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Speaker 1: Hi. This is Laura Vandercamp. I'm a mother of five,

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Speaker 1: an author, journalist, and speaker. And this is Sarah Hartunger.

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Speaker 1: I'm a mother of three, a practicing physician and blogger.

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Speaker 1: On the side, we are two working parents who love

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Speaker 1: our careers and our families. Welcome to best of both worlds.

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Speaker 1: Here we talk about how real women manage work, family,

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Speaker 1: and time for fun, from figuring out childcare to mapping

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Speaker 1: out long term career goals. We want you to get

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Speaker 1: the most out of life. Welcome to best of both worlds.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. This is episode two hundred and eighty five,

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Speaker 1: airing in mid January of twenty twenty three. Sarah and

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Speaker 1: I are going to be talking about family travel, and

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Speaker 1: particularly travel with bigger kids, which we are both entering

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Speaker 1: into that world as our kids get older, as they

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Speaker 1: will continue to do in the course of this podcast.

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Speaker 1: We both also had some fairly big trips over the

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Speaker 1: Christmas New Year's holiday, so we wanted to share some

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Speaker 1: of our experience, says some of our tips, answer some

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Speaker 1: listener questions about that. So, Sarah, how far ahead do

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Speaker 1: you tend to plan your family travel? Yeah, so, I'm

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Speaker 1: usually about six to twelve months out for any given trip.

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Speaker 1: I do have a five year travel plan that I

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Speaker 1: created that we've talked about on prior episodes, but that

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Speaker 1: plan is certainly not set in stone. In fact, I'm

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Speaker 1: already making some changes for next year. It's more set

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Speaker 1: of ideas that go with various kids, ages and stages,

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Speaker 1: so I don't lose track of those kind of one

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Speaker 1: hundred dreams, like things that I might want to do

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Speaker 1: in the future, but that's not like actual travel plans. Instead,

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Speaker 1: I would say for a bigger trip, I'm about a

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Speaker 1: year out perhaps, and for a more low key trip,

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Speaker 1: I tend to be about six months out. I have

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Speaker 1: found that with three kids, and you've done great even

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Speaker 1: with a more short notice. But with three kids I

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Speaker 1: find it a little more challenging to find housing at times,

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Speaker 1: and so it has been beneficial to look for housing

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Speaker 1: in particular that fits what we want budget wise and

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Speaker 1: families set up wise, if I look farther in advance.

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Speaker 1: So that's kind of what dictates it. It's not as

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Speaker 1: much the airline tickets, and in fact I have found

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Speaker 1: that sometimes my desire to really get my airfare figured

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Speaker 1: out in advances backfired, like we definitely overpaid for our

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Speaker 1: Montana tickets, which were not cheap because all the search

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Speaker 1: engines said buy now, buy now, and then I looked

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Speaker 1: closer to the trip and like, we shouldn't have bought now,

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Speaker 1: But that's anyway. So yeah, I would say six to

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Speaker 1: twelve months. And for example, right now, I have our

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Speaker 1: spring break already booked for April. I have our summer

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Speaker 1: trip pretty much it's booked, but like not entirely, like

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Speaker 1: a lot of hotels and airfare have not been bought.

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Speaker 1: And then probably the next couple months, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: start putting together Winter twenty twenty three because spoiler alert,

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Speaker 1: I kind of want to do a very similar trip

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Speaker 1: to what we just did, and I want to make

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Speaker 1: sure I can make that happen. So yeah, six to

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Speaker 1: twelve months. And some of this is probably driven by

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Speaker 1: making sure you guys have the days off work too,

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Speaker 1: write like how far ahead do you have to ask

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Speaker 1: for those? Yeah, So I've it's gotten to be the

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Speaker 1: point where, just the way that my practice is structured,

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Speaker 1: it's honestly best if I'm six months ahead on that.

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Speaker 1: So I'm already trying to block off summer fall twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three. Right now, I have colleagues that have been

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Speaker 1: disappointed that they can't go to various things, and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: you absolutely need to have that runway because we're so

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Speaker 1: booked as a practice right now that any time you

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Speaker 1: want to cancel a day, you need to have places

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Speaker 1: to put that day of canceled patients. And if every

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Speaker 1: other day around it is full, even if that's three

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Speaker 1: months away, it doesn't accommodate patients' needs. And I understand that.

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Speaker 1: So that's why you have to proactively not have them

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Speaker 1: booked on those days in the first place. And the

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Speaker 1: best way to do that is again to stay about

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Speaker 1: six months ahead. That's not every physician. That's kind of

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Speaker 1: unique to what I do and how our practice is structured.

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Speaker 1: My husband, for example, can be more like two to

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Speaker 1: three months out and be okay. And in fact, he

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Speaker 1: doesn't even get his call schedule until, like we just

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Speaker 1: got the January through March one, so we can't always

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Speaker 1: go so far in advance, but he can usually get

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Speaker 1: what he needs to. And the school schedule obviously is

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Speaker 1: the other big dictator of when we go away because

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Speaker 1: it's usually spring break, summer trip, and winter break and

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Speaker 1: winter break's actually pretty new for us because I feel

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Speaker 1: like one of us has always been working and we

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Speaker 1: haven't been able to make it work. But I am

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Speaker 1: determined because those years are so finite and I want

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Speaker 1: to make use of those lovely weeks that the kids

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Speaker 1: have off. Absolutely. Yeah, we're pretty tied to this school

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Speaker 1: calendar too, which I try to look ahead on, and

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Speaker 1: we sort of have in our minds that we do

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Speaker 1: something over Christmas, something over spring break, something in the summer,

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Speaker 1: and that tends to correspond with when the kids are off.

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Speaker 1: You know, sometimes we don't think about it until closer

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Speaker 1: to or we have different ideas of what people want

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Speaker 1: to do, so it's harder to make a decision our

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Speaker 1: summer the travel. At least we know what we want

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Speaker 1: to do that's pretty set for this summer. That's not

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Speaker 1: always been the case of how far ahead we book.

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Speaker 1: But given that I'm going to need to start constructing

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Speaker 1: the kids camp schedule, it kind of needed to be

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Speaker 1: done in the work organizing extended family stuff as well,

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Speaker 1: so that had to get everyone signed off on, so

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Speaker 1: that had to be done ahead of time. But we've

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Speaker 1: done some more last minute stuff, like we took a

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Speaker 1: trip last June that we planned I think at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of May, and it was a pretty large trip.

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Speaker 1: Some of that is more my husband's schedule of when

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Speaker 1: he would like to plan travel, which is last minute

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Speaker 1: or while you're there a time, a little bit less

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Speaker 1: into planning while you are actually there, but sometimes it works.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes we get great last minute deals, So I guess

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Speaker 1: either way. We have a couple of times off that's

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Speaker 1: been harder for us to use. So we get the

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Speaker 1: major Jewish holidays off, so we always get two days

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Speaker 1: off for Rashishana, and there's been some years where that

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Speaker 1: is a Thursday and Friday or a Monday and Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: and so then you have a four day weekend in

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Speaker 1: early fall, which has been hard for us to for

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Speaker 1: whatever reason. I think it's because it's so soon after summer.

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Speaker 1: And the same thing with President's Day, which we always

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Speaker 1: have a half day on Thursday, the Friday off, and

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Speaker 1: the Monday off, so you could pull the kids out

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Speaker 1: for a half day on Thursday and have a five

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Speaker 1: day trip somewhere, which we've managed to do a couple

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Speaker 1: of years, like in twenty nineteen we did Disney over

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Speaker 1: that like we left on Wednesday night, did Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

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Speaker 1: and then flew back Monday or whatever it was. But

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Speaker 1: you know, many years it's just harder to get our

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Speaker 1: heads around it because we're just finished with Christmas. So

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Speaker 1: if we did something big with Christmas, like oh, nobody

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Speaker 1: wants to plan it, nobody wants to pay for it.

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Speaker 1: So we got to get better about those smaller, smaller ones. Yeah, oh,

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Speaker 1: I'm jealous. I don't feel like we have a lot

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Speaker 1: of We have a lot of one off days like

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Speaker 1: teacher workdays or President's Day, just the one day, but

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Speaker 1: we don't have a lot of decent stretches. We usually

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Speaker 1: have one in March, which has become Josh and Cameron's

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Speaker 1: mail bonding trip. They went snowboarding last year and I

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Speaker 1: think they're going to do that again. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: I wish there was sort of a mid late October

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Speaker 1: longer weekend or something, because that's always good for go

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Speaker 1: visiting the leaves, But that doesn't match up with Rashashana

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Speaker 1: almost as always earlier, I think with the way the

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Speaker 1: calendar works, so it's never time for that. We'd have

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Speaker 1: to go to like Northern Alaska or something. To see

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Speaker 1: the peak leaves at that point. But yeah, no. In

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Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about

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Speaker 1: some recent trips and one thing, you know, people are

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Speaker 1: always going to play like, well, travel is expensive, which

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Speaker 1: is true, but this is actually an area where both

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Speaker 1: our families have decided to spend more and maybe spend

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Speaker 1: less on some other things. I mean, Sarah, you guys

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Speaker 1: you calculated it what with travel versus housing? I did,

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Speaker 1: so I went into you guys know, I use you

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Speaker 1: need a budget to track all of our expenditures, which

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Speaker 1: means I can do cool deep dives and reports into

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Speaker 1: what percentage of our take home pay has spent on

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Speaker 1: different things. It looks at take home pay rather than

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Speaker 1: gross income because I put like paychecks basically into wine

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Speaker 1: app and not like gross incum and put what taxes

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Speaker 1: and whatever. But I can tell you that in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two, thirteen percent of our take home pay was

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Speaker 1: spent on travel, which is a lot. I recognize that

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Speaker 1: I don't actually have the value for housing in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two, and I will say housing was slightly inflated

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two because that was the year we

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Speaker 1: bought our house and we did the floors and like,

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Speaker 1: so to be fair that that statistic may not be

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Speaker 1: true for last year, but in general, yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I know because I allocate in the budget, I allocate

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Speaker 1: more than that vacation slash travel category than I alligate

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Speaker 1: toward our mortgage, and that is by choice. We also, like,

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Speaker 1: I know a lot of people tend to spend a

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Speaker 1: lot on like improving their homes or keeping up with cars,

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Speaker 1: and like, those are also things that we just try

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Speaker 1: to keep like zero basically as much as we can.

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Speaker 1: And that's neither as right or wrong. It's just kind

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Speaker 1: of like how we choose to prioritize. But I love

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Speaker 1: taking trips with family, I love thinking about them, I

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Speaker 1: love them while they're happening, I love remembering them, I

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Speaker 1: love looking forward to them, and so yeah, that's kind

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Speaker 1: of been a choice for us, and I don't see

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Speaker 1: that changing anytime soon. Yeah, this is a total all

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Speaker 1: the money in the world kind of philosophy. If anyone

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Speaker 1: read that book, which I realized not many people who

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Speaker 1: listen to this podcast probably did, it's my book that

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Speaker 1: sold the least. But anyway, I wrote a book on

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Speaker 1: money many years ago, and one of the things I

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Speaker 1: point out is that we have certain set percentages that

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Speaker 1: people seem to think our right to spend on certain things,

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Speaker 1: and so a lot of people have in their minds

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Speaker 1: that housing is like twenty five to thirty five percent

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Speaker 1: of their income, right, and that's perfectly fine, Like that's

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Speaker 1: an option. But if you work out a situation where

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Speaker 1: you can live somewhere that's you know, safe and good

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Speaker 1: schools and all that, but spend less than that on housing,

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Speaker 1: that opens up a fairly large percent for other things.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the difference between spending twenty percent on housing

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Speaker 1: and thirty percent is ten That could then go to

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Speaker 1: things like savings and travel and little adventures and experiences

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Speaker 1: and all those other things that on the most part

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Speaker 1: actually tend to affect day to day happiness a little

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Speaker 1: bit more. So I love that you're doing it. I

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Speaker 1: think we definitely spend more on housing, especially this year

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Speaker 1: because we've been renovating everything. It's ongoing, But hopefully that'll

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Speaker 1: level out and maybe travel will will rise to the

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Speaker 1: level of housing, because yeah, housing's not gonna fall. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: we can go ahead and start on some of this. So, Sarah,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about your ski notes. We're gonna do the

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Speaker 1: frequently asked questions of Sarah's ski travel. You grew up skiing, right, Yes,

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Speaker 1: so I went as a middle and high schooler. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't my family that went skiing. My parents I don't

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Speaker 1: think have ever been skiing. My sister I don't think

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Speaker 1: has ever been skiing. But we had a ski club

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Speaker 1: at Haverford Middle School that I joined as a sixth

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Speaker 1: or seventh grader and went on frequent ski trips. And

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Speaker 1: I swear they were like like thirty seven dollars will

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Speaker 1: get you the entire trip, your rental, your lift ticket,

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Speaker 1: your bus to camel Back Mountain or whatever, and we'd

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Speaker 1: spend all day. We had to take lessons, and I

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Speaker 1: mean I went fairly frequently, like you know, multiple times

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Speaker 1: a winter. And then I had one my friend who

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Speaker 1: I'm still in touch with today. I would sometimes go

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Speaker 1: with their family because their whole family took up skiing,

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Speaker 1: and it was super fun when I got to go along.

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Speaker 1: And this probably happened you know, middle school, kind of

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Speaker 1: early high school, and then college I went to a

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Speaker 1: place I could have gone skiing, but I think I

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Speaker 1: went once or twice and that was it. And then

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Speaker 1: Josh and I I think went like once and then

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Speaker 1: I had kids and I hadn't gone for many, many years,

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Speaker 1: so I had a ski background. I did used to

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Speaker 1: ski all of the various slopes. I don't think I

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Speaker 1: was ever comfortable like on black Diamonds, but I would

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Speaker 1: sort of do them and survive back as a teen.

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Speaker 1: But I was like, I have no idea if my

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Speaker 1: body is going to have any recollection of skiing whatsoever.

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Speaker 1: So I was pretty nervous going into this trip. I

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Speaker 1: had a lot of trepidations about a family ski trip

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Speaker 1: in I kept googling various articles from families like tips

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Speaker 1: for ski trips, and like, you know what if I

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Speaker 1: haven't been skiing for a long time. So I hope

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Speaker 1: this is helpful to some who maybe skied as a kid,

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Speaker 1: or haven't skied at all perhaps and are interested in

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Speaker 1: trying that as a family. Yeah, it's funny to hear

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Speaker 1: you talk about Camelback, and I know Blue Mountain is

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Speaker 1: another one that you at big older Jack frostwe Mountain, Shawnee.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if Shawannie is saying Bear Mountain. Did

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Speaker 1: you ever go to Bear Mountain? That's like the smaller

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Speaker 1: one too. Yeah, Blue Mountain is the closest to us,

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Speaker 1: so that's where Michael will take the kids some weekend days,

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Speaker 1: like if they go. They did the Blue Mountain ski

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Speaker 1: team like one year, but that was kind of short lived.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, that's cool. It's so funny that we have

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Speaker 1: these same places, like of all the places and it

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Speaker 1: turns out to be eastern Pennsylvania. But why did you

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Speaker 1: guys wait to go till now? I mean, you know

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Speaker 1: so you you haven't gone in a long time? Why

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Speaker 1: did you Yeah, we hadn't gone in a long time.

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Speaker 1: I think it's a fewfold. Part of its financial going

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Speaker 1: skiing as a family. At least the way we chose

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Speaker 1: to do it was very much not cheap, and I

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Speaker 1: don't know that we couldn't have afforded it before. But

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I hadn't made it as much of

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Speaker 1: a prayer, or maybe I just felt like when the

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Speaker 1: kids were younger, and it wouldn't have been that much

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Speaker 1: fun for me. This is probably really what it is.

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Speaker 1: If it wasn't going to be fun, if it was

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Speaker 1: going to be more stressful and then fun while it

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Speaker 1: was happening, and I was super worried about like daycare

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Speaker 1: and kids getting sick and my kids not wanting to

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Speaker 1: ski and having babies and dealing with that. Then I

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Speaker 1: don't want to, you know, allocate so much of my

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Speaker 1: funds and my time and my worry into doing it.

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Speaker 1: So I think we might have gone like a year earlier,

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Speaker 1: But really it was about waiting until it seemed like

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Speaker 1: there was at least a decent chance that the kids

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Speaker 1: would be able to, you know, take ski school and

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Speaker 1: learn on their own and not be total pains during

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Speaker 1: air travel and all of that, so that it could

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Speaker 1: be an overall pretty pleasant experience. So I think if

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Speaker 1: we had fewer kids, we would have taken the bigger

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Speaker 1: kids sooner, when you know, just them when they were older.

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Speaker 1: But we hadn't wanted to split up on this one.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, five enough ended up being a fantastic setup

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Speaker 1: for it not to be terribly stressed. Yeah, spoiler alert here.

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Speaker 1: Michael took our two younger kids skiing over Christmas break,

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Speaker 1: and I mean I think he had a good time

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Speaker 1: much of it. I mean, he put Alex in ski school,

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Speaker 1: Henry did daycare for a couple of days, then did

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Speaker 1: half day ski lessons on when he was officially three,

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Speaker 1: and so Michael was able to do some solo skiing

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Speaker 1: on like the Black Diamonds that he likes to do

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Speaker 1: or whatever. But I don't think it was easy. I mean,

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Speaker 1: especially traveling solo with two small kids and all their

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Speaker 1: gear and being in the ski place with the two

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Speaker 1: small kids not easy. I mean partly that was just

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Speaker 1: being alone adult with two kids. I mean, if I'd

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Speaker 1: been there, it would have been probably easier, I assume,

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Speaker 1: but also the ages as well. But you know, there

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Speaker 1: are amenities in many of these places, and one of

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Speaker 1: the recent families often do ski vacations is there tends

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Speaker 1: to be a resort daycare, and there tends to be

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Speaker 1: ski school for kids as young as three, so you

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Speaker 1: can get some adult skiing and have programming for them

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Speaker 1: and you know, have a family experience. We really have

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Speaker 1: to look at. Yes, we need to take a break,

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Speaker 1: and then I will have a note about ski school.

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Speaker 1: We'll make it right back. So we are back talking

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Speaker 1: family travel. Right now, we're talking about skiing since you

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Speaker 1: know Sarah took her family skiing in Montana over vacation.

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Speaker 1: So what were you going to say about ski school?

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Speaker 1: I was just going to say that while we were

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Speaker 1: at our trip, as one does. I started researching future trips,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of places have done away with full

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Speaker 1: on ski school and they'll just offer like two hour lessons.

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Speaker 1: And I feel like, if you have younger kids and

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Speaker 1: you ski, and you want to have some extended time

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Speaker 1: to actually ski, it's important to look for a place

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Speaker 1: that does offer full on, like look at the hours,

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Speaker 1: look at what they actually offer, because it's not like

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Speaker 1: necessarily a three year old going to be skiing the

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Speaker 1: entire day. But you want a place that has a

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Speaker 1: program that's from like perhaps nine to three or nine

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Speaker 1: to four, with a lunch break and hot chocolate breaks

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Speaker 1: and activities for if they get too cold, so that

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Speaker 1: you can get some of your own time skiing and

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Speaker 1: if that's what you want out of your trip. Because yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was surprised to find that some of the bigger name,

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Speaker 1: especially East Coast places, are like, oh, we have these

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Speaker 1: two hour things, but they didn't necessarily have a school. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So that kind of leads me to the question that

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Speaker 1: I planted here, How did you choose the location? Sarah?

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Speaker 1: I could do the planted questions, that's fine, all right,

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Speaker 1: I'm asking the planted questions how did you choose a location? Okay,

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Speaker 1: so we picked Big Sky because we were going in December,

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Speaker 1: although it was very late December, like Christmas week essentially,

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Speaker 1: and I was like worried because you know, depending on

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Speaker 1: the year, snow can be not that great in December

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Speaker 1: you can have patches of brown still. It really kind

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Speaker 1: of depends on where you go. It turned out twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two it was a fantastic snow year. But I

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Speaker 1: didn't know that in advance obviously, So I had googled

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Speaker 1: like best skiing in December early season skiing, and Montana

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Speaker 1: came up, and my husband's cousin actually lived there, so

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Speaker 1: we had a whole discussion with her about the Bozeman

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Speaker 1: area and Big Sky, and so that's kind of I

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Speaker 1: don't know. It also just sounded so exotic to me.

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Speaker 1: It's a state I had never been to, something totally

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Speaker 1: different culturally, so I was just excited about that. So

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Speaker 1: that's why we picked it, and the fact that it

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Speaker 1: seemed to have all of the kind of big, big

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Speaker 1: resort amenities, like a full day ski school, but a

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Speaker 1: lot of the comments noted that it was notoriously not

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Speaker 1: crowded compared to some and that did hold true. The

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Speaker 1: snow was excellent, and I basically never waited in a

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Speaker 1: lift line like at all, Like you just would ski

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Speaker 1: right up and get on the lift. I think there's

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Speaker 1: some like super super advanced slopes with like lifts that

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Speaker 1: kind of are underlifted for the population that wants to

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Speaker 1: ski those specific areas, so it might be different there,

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Speaker 1: but for where we were many many options, basically no waiting,

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Speaker 1: and it didn't feel crowded at all. So yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: why we picked it. The negative of where we chose

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Speaker 1: is that there is very few direct flights, so you're

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Speaker 1: you know, we talk about that later in this and

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Speaker 1: how you really love to fly direct. But like we

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Speaker 1: would have had to drive to Georgia, I mean there

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Speaker 1: was no there's no way out of it. So we

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Speaker 1: flew through Dallas and it was great. And I think

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Speaker 1: there were some routes previously from Jet Blue and then

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Speaker 1: some budget airway called a Vello that was serving Fort

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Speaker 1: Lauderdale to Bozeman, but neither of them exists anymore, Like

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Speaker 1: the roots still exist. Yeah, the Fort Lauderdale Bozeman route

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Speaker 1: has a well I would have done Miami or Palm

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Speaker 1: Beach like those are our three reasonable airports that I

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Speaker 1: would drive to. Anything else is more than three or

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Speaker 1: four hours away, but none of them. Yeah no, Montana

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Speaker 1: can also be cold, as you discovered. But but yeah, no,

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Speaker 1: there's something to think about. I mean, I know my

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Speaker 1: family has done some Colorado resorts, but none of them

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Speaker 1: are very close to the airport. I don't think whereas

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Speaker 1: Salt Lake City in Utah, there actually are some major

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Speaker 1: resorts within an hour of the Salt Lake City airport.

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Speaker 1: So just something to think about as you're doing your research.

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Speaker 1: If you do want to fly to a major airport

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Speaker 1: and not have to then drive two to three hours

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Speaker 1: on the end of it, that kind of will dictate

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Speaker 1: which major resorts you can go to. In some states

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Speaker 1: like Utah, Montana maybe easier than others. So when did

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Speaker 1: you book it and did you stay close to the mountain?

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Speaker 1: I mean, because it's always I think, do you want

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Speaker 1: to be at a place where you can ski and

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Speaker 1: ski out or you know, are you do a cheaper

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Speaker 1: place farther away or you know? What was the choice there? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we opted for convenience. I felt like since it was

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Speaker 1: the kid's first time, I didn't know how hard it

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Speaker 1: was going to be logistically to even get their gear

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Speaker 1: on and stuff. I wanted to make things as easy

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Speaker 1: as possible, and I think I'll probably do that the

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Speaker 1: next time as well. It was just so nice to

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Speaker 1: be able to walk out and be right at the

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Speaker 1: mountain base. And I think there are some resorts where

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Speaker 1: the only accommodations at the base are super swanky resorts

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Speaker 1: that are completely out of my price range. But Big

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Speaker 1: Sky had some that were reasonable right there, so that

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Speaker 1: was another huge plus. And I booked a trip around July,

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Speaker 1: so about six months in advance. I probably I could

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Speaker 1: have done it even further in advance. And when I

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Speaker 1: say I booked it, I booked the hotel, I think

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Speaker 1: our airfare shortly thereafter, and then also the lessons because

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Speaker 1: I had heard that some lessons, you know, sell out,

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Speaker 1: and I didn't want that to be a limiting factor.

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Speaker 1: So I just did it all and this year I

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Speaker 1: probably will do it even earlier so I can get

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Speaker 1: our choice of room and everything. So you would do

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Speaker 1: a big recommendation for that for being near the mountain, yes, okay, oh,

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Speaker 1: and I would, especially if it's your first time. I think,

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Speaker 1: once you've done it, and then you feel like, oh,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I'd be fine driving, like I know

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Speaker 1: how the process works. Then maybe subsequent trips you could

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Speaker 1: add that layer of complexity. But I think if it's

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Speaker 1: your first and you have any trepidation, then look for

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Speaker 1: something easy. Yeah, and now the ski school and lessons,

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Speaker 1: how much did you wind up doing for the kids

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Speaker 1: because they didn't do it every day all day while

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Speaker 1: you were there? Correct? We thought through this for a while.

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Speaker 1: Cameron had snowboarded before, Annabelle had never done anything, and

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Speaker 1: Genevieve had never done anything. We decided to put the

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Speaker 1: big kids in two days of full day ski school,

432
00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:03,120
Speaker 1: thinking that by the third day they could like ski

433
00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:05,640
Speaker 1: with Josh and me, and we put Genevieve in three

434
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:09,040
Speaker 1: days of half day ski school. We'd initially planned four

435
00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:10,840
Speaker 1: day skiing, thinking that by the fourth day we could

436
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:13,879
Speaker 1: all ski together. That was a miscalculation. She's five. She

437
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:15,879
Speaker 1: was not ready to like go on a big mountain

438
00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:18,720
Speaker 1: by day four, although the big kids were completely ready

439
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:22,800
Speaker 1: by day three to at least ski greens and Yeah,

440
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:26,560
Speaker 1: So the only miscalculation I made was that Genevieve loved

441
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 1: ski school and would be sad when it was over.

442
00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:31,200
Speaker 1: And wanted to go back for the afternoon. So next

443
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,040
Speaker 1: time I will be putting her in full days and

444
00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:35,959
Speaker 1: the big kids probably in half days because they can

445
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,680
Speaker 1: ski with Josh and me in the afternoon. And Josh

446
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:40,879
Speaker 1: and I also took two days of lessons. As I mentioned,

447
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:44,240
Speaker 1: we hadn't skied in forever. The lessons were super helpful.

448
00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:46,840
Speaker 1: On the first one we just did like basically the

449
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,840
Speaker 1: kids hills and like remembered how to do everything. And

450
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,280
Speaker 1: by the second one we had an instructor who was

451
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: very best at both worlds. I might add she was

452
00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:56,840
Speaker 1: an attorney a form of big law attorney now doing

453
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,480
Speaker 1: consulting and then teaches ski on the side, and she

454
00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:02,000
Speaker 1: had kids. She was awesome and she took us on

455
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,040
Speaker 1: you know, a bunch of greens and gave technique pointers

456
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:07,800
Speaker 1: and stuff, and I felt so much more confident by

457
00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:10,600
Speaker 1: the end of our session with her. So highly recommend

458
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:12,840
Speaker 1: taking lessons if you haven't done it for a while.

459
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:16,000
Speaker 1: And how about the equipment part. You rented stuff there?

460
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:18,399
Speaker 1: And oh yeah, we just rented stuff there. It was

461
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:21,359
Speaker 1: super easy. We ended up being able to get it

462
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 1: on the first day because we didn't ski that day

463
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 1: because it was negative thirty to decrease fahrenheit. But we

464
00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:29,520
Speaker 1: were able to take our time get it all fitted.

465
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:31,639
Speaker 1: We stored it in a locker right at the base.

466
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:33,520
Speaker 1: In retrospect, we could have just worn our boots to

467
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,359
Speaker 1: the hotel because we didn't realize if there's like a

468
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 1: boot room, like right where you go outside, that's okay.

469
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:40,560
Speaker 1: And they have what's called a ski valet, so you

470
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:42,360
Speaker 1: can leave your skis right at the base and then

471
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:44,200
Speaker 1: like walk on the path, you know, the one hundred

472
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,159
Speaker 1: feet or so back to your hotel. So very easy.

473
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:50,119
Speaker 1: Did a rental for the whole time. Definitely not planning

474
00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 1: on buying anything. And if you haven't skied for a

475
00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:54,119
Speaker 1: long long time, like me, you're going to be so

476
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 1: impressed because I felt like the boots are much more

477
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,480
Speaker 1: comfortable than they used to be, and the skis are

478
00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 1: just better, like they're curved and they're shorter, and they're

479
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,440
Speaker 1: easier to use. And the kids learned without poles, which

480
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,000
Speaker 1: is I learned with poles back in the nineties. But

481
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:09,120
Speaker 1: it was great not to have to worry about them

482
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:11,680
Speaker 1: losing poles and dropping them off the lifts and things

483
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,000
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, I feel like the poles can all

484
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:18,880
Speaker 1: go terribly wrong and the package. Yeah. Well, by the way,

485
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 1: so she said in passing, there the minus thirty degree fahrenheit,

486
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,879
Speaker 1: So our American readers know that there was a polar

487
00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:30,679
Speaker 1: vortex that went through much of the country shortly before Christmas,

488
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:33,680
Speaker 1: that there were minus thirty degree temperatures out in Montana.

489
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:35,800
Speaker 1: Was definitely like it was like minus ten in Chicago.

490
00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 1: I mean it was even five degrees where we were.

491
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:43,320
Speaker 1: I mean it dropped a lot everywhere. So clearly that

492
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:46,080
Speaker 1: was not tenable for skiing, Like, you're not crazy, and

493
00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:48,960
Speaker 1: they closed the lifts, right, they did close the lifts.

494
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:52,120
Speaker 1: So I was panicked watching the weather as we went,

495
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:54,120
Speaker 1: and it turned out to be Okay. We did miss

496
00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 1: a day of skiing, but honestly, in the grand scheme

497
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 1: of things, we didn't have our travel disrupted or anything

498
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 1: like that, so it worked out. The days that we

499
00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:04,359
Speaker 1: did ski it was like lows in the high teens

500
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:06,439
Speaker 1: to twenties and highs in the twenties and it was

501
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,159
Speaker 1: it was great. That was perfectly comfortable. Yeah, so what

502
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:11,240
Speaker 1: did you pack for that level of cold? Like what

503
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:15,240
Speaker 1: winter gear can you tell us about? So underlayers for

504
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:18,159
Speaker 1: everyone we went with like inexpensive lands and ones. For

505
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:22,439
Speaker 1: the kids, I got Smartwall, which was amazing more definitely

506
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 1: more expensive, so I wouldn't get that and if kids

507
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,199
Speaker 1: are going to outgrow it, but it was fantastic for me.

508
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:31,440
Speaker 1: We had balaklava's for everyone. The helmets are quite warm

509
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:33,919
Speaker 1: that you rent, so that kind of helps us. Another layer.

510
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: We got lined ski jackets for everyone. For the kids,

511
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:40,760
Speaker 1: we did Eddie Bauer, which was a recommendation from Beth

512
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 1: who writes the blog parent Lightly. She's an expert in

513
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:46,639
Speaker 1: ski stuff and so I took a lot of tips

514
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,680
Speaker 1: from her. We got good ski mittens I actually bought

515
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,720
Speaker 1: from Outdoor Research on her recommendation and they were great

516
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,440
Speaker 1: for me. I also used handwarmers. We did the full

517
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 1: on cushioned ski socks, and yeah, I did actually create

518
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:01,960
Speaker 1: if anybody he wants like links and stuff, I did

519
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,280
Speaker 1: make a page on my blog just because people were asking,

520
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 1: so that is available if you want to see what

521
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 1: we use. I'm obviously no expert, but this this did

522
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 1: work for us on our one off experience so far

523
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: under pretty cool conditions. Yeah. Yeah, and you made everyone

524
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,480
Speaker 1: try everything on before you left too. Yeah, we made

525
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: we took pictures. We made everyone put everything on head

526
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:22,200
Speaker 1: to toe and then kind of set that up next

527
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 1: to their suitcase. What I do not recommend my I I

528
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,359
Speaker 1: do not do is don't work a full day the

529
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: day before you leave if you're leaving early in the morning,

530
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 1: because it made packing such a night. Like I needed

531
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: a day to pack. I needed a day to pack

532
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:38,399
Speaker 1: in an organized fashion. Josh ended up doing most of it,

533
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: and he did a good job, but I was like

534
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,639
Speaker 1: anxious about it, so I would build in that buffer

535
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: or leave on a you know, a Monday, so you

536
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,920
Speaker 1: can pack on Sunday or something like that. Yeah. Yeah,

537
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 1: And Sarah was starting from scratch here with the cold

538
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:52,359
Speaker 1: weather gear because they're in Florida, so they can't like

539
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: borrow it from neighbors necessarily who just have stuff sitting around.

540
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: But this is something that you probably can get like

541
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,439
Speaker 1: used kids stuff, fairly easily because as you can imagine,

542
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:03,960
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people in the world who

543
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:05,960
Speaker 1: do one ski trip a year and their kids grow

544
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 1: as kids do, and so the market of secondhand kids

545
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 1: ski gear is you know, more brisk than many other

546
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: things there might be. And you guys stayed at a

547
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,480
Speaker 1: place with a little kitchen and you're a person. Yeah,

548
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 1: So we kind of did a combination between going out

549
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: to dinner, which I did reserve in advance. If you're

550
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: going skiing, know that they're going to be busy during

551
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:28,760
Speaker 1: the winter and it's probably going to be an area

552
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:31,760
Speaker 1: with lots of families. So I highly recommend, like two

553
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:34,479
Speaker 1: months in advance making any reservation that you want to.

554
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:36,960
Speaker 1: That turned it out to really pay off. So we

555
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 1: kind of alternated going to nice local places and then

556
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 1: cooking total basics in our room, and I feel like

557
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 1: that was a nice balance because sometimes you just want

558
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:46,679
Speaker 1: to be lazy and watch home alone and heat up

559
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: a frozen pizza, and other nights you might want to

560
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:51,600
Speaker 1: have a fun, festive dinner out. Yeah. I'm pretty sure

561
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:55,160
Speaker 1: that Michael took the two kids to the burger place

562
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 1: right behind their resort. All nights that they were there.

563
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 1: They had mac and cheese and every night, so they

564
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:03,479
Speaker 1: were they were perfectly fine with that. I'm sure they

565
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,399
Speaker 1: were happy with that. Yeah, very cool. Anything else you

566
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:09,439
Speaker 1: want to throw in there, yeah, just do it if

567
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 1: you're worried about it, but you have kids who enjoy

568
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,200
Speaker 1: outdoor activities and being active, or even if you haven't

569
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:19,120
Speaker 1: skied before. I just think if it's in your budget

570
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: and you want a really nice kind of like bonding opportunity,

571
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,159
Speaker 1: I just I've like never felt closer to my family

572
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: than this trip because it was just like we were outside,

573
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,280
Speaker 1: we were like learning together, like there was something very

574
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:34,159
Speaker 1: special about it. So highly recommend excellent, well vote of

575
00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 1: confidence there for skiing. So yeah, the second half of this,

576
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,920
Speaker 1: I'm just going to share some stuff from our recent trip.

577
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,200
Speaker 1: So yes, international, we're gonna pivot. We're gonna pivot. We're

578
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:46,119
Speaker 1: gonna pivot. Well yeah, I mean pivoting slowly because Michael

579
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:48,880
Speaker 1: took Henry and Alex skiing. So there was a ski trip.

580
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 1: But we've done this a few times in our family

581
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: that we've split it up because you know, as listeners know,

582
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 1: I have five children. They range in age from three

583
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:02,199
Speaker 1: to fifteen. And traveling internationally, long hall flights with a

584
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:04,760
Speaker 1: three year old, two year old, whatever it is, it's challenged.

585
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,120
Speaker 1: It's like very challenging. The seven year old is also

586
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:10,760
Speaker 1: he likes his sort of stuff like certain foods and

587
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,680
Speaker 1: what you know, he's harder with sleep as well. It's

588
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 1: just going to be more challenging to have them along

589
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:19,639
Speaker 1: for what they'd get out of it. But if we

590
00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:22,199
Speaker 1: waited to travel until they were older, then I mean,

591
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,120
Speaker 1: Jasper will be out of the house. I mean, it's

592
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 1: just the way it works. With this broad a rate

593
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:30,280
Speaker 1: change rage, we kind of needed to do something different.

594
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:32,679
Speaker 1: So we've done this. In spring break, I took the

595
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,879
Speaker 1: older three kids to Paris, and so over Christmas break

596
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: I took the older three to London and it was

597
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: a good destination. We had a really good time. We

598
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 1: saw a lot. Because they were older, they were able

599
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 1: to deal with stuff that would have been slightly disastrous

600
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:51,200
Speaker 1: if I think they were younger. I mean, so there

601
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: was this whole problem with there were strikes that he

602
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 1: throw and so the British government had asked the carriers

603
00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 1: to stop selling seats into Heathrow, and I think they

604
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 1: had changed planes for stuff. So anyway, I have high

605
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,360
Speaker 1: status on American and I had had my seat's book,

606
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 1: but somehow they took them away from me, and so

607
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 1: I wound up like with no seat assignment and needing

608
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 1: to have kids in various places on the plane, which

609
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 1: it was okay. I mean, so I had, you know,

610
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 1: two seats that were right behind each other. So I

611
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:19,560
Speaker 1: put right in front of me, and then I put

612
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 1: the boys off on their own, you know, of the plane,

613
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: and she wound up being able to move to an

614
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 1: aisle seat last minute. I had the fun of the

615
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 1: middle seat all the way to London. Awesome, but it was,

616
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: you know, just like, how would that even work if

617
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 1: I have like a five year old. I could put

618
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,320
Speaker 1: a five year old off on their own somewhere on

619
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 1: the plane. So it was I mean, I presume somebody

620
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: would have switched with me in that situation and we

621
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 1: would have been a bit more belligerent about it, but

622
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,200
Speaker 1: it was. It was fine because you have older kids

623
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 1: and so that we could roll with it and roll

624
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: with it, and so they watched movies and whatever, so

625
00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 1: it's okay. Just you know, make sure you have lots

626
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 1: of headphones and chargers and whatever else, you know, the

627
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: appropriate at electric converters for whatever country you are going to,

628
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:07,520
Speaker 1: in water, and snacks so nobody gets desperate on the airline.

629
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,800
Speaker 1: I would also just my packing tips, like don't check

630
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 1: bags if at all possible, Like, obviously you're skiing, you've

631
00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: got giant gear. There's nothing you can do about it.

632
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to check bags because you're not gonna

633
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: be able to get that stuff into a carry on.

634
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: But if you're going to a destination where you don't

635
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: need serious outdoor gear, which London in December is like

636
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 1: a normal city. You know, it was forty degrees every

637
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 1: day fahrenheit, so you just pack normal winter clothes and

638
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: that you can do in a carry on for five

639
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: six days without an issue. So I had the kids

640
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: do that. They each had one carry on and a backpack,

641
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: so we didn't have to check bags. And you know

642
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 1: that way, like, there's only so much that can go

643
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 1: wrong if you fly direct and if you don't check

644
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,160
Speaker 1: a bag, because you have your stuff and you're either

645
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: at your house or at your location, right and so

646
00:30:57,720 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 1: there's no way to be stranded without your stuff in

647
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 1: some other place, I mean, unless something goes terribly wrong,

648
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: but that's you know, your flight's diverted. But that's a

649
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: whole different thing. Whatsoever, Sarah, you're getting passports for your

650
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,320
Speaker 1: kids now, right, Yes, I'm in the process of doing

651
00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:14,320
Speaker 1: that in preparation for our summer trip. So I was

652
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 1: having the lovely looking up all the guidelines, printing out

653
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,240
Speaker 1: those lovely pdafs I had to like do one twice

654
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:23,320
Speaker 1: because I didn't put the state of where I was

655
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:26,480
Speaker 1: born or something like that. Like it's a meticulous process.

656
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 1: It is meticulous, and it's funny because I think I

657
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 1: had to reprint it once too, because it's like on

658
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 1: one page of the form, it's like you put the

659
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 1: date of the birthday, first the day, then the month,

660
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:38,920
Speaker 1: and then on the other pages the month and then

661
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 1: the day. I mean in that lovely way that internationally

662
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 1: it's always you know, day and then month, but Americans

663
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 1: do month and then day, and it's like a weird mashup.

664
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: So you just have to pay attention because if it's

665
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: the wrong date on your passport, you'd have a horrible term.

666
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, I know we've had to do this.

667
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: Our kids are in batches, so child passports are only

668
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 1: good for five years. If anyone's going into this, just

669
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:01,960
Speaker 1: get the all at one time because of the age

670
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 1: difference in the kids we are, you know, have batches

671
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,479
Speaker 1: of two, two and one, so we have to do

672
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 1: this every two years roughly, which is all sorts of fun.

673
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 1: But otherwise they wouldn't have valid passports, right like I mean,

674
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 1: so you know, it's the key thing is that both

675
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 1: parents need to be there. And every time we go

676
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: to get this, we're always good. We always get ours

677
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 1: and it's not a problem. But I swear almost every

678
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: time we go, somebody before us or after us is

679
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 1: rejected because they have not done X, Y or Z

680
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 1: in this process. And a lot of the times it's

681
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 1: that they don't have both parents there and then they

682
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 1: haven't filled out all the paperwork correctly to you know,

683
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 1: have it notarized within a certain date or whatever with

684
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: you know, so even if you're a divorced like you

685
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:45,720
Speaker 1: both go and you know, even if you're not in

686
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: speaking terms or like, have somebody else like be a

687
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,040
Speaker 1: go between and like both of you show up, because

688
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,080
Speaker 1: otherwise it's not going to work. But you're also just

689
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:55,640
Speaker 1: trying to show that the kids are yours and that

690
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: they are citizens. And so if you think of it

691
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: in that light, all the documentation and you have to

692
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 1: bring is to show that. So if you have the parents' passports,

693
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 1: that shows that you are citizens. If you have the

694
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,880
Speaker 1: kid's birth certificates, that shows that they are yours, right,

695
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:12,680
Speaker 1: and so between the two of that demonstrates that they

696
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:15,600
Speaker 1: are US citizens and yours and that's how you get

697
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: the documentation. So just you know, and always expedite that

698
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 1: you can pay an extra fee to have it go faster,

699
00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:22,800
Speaker 1: even if you're like, oh, well, we're not traveling for

700
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,360
Speaker 1: six months. I feel like the State Department in the US.

701
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 1: I don't know how it is in other countries. It's

702
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:29,040
Speaker 1: like they put them in totally separate systems if you're

703
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,479
Speaker 1: expedited versus not. So we got Henry's passport right as

704
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:35,200
Speaker 1: the world was shutting down for COVID. Obviously it wasn't

705
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 1: very useful then for like another eighteen months, but we

706
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: got it back in three weeks, even as like other

707
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 1: people were talking of like months long delays or whatever

708
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: because you know, things weren't operating. So we've just always

709
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,600
Speaker 1: done that. As for the travel itself, so we wound

710
00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:53,200
Speaker 1: up using a travel agent for this London trip. I

711
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 1: know there's always a question people like, well, why would

712
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:56,680
Speaker 1: you use a travel agent when you can book your

713
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 1: own stuff these days? And absolutely you can book your

714
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,960
Speaker 1: own hotels, you can book your own flights, but knowing

715
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,720
Speaker 1: where to book is often half the battle. And so

716
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 1: if you aren't looking forward to doing a ton of

717
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:11,440
Speaker 1: research and asking people you know, and especially if it's

718
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 1: an international destination where you don't necessarily have friends and

719
00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: family there or people who've gone recently, it can be

720
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,200
Speaker 1: helpful just to have somebody else looking into that and

721
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:24,839
Speaker 1: then giving you options. So like, okay, you have four

722
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 1: people central London. You can't have more than three people

723
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: in a hotel room, so you're going to need two rooms.

724
00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:31,359
Speaker 1: You don't want to be apart from your kids. That

725
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:33,879
Speaker 1: narrows our search to central London hotels where you can

726
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,719
Speaker 1: get to adjoining rooms like they will you know, have that,

727
00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 1: So that was really helpful to have travel agent finding

728
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,319
Speaker 1: that for us. She also did a zoom call with me.

729
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 1: This is by the way, it's Mimi from Truve Travel

730
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 1: if anyone wants to look her up. But she did

731
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,480
Speaker 1: a zoom call for me where we talked about the

732
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:55,520
Speaker 1: kid's interests and so she knew that one kid was

733
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: into like World War two type stuff, you know, that

734
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,439
Speaker 1: they liked art, that they liked cooking. So we wound

735
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 1: up doing a spray like spray art type thing where

736
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:07,720
Speaker 1: we got to make our own graffiti and this tunnel.

737
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 1: That was kind of fun. We did a baking class

738
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 1: where we made our own scones and shortbread for tea.

739
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:16,280
Speaker 1: We got a behind the scenes tour of the Churchill

740
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 1: war rooms where we got to go in the map

741
00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:19,880
Speaker 1: rooms where you could see the pushpins where they were

742
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,239
Speaker 1: marking where the ships were, and like you see like

743
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: Churchill's actual cigar stains. It's really kind of ridiculous, but

744
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: you know that they preserve that. But anyway, that was

745
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:33,840
Speaker 1: some of the things that we probably wouldn't have figured

746
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 1: out on our own, and so that can be an

747
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:38,439
Speaker 1: upside of doing that. You know, some stuff we would

748
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:40,000
Speaker 1: have like Harry Potter, like we wanted to go Harry

749
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 1: Potter studios, but when you would have figured out Yeah,

750
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: but the rest I never would have thought of how

751
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,360
Speaker 1: expensive is it? Do They charge usually an hour And

752
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:49,160
Speaker 1: you don't have to answer specific to yours, but like,

753
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 1: is it usually an hourly rate? Is it usually commission

754
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:53,759
Speaker 1: or is it usually like a package that you kind

755
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,080
Speaker 1: of buy for them to help you plan? Because I've

756
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,200
Speaker 1: never actually used to travel agent. I know the Disney

757
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 1: ones are generally kind of free because they have some

758
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 1: commission deal with Disney, but I assume for other trips

759
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,879
Speaker 1: there's some kind of arrangement. Yeah, it depends. I think

760
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:09,240
Speaker 1: if you're having an agent book a hotel or airfare,

761
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,760
Speaker 1: in many cases they are getting commissioned from those people,

762
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 1: so that it's just whatever the fair would be or

763
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:17,439
Speaker 1: whatever the hotel would feed in. The hotel then does

764
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,560
Speaker 1: a kick back to them for having brought them business. Right,

765
00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: if it's tours that you are booking, then there's usually

766
00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 1: like just an add on fee whatever percentage, and they'll

767
00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 1: put this in writing for you, you you know, whatever percent

768
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 1: they are adding on as their commission for doing this.

769
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:36,920
Speaker 1: Some might work on an hourly basis. If you are

770
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: doing a having somebody do a lot of research for you,

771
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:42,880
Speaker 1: maybe somebody would then work on an hourly basis to

772
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 1: do that. So it kind of depends on what you

773
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 1: worked to do. And some travel agents sort of expect

774
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 1: you to spend a certain amount to make it worth

775
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:53,640
Speaker 1: their while if they're getting the commissions for it. So

776
00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 1: you might want to ask into that too, because there's

777
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:58,879
Speaker 1: people at all different budget ranges, so you know, ask

778
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: around or you know, if you have friends who've used

779
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:04,879
Speaker 1: one or whatever, that's a good way to find one.

780
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 1: There One thing I will just throw out there as

781
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,440
Speaker 1: another European travel trip with kids, is they tend not

782
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,440
Speaker 1: to like museums that much. I mean, there are awesome

783
00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:16,520
Speaker 1: museums and you can be in them for a little bit,

784
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:18,320
Speaker 1: but you're not going to be able to spend the

785
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 1: whole day, like even the Louver when we did the

786
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,439
Speaker 1: Louver in Paris, like which I'm saying that wrong, say

787
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 1: the right, this French accent, but we were there three

788
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:32,440
Speaker 1: hours and they were definitely not happy at the end

789
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:34,440
Speaker 1: of it. Now, obviously you can spend three years in

790
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:36,880
Speaker 1: the Louver, right, So it's it's you're just going to

791
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 1: have to like be okay with that that you're going

792
00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 1: to see the highlights. Event we wound up doing the

793
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,919
Speaker 1: British Museum, Sam and I the other two were like, no,

794
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:46,560
Speaker 1: we're doing the British Museum. The Salm and I went

795
00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:51,400
Speaker 1: and we saw the highlights or the Parthenon stuff, the mummies.

796
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:55,360
Speaker 1: So get your head around that. Go just with adults.

797
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:57,440
Speaker 1: If you are going to want to spend all days

798
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:00,440
Speaker 1: in restaurants, oh sorry, in museums. Restaurants was the thing

799
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 1: in retrospect, I'm not sure I would have been trying

800
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:05,479
Speaker 1: to solve for our pickiest eater. I mean, we wound

801
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 1: up eating in some places where no one was truly thrilled,

802
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 1: but they were more expensive, and so it was sort

803
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 1: of like her heart geez. You know, one night we

804
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,560
Speaker 1: just ate it like Pizza Express, which is a chain

805
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:18,359
Speaker 1: in London, and everyone was thrilled because they got their

806
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,279
Speaker 1: pizza and it was like the least expensive night we

807
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 1: were there. So I don't know, you know, I like

808
00:38:23,719 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 1: having reservations places, but sometimes the recommendations you get are

809
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:28,759
Speaker 1: going to be on the higher end because that's what

810
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 1: people want to do when they come to a foreign

811
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,640
Speaker 1: country or go in a big city. And if you're

812
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 1: going to do that, like you probably just choose ones

813
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:37,439
Speaker 1: that you truly want to eat in and like force

814
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:39,920
Speaker 1: the kids to eat plain rice or pasta or whatever,

815
00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:42,400
Speaker 1: or have a big snack beforehand, or leave them at

816
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:46,279
Speaker 1: the hotel or else just go more down market and

817
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:49,600
Speaker 1: figure you're eating burgers and fries and pizza or whatever.

818
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: I feel like with kids, and I imagine internationally I

819
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:55,839
Speaker 1: would feel this way. Maybe not, but I either want

820
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:59,880
Speaker 1: a reservation each night or a loose plan of like, okay,

821
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:01,759
Speaker 1: we're going to go to like a pub in this

822
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:04,120
Speaker 1: area around this time, Like have a place in mind

823
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,040
Speaker 1: that doesn't need reservations. It's more casual or pizza express

824
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,600
Speaker 1: like whatever. But kind of knowing that I have a

825
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:11,640
Speaker 1: place to aim for because there is that horrible feeling

826
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:13,239
Speaker 1: when your kids are like getting angry and you're in

827
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:17,279
Speaker 1: an unfamiliar place, like that would make me happy. Yeah,

828
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,640
Speaker 1: I don't know. So in London, because I was told

829
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:22,279
Speaker 1: it was gonna be very busy, and I think it was,

830
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:23,880
Speaker 1: like I think a lot of places were booked up.

831
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:26,719
Speaker 1: We did make reservations ahead of time, and I liked

832
00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:29,440
Speaker 1: knowing like we will have dinner at seven and this

833
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,319
Speaker 1: is where we will be going, because it gives the day,

834
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 1: the end of the day some structure. Then you're not

835
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:35,719
Speaker 1: fighting about it like well where do you want to go?

836
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 1: I don't know where do you want to go? And

837
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:39,600
Speaker 1: wandering around trying to find if people have places available.

838
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:42,480
Speaker 1: But where we stayed in Paris, there were just so

839
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:45,840
Speaker 1: many restaurants along the major route where we were that

840
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 1: we could just find a different sort of bistro every night.

841
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 1: And the downside is I didn't eat in any of

842
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 1: the like nice Paris restaurants, like I ate at like

843
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:57,879
Speaker 1: whatever place was offering pizza and pasta and steak, and

844
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 1: you know that was around the corner. But we managed

845
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:04,480
Speaker 1: to find places that had space every night very very easily,

846
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:07,920
Speaker 1: so that was fine for that. Oh that's great, Yeah,

847
00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:12,040
Speaker 1: pleasantly surprise. So yeah, and we would generally aim to

848
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 1: not start before ten am, just because with the jet lag,

849
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 1: people don't want to get up at the crack of dawn.

850
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 1: That allowed us to have our hotel breakfast and then

851
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 1: get started. Generally did activities from about ten to four

852
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 1: four thirty and then have an hour two hours of

853
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 1: downtime till dinner, do dinner, come back, chill, you know,

854
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:30,319
Speaker 1: give kids time to read or play their electronics and

855
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:32,960
Speaker 1: then yeah, I guess I made my bonus tips as

856
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: our love of the week. I mean, my personal favorite

857
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:40,200
Speaker 1: love of the week right now is melatonin. So you're

858
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:42,439
Speaker 1: tired the first night in Europe. So if you're coming

859
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,240
Speaker 1: from the US, like you haven't slept on the plane,

860
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:46,960
Speaker 1: even if you nap two hours, by the end of

861
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 1: the day, you're tired. So you're gonna fall asleep and

862
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,000
Speaker 1: you'll probably sleep okay the first night. It's the second

863
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:54,080
Speaker 1: night that you're just you would be up at two am,

864
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 1: up for three hours, finally crashing at like five am

865
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:00,880
Speaker 1: when your body thinks it's midnight or left, and then

866
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 1: you're not gonna want to wake up until one pm

867
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:06,600
Speaker 1: because that's what it's six am in the morning, So

868
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,000
Speaker 1: you know, it's just you can wind up really in

869
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:12,960
Speaker 1: a bad state with that. Whereas if you have melatonin,

870
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:14,200
Speaker 1: you can take it before you go to bed and

871
00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 1: either it keeps you through to that wake up time

872
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:17,759
Speaker 1: that you would or if you wake up in the

873
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:19,600
Speaker 1: middle of the night, you can take half a melatonin

874
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: and go back to sleep. And you know, older kids

875
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: can take it too, and it's fine, So that can

876
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: help if you have older children and everybody wants to sleep. Also,

877
00:41:31,760 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 1: lots of chargers and electronic converters because the kids do

878
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,960
Speaker 1: like their devices and want to charge them. You know.

879
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:39,640
Speaker 1: How about you, Sarah, what's your love of the week? Well,

880
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 1: I was just processing what you were saying and thinking,

881
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:43,799
Speaker 1: I need to go to Europe because it's the one

882
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:46,360
Speaker 1: place where, like, I feel like I could adapt so

883
00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:48,880
Speaker 1: easily because normally I get up so early that I

884
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 1: could just get up at like a reasonable hour and

885
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:53,240
Speaker 1: then be like a cool, fun person at midnight, Whereas

886
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: at the homely. Yeah exactly, so me up up till

887
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 1: midnight and sleep till nine in the morning. Yeah exactly.

888
00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:02,920
Speaker 1: I could barely anything. So okay, that's noted. My love

889
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 1: of the week I will go on theme as well

890
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 1: was our hands and footwarmers. I don't have any specific

891
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:09,880
Speaker 1: brand recommendation, but if you're like old school and you

892
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,720
Speaker 1: haven't you you know, didn't grow up using them, They're amazing,

893
00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:16,760
Speaker 1: highly recommend That is actually my one of my goals

894
00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:18,960
Speaker 1: for winter. Like on my winter fun list, I bought

895
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 1: this huge thing of handwarmers and my goal is to

896
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: actually use them. Like I don't know, I'm always like, oh,

897
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:25,520
Speaker 1: I shouldn't waste them on this trip, I'm like no, No.

898
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:28,439
Speaker 1: If I am going outside for any length of time

899
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:30,800
Speaker 1: in the winter and I get miserably cold, my hands

900
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: get I don't know what I have in the bad circulation,

901
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,560
Speaker 1: they get white, I get hives. Anyway, I'm like, no,

902
00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:38,799
Speaker 1: I'm going to use these handwarmers like every day. It'll

903
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:41,839
Speaker 1: be great. You deserve it. I deserve it. And if

904
00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:43,680
Speaker 1: I run out, I can buy more. Like that's the thing,

905
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:45,759
Speaker 1: Like they don't have to last all winter, Like you

906
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:49,160
Speaker 1: can buy more, correct and they're not expensive. They're not

907
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:51,759
Speaker 1: expensive yet. All right, Well, this has been best of

908
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:55,960
Speaker 1: both worlds. We've been talking family travel, especially with older children.

909
00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:58,399
Speaker 1: We will be back next week with more and making

910
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 1: work in life fit together. Thanks for listening. You can

911
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:06,440
Speaker 1: find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at

912
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 1: the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you can find me

913
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:14,279
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has been the

914
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,759
Speaker 1: best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us next time

915
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,680
Speaker 1: for more on making work and life work together.