Road Trips, Chaos, and Disney Hacks: Our Family Vacation Playbook

Hi, I'm Matthew Greger, and I'm Nancy Greger.

We have this podcast called We Should Probably Edit This, but we won't.

Our podcast is about us, our relationship, our 37 years of being married, raising 3 children, And hopefully we can share something that would be inspiring, honest, truthful, as our tagline says.

Unfiltered, unscripted, and unapologetically us.

There you go.

We should probably edit this, but we won't. Hi.

Hello.

All right, we're back for another episode.

Oh my God, we are?

Yep.

Jeez.

And this This one we're going to talk about vacations, family vacations.

Family vacations.

Okay, would you rather be on a vacation now instead of talking to me?

It depends.

Okay, I'm—

where we would go on vacation.

Well, when we first started off, we didn't have that many choices, mainly due to budget concerns.

Florida. It was Florida.

Why was it Florida?

Well, both of our parents lived there, so we didn't have to worry about hotels or lodging. Uh, both of our brothers lived there, and your brother had an extra special pass. Yes, because he worked for Disney. Disney.

Yeah, so our kids got to go to Disney from the very onset, many times. Yep, many times. We didn't have to pay to get into the park.

No, and for a family of 5, that's a big deal. That's a big deal. That's, that's a very, very exciting—

but getting to Florida was always an adventure, that's for sure.

Well, we've primarily— we drove.

Yeah, we're in the New York metropolitan area.

Yeah.

And so, um, you know, it's, it's— you could do it in a day, a long day, 22 hours. We did that, we did that once. We did it twice. No. Well, we, we went down. We went down, we went down. Yeah, it went— we went down and we came back. We, we didn't stop going down and we didn't stop going back. I don't think we did that. I don't remember if we ever did that again, but that trip we did.

That killed us.

Yeah, but, but so, so it's, it's a, it's a decent drive to say the least. A long one.

So, oh my God.

So when you, when you take 3 kids, 2 adults, and you add a cat and a dog in a minivan— that was the minivan years.

That was an adventure. That was an adventure. We didn't do it all the time, but it was the only way we could go.

What do you mean we didn't do it all the time?

How many times did we do that with the dog and the cat?

It was, it was any time that we went down. We went down, we went down several times. Okay, I mean, not several times a year, but throughout the years we went down several times.

I mean, I remember Bud and I remember Hakuna Matata. Yeah, but I don't remember the one time we flew down. We didn't take the animals with us.

Yeah, well, that's when you're— that's when your uncle stayed that time. Yes. So anyway, so, so backing up, let's, let's talk about the actual what it takes to go on a family vacation with 5, a dog and a cat, in a minivan for 2 days.

It takes— and, and let's, let's say this, this is in a minivan in the '90s, so there were no such thing as built-in TVs to your cars, um, and there was no, uh, like, I, um Definitely no iPhones and definitely no iPads, right?

So we improvised. We got a, um, I want to say it was somewhere around a 10 or 12-inch TV with the built-in VHS recorder player on it. So, so we, we had all the Disney tapes and, um, and it was first—

no, no, it was in the center of the two of us.

We rigged it up You rigged it.

That's correct. Good thing, correct?

Correct. Because I, I made it, I made it so that it could be, um, viewable for, for all three, all three of them.

And we had two, we had captain seats in the back and then a bench seat in the back, and that's where the baby stayed. But baby being the last one, he was stuck in the very back with, with, with what?

What are you laughing about?

Dog and the cat. Poor Noah. We shoved them in the back with the dog because we had to bring the dog carrier. We didn't let, we didn't let the dog loose in the car, and we didn't let— we let the cat loose once, but—

well, that, that we'll talk about that in a minute, what happens when you let the cat loose in the car.

But so we rigged it up, small TV that had the built-in VCR.

Yeah, and it was, um, it was color, so they could at least see it in color. It wasn't black and white. And then I had to like find the special adapter that allowed them to hear it and attach their headphones to it so all 3 of them could listen to it within their own headset. So we as the parents didn't have to hear it.

Correct. Otherwise we would have been listening to those Disney shows. We probably would have been in really bad shape when we arrived.

But it was helpful for the trip because it kept them entertained. Yep, while we were taking down the miles along the way.

And we, we brought lots of snacks, lots of food.

So you made lots of bathroom stops.

We made lots of bathroom stops, but we, we, we did it. And by the time we got down to— we always went to my parents' house.

Well, we stayed at your parents'.

We stayed at my parents' house. Um, my parents at the time had a 3-bedroom, 1-bath house. But still, we managed.

Yeah, but it was definitely an adventure. As you may know, when you're traveling with a family, it's always an adventure. And when you take a long road trip, it's an adventure too. You know, you've got to just roll with the punches from early on of eating breakfast that didn't stay down.

Didn't stay down with one family member, right, who to this day still doesn't like breakfast really well.

He'll tolerate it, tolerate it.

But if he had a choice, he would go straight to lunch. I'd just give me a burger.

That Egg McMuffin went all over the car.

That was, that was not even—

but the lesson we learned, that was actually right after we got the car, pretty much too, almost.

No, no, Katie Kristen did before Noah did. But I remember that my parents used to always drive with a gallon of water in the car because you just never know what it would happen. So she always had a gallon of water, and I remembered that on that trip we had gallon of water in the car.

It wasn't for drinking.

No, it wasn't meant for drinking, but it was. So when he got sick—

it might have been for the animals.

No.

Okay.

When he got sick, luckily it wasn't a chain reaction and the other two did not get sick.

But good thing, good thing. It might have been a 5-chain reaction.

Oh my God, it could, it could have been brutal. Um, it could have been bad. But yeah, so since then That little boy just— he's a, he's a grown man now, and I will tell you, he does not like breakfast.

Not his favorite meal.

Not his favorite meal.

Probably started from that point too.

It could have been from that point. Um, then, uh, and on another adventure we did, also driving down to Florida—

I think it was the same one—

in the minivan. Was it the same?

I think it was. Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

So we just— we had a cat And the cat and the dog, and the cat was bungee cord to the dog's crate, so he wasn't going anywhere. Uh, but somehow we decided let the cat loose in the car.

Noah decided to let the cat out.

He did not. He could not have opened that gate.

Yeah, he could reach it. Yeah, it was one of— I don't remember how the cat got out, but the cat got out. But the cat, the cat got out into the car, into the car. And so once the cat's not confined to his car carrier anymore, the cat proceeded to pee on the pillow.

On Noah's pillow.

Yeah, that was there.

Yeah. And Noah, Noah, the last guy in the back, very sad. I think the cat peed on my pillow.

Okay, keep it together.

The cat peed on my pillow. And we were just like, what?

And before you knew it, the whole car smelled. Yeah, yeah, really bad. Needless to say, that pillow went into the garbage after that.

Yeah, we just— there was no salvage.

We learned the lesson not to let— don't let animals out of the—

unless you're gonna walk them, right? Unless you're gonna walk them, but don't let the animals out. So that, that was— that was— that might have been the same trip, man. That was an F. That was a major avenga for us going down Florida.

Um, then I remember that then we couldn't find the cat when I was— when you're at my mother's house. And we later found the cat behind the TV in the corner, behind the stand, wrapped up, just about choked himself in the wires. So it's just like— because I guess he, he couldn't even meow.

Nope.

Um, so lots of lessons learned. Really try to find another place for the animals if you can, if you can. But you know, we couldn't do it. I mean They went on trips to us to Maine.

They went to Maine on a boat. Yep, that we had to take to get to the cottage that we had rented, though that was okay. Um, Buddy did fine on that. He, he got into the boat. He didn't panic. We had to keep the cat in the carrier, obviously, but Buddy did okay. He, he did all right on, on that one. I don't remember Buddy having really any issues when we took him on vacation.

No, he was a— he was that kind of dog. He was a mellow dog.

He was, he was definitely like, you know, in the pack type of deal. He didn't have any bad issues occurring or anything. And he, and he was a good dog when it went to other people's homes, right? He didn't do bad doggy things.

Well, he was probably older. Speaking of, speaking of dogs, so we're babysitting again.

Shh, stop it, stop it. All right, so then, um, then one trip that we went down to Florida, we treated the kids to, um, an airplane ride, right?

We surprised them on that. It was around— it was Christmas time and it was the last day of school.

Yep.

And we picked them up straight from school and we went right to the airport, right to the air, you know. We got a surprise for them, so we We flew down, um, to, to Florida for that trip and spent Christmas.

Yeah, but did it, did it go off without a hitch?

Of course not. They didn't. They never go off without a hitch when you have kids. Something's always going to happen.

Something's going to happen.

The one, the thing that I remember the most about that trip was, is that we decided to go to Universal Studios at that time, um, And it was not a very warm December in Florida, and we went down one of the, like, the log flume or the splash rides or something, and we all got soaked to the bone.

Yeah, but before—

well, that was what—

that's on the plane. Oh my God, you've blocked—

oh no, no, I remember the hacking guy.

Oh, that was on the plane. Number one, the plane was delayed. Yeah, by the fine time we got on the plane, and remember there's 5 of us, and it was really, it was, so you had, it was, I had Benjamin and, and Noah, and you had Katie.

Yeah.

Okay.

And then we were, we were 3.

Yeah, right. So Matthew, you were behind us.

Yeah, I was right behind you.

You were right behind us. No, I wouldn't say right behind us.

I think you were a couple of I don't know, maybe a couple rows behind. We were behind you and I had Benjamin. We were right behind you.

I had— no, you weren't. I had Benjamin and I had Noah. Noah's— no, remember Noah's the kid who can't have breakfast, right? So Matthew's in the back with Katie. This is their first plane trip.

Mhm.

And poor Matthew, who you had to sit in the middle because I think Katie said at the window—

I think we were Originally I was at the window and then she was in the middle, but the guy that sat on the aisle— so this was before I realized you only fly in the aisle seat. But anyways, he had been traveling probably for 36 hours.

Yes.

So he was not in great shape and, and he like couldn't keep anything down.

Nope.

And he was at the point where he was just dry heaving and just— we called him the hacking guy because it just was kept hacking into the bag, although not much was coming out, but As a kid, you don't want to be sitting next to the hacking guy. So, so, and there wasn't any other place for us to move.

No.

And I sat in the middle, she was by the window, and it was just, um, everything you could do.

It set the tone of that trip to begin with, to entertain your daughter so that she would not be listening to the men dry heaving the entire trip.

And now she had to have been like 6 or 7, I think.

She had to be— yeah, I think she was— yeah, I think that she was 6, cuz Noah was like 5. Yeah. So yeah, so they— I mean, young, and they're on a plane, and we're not the only family on this plane. There were a lot of them. You going to Disney?

We're going to Orlando.

So you're going to Orlando. So a lot of people are going down to Disney World, and it's the holiday season, so there was a lot. And you could tell every parent on that plane was doing everything they could, cuz this man was loud.

I mean, I think they finally put him in the, in the, in the bathroom, the back room back there for a while to give us a break.

Could you go in the back somewhere so that the rest— because you had a plane filled with children, and the one thing you don't want to have your kids do is that.

No, you don't want the chain reaction.

You don't want the chain reaction to start because I don't think any flight attendant—

so I think, I think we've talked enough about that, throwing up on this episode. So I think that was about the, about the extent of the trips that we had, that we had kind of throw-up accidents along the way.

No, well, that was the extent. We only took the kids to Florida and back. We— and Maine that one time. We— I don't think we ever did anything else with the children.

I mean, I— we've gone separate trips. I took them to California. Yeah, one year, just the three of them and myself.

That's right. I stayed. I don't remember, but that was for— you went to see your Aunt Marilyn. Well, I mean, I saw It was, um, I think you went for like a normal trip. I think your grandparents are still alive at the point. No, your grandfather had passed away.

Yeah, by that point. No, I don't know. I don't know. It was— I honestly, isn't it funny how you lose track of why you went?

But you did take the three of them, right? I stayed behind with the pets and you went with the kids.

That was the case.

Uh, I'm pretty sure I was like, no, no, you go, I'm fine, you can—

No, there were some reason. I remember the main event that we went to for that one is it was Ben getting his tattoo at, at, um, Kat Von D's place. Yeah, that was one of the major events that we did. Yeah, that was— they were a bit older at that time. Um, they were teenagers, but they got to see— they got to see California. I mean, Maine We went to Maine twice. Um, that's the first trip was, was I think a great trip. You know, also my brother came and my sister-in-law, right?

They came. They didn't have children at the time before Corbin. So now we're all in the van. So all three of them were in the bench. Mother, uh, mom and sister-in-law on the captain's seat and the brothers in the front, still with the dog, still with the cat. Yeah. And all the, all the luggage was now mounted to the top.

Yeah, when the— in the Sears rooftop carrier.

Sears rooftop carrier. Yeah, still we had—

we still did the TV. We still did the TV, probably.

That then became in between the two.

Do you— you and Stacy? Yeah, yeah.

That was a fun trip though. That was, that was—

it was fun because we had the island and we got to explore, you know. It's like, I think that's what's really important is, is when you go on trips especially with family, is that you have things to do or places for them to explore in an area on their own without, you know, worrying about them too much.

And they couldn't go anywhere because you were surrounded by water because you were on an island, right? That was really great.

And I think the kids had a really great time, just mainly crabbing, trying to catch crabs, which was, which was funny.

That's what little kids want to do.

Gave them something to do.

We went on a boat excursion and, and we did all kinds of things.

Yeah, went to the other island.

Primarily you cooked. So that was in the beginning stage. There was no Airbnb back then, so I don't know how we found this, how we found it.

There were different places that you could find.

Yeah, to rent.

Yeah, so like you're looking for houses to rent.

Yeah, so we were able to, to find a place. And then the other time we went, we went just with us, the, the kids and us.

Yeah, um, again with the cat and the dog. We had to always make sure we found a place that could take pets, animals, because we had pets at the time and it was expensive to board them. Yep.

So we had to be able to function the entire crew.

So family vacations are great. They give you that opportunity to decompress even though sometimes they're stressful.

I don't know if there was much decompressing when you travel with children. I don't know.

Well, they— you give them opportunities to do things. I mean, unfortunately for me, I had our own business at the time and I always felt like I had to also work during that time. And there were a lot of the times at your mom's house that I would work and you guys would go to the beach or go off or something. And so I had wished I had taken those moments and spent more time during that time with my kids. You know, that's probably— if there's anything that I would regret and that I would say that if you do, if you're going on family vacations, try to really disconnect and enjoy the time with the family because it's not very often you get those moments.

Never. Yeah, it's more like the moments to enjoy with them because now they're grown adults, um, and going on vacation with them is non-existent, really. You don't really get together as often as when they're living with you. So it was always good. And, and for us, vacationing had to be really something that we could afford because I wasn't working, so I was a stay-at-home mom. So you had to, you had to come up with things that you could do that you could afford to do, right?

So, so I mean, so when we— like I said, Florida was the main, the main one. We didn't have to pay for room and board. No, we didn't have to pay for food for Disney. Didn't have to really pay for food much, just the outings that when we would go out, we'd have to pay for the food for that day, right? We were out, right? You know, sometimes we, we pack stuff too. Sometimes I remember when we went with your parents, I think we went— they came with us to Disney at one time. I think all— I think both grandparents came one time, and I, and I, and I swear your dad packed chicken.

If I know my dad, if I know my dad, he would have packed the chicken, it would have been left in the car, and we would have taken a break, drove back to the car, had the chicken, and go back in the park.

I think we did that with Lake Compounce one time, us as a family, when we went there.

Yeah, we probably did. Yeah, we probably did, but that's local.

That was just right, but we still drive for us. That's how we had lunch.

Well, again, right, I wasn't working, we didn't have expendable cash, and so you still wanted to be able to go do something with your children, but you had to figure out, right, how—

yeah, the economics to it, right?

The economics to it. So, and I, I wish— I just wish that there would have been a better way for us to do have more vacation moments and figure it out more consistent. I would have liked to have had been more consistent. Yeah, every year do something, or—

and every year I would have liked a place to go every year. Yeah, that we— that, that we would all still want to go there because we went there all the time, you know. It's like, um, and, and not, you know, but now you're on your own, you don't have to worry about them.

Yeah, now, now it's just us figuring out what we wanted, and we're really not good at it. We're not, we're not good at vacationing.

No, I mean, the only thing we're doing now is, is, um, with the Growth Day group, when they have an event, we go to that event wherever it is, and then we try to expand that for a day or two days, you know, either staying at the resort that we're at or taking side trips. Like in October, we're going to Phoenix and we're going to go and see the Grand Canyon, so We're looking forward to doing that.

However, we're still not great vacationers. We don't plan vacations. What did I say? I said this year, come November, we're gonna not go Thanksgiving to any child's house, and we're gonna just figure out what we're gonna do. We're gonna go away.

And have we figured that out yet? It's, it's now September, and we haven't figured out where we're going.

Or what we're gonna do, and that is very much true to form to how we are.

Why?

I don't know why.

Was it— it's— I don't think it's last minute. I think there's still times that honestly we're both still working full-time and you're looking at your time taking off And okay, we have another visitor in here. One of the, one of the yellow jackets is in. If we just— yeah, well, maybe if we just leave it alone, it won't bother us.

Come back.

So, you know what, it's that big nest that's coming in up there. He's probably came in through a light, a light fixture.

Well, no one came in, he opened up the door.

No, he probably came into the light fixture, but who knows. We got to get, we got to get that exterminator here. Anyways, um, so where was I?

About why we don't set up our vacations.

I mean, I still think part of it's a money thing, you know, that I, that I don't think that I can necessarily afford to go and spend and have a great time.

I think sometimes it's where you want to go, and then when you figure out where you want to go, then you realize how expensive it is to go there, and so then you're back to square one.

Yeah.

And before you know it, you have already gone to like 12 different places to try to figure out where you can go in a reasonable amount of money.

Now you got 8 Airbnbs and you have all these other things.

And then before you know it, time's up and you can't go.

You just choose not to go.

You just say it's too late, we can't find a place, we waited too long, and now we can't We can't go anywhere.

So we both take deep sides. So is that what's going to happen with us with, with, um, with Thanksgiving?

At the rate we're going right now, yes, that's exactly what's going to happen.

Where would you want to go?

We've discussed this together. We've said, do we go somewhere hot or do we go somewhere somewhat cold or the same kind of temperature of where we're in right now? Um, and I think it just comes down to picking a place and just saying this is where we're gonna go and figuring out how we can make that happen, um, financially, right? Okay, so we'll see.

So I guess maybe we'll be searching that today.

I don't know. I don't know either. I don't have the answer.

So, um, is there any trip or vacation since we've been married that really stands out for you?

Any trip or vacation that really stands out? In good times?

Well, I mean, that you, that you really remember. That you—

I mean, I remember most of them. I remember going out with the kids. I remember before the kids were even around that we went to the Bahamas.

Oh, that was a trip.

That was a trip. Uh, we also never forget—

I'll never forget the flies in the Bahamas. We tried to eat outside. No, that didn't work.

That was like a no, no, no, no. Um, we've been to Niagara Falls.

Yep.

We took, we took baby Ben to Lake Ontario.

No, we went to the Adirondacks.

No, Lake Placid. We went to Lake Placid, right, with— no, with Benjamin.

That was during Thanksgiving.

That was during Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving in a cabin with the dog, with the dog and the baby and He was a baby, so we did that.

And before, before kids too, we also, soon after we got married, we, um, went to California.

We went to California.

We visited your family, my family, because, um, the one, especially the ones that couldn't make it to the wedding, you know, both, both grandparents at that time.

That was a big one because we went to Los Angeles, Pasadena, and then we went to San Francisco.

Yes. So we were up in the San Francisco because my, my mother's parents lived, I think, in Fresno area between LA and San Francisco. So we drove out there to see them.

We drove up that way to see them. That was a good— that was more family getting to know everybody.

Yeah, it was just my grandmother at that time living in her trailer.

I got to meet your grandmother and your grandfather, and I got to meet your other grandmother.

Yes, that's what I mean.

I got to meet all the grandparents.

Yeah, just not my grandfather's on my mom's side.

On your mom's side. He had died many, many, many, many years ago. So yeah, but it was fun. That was, that was, uh, that was an adventure for, for both of us.

And you'll never, you'll never forget. You still can't have peaches.

Yeah, I'm gonna tell you right now, his grandma, I don't know who brought her those peaches, but she had gotten the peaches and she said try them. And I think I could have eaten that entire box of peaches by myself. And she made homemade jam out of those peaches. I was like, oh, it was really good. Very, very good.

To this day, you compare— you compare any peach that you have to that peach. You'll never— those were tree-ripened peaches, just right at the time, that you could never get them in the supermarket because they were too ripe.

Correct. You know, and they were so good.

Yeah.

And I haven't had one since.

It's amazing how vacations can clue you in on different things and that you they can set the bar on certain things, or they give you ideas of where you want to live or what you want to do. Because I remember when I vacationed as a child with my parents, we would go on vacation and sometimes soon after we had moved to that area. So that happened when you moved from Santa Barbara to Santa Rosa.

Oh, that wasn't my family. Again, it was always about the money and what you had, what you had in order to spend. So I do know that one year my dad— my dad, I think of my dad in another life could have been a farmer. That would have been something he would have really have loved to do, though I, I find it really hard because he wasn't very skillful around the home type of deal, but he loved riding horses. And so one year, my mom, myself, and I— my brother wasn't born at that time— my cousin, who we were only a year apart, we went to a dude ranch in upstate New York somewhere. And I remember others that wanted to got to ride horses, and I was just kind of like, ooh, they were very, very big. I mean, I was about maybe 11. So that would make Lee 12, and we went on a dude ranch, and it was like a big huge outdoor— they had a big pool, they had all kinds of like outdoor activities, and my father was like so gung-ho about this, and I was just like, okay. And then we had to— they gave me a horse that they said was a very calm horse, and I'm like, never been on a horse before. And so I got on this horse and we were following a trail, and the next thing I know, this horse decided it wanted to go a different route and And I remember the guy yelling, just go with it, don't resist, don't pull the reins, just let it go. And I let that horse go, and I don't know which way we went. We ended up back to where we all met up again, but I went a totally different route.

Of course, that's pretty much your own personality.

That was it. That horse knew that— don't go with the crowd.

They said— they set— they set the tone for you earlier.

That was it. That was it.

She's gonna go her own way.

Yeah. The other time I went that's a very memorable vacation was when I was 12, and my parents, um, let me go with my grandmother and two of my cousins to South America. And first, uh, stop in South America was Ecuador, where two of my other cousins lived and my aunt. And we were gone pretty much the entire summer. So it wasn't like a trip you would go for 2 weeks. We were gone the entire summer.

So you learned so much and you got to see—

oh my goodness, not only did I learn so much, but I lost more. I was a chubby kid, but I lost a lot of weight while I was in South America because the food is— it gave me a whole new appreciation to living in the United States and the, the access that we had here in the United States that you don't have when you go to another country.

To all the processed foods.

Yes, to the processed foods. And at that point, I, and I remember we, so we left Ecuador, we went to Colombia, we flew into Bogotá, which is the capital, which if you think of Colombia is like a mountain, so Bogotá is on the top. And we were driving all the way down the mountain to, to where my great-grandmother lived. And we stopped at this like restaurant, looked like a restaurant. And as you walked in, they had pigs over here, they had chickens, they had all kinds of like farm animals, right? And my grandma's like, we're gonna eat here. And I'm like, okay, great. And my cousins didn't know Spanish very well, but I did. And I remember that the waiter came up to my grandmother and said, which chicken do you want? And I looked over and I said, what do you mean? And she picked the chicken. The guy would grab the chicken, he went in the back. That was the chicken you were going to eat. Well, when I realized that that was what we were eating, I was like, I am not having chicken, you guys. And I remember my cousin—

chicken you would ever had—

my grandmother said to me in Spanish, do not say anything to the other two. And I sat there saying, you don't know what you're eating.

They were probably really enjoying it.

They, they ate it with full gusto. And I remember Lee— so remember Lee was a year older than me, and then we went with my younger cousin Monica. Monica was— if I was 12, I would say she was probably 7. And so she was the youngest of us, and I just looked, and, and Monica was just like eating that chicken. I was just It's like, you, you, you don't know what happened to that chicken.

Well, like, like you, um, you know, my parents couldn't afford things either, and so all of our trips were camping trips when we, when we went out and we camped in the Redwood Forest and they, and near the Russian River and stuff. And our adventures were, were rafting down the Russian River or fishing or, um, hiking through the Redwood Forest, things like that.

But you're boys, that would be fun. And you were, you were raised in a, in, in state where that was. I was, I was a city girl. I, you know, there was no camping in Manhattan. There was no camping in the Bronx.

Camping on the Fire Island.

And you don't even go there.

All right, I'm not— I think on that note, we should probably edit this, but we won't. Until next time, bye!