Travel & Budget Tips for Big Families | Sara from Koppa 7 Adventures

TSF Podcast | Sara | Koppa 7

Welcome to The Stoke Fam, 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 grow.

[00:00:25] Welcome back Stoke Fam. Today. I am talking with Sarah from Koppa 7 Adventures, as you might guess from their name, they’re a family of seven who traveled throughout the us and internationally. In fact, they get just got back to an app from an epic trip to Iceland. They love road trips and camping and regularly share budget, travel and photography tips for families.

[00:00:46] There’s often I think. In the travel and adventure community, a, some worries about how to afford everything. And especially when you have a large family and I love how Sarah and her family may share tips that make it attainable and accessible for everyone. So I’m stoked to have her here to talk with us today about road trip, budget, travel tips, and all the things.

[00:01:08] And so I just wanted to say, thanks for being here today, Sarah. Yeah, I’m really glad to be here. I’m excited to share some information. I am wondering if you will start us out by just telling us your travel and slash adventure story. If you have been always a traveler, did you grow up traveling? Is it something that you started doing more as an adult or after you had kids kind of walk us through how you got to today?

[00:01:37] So actually growing up, we never traveled, um, the farthest that I had ever gone and we’re in Wisconsin. So the farthest I’d ever gone was Minnesota. And it was really. Only a couple hours across the border. So my whole life growing up, I had friends who would go on spring break to Florida and can’t Coon.

[00:02:00] And they would come back with these pictures of this beautiful ocean. And so I always wanted to travel. We just never did. So I think that is what pushed me to really want to actually go and get out there and see things and do things because I grew up living in my little bubble and, you know, Northern Wisconsin.

[00:02:21] And wanted to see more of what was out there in the world. Right. What about, um, your husband? Has he, was, did he grow up in the same area or was his story similar? Yeah, he actually has a pretty similar story, except I don’t even think he went to Minnesota. Like he’s done nothing before we were together. Um, he had never been on a plane.

[00:02:42] He had never, you know, drove at any long distance. Um, just, you know, we were just two small town people and we actually didn’t know each other until after high school, even though you’re up in the same town and, um, You know, we just had never really done anything before, but I will say that I’m the one who had pushed to travel.

[00:03:02] I think he would have been fine in his bubble, but he likes it. Now you brought him along for the ride. That’s what I did. He did it because he loves me. I feel like almost every family, there’s always the one who was a little bit more adventurous. And then the one who’s a little bit more like, no, I’m cool.

[00:03:20] I could be here. Um, Like, I think if it were, I love to travel, but I honestly, I tend to be the more reserved person I have to plan my travel. I’m much more of a planner. I’m getting better at it. And in fact, some of our best trips that we’ve been on have been not planned like more of a last minute thing, but John could just pick up and be like, Hey, let’s go to the mountains tonight and be totally cool with it.

[00:03:42] And I’d be like, what? Wait, wait, I didn’t plan on an itinerary yet. I got to get all this done. But the reality is sometimes those are the best trips anyway. So. Yeah, I think there’s always like that dynamic of one person who’s more adventurous or willing to like drop it and go. And then one who’s a little bit more of a, like, I’m going to take this at my pace kind of person.

[00:04:01] Definitely. But Corey, my husband, he’s learned, um, over the years just to kinda let me do what I want. And he just goes along for the ride. He’s the driver always. So like, even if I want to drive clear cut across the country, he’ll, you know, pack up and he doesn’t complain. He just does it. And you know, he enjoys it.

[00:04:22] Mostly, you know, sometimes I can’t believe you had me do nine hours today or, you know, whatever, if we’re going to the west coast or something, but he likes it now. And so now we, we both enjoy, um, you know, going places and doing things. So I want to talk about that. Actually. You, you talked about going to like the west coast, you have five kids, correct?

[00:04:43] Yes. Yes. How do your kids tell me their ages again? And like, um, you don’t have to tell their names if you don’t want to, but tell them, tell us their ages and, um, for where they are right now. Let’s just start there. Yeah. So I have a 15 year old. I have a 14 year old and 11, six and three. Okay. So a pretty wide range of ages there.

[00:05:07] How, um, how do your kids handle the travel? So. The younger kids are actually super easy because they grew up traveling from the time they were infants. I mean, I think we took our now six year old on her first trip to Europe when she was like, You know, five weeks old or something. And we took the little one on trips when she was two weeks old.

[00:05:35] So we definitely they’ve been doing it their whole lives. They don’t know anything different. They’re the kids, the two youngest ones and my 11 year old, who’s just like a really easy going kid that younger three, we can just go in a car. And if we drove for 24 hours straight to go down to Mexico, which we’ve done a couple of times, um, They don’t complain.

[00:05:55] Not even a little, they ask when they have to go to the bathroom and that’s about it. Um, yeah, it’s pretty cool. Like, I can’t complain. They’re pretty good kids, but it’s just because we do it consistently. And the same thing on planes, we can do 12 hour plane rides with them because we’ve done it and it’s not different from a car.

[00:06:13] And so they’re used to it, but my older two. Um, they struggle a little bit more. They get bored more easily and it might be partially because they’re entering those teenage years at 14 and 15. And I find it a lot harder because they have much more of a drive to want to be with their friends. And now, you know, our oldest has a boyfriend and so it, it’s getting a little bit more difficult.

[00:06:39] Sometimes we let them stay home with grandparents when we go on trips now, because. You know, that’s important for that phase of life too. Like that’s a big, you know, psychological component of, of growing up. And so we kind of try to do a healthy mix. I think that I’m glad you brought that up because actually our kids are nine and 11, so our oldest will turn 12 this year and we’re just getting into those pre-teen years and I can start to see the inklings of.

[00:07:07] Some of those, like, I’m not sure that I always want to go or I want to do something else with my friends. And like, we’re starting to see some of those things. And I think that if you can find that healthy balance of letting them have the freedom. Sometimes, but then still going with the family so they can make those memories and have the experiences.

[00:07:27] I think there’s a lot of value in the traveling and adventure as a family, but it is a balance in a kind of a little bit of a tight rope walk. I think sometimes I try to balance it all out so that they also get the, the social and, and growth needs that they need at that stage of life as well. Yes. Yeah.

[00:07:45] That’s kinda where, where we’re at. Um, and. So that actually people ask me sometimes, like when we just went to Iceland, we actually didn’t take the older two kids. Um, we took our younger three. First of all, my oldest daughter, she went there right before, um, you know, the pandemic hit. And, um, so she got to experience that already.

[00:08:07] And to be honest, my son, he’s just, he just wanted to stay home. He has cousins are camping and he’s like, I’m just going to stay here. And we’re okay with that, you know, like, If it was a beach, he’d be all for it. Or if it was like, actually in like wooded mountains where he could hike and find a nice lake and they could go fishing, he’d be for it.

[00:08:26] But Iceland wasn’t that appealing to him. And so we were okay with it. I love that. You’re so flexible about that though. And what, what works for them at each stage of life? I think that there’s a lot to be learned from that. That’s where I’m going to struggle. So it’s easy starting learning to when to let go a little is a really, really rough.

[00:08:47] Um, it’s definitely not something it’s not something you really can prepare for either. It’s something you just have to kind of work through as you get there. There’s no manual, there’s no manual. Um, I find myself being a little bit more, um, laid back with things parenting wise, because we have five kids.

[00:09:08] Like there’s only so much that you can put into it. And then after a while you just have to say, well, it is what it is. And, you know, be a little bit more flexible. Otherwise it would never work. And that’s with anything with them. I feel like. I feel like that’s kids in general, but I think you’re right. I think each one definitely.

[00:09:27] I mean, I only have two, but I know that from the first to the second, there was a lot more flexibility that came with number two, the number one. And I suspect that it continues that way. Cause there are only so many things you can control, right? Like there’s so many, so much bandwidth and so much time available in a mom’s day.

[00:09:46] And I work full time. So I’m like, Hmm. When I’m done, I’m like, all right. Yeah, no, I hear you. And actually, that’s something I wanted to chat about. So I love how you still work a regular job and still make this work. And what, tell me about that. Tell me how all of that, how you make that work and coordinate.

[00:10:03] Cause I know that’s a question a lot of people have is if I work a full-time job, sometimes I, you know, you feel like you can’t get out and do these things as much as. It seems as though you see other people doing it. And that’s the another really, I think important thing to point out is sometimes we’re seeing highlight reels and not that somebody is actually always traveling 24 seven, like it may seem, um, but tell me about that and how you make that work.

[00:10:24] How do you coordinate everything? Um, how do you handle school with the kids? Kind of let’s walk through. Sure. So I, with my job, I’m a nurse. Um, but I strategically. Went to school and pursued a career path, um, in nursing so that I could have flexibility in a job. So this was, it’s actually been like years in planning.

[00:10:51] Um, I, I knew that I wanted to do something in healthcare because I’ve always liked healthcare. Um, I thought I wanted to do maybe travel nursing, but didn’t want to permanently move to different places. Um, for that length of time, at least. And so I started looking when I was in nursing school, at what options I could have.

[00:11:14] Um, I looked at, at, at like contracted work, um, multiple different things like that. And eventually I saw that you could work for insurance companies and be a hundred percent remote. And I had not even ever thought about that. Um, And so I kind of saw, all right, I need to work at an insurance company where I can be a hundred percent remote.

[00:11:37] I can take my work with me if I need to, um, what do I have to do to get there? So I started looking at the qualifications. You have to have some type of management experience or being a team leader. So I was like, so what do I have to do to be a team leader? Okay. I need to work in. You know this role for this many years so that I can get promoted.

[00:11:57] So essentially I haven’t been a nurse that long. I, I think I graduated and it was either 2013 or 2014. Oh, okay. Um, so I have not been a nurse all that long. Um, And I knew what path I wanted to take. So I jumped into it, got the job I wanted worked my way up. The ladder jumped into management. I was in a director of nursing position and eventually I started applying for insurance companies, which was four years ago.

[00:12:28] So I, at that point had only been a nurse for three years, but I had worked my way up the ladder because I knew what I wanted for an end goal. So it was like years of planning, but I got this job and I think that’s. To me, why we can do what we do and how we can travel, I guess, fairly often. Um, you know, we’ve usually go somewhere like twice a month maybe.

[00:12:56] And that’s kind of it. Yeah, it is. I mean, for like an average person that has a nursing job, that is, but I knew I wanted that. That was my goal. It wasn’t, you know, I want to be an ICU nurse or, you know, whatever it is. So you strategically planned your, your, your goals to get you to the point where you have the flexibility.

[00:13:16] No, I think that’s a really good point. And that also that sometimes getting to that point. It’s not immediate. So if that’s your goal, sometimes there is some in the trenches work that you have to do. Sometimes you have to do the hard stuff before you get to the fun stuff. It’s no matter what your career path is.

[00:13:35] Um, no matter what your degree is in, there’s sometimes some legwork you have to do to get there in order to see that in gold, just like. Going to college, right? Like, or going to school a period, if, or pursuing a certification of some sort, when you know where you want to go. Sometimes there, there is the hard work that comes before the reward.

[00:13:54] It’s not always. A light switch that it seems, you know, the overnight, oh, look, he wasn’t. I remember the days working in that director of nursing position, you know, during the heat of the nursing shortage and people wouldn’t come in for their shifts or we wouldn’t have people to cover our shifts in nursing.

[00:14:12] I don’t know people know, but it’s one of those positions where you can’t leave. And if you leave, you’re abandoning your patients. And I remember there was one time that I worked for almost 36 hours straight because I didn’t have anyone to come in and cover my patients. I was the, I was the leader. I was the person.

[00:14:29] And, um, I remember actually coming home that day and I just cried and cried and cried. And I said there has to be something else. And that’s when I was like, you know what? I don’t have all the years that I need for this. Case management position, but I’m gonna apply anyway. And I did. And, um, I actually got an interview that next week.

[00:14:46] It was like, it worked out so perfectly, but it took a lot of hours, a lot of time away from my babies and stress and yeah. I get that. Um, I know we’ve talked before John and I are, both nurses met in nursing school and through the years we’ve both had roles where we’ve been either. Neither one of us have been official directors.

[00:15:08] John got put in an interim director role and I was a charge nurse for several years. And so I totally understand how much work goes into that and the, the strain. There’s really two, a lot of strain on your family as well, because there’s a lot of hours that you’re pulled away from them when you’re in a role like that.

[00:15:26] So, Yeah, I think it’s important too, to realize too, that sometimes the people that you see like you on Instagram, who are in these places now to have this flexibility, it wasn’t overnight success. There’s some work to get there, but if there’s something that you want to do and you can see that goal to look at it objectively like you did and strategically and make those.

[00:15:48] Those plans to get there. Um, so I think that’s super, super good. Um, if there was somebody who’s been listening to this and been like, yeah, I really want this, but I definitely can’t do that in my current role. What would your suggestion be to them? I think you just dropped it. Yeah, no, it’s fine. I think if you like of traveling and exploring and doing that, it really aligns with your goals.

[00:16:16] They’re just no there’s careers out there that can support that, especially now. I feel like there’s so much more opportunity for remote work and in creative careers that you would have never even thought of. And. You know, things take time. And I think like kind of how I had to evaluate what I wanted to do in the nursing role, you kind of have to start at the end point and say, what do I need to get to there then?

[00:16:41] How do I get, you know, to that next step down until you get to where you’re you’re at. And you have all these little mini goals to get you to the place that you want to be, um, in a career. I mean, I didn’t become a nurse until I was almost 30. So you. Can change careers. You can change if you’re doing, if you’re not, if that’s not what you want to do or where you want to be, or if that doesn’t support the lifestyle that you want.

[00:17:08] It’s okay. Like you have plenty of time. I would’ve done it. If I was 50, you know, it’s okay. If you want to make a change, it’s never too late. Yes. I agree. Completely. This is kind of back to part of our conversation we were talking about earlier. We’re kind of retreating for a second work and how, how you make that work.

[00:17:30] And, but when it comes to your kids and school, I know that’s something else that people get concerned about a lot too. So we homeschool. So we have flexibility, but I know that that’s not every family situation. And if I recall, that’s not your situation, right. Your kids go to school. Yeah. So how does that work out?

[00:17:45] So it doesn’t work the best. I’m not going to lie. I don’t know if I should be the person to come. I love the honesty though. This is what people have to realize. Right. It’s like the real true situation of what’s going on. So, okay. I want to hear this. So, um, A lot of times we’ll take like long weekends or something like that.

[00:18:05] We definitely go over the breaks a lot during summer. Um, but our kids are like truant every single year. It’s awful, but I justify it that they’re still get good grades and they’re learning so much while they’re traveling. Like even in the state, even if it’s not. International. Like they, when we go on travels, like if there’s a cool landscaper national park, we’ll talk about how the weather has eroded things to get to that, you know, like you bring up totally.

[00:18:36] And we always make it an educational opportunity about either the history or, you know, the science behind things. Um, and even for the younger kids, you know, we’ll be like, oh my gosh, look at that pink rock. What colors you mix to make pink? Or, you know, like, I mean, you can away with any age. And so I feel like they’re still learning so much.

[00:18:57] They’re learning a lot about geography and, you know, especially when we go internationally, they’re learning other cultures, they’re learning languages. We’re, you know, when we go, they learn other languages and they’re just in general learning how to be good people. Like we went to Italy when our, um, Youngest was like six months old.

[00:19:20] And our, at the time we had Amelia who was three and she was just learning how to speak little sentences in English. And we went to this restaurant and there was a playroom and all the kids were talking in Italian and she was talking in English and they had. I like hour long conversation and they played and she came out and she was like, I learned this word in that word, and this is this kid’s name.

[00:19:45] And, you know, to have a three-year-old come out and just be like, get along with anybody. Even if you can’t speak the same language and learn things from them. That was a really cool experience for her. And I feel like that was better. I would have rather have her miss her five days of school then, you know what I mean, then?

[00:20:03] Yeah. You’re against that in the first place. So we just take it, we just tell the school, like, Hey, we’re out, we’re going here. And we get letters saying we’re naughty and that we could pay a fine, but knock on wood. We’ve never had to do that yet. Um, Nice. Nice. Say I would argue too that sometimes you have to really weigh that option.

[00:20:26] Right. And especially if your school is not like, if you’re not like getting slapped in fines right. Constantly or having other issues because of it. I think that, um, I would argue that you learn more. You become much more well-rounded and have a completely different experience than you do in school. And it’s going to supplement what you’re learning with real life experiences and in such a way that can never be learned from a book.

[00:20:52] And so I think that I’m totally with you and we value like those experiences of nature and travel so much because I can see. How our kids grow each time we take a trip, how much they learn, how much they observe and how that impacts. Things in the future. I know every time it’s just mind blowing some, you know, we’ll come back and the things they remember, they retain it.

[00:21:21] They’re experiencing it. Hands-on they can touch it. They can feel it, they can smell it. You know, everything is engaged while they’re doing it. I mean, I can’t tell you how proud I am of my six-year-old. Every time we go out, she brings a bag to pick up garbage and she is all about recycling. She goes, reduce, reuse, recycle.

[00:21:39] Reducing is the most important mom. I’m like, it is your soul. Smart, you know, and they, he, it is like, it’s just important, things like that. That, I mean, I don’t even know if they learn that in school, you know, like there’s the VIN throw it away. Yep. Well, that’s um, I have to tell you the story while you’re talking about that, because we were, it was.

[00:21:57] Fall of 2019. So my youngest was seven. So right around that same age. And we went camping at this, um, lake that actually it drains portion of it during the winter. So the lake bed was down and as we were walking, he was like, mom, there’s so much trash and he couldn’t stand it. And he himself, as we were walking out there, grabbed a trash bag and started putting everything in it.

[00:22:23] And he said, we can’t leave this here. And I was like, yes, it’s all bang off, make your heart swell. It was so good. It all comes from us, teaching them things on about how we handle our waste while we’re outside and teaching them, you know, the importance of caring for the earth and all of those things. But it was really nice to see that all come.

[00:22:48] Full circle and be like, oh, they do listen to me sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. Um, so one thing I wanted to get into and talk about a little bit is that I know that there are families, other families who have. More kids than I do. And we are kind of lucky because when we travel, we are that family that is easy to get a single hotel room.

[00:23:13] And it’s no big deal. Cause we have two beds. We’re getting to a point where we’re like, we’d like you to have your own space, but it’s not necessary. But how do you handle traveling with when you do take everyone, especially how do you handle traveling? Do you tend to get two rooms? Do you. Um, try to find spaces like Airbnbs that are bigger, what works best for you and your family.

[00:23:34] Now they are, since you have five children. So we do a mix of things, um, because we have a couple of different modes that we use to travel. Um, but we’re pretty budget. So, I mean, We pretty much go the bare minimum and that’s okay. Like, um, I was talking earlier about how I didn’t become a nurse till 2013, 2014 ish, somewhere in there.

[00:24:02] So. Prior to that. I mean, I was working as a CNA making, you know, basically minimum wage, especially then I think rages have gone up a little bit for CNS, still not where they should be, but Nope. Um, back then it was bad. I mean, I think I was making $9 an hour. Um, my husband was probably making $9 an hour working at a factory.

[00:24:23] Like, I mean, we didn’t have money. We were really broke. I was going to school. It was bad. So like we came from not. Having much. And then I went to school and my husband got a better job and, you know, things are better now, but like we’re not eating or I should say, we’re not difficult to please, like, we, we squeeze into rooms.

[00:24:45] Like when I look on Expedia, if we need to stay in a hotel or something, I put that we have pork, four people or five people sometimes. Gotcha. And we make it work. Like, I mean, it’s, there’s two full sized beds and a couch. We’ll squeeze in them. Like. We do it’s, it’s not always the most comfortable, but like we didn’t come to a place to sleep in the hotel.

[00:25:09] We came in a place to visit and see nature. Cause we do outdoor things. So for us, it’s just a place to crash, like yeah. You know, we’ve definitely gone places before and there haven’t been hotels and we slept in our car all seven of us. Um, that was fun. Not so much, actually we’ve done that camping. And my husband has begged me to do that like night before snowboarding.

[00:25:33] And I’m like, um, that’s where I’m going to draw the line. Cause it’s going to be full. We cannot run. Not run. No, no, we’ve done it in a pinch though. I mean, we’ve been like. You know, we’ve had canceled flights where we’ve had to sleep on the airport floor or, you know, whatever it is and we just make it work.

[00:25:50] Like that’s kind of what we do and what we’re good at is lower. All expectations and just go and, um, Yeah. I mean, if, if we do an Airbnb, we’ll look for a bigger place if it’s affordable, but it comes down to the price because really at the end of the day, to us, we’d rather spend not very much on an accommodation and enjoy ourselves and have a comfortable life at home than to spend thousands of dollars on a vacation and go home.

[00:26:22] And you’re just out thousands of dollars. That’s just not how I roll, I guess. No, actually really love that because we, I. We can do the nice vacations and we have done the nice vacations, but I, the more I go, I think the more I look for frugal trips, because the more I want to go and the more, and the more I save each trip, the more often I can.

[00:26:48] Yes. That’s how we can go places twice a month. Yeah. We don’t spend money. Like I buy my shirts at old Navy. Like some of my pants are 15 years old. Um, you know, past the clothes, down to the kids, my husband and my son were the same size now. So it’s like they share clothes and that’s what it is. Yeah. No, and I think that’s a great, I think that’s a great point too, is that you figure out how to make it work, right?

[00:27:15] It may not always be. You may not have be having the five star luxury vacation every time you go. But you’re having the five-star experiences in places like Iceland, that doesn’t matter. And you’re just laying your head on a pillow at night. So as long as it’s clean and comfortable, ish, you’re fine. And we’ve totally had those too.

[00:27:32] There has been only one time ever where we went for something. That was, you know, frugal that I regret. And it was only once it was just the hose. It was just gross when we, it was, you know, nothing was, as it seemed online, which does happen. Um, but we had, I stepped foot inside our room and I, if it had not been 11 o’clock with two kids who were exhausted, After driving all day long, I would have packed it up and left.

[00:28:00] But as it was, I was like, no one takes their shoes off late. We had like a blanket in the car. I was like, lay down the blanket, let’s go to sleep. I got up. We didn’t even shower. I was like, get out. We’re just done. It was like, we were safe. We were fine. It was not a big deal. And we moved on and found a better place the next night.

[00:28:17] And it just, you know, every place. It’s going to be different. And I think too, especially when you’re doing international travel, every country is going to have different types of accommodations. And ultimately it’s not about where you stay for the most part and less there’s been once or twice where we go for like, Just the couples, like downtime, vacation, where if they were going to just spend a weekend by the pool, then I come in and kind of want something a little bit nicer and then I’m going to splurge for that.

[00:28:43] But I’m also not spending a lot, usually on other activities during that timeframe. So the trade-off is there. I think it’s different when you’re going to an accommodation for the accommodation. Like if I was going to. Finland to stay in one of those glass igloo, watch the Northern lights that would be staying for the accommodation.

[00:29:03] And that is the experience. Or like, if you’re going someplace in Spain, staying at like a spa hotel or something like that, it’s different. But 95% of the time we’re going somewhere to go out in nature or do something more adventurous and we just need a place to sleep. Yep. I love that. And I actually, I’m going to, um, I’m going to throw something under or not throw you under the bus, but I’m going to talk about something.

[00:29:27] Yeah. I saw in your stories, I think it was today about you being frugal. She’s not kidding people because I saw her this morning in her stories where she is making sandwiches or wraps in her car. Um, on her lap, literally not even a plate I might’ve said, and I have been there. I have done that. We often do the same thing while we’re traveling.

[00:29:49] We try our hardest, even when we’re traveling to locations where we’re not out in the woods, we generally do not eat out more than once a day. That is our max. And even then sometimes we try to do it less than that, but that’s like our max. Once a day for, because it just gets so expensive and some areas in particular are crazy high.

[00:30:08] And so if we can make our food, we can save hundreds of dollars on a single trip. Yeah. Not to mention for us, we have a kiddo with an allergy, so there’s always that concern as well. But if we have, if we make our food, it’s a huge savings. And I S I, I assume that’s why you’re doing it too. Oh, always no matter where we go.

[00:30:30] We always do something like even when we went to Mexico, we went to Walmart there cause we were over spring break and we got one of those really cheap, like $5 styrofoam coolers that they use. And we just filled it with ice and packed in food and drinks and away we went and we used that the entire time we were there when we left, we tossed it.

[00:30:54] Like it is what it is. Sucks that it’s styrofoam, but that’s what we had to work with. And for us, that’s just what we needed to do. And even though Mexico is notoriously cheap, that doesn’t mean that I’m still going to go out and splurge and go out to eat every single day. Because if I would’ve done that, I probably wouldn’t have had the money.

[00:31:09] I had to go to Iceland, like yeah. A month later, you know, it’s just, yeah. Yeah, no, it works. I agree completely. There’s been many times where we’ve bought like the cooler bag to take lunches from, like, if we were lucky and had a mini fridge in our space, you know, our room or whatever, then I could keep stuff nice and cold there.

[00:31:26] And then we buy just like the little cooler bag that then I can bring home and use to, um, for groceries later. But, um, I would think too, you probably, I don’t know right now people might not be so willing to take it, but I know we’ve done things like. Bought a bookie board from somewhere and then passed it off to somebody else coming in the next week or whatever, depending on where you are cards and stuff.

[00:31:45] We do that with drillers when we would take the kids to like, especially overseas, like Europe or Japan or whatever. Um, and then we we’d leave it. But I honestly, when we were in Mexico, there wasn’t a whole lot of options. Um, there was like a bigger cooler, but it was quite pricey. And I was like, Hmm. Yeah, we’ll go with the $5 one, occasionally.

[00:32:08] It is what it is, but you’re re reducing, reusing recycling. And so is your daughter and she’s on it.

[00:32:19] So I’m kinda cracking up. Cause the next thing I had on my list that we might talk about was, um, How you budget and I’m cracking up because we recently commented back and forth on run a post over on social media where we were both saying we kind of stink at budgeting, but I think we kind of talked about it a little bit.

[00:32:38] I. I think that we kind of have the same mindset. Like I don’t always necessarily set a budget for every trip. I’ve done better about it lately, but I don’t always set a budget for each trip. It’s more so I just try to be frugal, um, as we’re, as we’re booking things. And, um, is that kind of how you, you guys roll or do you yep.

[00:32:57] That’s exactly it. I don’t, I don’t set a budget. At all. Um, like I don’t always have the money right before we go on a vacation. I’ll usually have most of it saved, but there’s times I put it on a credit card or I put like a couple hundred dollars on a credit card for vacation and I’ll just pay it off when I get home.

[00:33:15] Like, it’s okay. Like to do that sometimes as long as you’re responsible with your money and you know that you can pay it off, but like, I’ll give you an example. We went to Sedona. Last I want to say it was October and we did not plan on doing a UTV. Rental. And when we were there, we had an extra day and I was like, oh, that looks so much fun.

[00:33:40] You see everybody driving around. And initially we wanted to do those pink Jeeps. Um, but I had only brought so much money with me and I only had so much money on my, I have a car. Debit card that I use just for traveling. I guess that’s kind of my way of budgeting. Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t ever actually like look at it, but I know when it’s running out, I can’t really do anything else.

[00:33:59] So I guess maybe it keeps it under control so that we have a separate account for like our bills and then vacations. Yeah. But anyway, I really wanted to do the Jeeps, but they charged per person and there’s a lot of us. And by the time it was all said and done, it would have been like, I wanted to say it was close to after tax and everything like $2,000 or something.

[00:34:18] And I was like, that’s like, that’s like Mo more than, yeah. We spent on the entire trip. So absolutely not. But we found a UTV rental and it was like $400. And that is not something that I had put aside on my normal debit card that I use for vacations. And so I was like, is it okay with you? Can we put it on the car?

[00:34:36] And he’s like, yeah, Sure. So we have that and in case something goes south in case of an emergency, or if something like that happens where we’re like, this is a really cool experience, we’ll have it for the whole day. Let’s just do it. It’s more so, yeah. Yeah. And it’s just something that we know that we have to be responsible about, but it’s okay to do it sometimes if there’s something really cool that you want to do.

[00:34:59] No, I agree. And I think we did that a similar thing, which it wasn’t like we could rent this one, but we did a splurge where it wasn’t really something we had planned on in ahead of time when we went to Hawaii and we splurged and did the helicopter ride and it was not cheap, but. It was one of those things when we were there that we were gonna, we said to ourselves, if we don’t do this, we will regret it.

[00:35:22] It wasn’t really part of our plan. We didn’t technically have everything set aside in that pocket. Um, but that’s not where it was set aside. Yep. But we also knew that. It would be fine. We could make adjustments as needed and it was, we were not going to regret it. And I tell you what it is still probably everybody’s favorite activity from the entire time we were there, it was rentable, um, and highly recommended, but there’s a very much difference between consciously deciding that you’re going to do that versus just spending, without having a clue what you’re doing and then getting home and realizing, oh, I just spent 10 K on that trip.

[00:36:03] And now, now we’re in trouble. Yeah. Yeah, much. Very, very big difference there. Um, we have just a few more minutes here, but I wanted to. Ask you, this may be kind of a loaded question and it may be hard to answer, but do you have one trip that you’ve been on that stands out as the most memorable or most, um, significant as a family?

[00:36:28] One that either, either because of where you went or because of some experience that you had together or something that happened within your family while you were there anything that stands out as like the most memorable trip? Oh my gosh. I know that’s a hard question. Well, there’s been a lot of places.

[00:36:44] I don’t know if there’s anything like wow. Moments with our family. I wish I had something inspirational to share.

[00:36:52] We’ve had some crazy incidents happen. We’ve had the engine that’s okay too. Oh, no. Yeah. My actually my youngest daughter, last time we went to Oregon, she fell in a hotel room, not very exciting. She was on a bed and she fell onto their coffee table and she amputated the top half of her ear. Oh, no. Yeah, it was horrible.

[00:37:12] We, we had the other kids in the room. We were all together and she fell really off on a tangent now, but she fell and she started crying right away. And my husband has thought she like hit her head and he picked her up off the ground and later on the bed and he like swiped her hair back off of her ear to look at well, her temple.

[00:37:29] He thought she hit her temple. And has faced like turned white. And he gave me that look like he, he looked like he was so scared because he’s not a medical professional. Well, with blood, he looked and I was just like, oh gosh, what’s wrong? And I walked over there and her ear was just hanging on by the piece that connects to you, like your sculp on the top.

[00:37:51] That’s all that was on. And I was like, oh my gosh. And so we were like kind Liana. Our oldest two were like, don’t let anyone in the hotel room, don’t move. And we had to take her up to the children’s hospital and she had to see like a. Um, pediatric ear, nose and throat surgeon to have them repair her ear.

[00:38:11] Cause they said there’s not a lot of blood flow in the cartilage, so there was a chance it wouldn’t take. Um, but they saved it and it’s amazing now, but yeah, it was like, I mean, not life-threatening, but like still so scary. And you’re away from home. Thankfully. It sounds like you were close to the Portland area, so children’s was available.

[00:38:29] They are, that’s probably the best place you could have been. Um, but still how, how dare I get, I know. Yeah. So we’ve had, we’ve had bad things happen. Like they’re not always a walk in the park, you know, trips, but, well, that’s memorable for another reason, but I would say our, like everybody, all of our kids and Corey and I, so Iceland is up there with one of my favorite places that I bet I’ve ever been.

[00:38:55] But I would say my kids always talk about Switzerland. Um, So we went to Switzerland. I can’t remember if it was two or three years ago, because last year was kind of a blur. It, um, it was two or three years ago. We went to Switzerland and we stayed in a place. Called, um, water Brennan. And we took this cog train up the mountain to a town called Wangan and I had actually seen it on a TV show or somewhere like some, maybe it was national geographic, they were going over something.

[00:39:27] I don’t know. It was some kind of show like that. And this was before I even know Instagram, like exists. Did I have only been on Instagram for a year. So, um, I wasn’t aware that there were all these cool places in the world. So I was like, let’s go to Switzerland. And, um, it was like this view of this.

[00:39:45] Valley like you’re up on the mountain, but it was a straight shot view down this valley with waterfalls coming off the Swiss Alps. And it was just so beautiful. And when we got there, it looked just like the pictures and the videos that I had seen. And I think the kids had just never seen anything like that in their life before.

[00:40:03] And they always talk about it to this day, how we were hiking in the mountains and it was just so peaceful and there were wild flowers and. It was just, it was incredible. It was such a neat experience there. It sounds magical. It was, it really does. I’m like, oh man, that just seems like a really I’m envisioning the, the scene.

[00:40:23] Cause I’ve seen that picture. Yes. And it’s incredible. And I’m like, oh yeah, I really would like to go there. That one would be, was like it, it was so cool. And then the hiking was amazing. That’s always a good thing to know too, because I think so many times you see pictures and you’re like, oh, it wasn’t really like that.

[00:40:40] Or that’s not really the whole picture. I mean, like, that’s that one little slice, but the rest of it wasn’t that way, but that’s really good to know that it actually really was that way. It was like when we were driving through the mountains, cause we actually flew into Amsterdam. When we did a road trip, we went down through Germany and then Switzerland and up through France.

[00:40:56] But, um, when we were driving through Switzerland, it was like, I can’t tell you how many times we stopped, because there was such a pretty view or like the water there is like the color of the Caribbean, you know, water that blue. It was just like, oh my gosh, that’s real. Like, you know, we had never seen anything like that before, so that’s awesome.

[00:41:16] That sounds like an awesome experience. Um, Switzerland has been on my list for a while, but we haven’t made it yet. Hopefully, see, I think it’s like as expensive, if not more than Iceland, to be honest, a couple of days there. And it was like, Hmm. We, uh, we have lots of big trips that we are on our list and that we’re hoping to do in the next two years, but we also have a new camper on order.

[00:41:40] So there’s also some balance that has to go there. Right. So we’re trying to figure out how. Because we do have to now budget a little bit more than I normally do, because we’re going to have to plan all of those things if we’re going to do both. So we’ll probably be doing a lot of road trips and camping trips too, to hopefully offset.

[00:41:58] And so we can do those big ones that are on the list. So, yeah. Um, so. I usually ask a couple of questions at the end to almost everybody. So I curious if there’s something that you wish you knew about traveling with a family, with your family, whether it’s because you’re a large family or not, um, bef earlier, like if you wish something, somebody had told you when you were a kid or a teenager, or just in your early twenties, like something that you wish somebody had told you about it that you know now.

[00:42:28] Yes. Um, I wish somebody would have told me, and I would have believed them that you can go just about anywhere and not have to feel. Unsafe. Like, I feel like in this pertains more to international travel, but you hear so many things about, you know, countries that might be poor, especially, you know, Mexico, central America, um, you know, wherever you have it, like people say the big cities and certain even European countries.

[00:43:02] So like, oh, that’s not really safe, but we’ve been to. Know, pretty much a lot of places that encompass that. And I mean, especially when you look at places like in Mexico and central America, Um, and we’ve felt nothing but safe, if not safer than in some of the cities in the U S um, I mean, I’ve been in sketchy places in the U S um, and some places where people actually have gotten hurt that I’ve seen, you know, and I’ve never felt that way.

[00:43:32] Even when we most recently were in Mexico, I mean, we were. We did a road trip. We weren’t on the resort. We went to little towns and on back roads at night. I mean, like, and it was fine. Like everybody that we meet places are so kind and just want to help you. And yeah, you have to use common sense. I don’t wear my wedding ring when we go to poor countries or places that you know is known for you getting.

[00:44:01] Mugged or whatever. Um, I don’t even wear it at all. I, you know, we dress in regular clothes. Not that we have any expensive. We talked about that. Nobody wants my old Navy shirts on 2016. Um, but yeah, you just have to use common sense. I just wish that people knew the world is a much friendlier, more helpful place than what you hear.

[00:44:29] I love that. I think I would have gone to a lot of those places a lot sooner. And wouldn’t have had that kind of anxiety going into it. If I would’ve known how amazing it really was. Yeah. I agree. I think everywhere that we have been, we have pretty much felt nothing but safe either. Um, we had people warning us when we went to ROAS HAMP, because it’s part of Honduras we had and we were totally fine.

[00:44:55] It was, I mean, like you said, common sense. Common sense. You know, there’s certain things you made want to leave at home, but we really had no, no problems. Um, and I think that, uh, that’s a really good tip to bring out. And as long as you are, are smart and you take some reasonable precautions, just like you would in any us city, really.

[00:45:19] Um, then chances are, you’re just going to love the people and the cultures. And, um, you’re going to. Have a much better experience anyway, so yes, I agree. Um, okay. And last question. What is a, something I know you said you’re pretty frugal, so there, it may not be a piece of gear, but if it’s a piece of gear or something that you have that makes your life a million times easier, when you’re traveling and adventure, it could be something as simple as like a particular.

[00:45:50] Um, suitcase, it could be a way a strategy for packing. It could be any of those things. What is something that really makes your life a million times easier when you go, because you go a lot. Yeah. Um, you know, I actually knew you were going to ask this question and I thought about it before this, and I couldn’t even think of anything because like, I, I think the biggest thing is just to be for us, it’s being.

[00:46:18] Minimal, I guess you could say, cause I mean, I think it’s important for everyone. If you’re going someplace, um, you know, on a long trip that you pack smart, like the tech smarter, you know, pack layers, things that actually work to keep you cool and dry. If that’s what you need or warm and drive, that’s what you need.

[00:46:39] Right. Um, so like just packing more smart and, you know, I think interchangeable things. I think it’s more of them. Like kind of what you pack than necessarily a specific item. Just really evaluating, like, do I need this? Do I need any jewelry? Are we going out for a nice dinner? Any of those days? Do I really need three pairs of shoes or can I bring flip-flops and hiking?

[00:47:04] You know, hiking boots, tennis shoes, or whatever. Um, and for us, I find it even more important to really focus on that because there’s so many of us and there’s only so much room you have. And truthfully, like, I don’t want to be shuffling through, you know, 10 outfits for every person. Like we rewear our stuff a lot sometimes without washing it.

[00:47:25] It’s okay. Like if it’s not actually physically dirty, like, you know, That’s just so that’s kind of what I came up with in my mind. It wasn’t so much a specific piece of gear. I think traveling, camping it’s for everybody. You can do it, whether you’re rich or you don’t have a lot of money you can make, do with what you have.

[00:47:47] And that’s okay. I don’t think that there’s one specific thing that you need. So yeah, it’s not, yeah. It’s not one item for me. Like, to be honest, because I mean, like I said, when we first started traveling, we had nothing. I mean, nothing and. We packed what we had and we made it work. We never, even to this day, I’m not one of those people, even though I love certain brands, like I can’t afford all Columbia Patagonia gear for all my kids, you know, some of them get the Amazon brand and that’s okay.

[00:48:27] Like it is what it is and it works. You might not be as effective, but you know what, to me getting out there and making it work is more important than having all the right stuff. I mean, I’ve had my kids hike and dresses. If that’s what they want to wear that day, Hey, I’m not arguing princess Jasmine.

[00:48:44] Like you can wear her Tiara. Sometimes you have to pick your battles. That is very true. I, um, we, we are really. Good at deal shopping. So like, we may have, you know, Columbia, we might have whatever, but we deal shop like crazy. So I will look now, like, this is my time of year where I start looking for winter stuff for next year.

[00:49:11] Although I’m having a harder time with my oldest now who’s growing faster than I can guesstimate anymore, but I try to, how did time doors too? We do there. We don’t have like that in Wisconsin. So when we. I mean, there are some, I would say close to Madison, but I’m in the middle of nowhere, Northern Wisconsin.

[00:49:29] And so we don’t have those clearance, you know, store. We don’t have an REI within hundreds and hundreds of miles. We just don’t have stuff like that. So for us, like I can, yeah, I can look online, but by the time I see something, they probably won’t have my size because I’m a women’s medium. Size eight pants.

[00:49:51] Like every woman in America, it’s like, I will never find what fits me and no, no, no. It’s usually luck of the draw even on the, on the rack when I find it. But I do find stuff for the kids often, which is great. Yeah, I do. Um, so I know I picked up, um, Tomer our oldest, his puffy jacket. I found on our clearance rack at REI for like 40 bucks.

[00:50:16] And I’m like, oh, nice. I can’t beat that anywhere. So like, it’s, it’s great. When that happens, then it doesn’t always happen. And sometimes depending on, you know, sometimes they have the target stuff too. Like, it just is what it is. You do. We do what we can and we try to have gear. That’s going to keep them safe and warm and have what they need.

[00:50:33] But beyond that, you do what you gotta do. Um, Because the experience is what it’s all about. Yeah. Definitely go for it. But yeah, like you said, if you can’t get it, it’s okay. Like, just do with what you have. Yes. Yes. Okay. So I think you have just given us so much awesome stuff today and tips that are going to help, whether you have a large family or not honestly, in the strategy and planning and, um, being frugal.

[00:51:02] And I think it’s and getting. The opportunity to travel more, which is the whole goal, right? Travel and adventure more. That’s like our, one of our big tag lines. And so I think that you have really hit that nail on the head and I just really love it. And I thank you so much for coming on today to have this conversation with me.

[00:51:20] Um, thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Before we log off, though, will you tell everybody where they can connect with you? Yes. So we are on Instagram. Our name is CAPA seven adventures, K O P P a. And we also have a website which is just CAPA seven adventures.com. Um, I have a Facebook page. I don’t really use it that often.

[00:51:45] It’s pretty much just copying whatever’s on Instagram. Um, but if that’s what you used feel free. Yup. Same. All right. Awesome. Um, so. I will make sure that everybody can find you by putting those links in the show notes too, so that it’s easy. Um, so go say hi to Sarah and follow her and her family and all of their adventures and find even more tips because she’s dropping them all the time.

[00:52:09] I find all kinds of great ideas and tips from her. Um, so I know you’ll appreciate her just as much as I do so. Thanks again. Thank you. Thanks again to Sarah for joining us today on the podcast, I really, really loved all of the tips you had for traveling, especially with a big family and budgeting to make things more affordable.

[00:52:29] And I just wanted to leave you guys with some of my favorite takeaways from our conversation in case you were distracted by kids or, you know, life. Um, so first, if you have the desire to travel more and you maybe don’t have a job that supports that right now, Do some research find a type of job that maybe would support the lifestyle that you’re dreaming of and see if you can reverse engineer a way to get there over time.

[00:52:50] Like Sarah did. Second. If you’re wanting to travel more and are willing to be flexible with your accommodations, you can make a lot more opportunities happen. So. I’ll be honest. I love a super nice place to stay. I love a nice Airbnb or hotel, but we don’t always stay in those. We mix in a lot of camping.

[00:53:14] We sometimes stay in basic accommodations. I mean, clean, but basic accommodation so that we can do more. Sometimes we splurge. But when we splurged, a lot of the times is because that destination is part of the. Draw, just like Sarah said, or if it’s somewhere we’re planning to stay and spend a lot of time at versus just a place to sleep because we’re exploring the outdoors around it.

[00:53:37] So it all depends on what each individual trip. M is about, but if you can be flexible and are willing to make some concessions now, and again, you’ll be able to afford a lot more third. Your kids will learn so, so much from traveling and adventuring to new locations and cult and experiencing the cultures that each one has.

[00:53:57] I loved the story. Sarah shared about her daughter playing with kids and figuring out how to communicate in a completely different language, um, and learning each other’s names and had just having fun. And, and third, your kids will learn so much from traveling with you. They are going to experience new cultures and locations destinations.

[00:54:18] Like guests locations are destinations kind of anyway, your kids are gonna learn a lot from traveling with you and things that they’re never going to learn in the classroom. So there’s so much value to getting out there and taking them with you, even if you might have to sneak them out of school sometimes.

[00:54:35] And thanks again to you for joining us today. Stoke fam. This is that part of the podcast where I say, Hey, if you don’t mind, go give us a rating and review in iTunes and tell a friend that way we can continue to spread the word and bring you more awesome. Guests. I’d venture more stress, less. We’ll see out there. .