and articles all on my website at themothernurture.com.
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