Episode 405: Travel Tips for Winter Break

Hello everyone, happy Whiny Blues Wednesday!

Happy Whiny Blues Wednesday!

It is Wednesday before break, woohoo! You can't see me going woohoo, I'm like, we're like off the camera. I'll figure this out. Ah, leave it to the tech master. I'm in my self-love Hoodie.

Do you need some self-love?

Um, well, when I was shopping today, I got compliments on my hoodie. People like the self-love.

Yes.

Are you giving yourself self-love as you're getting ready for the holidays? Let us know how your prep work is going. Are you ready for Christmas? Are you ready for Hanukkah? Do you still have a lot to do? Are you traveling? Tell us what's going on with you. And are you feeling frantic? Are you feeling excited? So next week a lot of people are traveling, and I was like, I feel like this is the perfect week to talk about some travel tips. What do you think, Seth?

I think I'm excited to learn some travel tips.

So I think we have a lot of experience traveling with kids. What do you think?

We've been doing it for a very long— for 17 years, almost 18.

Um, if you count when Max was in the womb, it's, it's almost 19, but we won't go that far, right? They're easy when they're inside. So, um, from little kids to tweens to teenagers, we've traveled with pretty much all ages now, and we think we've learned something. We still hit bumps. I want to tell everybody, you're still going to hit bumps. It's not going to be smooth sailing. It's a permanent learning curve, but it's easier. I think it's easier. Don't you think that traveling is easier?

Yes. Yes, we're not taking a box of diapers with us anymore.

We're not carrying children. Yeah, we don't have— we usually don't have screaming children, no stroller, um, on the airplane. Our kids, for those of you who don't know, our son— I don't know, can I say it? Next month he turns 18. How do you feel about that? That's another blog topic.

I'm not ready.

Uh, so next month our son turns 18, our daughter is 15, and our youngest daughter is 12. So we are at much easier ages to travel, but we know what it's like and we want to tell you what we've learned. I am not— am I a planner? Am I a vacation planner?

You prefer not to be the travel agent.

Why do you think that is?

I think it gives you anxiety of there's too much, too many things to pick from, perhaps.

How come you do a better job at that than I do? Like, we have— Seth and I were talking last night when he was thanking me for helping him with work. You're welcome.

Thank you.

And, um, what was my point? My point was different areas. We have weaknesses. So as—

complementary opposites.

As he was going upstairs thanking me, I was like, it's okay, we have different strengths. We use each other's strengths, and Seth uses me, I use him. We balance each other out. And when I get anxious about traveling and planning, Seth jumps in and helps me out.

I would like to show you when we're done my spreadsheet.

I would like to do some more planning so that I feel less anxious. I feel better. Okay. I know there are two different types of people, and there are people who have the day totally planned out on vacation, on vacation, and there are people who want to see what they feel like doing. My experience, okay, um, I'm a little bit of a mixture, but I'm more— my problem is I think that if you have some sort of plan, you're going to be happier because you're going to get to do the things that you want to do. And having things like reservations eases stuff like waiting forever for a table. Yes. Now, I already am not getting reservations for the restaurant that I want to go to, so we're already hitting a roadblock. So as I talk about—

we're going to order food to go.

No, I'm going to put my name on the list and see what there is to do around there.

Oh my God. Okay.

Did we not talk about this?

We did not.

No, I don't want it to go. I want to experience the place.

Okay, well, you might have to wait hours and hours to experience the place.

Okay, so we're going to talk about this after the show.

Yes.

So I'm going to talk about planning, but before I talk about it, I want to tell you that I have a restaurant I want to go to, but I need to be flexible and I need to go with the flow. And if we get attached to things, sometimes we set ourselves up for disappointment. So I need to be able to say to myself, you want to go to this restaurant, you wanted to go last time too. If you don't get to it, it's going to be okay. You're not going to want to wait for hours, so just be flexible, go with the flow of life. And find a different restaurant. So I need to go research restaurants, and if I can buy tickets to things ahead of time, then I already have them and I don't have to worry about like a museum selling out. You understand what I'm saying?

I do.

So I think that when we went to Florida last time, we had tickets for Epcot, we had tickets for Magic Kingdom, and we had tickets for, um, what's the Discovery Cove? So we had tickets for 3 days, I believe.

Yes.

And that made me feel better because I already had a plan and already had my tickets. So I'm just saying that if you don't plan, you may not get the museum, you may not get the restaurant. So just, just know that planning ahead can get you what you want, is what I have found. Yes, right. Um, so packing, let's talk about packing. So we're at the stage— so moms, either you— again, there's two types of moms. There's moms that are gonna say, kids, go pack your stuff, go do your laundry and pack up. There's moms who are gonna say, I'll pack you up. I think that All 3 of my kids are at the age where they're old enough to pack their own stuff.

Yep.

However, I'm going to preface it with a couple of things. They need— I think that they still need a list to refresh them and remind them what they need. I think that I still need to check over things because sometimes, I mean, I'm going to be honest, sometimes I don't approve of what they've packed, or sometimes I'm like, you know, like I'm going to have a conversation with Ella. Does she really need to wear a skirt?

Not when it's cold out.

She's listening. Like, do we really need to look cute? And, and does— is fashion— is fashion that important? It's wintertime. Can we please just wear pants? Let's just wear pants, people.

Pants under the skirt.

And make sure your kids pack their essentials. We We have forgotten glasses, we have forgotten contacts, we have forgotten bathing suits. I'll never forget the vacation when Lily got in the car for a road trip without her shoes and jacket on.

Oh, that was fun.

And she goes right to the third row, and Seth and I didn't check her, and we're like, did you get in the car without shoes and a coat? We learned.

We had an emergency Target run to buy shoes.

No, I think we might have, but we were going to my brother's house in Virginia. So my brother has two boys who she might have just worn their sneakers and their coats, but like, seriously, Lily? Seriously?

I think we discovered that at a rest stop once we got out.

We're like, where are your shoes?

That was not pretty.

How do you get in a car for a road trip and think, I'm gonna take my blanket and my pillow and there's gonna be no shoes on me and no coat and I'm gonna freeze in the winter and it'll be okay? So my nephew gave Lily a coat and shoes. Good times in parenting. So make sure your kids— I think that our kids need to learn to pack for themselves, but I think we need— still need to be checking it. And, um, yeah, you might want to remind them to do their laundry if they do their laundry. By the way, my children have a laundry fairy, and I happened to do all the laundry but I really do need to teach them another life skill. So we're packing smart and we're planning ahead and we're setting expectations. And what I mean by that is, what do you expect from your husband and your children on the trip?

Oh, we haven't talked about expectations you have for me.

I'm just kidding.

I told you mine for you. I said just like everything and be easy and be happy with whatever it is.

So Seth's goal on vacation is to have a happy— have a happy wife.

Yes.

And I'm just going to be happy and be happy to be on vacation.

And it would be wonderful because there have been some times that you were not.

There have been some times. Okay, so Seth is wonderful and is our travel agent, and I have learned now I relinquished control again. So let's see if I'm gonna regret this. I don't think I'm gonna regret this. But we showed up to the hotel last time and I was like, oh my God, oh my God, why did you let him pick the hotel?

The pictures on the website did not match what we actually got, saw when we got there. The pictures on the website looked good. I did look. Okay, so it did not say it was under construction and all the other issues.

It's okay. It's okay. We went to Boston to look at colleges and Seth, oh my God, Boston, New York, like I wanna cry. He like booked the most beautiful hotel with adjoining rooms, and it was just like magical. Can we go back there?

Attached to a mall.

It was attached to a mall. It was beautiful, and it had adjoining rooms. Can we go back there?

It is hard to find hotels with adjoining rooms in the 21st century.

You want to go look at colleges? Yeah. Which college in Boston? BU. Okay, Ella wants to look at BU. Ella is making a list of colleges that she wants to go see because she's watching her brother.

I did the same thing. I watched my brother go ahead of me, and it started me thinking sooner than I probably would have.

No, because I have been told by parents that sophomore year is a good year to start looking.

I mean, he was 4 years older than me, so I looked sooner than sophomore.

Okay, okay. Well, so we're gonna start the college process with Ella. We're still in it with Max, but we're getting off topic.

Yeah.

So, so he booked such a good hotel for Boston that I was like, oh, he can, he can book the next hotel. And then I was like, Maybe not. And now he did it again and I'm like, okay, it's gonna be good. It's gonna be good.

Painful, not expensive enough lesson.

Oh no, I'm— I don't like when you call me expensive.

It's expensive to be you.

So setting expectations means what, what do you expect of your kids on the trip? Like, I'm gonna give you a perfect example. Setting the tone of we're gonna do less technology this week. This is really important to me. And when we're sitting at dinner together, I really want us to be present and have a good time together and talk to each other. And we're not gonna sit in the hotel room all day on our technology. We're gonna go out and we're gonna explore and we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that. And we're gonna be, we're gonna be as easy as possible and as flexible as possible. And what are your expectations? Do you expect, are they realistic expectations? I know, I already know, you don't have to tell me. I know that my children don't wanna go nonstop from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. We have to build in downtime for our kids. I have to build in downtime for my husband. Maybe it's resting before dinner and then going back out. So like I twitch, because, okay, so there's two types of me. There's me who goes back to the hotel room and is so tired that I crash and I'm done for the day. And there's me who goes back to the hotel room and rests and then is like twitching, like, can we go do something?

We can't possibly stay in this hotel room we paid for. We only paid for it to sleep here. We got to get out there.

I got to go see stuff.

So anyways, at least you amuse yourself.

I do. So at least I know myself. But the thing, but the thing is, is I know myself, and I know that even though I might be the type of person who probably could go from 9 to 9, I know that my family doesn't agree with me. So I need to be kind and considerate and realistic, and I need to give them downtime, and I need to do this for my own sanity because we don't want We don't want cranky children or a cranky husband or a cranky mom. And I want to tell you what is super important to me on travel. I have to feed my family. I have to feed them 3 meals a day. I have to feed them snacks. If I have hungry children, they are so— Seth and I do better. I feel like you and I do better if we skip a meal or yes go too long. We don't tend to—

we get hangry like they do.

We could probably fast for hours, Seth and I, I think.

I don't—

yeah, right. Like, I don't want to speak for you, but you and I can fast and we're fine.

Yes.

The children do not agree, and they get hangry. So I would say prioritize meals and snacks on trips. I posted on Facebook my blog I did write this. You can read it on Facebook or at whiningpluza.com. And the comments that I have gotten so far are all about food. Bring snacks, have snacks, have sweets. Everything that people have commented are all about food. I think it's hysterical. So keeping kids engaged. I think that Seth and I, I wanna tell you why Seth and I do a good job of this. We engage our kids in the planning process. And we engage our kids by asking each of them what they want to do. I think that I always want to find one thing that each kid wants to do on a trip. And, um, I don't even think I've asked you what your— what your desired outcome is, so I'll ask you after this.

Okay.

I think I'm really good at asking the children, and I think that Seth is really good at just pleasing his family. So I need to make sure that we also please Seth, but I don't know that he has anything on his list. So we, we will talk about that.

Okay.

They have no problem telling us their needs.

Yep.

So, so keeping them engaged is doing things that they're interested in, asking them to plan with you, asking them where they want to go. Um, we decided on a trip that our kids wanted to do um, versus taking me to warm weather. My family rejects— I don't know, Lily, do you like warm weather? Okay, so Lily, what about you, Seth?

I am flexible.

So Seth doesn't care. Uh, Lily and I are the only ones who really care to go to warm weather. Max and Ella are like, bring on winter. So Max and Ella kind of picked this one, I think. Would you agree with that?

Yes.

Okay, we talked about downtime, so I want to talk about capturing moments, Seth. Okay. I don't always— I do tend to blog. We do get a blog after a trip, so we have that to remember.

But, um, take a thousand pictures.

We take a thousand pictures. I think it's great to get your kids to take pictures. I think it's great to get your kids to journal. And what I love about social media— I know lots of parents are anti-social media, but what I do love is I love seeing their excitement to like post things, like to make like a new TikTok of somewhere like new that we're visiting. It's just ways to keep them engaged and capture moments. And I really should make photo books. Um, I did my project I did my wall. I updated— I updated my picture wall of all the kids' pictures. I'm like super proud of myself. I've been wanting to do that a long time. I've been wanting to do that and it weighs on me when I don't get things done. So now I need to work on photo books. Does anybody print photos anymore? I don't know, at least of trips and important things. Okay. I don't know. I like those social books that you print me. How do we— how do we print more?

Spend more money. Go to social— mysocialbook.com or whatever it is and sign in with your new— your Facebook account and print some things.

Okay, well, you've ordered all of them, so maybe you could do one with me.

I stopped doing them because you post so many pictures that doing one ends up being very, very expensive, and I had no idea How would you pick from the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pictures in one year that you might post?

Well, I'm posting daily, right?

Exactly.

So that's how many days in a year?

And you post more than one picture a day sometimes, right?

Right, right. Okay, we talked about— we talked about being flexible and having realistic expectations. I might have a museum planned for the day and my kids might be like, I really don't want to do that. Well, then I need to make the decision with Seth, are we going to make them go, or are we going to pick something else to do? We talked about feeding them and focusing on family time. And what I mean by that is really all we want to do is be together. Does it really matter what we're doing? I mean, it's not so important the thing that we're doing on the trip. I love the fact that all 5 of us are going to be together doing something, you know, for 5 days away from all of it. And it makes me so happy.

Yay!

So I don't know if you realize that when we plan vacations, trips, whatever you want to call them, it really excites me.

Yes, I do realize it.

You do realize that. That's why, that's why, uh, why we're going. That's why we spend the money.

Yes.

But you love them too, I hope. Yes, yes. What has been your favorite so far?

Discovery Cove, swimming with dolphins.

Oh, was that your favorite? Yeah, you liked that?

It is still my wallpaper on my phone.

Seriously? I didn't know that you loved that so much. Okay, so, um, I'm not saying soon, but what is on your list? Where would you like us to go like another time next.

Well, are we talking bucket list someday or in a year?

Um, I want to hear both.

I mean, bucket list someday, love to get you to Hawaii, love to go see Italy and Europe and Paris.

Yes, yes, yes, let's do it.

Okay.

And, and so if we were to say like spring break Oh, is in, in a couple months.

I, I think we're doing college trips, right?

Um, probably. If you gotta talk about it, if Max— if we were to give— if we were to give Max a senior trip, where do you think we would take him?

I don't know.

You know what I think Max would say? Sure, like Alaska. Somewhere cold.

I don't know if we'd go that far.

So when Max was born and we brought him home— oh, I need that.

I'm gonna say, did you memorize who's on the podcast?

I did, kind of. When Max was born and we brought him home, it was snowing, and I'll never forget it. And he loves the snow, and I always think about that day.

Your winter baby.

My winter baby. So travel safe, have fun, enjoy the moments, don't get caught up in the details, and let us know your travel tips. We shared ours with you, and we would love to hear travel tips from you. And on the podcast this Friday is Kimberly Grutis. Grutis, am I saying it right? I feel like I'm saying it right. I'm sorry, Kimberly. So Kimberly has a skincare business, and what I love about Kimberly is that she did her research and she was very upset with the chemicals that she was finding in her daughter's skincare and what it was doing to their health. They were having health issues, and, um, not necessarily from the skincare, but stuff that it was like exacerbating— is that the word that I'm looking for? So she really developed some really clean skincare and wants to talk to us about it.

Awesome.

And I loved her and I loved her business and her message. And so listen to Kimberly. And what— oh, I had lots of winners. I want to tell you, we had a December holiday challenge winner, we had a my mom's birthday challenge winner, and we had a 400th podcast episode winner.

You are just playing the prize fairy all over.

So 3— so I've, um, mailed 2 and I'm dropping off 1 tomorrow.

So the Winey Palooza fairy could pay you a visit.

The Winey Palooza fairy is going around town and mailing stuff in the mail, so I'm having fun. So come join us, the Winey Palooza Mom group on Facebook. It's a free supportive community.

And Seth Go to whinyblues.com, check out the link tree with all of Rebecca's amazing free resources— her podcast, her blog, her blog, her books, and her 3 times a week awesome inspirational parenting and marriage newsletter that is growing by leaps and bounds every single day.

That's awesome.

And make sure on everything to like, rate, review, comment, share, and subscribe.

Seriously, how do you do that?

You ask the question every week. It's a surprise every week how I manage to say the same line every single week, right?

But you sound So professional when you do it.

It's like we might produce podcasts, I don't know, professionally all day every day. It's crazy.

It's crazy. How many podcasts have you done? If I've done 400, you've done double that.

Oh, I've done more than double that. We're probably around— I think I am around about 1,400.

Oh!

And that's where I was the host, not counting the hundreds I've been interviewed on.

Holy crap, Seth. That— and I thought 400 was good.

400 is awesome. Comparison is the thief of joy. I've been doing this a lot longer than you. I'm not doing it a couple of years.

My joy is not stolen. I'm proud of myself.

Good, you should.

So enjoy the holidays. We are off next week. It is Hanukkah on Christmas, so we will be celebrating Hanukkah, and we hope you have a wonderful Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, whatever you hear, whatever you celebrate. And, um, I am not sure— our kids are off for the next weeks, so I'm not sure when we're coming back, but we will let you know.

It'll either be the week between Christmas and New Year's or the first week of the new year.

Yes, but we will be back shortly. We will be back, and, um, we will see you then. Thank you for tuning in to the Winey Palooza podcast. If you like what you heard, please be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. While you are there, leave a review. I love to hear your feedback. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time. This show has been produced by Market Domination LLC. To discover how you can have your own show completely done for you and turn it into a real published book and become the authority in your marketplace, go to www.marketdominationllc.com/podcastoffer.