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Managing Jet Lag: Tips for Travel with Kids
The absolute pain of being awake when you just don’t want to be. I still have seared into my brain the discomfort of struggling to stay awake in high school classes, fighting to keep my eyes open in the passenger seat of late night car rides, forcing my eyelids open during early morning meetings. I would envision white, crisp sheets and heavy, down comforters wrapped around my body, lulling me. I’d get comfortable, then battle my way back to semi-clearheaded consciousness. It’s the same dreaded war I often wage when we travel (particularly when we fly east), except this time I’ve got kids. So, I’ve come up with some fool-proof…
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Must Have Gear for Traveling with a Newborn
Traveling with a newborn is bliss. I mean, really, it is. I don’t think it gets any easier as far as traveling with kids is concerned. They don’t really complain. They have erratic sleeping schedules so are pretty happy to keep whatever pace you want to set. Food isn’t a problem because they have yet to disavow anything green and pledge their tastebuds solely to chicken nuggets dipped in ketchup. Their clothes take up practically zero space. But their gear? Well, the gear for traveling with a newborn, it, you know, takes up space. Kind of a lot of space. And that comes from someone who despises carrying more than…
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10 Travel Items We Can’t (Or Really We Don’t Want To) Live Without
I’d like to pretend we have this packing thing down. And we do. And then something happens, like a season changes or one of the little people gets a bit older and it’s like starting over again. Mostly. I mean, yes, there’s the clothes. Always the clothes. And the diapers. And the medicines. And all the other little travel items. But what about all that those other little travel items? Over the past seven years of traveling as a family, I’ve figured out that less is more. I always aim to bring just enough. Still, there are a few things that have stood out to us as travel items that…
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Disney with a Newborn: Tips for What to Pack for the Park and How to Pack It
Life with a new baby: those sweet smells, those itty bitty squeaks, those snuggles in the crook of your neck. It’s like being in a cocoon those first few months. A cocoon of newness and naps and a lost sense of time. And a cocoon of diaper bags and back packs and extra clothes and too many things that rattle. It’s bringing a pouch filled with pacifiers, one more blanket, and an extra extra pair of socks. It’s stuff you need and a whole lot of stuff you really don’t. And that’s where going to Disney with a newborn gets a little rough: balancing being prepared with being burdened by…
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Thinking of Staying at an Airbnb? Here’s 5 Reasons We Loved It and 5 Reasons We Didn’t
The world is not made for odd numbers. Stop lights only really work well when the intersection can be cut evenly across, usually in fours but six will still work (at least it seems a tad bit less confusing than having no street directly across from you). Walk into any restaurant as a party of five and you’re either forced to squeeze into a table meant for four or spread out, awkwardly I might add, across a table meant for six. Conversations can be jumbled, lopsided and no longer linear. And managing to find acceptable hotel rooms without spending oodles of money? Forget about it. When we set out to…
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This Isn’t a List of the Top Things to Do in OBX
In the world of the Outer Banks (OBX), along the coast of North Carolina, I consider myself a newbie. My family and I have only been at it two glorious years. But I think it’ll be the first two years of many. But no matter how much I come, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to give an accurate list of the Things to Do in OBX. Layout OBX is a small sliver of land, rarely more than a mile wide. The 130 mile stretch of barrier islands sprawls from the Virginia coast and continues south through four counties. The small towns and fishing villages spotting the islands…
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The Dos and Don’ts of Dining at Disney World
Food. It seems like it should be a pretty simple topic, but when traveling with kids, it’s anything but (because, you know, kids). It seems my little people are often hungry on “off times,” sleeping during “dining hours,” hating whatever it is I ordered for them (usually the only thing that would eat the day before), and wiggling about as they struggle with sitting quietly in their chairs while everyone at the table finishes. It just isn’t easy. Think it’ll be easier at dining at Disney World? Well, actually, maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. (But hopefully it will.) Because, again, you know, kids. But there are a few things…
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Guest Spot: Elyse from Kauffman Tànxiǎn 探险 Blog Offers Her Advice on Traveling with Kids
We got split reactions from everyone. It was either "you're crazy, I could never do that" or "that's amazing! I wish I could do something Ike that!" The truth is. You CAN do it. ANYONE can. I promise. Before you start rolling your eyes and stop reading, hear me out. Sure, it takes some serious planning and patience, but it's totally worth it. And, let's be clear. I don't mean "move to China." But if you have the opportunity to do that, please take it!
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5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Book Your Walt Disney World Vacation (and Why You Need to Answer Them)
It's these hiccups that really end up being the stories we carry forward as a family. And it's these hiccups that helps us plan our next trip. Through the past seven years of visiting Walt Disney World a number of times a year (for any number of days, any time of year (except summer...we just don't do Florida Disney sticky, sweat-inducing summer heat)), we've figured out some questions we ask ourselves each and every time we book a new trip. Only after we've figured the answers to these questions out, do we really get to the task of actually making the magic happen.
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Tried, True, and Cheap Ways to Make Road Trips with Young Children Entertaining (For Them) and Relaxing (For You)
Whether four hours or four days, road trips can be stressful, let alone road trips with kids. Throw a few squirmy toddlers, perhaps a slightly older little person, and a tiny person and those road trips get exponentially more stressful. Whenever those moments in the car seem to be on the verge of bursting open in frustrated wails, I close my eyes and imagine what it would be like to be strapped to the seat in a five-point harness with close to no room to shift my heft left or right, sweet toes dangling at least two feet from the ground, most likely having lost all feeling about forty five minutes into…
