On the Road Again
Hello friends and welcome back!
as fall is on the horizon I've taken some time to sit back and reflect on our summer. And wow! It was quite the quite the summer here at Casa de Murdy. We had the fun opportunity to travel A LOT this summer to see all of our family and wow was it awesome. Tiring but awesome!
We were gone for 19 days between July and early August to see both sides of our family. We crisscrossed Indiana for almost two weeks with a week at home in the middle to unpack and repack for another week in Michigan. When I told a lot of my friends our summer travel plans most of them looked at me like I was crazy. "You're going to be gone for how long? With a baby?" and varying degrees of "Wow, I could never do that."
Now that we've been back for a while and are thinking about our upcoming holiday travel I've taken a little time to reflect on our trips and how special they were.
So here's my reflections and encouragement to other parents with littles considering big blocks of travel:
- It isn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows all the time. There will be moments of difficulty and frustrations along the way. If you expect little bumps you'll be able to roll with the punches a lot better.
- Don't stress about packing everything. Unless you're going into the wilderness there are going to be stores. (I will have an updated travel tips blog coming after this!)
- You can't put a price on family time. I think this is the most important of my realizations. It's not easy corralling a baby for hours on a plane, in airports or for travel in general but once you get there, it is SO worth it. I loved watching baby boy play with his big cousins and crawl around the family farm. This is such a precious time and I don't want to waste one single second if it.
- Be flexible with your schedule. Time changes suck for everyone especially littles so be kind and be flexible. They may need a contact nap when they get to a new place or just know that nap may be off by an hour or so. Give yourself grace momma, you're doing the best you can. It's not going to ruin your trip
- I'm going back to the idea of you can't put a price on family time. Your little one may not remember this, but you will. And that's important too. My little one isn't going to remember this trip. He's not going to remember his first time meeting his great grandpa, but I will and my dad will. You're building a foundation for the importance of family time. They'll notice years from now when they look back at pictures and see how much of it was spent with family. These are the moments you'll look back on and cherish. My favorite moments from this summer were spent on a blanket in the grass at my family's farm in Indiana and on the jungle gym at my aunt's house. My little guy isn't going to remember his first trip to the farm, but I will. And I'll cherish it forever. We are building a connection to our family's history this way and I'm grateful for it.
- You will regret not going. The only thing in this life you can't get back is time. It is so cliché but undeniably true. Once time is spent it can't be returned. The love of travel is, in my opinion, one of the best gifts you can to your children. It's certainly one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.
~Just the musings of the 20s,
Lauren
P.S. I'd love to hear your comments on traveling with littles! Tell me about your experiences!
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