Multigenerational Travel with Angelica from Toddlin’ Across America

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TSF Podcast | Angelica | Toddlin’ Across America

Welcome to the stoke fan, the podcast designed to help families at venture more and stress less on this show. We give you the competence and inspiration. You need to find your stove by sharing interviews from real families, doing amazing things. Conversations with brands who make adventures easier and all the things we wish we’d known sooner.

[00:00:19] Come on, let’s go.

[00:00:27] Welcome backstroke fam. Today, I’m talking with Angelica from toddling across America. She is one of my favorite moms to follow over on Instagram because she is always up for an adventure with her husband, her mom, and her three young kids, whether it’s a family road trip in their RV, a weekend away at the newest family destination, or even a Tuesday at their scenic home on lookout mountain in Georgia.

[00:00:48] This fun-loving family shares the best, the real and the silliness of it all. I love how Angelica keeps such a fun roll with it attitude and makes sure that you know that if she can do it, you could do it too. I am so stoked Halford here today to chat with us about multi-generational adventure and travel.

[00:01:03] Thanks again for being here today and teleco. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. So I’m really excited to dive into this because I think you can speak to a lot of things that, um, I cannot, we, we occasionally do some trips with my family when we travel back to the east coast, but they’re kind of apart, so we don’t do a ton of it.

[00:01:21] And you do a lot of multi-generational travel and you still have, um, young ones, you have 305, right? Yeah, I have three, five, and under my twins are five and my youngest is three and my mom lives with us full time and travels with us. I would say 95% of the time. That is so awesome. So before we get into all of that part of travel, I would love for you to start us off by telling me a little bit about, or tell us a little bit about your adventure story.

[00:01:46] Have you always loved to travel and hike and camp and do all of the things that you do now, or is this something that you’ve grown into or how did you get there? So travel, yes, outdoor Z, not so much that that evolved children. And, um, my husband and I traveled internationally quite a bit. Um, we took an epic honeymoon trip, which is a story for another day, but, um, we have done quite a bit of travel he’s from Brazil and, um, ha.

[00:02:14] We went to Brazil for our first wedding anniversary. Um, so we did some really amazing travel before we got married and after we got married and then, um, we actually went through two years of infertility treatments to have the twins and then six months postpartum surprise number three showed up after they told me I couldn’t have any more kids.

[00:02:34] So that was the best surprise ever. And then what happened was, is I just really kind of had this. I guess tug on my heart that whatever we did moving forward, I wanted my babies to be a part of it. And I think that was just kind of something that came out of my infertility journey. So when I decided to be a stay-at-home mom, which was never on my list of things to do either, and then homeschool mom, never on my list of things to do either.

[00:02:58] Um, I figured out that, um, travel was something that I loved doing with my kids and they learned a lot. We all learned a lot and we all got to have these incredible. Variances together. That’s kind of how toddling across America was born. I took the opportunity to, um, my background, which is in marketing and communications to take that and grow it into an adventure travel business.

[00:03:23] So it’s just been such an incredible opportunity that I get to include my babies every day in what I do for a living in addition to being their mom full-time and their teacher full-time. And, uh, we mix all of that together. So it’s. It’s just grown into something really cool. And they have not traveled internationally since any of them were born.

[00:03:42] Actually we’ve stayed state side, um, in the last five years, but we have been to 15 states now, um, with all of us as a family and. It’s just been an incredible opportunity. And I find that they grow exponentially. Every time we go on a trip, it just blows my mind from little things like their vocabulary grows too.

[00:04:04] They just, as people and being independent and welcoming and open-minded all of that has just come through our travel journey. So it’s, it has included an incredible number of things that I never expected to get from, you know, this little idea that I had in 2018. I love that so much. And I agree completely.

[00:04:25] I know that every time we take a trip somewhere, um, I feel the same thing. I feel our kids grow so much. They learn so much. And although I also like you was not planning to be a homeschool mom and still am. Um, we’re going on. We’re finishing up third and fifth this year, which is kind of crazy to me. Um, but even that wasn’t our plan.

[00:04:43] It’s one of my favorite things to do now is to take a trip that can be fun and. Uh, create memories as a family, but also be educational and give them a better experience of different people in different environments. And the part of our end parts of our world and the geography. It’s just, it’s one of my favorite things to do too.

[00:05:01] So I love that I can relate to all of that so much. So you said not so much to the outdoor. Travel and adventure before. So how did that shift come about? How did you start, um, doing all that and eventually buy an RV and do all this hiking with your kids? Wow. It’s a long convoluted story and I’ll try to boil it down as quickly as I can, but, um, and neither is my husband by the way, not even remotely.

[00:05:25] Outdoors-y so it’s just funny to me. We, um, I grew up camping and I grew up doing a lot of outdoorsy things as a family. In fact, we used to spend pretty much every summer, the whole summer camping. Um, and so I really wanted to kind of live that champagne lifestyle as an adult. And what I found was that yes, before we had kids, we did, you know, we did live the champagne lifestyle and went on these epic trips and then.

[00:05:51] When the kids were born and we started traveling just with the twins before my youngest was born. I found that, um, it just wasn’t fun for them. They, you know, they didn’t enjoy anything about that and they weren’t getting anything out of it. And they spent a lot of our T of the time. Being told to be careful and not touch things and, you know, things like that.

[00:06:12] And I also, um, really got into kind of the, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of a book it’s called, there’s no such thing as bad weather. Um, but I read that book and it just impacted me really, really deeply that I felt that. As a mom, it was my job to get them up and get them outside. And, um, we also have a history in our family.

[00:06:34] We have a lot, uh, some health problems and things like that. And so it just hit me that, you know, I can change the legacy of my family by getting them out, getting them moving. Um, Getting them to choose to be outside before anything else, you know, that’s where they want to be. That’s what they want to be doing instead of other options.

[00:06:55] And, um, we are not screen-free, I’m not radical about any of this or anything like that, but I just, you know, I’ve found that. That’s just what was on my heart to give to my children that this was something that they chose first. Um, so for me, that meant getting off my butt and getting out the door and, um, taking them hiking and letting them get dirty.

[00:07:18] And, um, Going against everything that felt normal to me, to be honest. Um, and I found that when we did it, we were just all happier people. So we stuck with it. Um, you know, we, we, during the pandemic, during lockdown, we were in our state, we were allowed to hike. Um, and so I, we were going hiking. Three four, five times a week.

[00:07:41] Um, and people just kind of look at me sideways and they’re like, how is it fun to hike with two five-year-olds and a three-year-old? And I said, well, in the beginning, it wasn’t because they didn’t know what they were doing or expected to do. And they just wanted to play with bugs. And, you know, and that was that we made it a 10th of a mile on our first hike.

[00:07:58] Right. Um, but a couple of weeks ago we went on a hike to a waterfall and I’m not kidding you. All three of my kids hiked five miles. That’s awesome. I was so blown away. I was like, look at what they’re capable of. And they’re getting this fantastic exercise and enjoying nature. And we got about four miles in and I said, Hey guys, it’s going to be another mile.

[00:08:20] If you want to go to the bottom of the waterfall. And they’re like, yeah, mommy, we want to go to the bottom. So they hiked straight down and straight back up and it just blew my mind. So I think it has really been part of my journey as a mom. Um, to become an outdoor loving person that that has is really kind of what created that desire.

[00:08:40] And then our RV. Again, crazy story. Um, basically was, um, my husband was laid off unexpectedly and I threw out a joke of, Hey, we can go live in an RV for a year. You want to try it. And, um, my husband and mom were like, you’re insane, but thanks. And, um, then we, uh, it got to the day where he was going to be laid off and they both said, Hey, we’ve thought about it.

[00:09:07] And. Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s go live in an RV. Full-time let’s, you know, we can keep our savings in the bank and, and do this. Let’s let’s do it. So the day before he got laid off, we bought an RV. Um, and 30 days later he got offered a full-time remote job that allowed us to travel whenever we wanted. And it allowed us to keep our home and our RV, which was a huge blessing.

[00:09:32] Um, so we kinda got the best of both worlds and spoiler alert. We did live in our RV full-time for three months recently. Um, because we all really wanted to give that a go. But yeah, so that was just kind of a, more of a circumstantial thing that ended up being a huge blessing in our lives. And we absolutely love it.

[00:09:50] We RV everywhere now. That is such a cool story. And I really have to circle back for a second to something you said kind of towards the beginning of that. And it was that the first hike was like a 10th of a mile. And I just wanted to pull this out because I think it’s something that people get so caught up on.

[00:10:06] Sometimes it’s like, oh, we can’t do hikes. Our kids will never make it. It doesn’t start that way. It’s just like any other exercise or anything else you have to build up over time and start with the easier hikes. And even right now, getting back into it. For this season for us, like, cause we’ve been on snowboarding season where legs are being used, but not in the same way different muscles are used.

[00:10:24] Right. So I’ve been trying to go with the kids even sometimes when John isn’t available and we’re varying the lengths and the difficulty of the hikes, right? So sometimes it’s four or five miles and it’s mellow and sometimes it’s two or three miles and it’s a little bit more intense so that we build back up because it’s not instant.

[00:10:38] Like I can’t expect them to do a, even though my kids are nine and almost are nine and 11 now I can’t expect them to do a. 10 mile hike with 2000 feet of elevation at the beginning of the summer, I might not even be able to expect them to do that at the end of the summer, but I have, you have to build it back up.

[00:10:54] And I think, um, especially when you have kids who are very little remembering that and remembering that no one starts at that five mile point with a three-year-old and a five and two five-year-olds is really good to remember. So I love that. You said in the ended that story, you mentioned how you had, did actually try out the full-time RV life.

[00:11:12] Multi-generationally tell me how that went. Tell me that. What were, what were some of the challenges? What were some of the ups and the downs? Because I’m sure that there were some excellent things, but I’m sure that there were some challenges as well. Yeah. I mean both ends of the spectrum, for sure. So essentially somebody showed up on our doorstep and said, Hey, I want to buy your house.

[00:11:31] Would you be willing, be willing to sell it? And, um, we said, once we saw the offer, we said, yeah, we’re a hundred percent. So we sold our house house. Um, and we did not have a place to go. And because of the. The way we live our lives. We both work online. We could really go anywhere. We, you know, we weren’t tied to any particular area.

[00:11:54] And so we just said, well, let’s go live in the RV until we figure out where we want to live and where we want to go. And as everyone knows, the housing market right now is insane. So we were fully prepared to be in it for quite some time if need be. And, um, So we, what we planned to do now, from my understanding, most families go full-time in an RV and the first year is just a whirlwind of go and see and do everything.

[00:12:21] And, um, that is not our circumstance because we knew that, um, It just really, wasn’t going to work as a multi-generational family. My sweet mom, who would not mind me telling you this is about to turn 75. And, um, we knew that we could not drag her amazing self all over this country in a whirlwind of travel.

[00:12:40] So we decided that we would go someplace warm and we would go someplace where we could spend time with family. So we headed south to Florida and, um, we spent about most of the three months that we were on the road in Florida in different parts of Florida. And, um, You know, I think it was a lot easier than I expected.

[00:13:00] We found that we needed a lot less, which sounds so cliche, because I think a lot of people say that, but the reality of it is it’s true. We did not need all of the things that we had. We didn’t even need 25% of the things that we had. And. Um, it’s changed the way that I live in general now because of our experiences.

[00:13:22] So that was incredibly impactful. And then I think, um, you know, for my mom, it was like, oh my goodness, your children are so loud, 24 hours a day. And so I think that was a little overwhelming for her because my kids are insanely loud and, um, It never stops. So there were definitely moments where she said, I’m going to go walk around Walmart for an hour, just to get away from the noise and get away from all of this.

[00:13:49] So that was a learning experience. And then cooking differently. We have a full kitchen setup in our RV, but, um, my mom and I both love to cook and we do it up. Um, and we had to get real simple with the way that we cook, just cause you couldn’t have. Four pans out, you know, to cook different things and stuff like that.

[00:14:09] Um, we learned a lot about cooking over a fire, which we really enjoyed, um, parts of our trip. We did a lot of campfire cooking and then I think, uh, you know, the married life got different there for a few months as well. And, uh, you know, you just roll with it. You figure it out and you make the best of it and you just have a lot of fun.

[00:14:30] And, um, my kids have come to me on different at different times since we moved into our new house. And when are we going back in the tiny house? They call it the tiny house. Um, yeah, 42 feet, but yeah, the tiny house, but, um, yeah, you know, they, they loved it and I, we were. Very close. Yeah. Figuratively. And literally we were very close, but that was really cool, you know, to shove all five of us when mom was done for the night and would close her door, she actually had her own bedroom and bathroom.

[00:15:00] We have a three bedroom, two bathroom RV. So she, we have kind of an in law suite, which I think helped a lot. But to shove all five of us on that tiny little RV couch and watch a movie, you know, turned out to be a really cool thing that we look forward to. So I love it. I would do it again tomorrow without hesitation.

[00:15:19] And I think we probably will do something like that again, when the kids get older and we can do a lot more exploring out west and things like that. Um, but it was, it was a great experience for us. We had a really good time. I will say I don’t. I think any of us would want to do the go and stay somewhere for a month or two, like we did again, we’ve we found that we like to have goals of like the go and the C and the do, and that’s what we really enjoy.

[00:15:47] So we did learn that about the way we are V travel as a family. I think that’s interesting. And I think that’s a good point to pull out too, because, um, I think that everybody has their own family vibe, but I think having that something sometimes to look forward to, and, you know, it kinda, it’s kinda like a vacation, right?

[00:16:04] Like you’re anticipating the next thing and the fun thing. Cause you’re excited about a different destination or whatever. So I could see how having. Something on the agenda to see soon, even if it was, you know, kind of a slow travel style could still be a lot of fun to have, like, you know, we’re going to spend two weeks here and then two weeks here or varying.

[00:16:21] That could definitely be interesting. I think I’d be the same way. Cause I think I would get stir crazy if I was in an RV, not moving, not with something else to look for. I think the noise would get to me too. I think I’d be with your mom. I think that’s that’s my biggest holdup has always been my biggest hold up cause I would do it in a heartbeat, but it has always been, my concern is the noise factor.

[00:16:38] Cause even in a house sometimes I’m like. Wow. My kids are really loud. Yep. Yes, it is. It is sensory overload. That is for sure. And I think that’s the other thing that I figured out. You have to have your. Saying, because there, you’re not going to be able to go into your bedroom and read a book that’s just not going to happen.

[00:16:55] So you have to figure out what your thing is and make sure that everybody gets to do their thing. So for me, um, I actually bought a bike, a mountain bike on the road. Second-hand off of a, you know, a marketplace or whatever, and, um, found that I’d never been mountain biking in my life. I had no interest in it, but I found that.

[00:17:17] The campgrounds, a lot of them had these great trails. And so I would just say, you know, in-between my husband getting off conference calls and me fixing dinner. Hey, can I have 20 minutes to just go hit a trail and have some peace and quiet and, and that’s what I would do. And so I would just hop on my mountain bike and hit a trail for 20 minutes, or even just to go do laundry.

[00:17:37] In the laundry room at the campground, it was like, can I, do you mind if I don’t bring a kid on this laundry trip and I just, you know, hop on my bike and ride to the laundry room and sit in the laundry room for a little while. Um, so I think it’s important that everybody gets the opportunity to do their thing that gives them time to decompress and have some peace and quiet.

[00:17:56] Uh, because without that, I think you would get really, really overwhelmed. Cause it’s, it is, I mean, it’s a small space and in our case, it’s a lot of people in a small space. Um, and so you do have to kind of carve out that space for yourself. Yeah. That’s a great tip. And I think you’re exactly right.

[00:18:12] Finding that thing that can replenish you before you come back to the, to the hubbub is definitely a great thing. I know that for me, that’s, that’s huge. Cause even like I said, in my house, sometimes the kids are just so loud, but on the trade off, you know, I feel like sometimes too, and mine are a little bit older, so I could actually be like kicking them out of the RV and being like, Hey, go play outside for a while.

[00:18:33] You’re old enough to go to the campground park or just play in the woods here for a bit, like they’re at that stage. But it’s very different when they’re younger. Cause you can’t really do that safely. So I think that’s an excellent tip. For people who might be considering this is just to make sure that you think that through and give everybody who’s involved the opportunity to, to do their thing.

[00:18:54] Yeah. And I think that with the multi-generational thing, the biggest factor for us was communication. You absolutely cannot not talk about life and what’s going on and how everybody’s feeling or what they’re thinking about for that day. I mean, you just have to be super open to communicate about things.

[00:19:13] Very simple things. For instance, you know, my mom would say, Look, I understand. As a family, you guys do dishes one time a day, like you’re fine. You just do a big push of dishes, put them in the dishwasher and that’s that. She’s like, it drives me crazy. You guys need to just put your dishes away when you use them, wash them and put them away.

[00:19:33] And. You know, it it’s like, okay, no big deal. We’ll, we’ll change the way we do things because it annoys somebody that’s living in 42 foot space. So it’s like, you just have to kind of be willing to communicate and be willing to talk about. But I think that’s travel in general because if you’re sharing. A hotel room or you’re sharing a condo or you’re sharing an Airbnb.

[00:19:53] You’re always going to do things differently than the people that you’re traveling with, even when you’re in the same family. So I think it’s super important to be willing to say like, Hey, this week, I know you guys normally do it this way. Would you mind this week? Or would you mind this month? If we could just try it a little bit differently?

[00:20:11] Cause it just drives me crazy. And that has to be something that you’re just willing to put your cards on the table with those kinds of things. Yeah. And that’s such a good point too, and it’s way better to ask that and be preemptive and have the communication versus getting to the point where like, oh my gosh, if you don’t put your dishes in the dishwasher, we’re done, we’re done.

[00:20:30] I need bail money if I get one more day. Yeah, exactly. So true. So true. So you guys do a lot of RV travel, but that’s not all you do. So you guys travel as a family through, um, in hotels and other things as well. So tell me, I know you have a big trip coming up. As soon as well. Tell me what, how that works.

[00:20:49] Cause I know that’s one thing that people often wonder is when you’re traveling and you’re staying in hotels, but you have either a big family or multi-generational family. How do you handle the logistics of that? Do you typically stay in the same room? Do you get two rooms? How does that all work so that you can actually feel like you’re together, but.

[00:21:04] Still have enough space for everyone. What do you like to do? So we pretty much did all of the above of what you just said. So when we stay in a hotel, that’s a traditional hotel, we always get two rooms. Um, and we ask for adjoining rooms if possible, but if not, we just get two rooms and you know, sometimes one of my daughters they’ll be like, Hey, I want to sleep in Grammy’s room tonight.

[00:21:25] And if she’s cool with that, we’ll do that. Or, you know, we’re pretty flexible with that kind of thing. But yeah, we, we try to. Early on in our travel adventures, we ended up all six of us in a room with two double beds and three pack and plays. And that was the worst experience of my life. Um, we learned do not do it.

[00:21:47] And I would even say to you, like, even if your budget traveling. Do not do it, find the money somewhere or skip something to be able to give you some room to spread out because it is a disaster. No one sleeps. Well. Um, and the other thing is, is that as the mom, who’s trying to get three small children to sleep and my kids are pretty good sleepers, but they’re excited and they’re in a new place.

[00:22:12] And, you know, I feel guilty because other people are missing out on sleep or missing out on experiences. And. So I find that I have a much better vacation when I know that we have space for everybody to sleep well and, you know, have that, that opportunity. So like when we picked out an RV, we had three bedrooms and two bathrooms because I wanted it to be easy.

[00:22:35] We don’t have a ton of living space, but we live outside. So it kind of, you know, that was what worked best for us. And you just, you do, I mean, you have to figure out what works best for your family. And then. We’ve gone. We’ve done lots of Airbnb Airbnb’s, you know, or BRBO is where we do big houses and that works well for us.

[00:22:51] As long as we have enough bedrooms. And then I’m pretty the place where the resort we’re staying at. It’s pretty cool. So we’re our VA going to the resort and then they’re going to give us a place to park our RV so we can stay at the resort. So that’s nice. That doesn’t happen very often. So we’re very excited about that.

[00:23:08] Um, so we will RV through the Ozark mountains and then we will park our RV and hang out about an hour south of St. Louis for a week. Um, and in that situation, it’s kind of like a condo deal. So it’s just, it’s only two bedrooms, but there are lots of different sleeping spaces. So we’ll, we’ll make that work for all of us.

[00:23:26] That sounds really awesome. I have a question, as you were talking about that, so you’re going to drive your RV and I, yeah, I would imagine that it is difficult to find parking sometimes for a 42 foot RV. Do you have, is it a, um, I can’t recall. Is it, do you have a fifth wheel or is it a, okay, so you still have a vehicle with you?

[00:23:43] That was my question. I was like, do you rent or do you tow, but you have your vehicle with you? Well, we actually take, oddly enough, we take two vehicles, um, because we, uh, we have a truck that will fit all six of us. Um, and we could just do the one vehicle, but we found that, you know, road trips with three, five, and under is there, they’re just unpredictable.

[00:24:03] And we’re not in a situation where my three-year-old can say, I’ve got to go potty and he can just pull over, you know, and let her go potty. So, um, he loves it first of all, because he’s an introvert. So he loves the hours alone in peace and quiet. Um, and he just drives straight through. Occasionally he does a conference call at a truck stop, but usually he just drives straight through.

[00:24:26] And then we meet him there whenever we get there. So there’s no pressure, um, on that end and it does cost us more gas money. So it’s a, you know, it’s a trade off for us as far as our budget goes, but, um, we found that’s just what works best for us. And if they need to hop out, like we do a lot of, um, either pack our lunch or carry out our lunch and then stop at state parks or local playgrounds just to let them stretch their legs.

[00:24:50] So there’s no stress. We can just pull off and do that whenever. And he can just kind of focus on getting there. And take your time. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense, especially with the ages that your kids are, because there’s not like, like you said, there’s not that window, when a three-year-old needs to go to the bathroom, you got to go.

[00:25:05] And when you got a 42 foot RV, you got to find somewhere you can fit to get them to the bathroom. So there’s a little more logistics involved. Like, yeah, I totally understand that. I swear even my kids who are older can only hold it so long. Right? Like there’s like. We’re getting to the point where I can be like, okay, how long do we have about 10 minutes?

[00:25:21] But then in two minutes, they’re asking again, I’m like, okay. So we got like the next exit. I got it. Right? Yeah. So I know we talked a lot about some of the challenges and the logistics that pop up when you’re traveling with multi, multiple generations. But I want to hear some of the good stuff. What are some of the perks and the benefits and the things that you really love about it?

[00:25:40] So I love the fact that anytime we go to a new place, the first thing the kids ask is we want to show Grammy. So can we, can we take Grammy on a tour? Um, and they, they love to just be able to experience everything with her and, you know, She loves to be able to spoil them. My mom’s not really the spoiling kind, but she loves when we’re away, she can be like, yeah, you want ice cream at 10:00 AM.

[00:26:05] Yeah. And that’s awesome because those are the things that they’re going to remember. And those are the memories that are going to stick. It’s not going to be the places that I want to go see are not going to be the things that stick in their mind. It’s going to be, you know, having ice cream at 10:00 AM on the balcony with Grammy and, you know, making sand castles and.

[00:26:24] Putting sand all over her and being silly with Grammy. And I cannot even tell you how important it is that my children have those memories with her. So it’s, it’s amazing to me that we get to do it. Um, and it’s different. Everybody says, oh, she lives with you. So it’s, you know, it’s every day, but it’s not, you still have to live real life.

[00:26:41] You have to go and do things and we have to do school and she’s got to go and live her life. And, you know, it’s like when we’re traveling. Concentrated time together, where we can focus on one another and, and really create those incredible memories. And. I take every opportunity to allocate some of our budget toward creating memories with her doing things that she loves to do or things that she wants to teach the kids or experiences that she’s had before that she wants to share with the kids.

[00:27:10] So we do that. You know, as often as we can. And that goes for me and my husband as well, he is a huge, um, fishing aficionado. And so as many times as we can get out on the lake or stand on the shore and I can watch my kids dish with him, I’m going to do it. So I, I think, um, that’s the best, you know, that’s top of the list.

[00:27:29] And then, and then add to that, my mom and my husband and I, we make a really good team. So it is fantastic that. Things that could be so much harder for me, um, are not because I have this incredible team of three adults that pitch in and they all have their roles and, you know, we can really, we’re just a well-oiled machine, which makes a lot of the travel so much easier.

[00:27:53] Um, and then when things do come up, you know, my mom. Got a really bad tick bite on one of our trips. And, um, it was a lone star tick and they were concerned, concerned about alpha-gal and things like that. And I was so grateful that, you know, I was there to get her to the doctor. I, I know her history, stuff like that.

[00:28:11] So I’m also not in a situation where we’re gallivanting all over the country and I’m constantly worrying about her. So I’m so grateful that she’s with us, you know, we can help her when she needs it. She helps us when we need it. And it’s just a really wonderful, um, the just great, great relationship. And we work really well as a team.

[00:28:31] I love that. And I think you’re so right that the, the memories and the moments, you know, the ice cream at 10:00 AM is what they’re going to remember. I know that I have to share this little story real quick. We had some of my kids have my grit. My parents still live in North Carolina, so they’re on east coast and we’re on west coast and we went back to visit, oh gosh, it’s been probably like.

[00:28:51] Three years. I think for it, since we stayed at their house, cause like the last they’ve come here and we’ve gone other places. But the last time we stayed at their house has been several years ago. And my kids remember because of the time change, when our flight landed and all of this stuff and they couldn’t fall asleep, they remember going out to her hot tub at midnight and they still talk about it.

[00:29:08] Like that is the thing they remember. Do they remember anything else? We did that entire trip. No, but oh yeah. Remember when we stayed up till midnight and went to the hot tub, that’s the moment that stands out and that they remember because it was such a cool thing that they did with, with her and with my, my dad and that they just normally don’t, that’s outside of the norm.

[00:29:27] Right. It breaks the norm and it creates that fun memory with them. That’s going to last apparently forever. That’s awesome. I love that. I love that. It’s so cute. So, um, I know that, that we oftentimes have people listening who are interested in doing more of this more adventure, more hiking, more camping, more of these things, but they sometimes don’t know where to start.

[00:29:51] Are there any things that you do to make things easier with your three young kids that you think would be really beneficial? So anything from the way you organized, we’ve talked about a few things, but anyway, from the way you organize like their entertainment in the car too. Um, just anything that you find that really makes a big difference for keeping everybody happy on these, on these trips.

[00:30:15] Yeah. So keeping mom happy. One thing that I’ve started doing, um, which sounds funny, but it has been. Just the most ridiculous game-changer. Um, I bought those, uh, drawer organizers. You can get them on Amazon and they’re just like little cloth boxes. And I have actually started putting their clothes in those drawer, organizers at home in everyday life.

[00:30:40] Because when we travel, I just. Pick them up and put them in a suitcase and it is so much easier. I cannot even tell you how much easier it is. And I do. I mean, I like packing cubes and things like that too. So I’m not saying there are other options, but for us, it’s just been a great way to save time because I can just, I can take them out and put them directly in a drawer in the RV, or I can take them out and put them in the suitcase and then put them in a drawer wherever we’re staying.

[00:31:09] So. I’d sound silly, but I’m not even telling you. Just, just try it. You’ll you’ll thank me million times to do it. Um, and then as far as the kids go, um, like I said, we, we’re not screen-free, but we’re device-free so my kids don’t use iPads or phones. We only do TV. So in our van, if the trip is longer than three hours, they know they get to watch movies.

[00:31:31] Um, so that’s one way that we manage that. Um, and I. W I have an incredible collection of DVDs. I probably have hundreds of dollars worth of DVDs. So go all in, get the DVDs, um, it’s worth it and it helps. And then they use the, um, the leap frog, not the screen ones, but just the book ones that have the pens and they play with those for hours.

[00:31:58] They love those. So we have those and all the books that go with those. Um, and then, you know, a hundred million snacks. Obviously always for sure. Um, And they they’ve kind of gotten into, like, we have road trip playlist that they like, and we’ve started to do some audio books and those are hit or miss at this age.

[00:32:18] Um, and they love all the travel games I spy and stuff like that. So we just, I will say we try to make it at least an hour, if not two into the trip before turning on screens, because then they never want to turn them off. Um, so we try really hard to do, you know, as long as we can without turning on TV.

[00:32:37] And I also, if I know that I think they’re going to fall asleep in the car, I won’t let the screens. They can’t have any screens until after they fall asleep because they just never want to go to sleep. So, and they don’t, my kids don’t nap anymore, but they always pass out in the car. Um, so I try to, you know, figure that out and I do try to travel over that time period when they might fall asleep.

[00:32:59] So that works. That works well too, but yeah, I mean, I don’t have a magic bullet. We buy, um, We do buy some new things here and there. If we know our next upcoming trip, we will be driving about 2000 miles total. Um, so I know that I’m going to need to grab a few new things, you know, to keep them interested in some stuff for them to try.

[00:33:20] And then another thing that we did recently, that’s been. Awesome. Um, is we created a restaurant bag. So if we’re we stop at a lot of cracker barrels and places like that. And so I created a restaurant bag where if we go in and we’re going to sit down somewhere, it has like Play-Doh and kinetic sand, and little mini puzzles and things like that.

[00:33:41] Um, and I find that really, really helps when I know that they’re. They have to go from sitting to sitting again, you know, and it’s just a lot for them to do that. So that, that has helped a lot. And we even use that at home just when we go to restaurants, they really like that. So that’s really smart too, because it’s a transition from like, even if they’ve had entertainment in the car, it’s different things that they can’t necessarily use easily in the car, but that then they can use in the restaurant.

[00:34:03] So that it’s fun and new again. Yeah. We, um, we found that our kids, it was around the age of your kids. I think when we started doing some on audio books and podcasts and they, they did pretty well with them. But it was, short-lived like short timeframes to begin with. And now though we can turn them on and they’ll listen for the entire trip half the time they will, they will start to, they will start to ask for other screens though, have no fear like that does happen.

[00:34:30] But, but if I’m like, no, we’re just going to listen to this. That’s usually like, okay. And that’s, that’s typically it, it’s starting to get a little harder with my oldest. He definitely has them. He’s reaching those pre-teen years. So he wants to do his own thing sometimes. And so we have to find that balance.

[00:34:45] So there’s some adjustment that goes on, but yeah. No, I, I love that idea of the creative things. And we’ve also the other thing we’ve done sometimes too, is I’ll go to just like the dollar store and I’ll go through looking for fun things that will keep them entertained that are new or novel or whatever, and fill up a bag with those things that they’ve never seen before and just toss them away or the target dollar spot.

[00:35:05] It’s always something the best spot to find like unique things to keep them entertained. Yes, little crafts or whatever that can be done in the car. I love those. Okay. So. One other thing I wanted to ask you is, is there one trip that you have done as a multi-generational family that has really stood out as like the best trip?

[00:35:23] Like the most memorable, the most, whether it was from those ice cream moments or whether it was because of the location? Is there one that really stands out as like, this was the best one and, and why? Um, I think. I don’t know. I can’t ever answer this question. I’m really, I just am because we just, yeah, we always have fantastic.

[00:35:44] We always have a fantastic time together and every trip there’s something that’s the best for a different reason. Um, I would say the best trip as far as the most surprising and unexpected experience would be. We went up to Stowe, Vermont, and we happen to please. It’s amazing. And we happen to hit, um, like peak.

[00:36:06] Fall foliage season, totally by accident. And I swear to you, the town was on fire. It was one of the most stunning things I think I’ve ever seen. And we, we literally just kept pulling over to the side of the road to look at these huge fields full of trees with these. Unbelievable colors. And it’s not like we don’t live in a place that has fall, but it was just nothing like it.

[00:36:30] I had never seen anything like that. And we went to a shop to buy maple sugar candy, and the guy was like, you really came on the perfect day. And it just was, we had just hit that perfect moment when the foliage was incredible and I will never, ever, ever forget that. And the funny thing is we were really early on.

[00:36:48] In kind of our journey of doing this, um, you know, and sharing it online, so to speak. So we don’t, we don’t even have that many pictures. So it’s one of that. It’s one of those experiences I really only have in my mind. And it’s just such an incredible thing that I’ll never, ever, ever forget that. And then most recently we went to Branson, Missouri, and I had always wanted to go to Branson because growing up.

[00:37:14] Every Sunday, my grandfather used to put on Lawrence Welk, vinyl records, um, and we used to dance around my kitchen and listen to Lawrence Welk growing up. And of course back then I rolled my eyes. Now looking back on it, it’s some of my best memories, but, um, and that he’s, he was from Branson, the Lawrence, the Lawrence Welk show was in Branson.

[00:37:34] And so I just always wanted to go see the show as well. As fate would have it. We ended up in Branson during a pandemic when everything was closed down and I couldn’t go see any shows and I couldn’t do any of the things that I thought that I wanted to do. And we ended up doing all outdoorsy stuff, hiking, seeing waterfalls.

[00:37:53] We spent a day out on the lake and it’s one of my best family vacation memories to date. So I think for me, um, and I do say this a lot to people, um, Cause I’m super type a and I really don’t like it when my itinerary gets messed up either. And I have found that some of my very, very best memories with my family are in those really messed up moments.

[00:38:17] And, um, and those are some of the best trips and unexpected moments that we’ve had as a family is when it was nothing that I wanted it to be and everything that it turned out I needed in the moment. So those, those have been our, our best experiences. So far have been those just kind of unexpected family moments and frankly, I’m just a beach person.

[00:38:39] So anytime we get to go to the beach, I’m super happy that, yeah, that always makes me happy. I’ve now I now think I’m more of a mountains person than a beach person, but I really like the beach as far as the place to just get away for a week or two. Um, I enjoy that, but those, those are top and then. Um, I, my mom and I traveled before I had kids, I took her on a three week.

[00:39:03] I studied abroad at Johns Hopkins in bologna, Italy, and I took her with me. And those are some of my very, very best memories of something with me and my mom. Oh, that sounds incredible. Um, I agree completely though. I am very type a like you, I like to have my things planned, but I will admit that some of our best trips have also been the ones that were not.

[00:39:23] Uber planned out ahead of time, or even like a massive road trip that I planned in two days when a hurricane thorn had plans to fly back home and see my family, like they ended up being some of the best memories and the ones that our kids still remember the most and that they talk about. And that we have, like, that really kind of sparked this desire to keep doing more.

[00:39:42] So like, those are the ones that actually turned out to be surprising and really memorable. So. I totally speaking of, since I follow you and totally online stock you, when are you getting your trip to Hawaii? When is that happening? So usually my mother’s day trip has been postponed and I did look at tickets the other day for, for this summer.

[00:40:03] Now that things are lifted and I am vaccinated. However, I have signed up for a women’s only retreat. In January in quiet, if not before, I will definitely be doing that. It’s um, into the wild photo camp, total free promotion here for her, but it looks, it’s going to be super fun. It’s a bunch of adventure.

[00:40:20] Mama’s going to, um, practice photography and do fun things like kayaking and hiking and all kinds of school stuff and coy. So I’m very excited about it. That sounds awesome. Yeah. Um, Okay. So before we finish up, I have a couple questions that I tend to ask everybody. And one of them is, is there anything that you wish you’d known about adventuring with your kids or it can be about multi-generational travel too.

[00:40:47] Um, Earlier like that you wish somebody had told you years ago about like, Hey, this is why this is great. Or this is what you really should know to make it great. Something along those lines. Well, everybody you told me, there’s really no point to what we’re doing because my kids wouldn’t remember it anyway.

[00:41:03] Um, And especially when I was taking my six month old and my two, two year olds, places, they, you know, they said, they’re just not going to remember it. And you’re wasting time and you’re wasting money, but I remember it. And my husband remembers it and my mom especially remembers it. And, um, this sounds kind of morbid, but we were having a conversation about, you know, when she was no longer with us, because obviously, you know, that’s going to happen at some point.

[00:41:30] And she was like, don’t, you dare show any pictures when you celebrate the end of my life, unless they’re pictures on all of our adventures, because that’s all that I, you know, that’s what I want people to see and to remember, and it’s just for me that. Is, you know, those memories will matter to someone trust me and make them anyway and take the pictures and take a tripod.

[00:41:56] So you’re in some of them. And I’m not talking about your Instagram pictures. I’m talking about just. Pictures of those moments, any sitting down to dinner with the aunts and uncles that you’re visiting or the cousins or whatever, annoyed them and make them take a picture because those memories will matter so much.

[00:42:15] And coming from someone who lost her father at a very young age, let me tell you those memories. Well matter and someone will remember. So just, you know, don’t listen to the naysayers and, um, make the memories because they’re, they’re the things that a lot of people in your family and in your life are going to hold on to for many years to come.

[00:42:34] I love that. And, you know, especially, I think we’re, we’re really good now about taking, like you said, the Instagram photos, but I love going through old photos from our family and the prior generations. And like when my mom pulls out the box and we start sorting through and I’m like, who’s this? Cause like, you know, some of them I never even met.

[00:42:51] So those memories are really important. And I, I love that you brought that out. That that’s, it’s not just about. Annoyed them. It’s not just about the Instagram photo. It’s about the memories for your family. That’s the whole entire goal. It’s not just a posted on social media or to share in the now it’s, it’s going to be for, for your family, your immediate family, but also future generations to come across and to, to get to see what you were about and their family history.

[00:43:15] So I love that. I just got chills. Okay. And is there a piece of gear that you couldn’t do without something that when you got it, you were like, oh my gosh, why did we not have this sooner? This has made my life a million times easier. Although you may have already answered that with your, with your

[00:43:34] I never would’ve thought of it as I was asking this question, I’m like, she kind of already answered this, but do you have anything else or would you just be like, no. It’s those organizers all the way life-changing um, now yeah, for me, it’s. I just, I, um, I stole one of my husband’s old backpacks and I, um, we call it the hiking backpack and it sits in our mudroom.

[00:43:54] So it’s always ready to go. And for me, it’s multiple things in that bag, but it’s having. The hiking backpack at the ready all the time, I find makes it so much easier for me to like wake up in the morning and say, you know what, let’s go hit a trail now. And so it just it’s that much easier. And I even keep, you know, like shelf stable snacks in there, things like that.

[00:44:18] And I’ll throw fruit in there before we leave. But, um, It’s like, there’s the first aid kit in there. We have an emergency blanket in there. You know, things like that, that I just always know that no matter where we end up or what we do, I’m going to have the basics of what I need to manage life with my three kids for an hour or two or whatever.

[00:44:37] So yeah, that that’s always packed and ready to go by the door every day, pretty much. And on the. On the flip side of that, as soon as we get home from an adventure, um, I’m not the most organized and clean human being on the planet. So I tend to not pay attention to the other side of that. Like repack it and have it ready to go.

[00:44:58] So I always make a point. Quite whenever we get home from an adventure to repack it and have it by the door. Um, so that it’s just always there and ready to go. And that that’s been a huge game changer for us because I don’t ever have to worry that it doesn’t take me an hour to get out the door. I can legit with my three crazy little ones, be out the door to a trail in 15 minutes, which is crazy with three little kids.

[00:45:19] But if you know, you have what you need, um, and then I’m just gonna say it keen sandals. That’s it for kids like don’t ever buy anything ever else for your little kids, just put them in keen sandals. They can’t destroy them. Their feet don’t get hurt. I, I just all the time, that is what I have on my kids’ feet.

[00:45:39] They last forever. Okay. Funny story. And then we’re going to end, but I have to do this now that you brought this up. So keen sandals were the first, like. Um, true hiking shoes slash Canada, uh, slash sandal that we bought our kids when they were young. And we were actually living in the south. My youngest actually had, or my oldest had the first pair.

[00:45:55] So he had this pair, we bought this, um, one of, I think it’s their Newport. So we bought the Newport sandal for them. And my lovely now 13 and a half year old dog was not 13 and a half at the time. And she thought shoes were fun to chew on. So she chewed up one shoe. One of his shoes. I was so mad and they were brand new.

[00:46:17] I think he’d worn them like once and went out and bought, found the same color bothered and bought another pair and came home two days later, she chewed another one. They had been up out of the way she had climbed up on stuff to get to it. Thank the Lord that she. Chewed one right foot and one left. So I was like, oh my goodness, they gonna send it.

[00:46:40] And I like put them in a cabinet. I started putting on my cabinets because she kept sneaking them. I don’t know what it was if it was about like the smell of the leather or something, but she was like, these are the best. Thankfully, she’s grown out of that. But man, that was a rough couple of years. I was like, if you chew up another shoe dog, you’re going to be in big trouble.

[00:46:56] They are the best. And for mama’s on a budget, you can find them secondhand. You just have to search for them. And they are washable. And they last through kids. They lasted through both of my kids that pair, once I put it back together, it lasted for both kids and they still have life left in them. And I refilled them for another family at a huge discount.

[00:47:15] So it was. I would highly guess that they made it through at least one, if not two more kids. Cause they were in such good condition when they, when we gave them credible shoes. Incredible shoes. Agreed. Agreed. There’s there’s Keaton’s pretty fro free pump promos. Right? Okay. Well, I’m Angelica has offered to share one of her awesome printables with you guys, and it is her hike and learn templates that you can sign up for her email list.

[00:47:40] And you’ll just get a copy of that, but I’ll make sure to put a link in the show notes as well, but would you tell us just a little bit about that? Um, template. Yeah, absolutely. So it kind of grew out of, um, being a brand new homeschool mom and, and trying to look for opportunities when we were on the trail to teach my kids and finding that they were asking a lot of questions that I just didn’t know the answer to.

[00:48:02] I, I, you know, not being an outdoorsy person, I can’t identify flowers and trees, and I don’t know, you know, what that bug is and things like that. So I kind of, I created this template to give moms an opportunity. Not just for little kids, it’s actually, I’ve found that it’s more for kids that are kind of elementary, middle school age, um, that can, that, that want to kind of create a memory book of their hiking experiences for the year.

[00:48:29] And it just gives you a really simple template. That you can write down, you know, um, what you saw on the flora and fauna, the critters that you saw, anything you learned while you were on the trail. Um, there’s a cute little bingo thing. If you do have little kids that you want to play, um, but then the end of the last page of it, um, is an opportunity to really kind of create a memory sheet for your hiking experience.

[00:48:54] And it’s just a really nice way to. You know, three hole, punch it, stick it in a binder and you can look back and even print out photos. And I do that. I just take the photos to that page so that we can look back and say, oh, that was that trail. And that’s what we saw and stuff like that. So it kind of creates an educational scrapbook, um, for your kids of their hiking experiences.

[00:49:14] That’s such a fun idea. I love that. Well, thank you so much for sharing it with, with everybody. I actually am going to have to download that for us too. All right. Well, um, before we sign off, will you just tell everybody where we can find you. Yeah, absolutely. So we’re toddling across America, everywhere, toddling across america.com.

[00:49:32] Um, and we are on Instagram. If you want to follow our crazy adventures day to day. And, um, please know that what you’re hearing today, this is the real me. And if you want to message me at any point, I try to answer every message that I get and I try to risk. Fanta as many comments as I get. So I’d love to hear from you.

[00:49:50] And if anything came out in this podcast, you have more questions about don’t hesitate to reach out it’s Todd Lind across [email protected]. If you’d prefer to email. Awesome. Thank you so much, Angelica. It was a blast to chat. Thank you. Thanks again. And Angelica from talent across America for joining us today, it was so fun to have this conversation about multi-generational travel.

[00:50:11] I think now more than ever, we can all really appreciate the value of spending time with our families. And I really love the tips that she shared to help us make it manageable, even when you’re in a tight space. And, um, a few of the takeaways that I really loved is first of all, where she said to make sure everyone has their own space, whether if you’re able to have an extra hotel room or an extra room in your RV, or just some, some little space that you can carve aside, that’s just for that person or.

[00:50:41] The other generations traveling with you because as we all know, children get loud and allow everybody, including parents who are in those small spaces, especially if you’re doing the RV style. Travel to make time for the things that you love. So like Angelica did. If, if bike riding sounds like fun to you, grab yourself a bike and take, take a bike trip, even if it’s just to do the laundry, because those little breaks away from everything when you’re in a small space can, can be huge.

[00:51:08] And I agree even like when you’re camping, even just a walk down to the end of the trail or the road can be the break that I need when I’m feeling a little too overwhelmed with everybody being on top of everybody. And second, I really loved her tip on the drawer, organizers, my kids know, or put their own laundry away right now.

[00:51:25] So I don’t know if there’s any hope for us, but when they were younger, I could see how that would be super helpful when I’m packing for everybody. And if you just have everything organized, kind of in like a week’s worth of clothes in a drawer organizer, and then you were getting ready to go somewhere.

[00:51:38] You literally just grab that out and stick it in your suitcase. And that there’s like the mom brain relief. I felt when she said that I was like, oh, that’s a super smart move. So I really liked that idea. And then. The probably the biggest thing that I really, really loved from our conversation was where she said, don’t listen to the naysayers.

[00:51:54] When they say your kids, aren’t going to appreciate the adventures and the travels that you’re doing, or they won’t remember them because whether your kids remember them or not, they’re going to remember the feelings they had from growing up with you and doing these things. And. Someone in your family is going to re remember and appreciate those memories, whether it is you are there, it is your, your parents, whether it is your kids’ kids, years down the road who come across the pictures, they are going to be appreciated and it is worth it.

[00:52:23] So I’m just really excited that she shared all of this great wisdom with us. And I hope that if any of you have been considering multi-generational travel, that you find it helpful. And thanks again to use doke fan for joining us today, we are really, really thankful for each and every one of you who is showing up and listening to our show every week, we would be so grateful if you enjoy it, if you would just give us a rating or review or even tell a friend, it helps us to grow so we can reach more people and continue to bring more awesome guests to you.

[00:52:49] That’s it for today. Adventure, more stress, less. We’ll see out there.