Just an Epic Life
Just an Epic Life
Growing Up and Growing Apart: Navigating Travel with Teens
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Remember when your children thought you hung the moon and a family vacation was the highlight of their year? Nick and Keslie take you on a heartfelt journey through the evolution of family travel as kids transform from eager adventure companions into independent teenagers with their own priorities.
Through stories of month-long California beach trips, Costa Rican jungle adventures, and rainy Disneyland excursions with duct-taped shoes, they explore that magical window when children are old enough to form lasting memories but young enough to express uninhibited joy. The contrast becomes stark when they share the moment their teenage son first expressed wanting to cut a vacation short to return to friends – a turning point many parents recognize but few discuss openly.
The conversation moves beyond nostalgia into practical territory as Nick and Keslie navigate the complex scheduling conflicts of raising teenagers involved in competitive activities. Between DECA conferences, cheer competitions, and leadership commitments, finding space for family adventures requires new levels of flexibility and sometimes creativity. They reveal their approach to graduation trips not merely as rewards but as strategic relationship-building opportunities as their children transition toward adulthood.
This episode serves as both a celebration of family travel's golden years and a guide for parents entering the bittersweet phase of competing priorities. Whether you're planning epic international adventures or simple weekend getaways, their message remains clear: don't wait for perfect timing or circumstances to create meaningful experiences with your children. The window when they view you as their entire world closes faster than you expect.
Road Trip Introduction
Speaker 1Welcome back to another episode of Just An Epic Life. If you're just hanging out with us, we are on a drive from Sedona to Phoenix and we thought it would be fun for you to see our road trip and we would just kind of get to hang out with you. So you get to look at the back of our heads. I should turn my hat around, so at least it looks like they're looking at a logo. That's good, that's good. This is our third episode, okay I don't this is not cute that's not cute.
Speaker 2It doesn't like box now.
Speaker 1It's terrible. I don't like anything about it. Yeah, we're in the. We're in the new car that we got at christmas time, which uh point hack hold on.
Speaker 2It wasn't christmas time, it was the end of the 2024 fiscal year oh yeah, basically.
Speaker 1Basically, the tax person said, hey, pay a lot in taxes or get a new car.
Speaker 2So we did well, she said you're going to be spending this money anyway. Would you rather pay it all to the government or would you rather further your business so that way the government can make more money off of you and the people that you help in the future? Because essentially a tax benefit is the government is investing in your business, because the government knows if it gives you a few tax advantages, then you are going to create more income for the government through the people that you help and the jobs that you create and the housing that you provide. So the government sees you as an investable asset. That's why the tax break happens.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, and here's my credit card hack. Did you know you could buy a car on a credit card? If you didn't, then I did. If I had been smarter, I would have opened multiple credit cards to get all of the welcome bonuses. Yes, instead I got a 200,000 point bonus, but I probably could have gotten. My guess is, for what we paid for the car, we could have easily gotten I don't know a million in welcome bonuses. Mm-hmm, maybe less.
Speaker 2A million points, not a million dollars. Yes, that would be crazy. Yes. And when we were at the dealership we said, hey, you know. Yes. So I said, okay, what if we want to do more than $5,000 on credit card? And he was like, uh, what do you mean? And we were like we'd like to pay for the whole thing. And he was like, uh, we'll meet you. And then it was determined that the car dealership was willing to pay the fee for the first $5,000. And then we just added the additional costs. That way, we paid the fee for the additional funds and the fee was like 3%. When we talk about using pre-tax dollars versus post-tax dollars, you know it's not actually 3%, it might be down to like 1.5%. But then you look at the points that you get and just figuring out, when is it worth it to spend the points, to earn the points and when is it worth it to arbitrage? So we didn't intend to get down that. You said the car. And then we just got excited.
Speaker 1No, I absolutely wanted to talk about that.
Speaker 2So we got some credit card points and we don't need to get into the deep dive on that. We'll talk about it after yeah for sure.
Speaker 1Yeah, we can talk about that. However, those credit card points are going right into what we're talking about today, which is traveling with our kids and, most literally, living our epic life with our kids. Are Nick retired? I tell people, I retired Nick in 21? 22. 22. In 22, I retired Nick. By the way, that sounds like really fancy and I don't know that.
Speaker 2we I still sometimes have a little bit of hard complications when I think about how much money you were making, and now we don't have that guaranteed income or those insurance and yet full disclosure.
Speaker 2I think that year, my gross pay was about seventy thousand as a teacher, which is, yeah, I mean, there's lots of people who would be very happy with that, but it was seventy thousand guaranteed and there were benefits Health insurance, exactly. Of course, we had to pay for health insurance for you and the kids, but the school district covered my part. Yep, yep, yeah. So one of the factors in Nick retiring from teaching was Isaiah was starting high school and we wanted to make sure that Nick could be around for Isaiah and Liliana as they move through high school and not just hanging out with other kids high school kids. So because in 2019, so Isaiah was in sixth grade, liliana was in fourth grade. That's when you were going on a conference to California and you invited me to go along and I said yes. And then Isaiah had a sixth grade outdoor education trip at the school and they needed male chaperone and isaiah said dad, can you go? And I looked at it it was the same dates as yours no, no, it wasn't.
Speaker 1It wasn't no, um, I had to choose. No, no, it would have like been consecutive. You wouldn't have been able to go.
Speaker 2So. So, and I was a choir teacher and I needed to. If I wasn't there, we were not having forward progress because a substitute teacher can assign things in a math class. A substitute teacher is not going to successfully warm up a choir and teach repertoire and teach music literacy. No, the days that I'm missing being a choir teacher, my students are directly and negatively impacted. So I said to you no, I can't go on your trip because I'm going to do Isaiah's trip, and I can't do both.
Speaker 1And you said You're getting in the way of my traveling. Yes, your job, because I was going to Coronado Island for the very first time. And have you been to Coronado? Still haven't been. No, and I just thought I mean, it looks like such a romantic place, it looks like such a fun place. I stayed in the Coronado Hotel, yeah, so yeah, I say those are the best and worst words I ever said to you 2019.
Speaker 2Yeah, that was six years ago, thanks, time flies.
Credit Card Hacks for Travel
Speaker 1So yeah, that was six years ago, thanks, so yeah, so Nick really did um I'm sure you heard it on another podcast. He thought he was going to basically be my gopher and run around and do whatever I needed to do in any of the businesses. And then he moved into running the flip team and um was busy and for the first probably six months of Isaiah's high school career, I took him to and from school and I got to both literally work full-time. It was great. So I honestly was crazy jealous because I I have to.
Speaker 2This agent is running early and I need to find out if, okay, I'll take over and you communicate, okay, good, okay, so today, kessley and I, we chose to talk about traveling with our kids and how it has changed. Okay, traffic at the end. Okay, right, lane, sorry. Priority is safely driving. Second priority is podcasting. All right, so we are talking about traveling with our kids and how that has changed from when we were our children's entire world to right now, we are not our children's entire world, and there would be probably other words to say to that. Essentially, when your kids are in high school, you're not number one anymore.
Speaker 1Gosh, if I make number three, I'm doing okay. Yeah, let's go for top three, I'm number one when they need something, yeah, specifically money, yeah, so yeah. And go back to 2019, right Is that when we did Costa Rica? No, no, 2008. 2018. Yeah, we did Costa Rica, okay, so 2018,. We did Costa Rica, yeah, and did Costa Rica, okay, so 2018,. We do Costa Rica, yeah and we.
Speaker 2That was an epic trip, well rewind even before that, we were literally going to California for a month at a time yeah, and it didn't bother the kids For every summer, except for one. Yeah, when, when the money just was not tight, Was too tight, yeah, I mean the the budget it. We we did like a four-day trip with some friends and we shared the cost of a short-term rental because that's all that we could afford and we still wanted to give our kids something. So we did that like they were after that sucky year where we only got like four days of vacation. Then we did a month at a decent sized house and then the next year we did a month at a house closer to the beach, still like three blocks away. Um, but it was the closer you get to the beach, the more expensive the experience is, and we looked at the cost for us to essentially live and vacation in California for a month and we thought is there a better option? So that's when Kesley thought you know what?
Speaker 1I read a book and it talked about how much cheaper it was to travel outside the country.
Speaker 2So we planned to spend a month in Nicaragua and two months before we were set to leave for Nicaragua there was a coup and some military unrest. That was no longer a safe place for us to go. So we thought, okay, where do we want to go? In the country just south of it is Costa Rica. We didn't want to go to Costa Rica because that's that's what everyone does. I don't know. But when people travel to Central America, they talk to go to Costa Rica because that's what everyone does. I don't know. When people travel to Central America, they talk about going to Costa Rica. We're like we don't want to. You know, follow the trend. We want to do something different. But we did it and it was epic.
Speaker 1We were there for a month.
Speaker 2We were there for a month and the first person to get sick of being there was you actually. It must be yes, and that didn't have to do with being away from the family as much as it was the bugs.
Speaker 1These cockroaches. I thought I've seen the largest cockroaches that exist because we had sewer roaches when I was younger. No, there's one. Crawled on me In the middle of the night and I woke Nick up and I made him kill it and he said to me that thing is so little, you're so big. I didn't care. That thing was crawling on me and the next night I said we're leaving, we're going to a Marriott and off to a Marriott.
Speaker 2We went Because if there's a bug at a Marriott, you say to the employees hey, there's bugs. Or you say to you very hey, there was bugs, this is not what we expect. Please provide a discount. This airbnb.
Speaker 1No, no, this was yeah I cooked in the kitchen many days and I'd be cooking. All of a sudden I'd be screaming and they would come running with a shoe.
Speaker 2It's because costa rica is in a jungle, yes, uh. And then the next year we didn't do Costa Rica, we did Cayman Islands for two weeks. We did a two week trip on the coast from Seattle to San Francisco type of thing, and then we had an unplanned trip to Massachusetts and New York City. But even during that no one got sick of traveling. And it was really cool because, if you remember Cayman Islands, even during that no one got sick of traveling. And it was really cool because, if you remember Cayman Islands, we let the kids bring the Xbox. Oh yeah, and I remember Isaiah, he would get on the Xbox and he would game with his friends, with his cousins, and even you would game with.
Speaker 1I didn't game, but I would talk to yes On the console, I would talk to yes.
Speaker 2On the console you would talk to your sister and that was cool to bridge that distance gap. But the following year, that was when Isaiah was promoting from 8th grade, Right.
Speaker 1Well, that was after.
Speaker 2COVID, yeah, post-covid the COVID year. That's different. Vacation was different, it was different, well, but was after COVID, yeah, post-covid the COVID year that's different.
Speaker 1Vacation was different. It was different, well, but Cancun was the trip when we took them to Cancun. So we went to Cancun in 2021 for our 20th and we took the kids back the next year in 2022. Yes, and we were gone, for we spent a week at one place, a couple of days before that there, and then, I think, we spent another. So we were gone two weeks, maybe 15 days, and when we got to the third location, isaiah was like I'm done, I want to be home, I want to be with my friends, and I spent probably two hours trying to get us on an earlier flight so we could get out like two days early, and he just wanted to be back. And when I couldn't, I was like, okay, kid, sorry, you're just gonna live in this suck of vacation for two more days. It was such a difference.
Speaker 2It was just a piece of two by four. Who cares? I know I tried to avoid it. Uh, the it was such a difference from three years prior when it didn't even occur to the kids that they were missing friends Because we were doing epic things all the time, and even just the little moments going to the swimming pool in the complex and just putting hammocks on trees at the beach. They were simple things, but they were epically simple. Simple yet epic, and it didn't occur to them to miss it. Versus doing epic things while the kids are still going. Hey, this is epic, but I miss my friends. So that changed how we trip with them. Uh, and then things change even more because now our children are very successful. Our children are not the type of kids who get to school, tolerate school, come home immediately after school.
Speaker 1I do think there's some tolerance, I know, but there's. But they're involved. Yeah, they are involved, like you talked about Isaiah's in state DECA and then he's, you know, in DECA in a Philly and Liliana's on the school, on the fair squad.
Speaker 2He like he's in multiple clubs, like Deca, nefili and Liliana's on the team squad. He's in multiple clubs. He was involved in chess club. He was involved in the fashion club, nhs all these things. So many times you're like, hey, isaiah, can you bring Liliana home from school? Nope, I have chess club. I'm like, bro, where'd that?
Retiring Nick for Family Time
Speaker 1come from their school life. Their school and extracurricular life is now getting in the way of my traveling. Yeah, which is it has cool moments, right, because now you and I like I don't even feel bad Liliana couldn't have come on this trip, correct? If she wanted to, she had cheer, she is booked this week, right? So when she's like, can't you have chair life and so isaiah has like four, four or five conferences this summer.
Speaker 2This summer he was.
Speaker 1We haven't seen him since sunday morning, and that was five days ago, because he went on a conference for three days before we, even I feel like I gotta bring this up because I'm so excited, because, okay, so we understand that at some point very soon and that's what the whole this whole episode is about at some point very soon and that's what this whole episode is about at some point very soon, our children will not be traveling with us near as much. And so Liliana's best friend and her family we've traveled the last three years together, two years together. And so Liliana's best friend's mom says Take you to cruise, we're going with some other friends, you have to come with us. And the cruise that they picked is at a time when Isaiah has a conference. And I'm like ugh.
Speaker 1So we asked Isaiah okay, how do you feel about us going on this cruise, the three of us, without you? He's like well, I don't love it, but I don't want to give up my conference. Okay, so I booked the cruise and I can't book a tri-room, like with three people, because they don't have any left, so I have to book two, two rooms, one with one occupant and one with two, and I'm like I book it, I'm not happy about it, I'm super sad, like honestly super sad, that Isaiah can't go with us and then I, because Isaiah has qualified to compete at the national conference for one of his two favorite clubs and this will be his third time competing at the national level for this.
Speaker 2It's not his favorite club, but it's his second favorite club and he's very successful in it. So he this, this competition, was a priority for him, and then we had an idea.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I'm a travel agent, so I was able to book the cruise through my travel agent portal, whatever blah, blah, blah. So I go into the portal to look what did like who could we potentially take with us and what more would it cost? So the cost would be like literally $166 more and I'm like who do we want to bring with us? And so I bring this conversation up to the family and Isaiah goes I might want to go. And I said what? Like I immediately get so excited because I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going to win over this club Because we're actively brainstorming.
Speaker 2Who can we bring with us to be our fourth person in these two rooms that sleep full To each of them?
Speaker 1So Isaiah's like I might want to go and I'm like, really, kid, you want to go, like what will you be missing? And so he's talking through like the FOMO he might have and, yes, he's going to compete, but he doesn't feel like he's going to give it his all and he doesn't think he's going to. You know, it doesn't, whatever it is. So he spends like the next day thinking about it and then he decides he's going to come with us and I'm so I'm like I have said multiple times in the last cause I think this was only decided a week ago and we leave in three weeks. I have said so many times I am so excited, so excited that he's coming along, because I'm just not ready yet for us to take what I would call a big trip, because it's a seven day cruise. A big trip without him. I mean these little trips, yeah, sure, whatever.
Speaker 2And we were talking yesterday about we need to plan our next trip before we exit this trip and I'm like, okay, I'm looking at this summer going. When can we fit in like a four day getaway? And we can't. We have already paced out our travel around the kids obligations and then they start school, and then in the month of August, that's when cheer is up strong and Isaiah's leadership is up strong. But we had already set aside a block of days because the kids have the day after Labor Day off from school. So we already have it on the calendar for a three or four day trip. And we were talking yesterday about what does October look like because the kids get a fall break in October, about what about? What does October look like because the kids get a fall break in October? And I had a moment today when I thought I mean, it's not the end of the world if we don't do an October trip. And then I thought to myself wait, this is Isaiah's last October break.
Speaker 1yeah well, also his first, because they changed calendars.
Speaker 2This is the first one that's correct, but whatever epic thing Isaiah chooses to do, whether it it's school, whether it's leadership, whether it's a gap year, whether it's working, whatever he chooses to do, he will do it epically, and his epic life might not align with Fall Break for Lilliana, so this might truly be the last Fall break trip that the four of us have.
Speaker 1I don't like that. I don't like that, and I am thankful for the moments that we've had, because I do think you retiring from teaching and coming into this world has absolutely opened up the opportunity for us to have the relationship with the kids that we have, and they love traveling as much as we do and they like traveling with us. It's comfortable. Yes, I get that we pay for it also, but I think that we understand I do most of the planning, so they get that. I understand that we can go, go, go, go, go, but then we need some rest time and so we build those in so that we can. I mean, my parents just came from Paris and they're like you've got to do this, this and this. And I'm like we literally had less than 48 hours Okay, maybe we had less than three days or less than 72 hours and we did a lot of things.
Speaker 2It was like a little, it was a moosh, moosh right of paris, so that we know when we go back what we want to do that is a brilliant analogy yeah right, just a little taste, because 72 hours is not enough time in paris, so um um, amuse-bouche, that's like amusement for the mouth, like a one-bite appetizer To get a essentially like a flavor profile from a chef to make you a whole. Yeah, yeah, so it's.
Speaker 1It's a little sad, as our journey starts to come to an end, with this whole idea of us getting to be a little more in charge of their calendar. Which, by the way, I say we get to be a little more in charge of their calendar, and that's not true. They are, I feel like they're the dictators of the calendar right now and everything I mean. There's a few events that dictate our calendar, but way less than what their events do.
Costa Rica Adventures
Speaker 1But this also brings in the new era of you and me traveling 100% well, and you said you wanted to talk about like the graduation trips and things like that and like so, when the kids when our two kids graduated from eighth grade we took them to, lili'ana chose Puerto Rico that's like uh, two years ago and Isaiah chose Hawaii and uh, because the rule was eighth grade.
Speaker 2we're staying in the country, we're not traveling the world. Get somewhere in the United.
Speaker 1States. Those two still got us off the continent. They manipulated us. Yeah, they sure did.
Speaker 2they sure did, we did not think to say you know we need to be in the contiguous unit. It's still, yeah, no so the rule?
Speaker 1there are no rules for their high school graduation. So, isaiah, I think we're looking at somewhere. I don't. I I'm still not exactly sure. Uh, maybe turkey, greece, that area, yeah, I keep saying yeah, I got it.
Speaker 2That's where we'd fly into, maybe. And the purpose of that trip? Medical, no, I mean, yes, there are full body scans, but the purpose of like, we're also extending that reward trip for lack of a better word to nieces and nephews and neighbors' kids.
Speaker 1There's so much more than that. I know they're nieces too. They don't get the extraordinary.
Speaker 2We are their bonus mom and bonus dad.
Speaker 1Yeah. So they're our bonus kids. They don't get the extraordinary crazy budget that Isaiah and Lillianna get. But when we took Jada, she wanted a beach trip. So, on points, we did it, we got to stay. I think we I was looking this up, I think we stayed four nights, but it might have been five nights, and we, I mean, it was crazy, it was awesome. And then Raven, we're doing a beach trip to Carlsbad this month and Cheyenne a beach trip to Carlsbad this month and Cheyenne, when we were in Sayulita a couple months ago with Isaiah and Liliana, we said do you think Cheyenne would like this? Cheyenne was all about getting to Mexico and she's got her passport, so we're going to Sayulita.
Speaker 2we go in July. We're thinking about doing a cruise, yeah, and then yeah.
Speaker 1To the next niece. Yep, so Isaiah and one of our nieces graduates next year and her schedule is even crazier than our kids because she dances at a very high level and she's going to be famous With her nephew. I mean, the calendars just didn't align. Yeah, he wasn't here for it as much, and part of me says he'll get to take part in hers and it'll be okay.
Speaker 2But the true goal is not to reward for a job well done hey, congratulations for finishing high school. No, that's congratulations, you're normal. The reward or the purpose is creating that relationship with these now turning into adult human beings in our lives. And because in the past I was Uncle Nicky, I mean you were on Kessley but there's now a point where there's friendships that can potentially happen among adults, even though technically we still have that aunt, uncle, nephew, niece relationship and bonus mom, bonus dad, bonus kid relationship. But it's creating that friendship, creating that camaraderie that we hope we will, that camaraderie that we hope we will bridge to the new era in our relationship Well and they can see how the respect levels up.
Speaker 1Right, like you're not, you are, you're always going to be a child in our eyes, and yet you like, the world now expects more of you, and we want to help you live into whatever that is for you. So, yeah, I'm really excited. I feel like this is the season We've got graduations every year for the next four years. Okay, 26, 27, 28, and Liliana's in 29,. Right, yeah, yeah, so it's going to be 26. No wait, she's 28. Cheyenne's 25, isaiah's 26. Josh and Christian are 27. Liliana's 28. Yeah, so yeah, next three years, it's going to be awesome. It's going to be so awesome, are you?
Speaker 2excited, I'm so excited. But one thing to wrap it up I am so thankful that we did epic experiences. Are you going to get emotional? No, oh, okay, I mean. Yes, of course I can't, but I'm not breaking up to you. I'm so thankful that we and remember.
Speaker 2The moment when we chose to start doing epic experiences is when we thought the kids were old enough to have core memories. Yeah, because you know, bringing a, bringing your child to Disneyland when they are three, may feel like you're doing it for the child, but really you're doing it for you. You're the one who's going to have those core memories. Is it fun for the three year old? Yes, of course. Is it outstanding? Yes, of course. Will they remember it for the next few months? Yes, of course. But when they're 36, looking back, they're not going to go.
Speaker 2I remember when I was three and I threw up on the teacups. No, they're going to say when I was six or seven, my parents took me to Disneyland and I remember doing this and I remember this. So once our kids got to that area in childhood where they could have the core memories, that's when we said okay, let's do it, let's invest in these relationships, invest in these opportunities, invest in these adventures, and I'm so thankful that we did. What year was it when we took a business trip? We did the epic trip. It could have been second grade, fourth grade, so was that 17?
Speaker 1The duct tape, one when we stayed in a Disneyland resort, the duct tape on the shoes because it was raining. We flew. We could drive to Anaheim and do that, but we flew. We did it the week. Now I might get in trouble. I literally don't care if I miss school. We're going to go do epic things like this because, honestly, they typically will learn more than what they might learn at school. So we they came back from winter break. They did a whole week of school and we left, I think, on the Friday. We flew out on Friday, we were in the park that evening. We spent the whole Saturday it was because the Monday was off we spent the whole Saturday, the whole.
Speaker 2Sunday the whole Monday, like when we go to Disneyland, it's a full day of traveling to get there. I mean, it's only a six-hour drive, but it's a full-day commitment to get there. On that day we woke up in Phoenix or in Peoria and that evening we were hanging out in Disneyland. We were in Disneyland.
Speaker 1That was at that and that part closed Something we've never experienced before. Yep, the park closed late that day and we saw the fireworks. It rained the whole weekend. Actually, it didn't rain on monday, but it rained all day saturday and all day sunday and we were not equipped and and thank, this was before nordash and this was before instacart, um and so. But somehow we got the groceries delivered because we got duct tape delivered so we can duct tape the shoes, because we couldn't get any shoes or galoshes delivered fast enough. But we did something nobody else was doing and we went to the park anyways, and so every ride was. I mean, we had the fast pass. Longest line was like 15 minutes, yeah, so we would do the fast pass thing and then when we had gaps in time, we would go back to the hotel and dry off and rest.
When Teens Prefer Friends Over Trips
Speaker 1We used the hair dryer in that hotel room all the time to dry off everything, yep, and then we would get more fast passes while we were in the hotel and it was, um, I mean, if you ask the kids remember the duct tape, they remember the rain. But something else we did that time is we bought the photo package and because nobody was involved, the photographers were like literally standing around doing nothing. And the first one, the first photographer, was like we took the few photos and we were of course, in cute stuff, because I made stuff, because of course we're matching, we had to be matching. It was ridiculous. And and the photographer was like wait, come here, and the photographer must have spent a half an hour with us, which we were happy to give because we had been on everything we wanted to.
Speaker 2If you're in like two hour lines and going from one ride to one ride, you might get in like six rides that day. The last thing you want to do is stop and take photos because you are. You are killing the time, but we had already done everything and we were just going back more.
Speaker 1And also I feel like on those days the park's so saturated with people, the photographers there's a line for them. There was no line, they, they were just hanging out. So every photographer we met up with we said, hey, would you spend a few minutes with us? And they would say they'd look at us a little funny and then we'd say, look, we know you're not busy. You tell us what to do, we'll pose and do a scene.
Speaker 1Yeah, we'll follow you all around the world and we have some of the best pictures ever, ever, At a time in life where you're right the kids are younger and they will remember Not to mention.
Speaker 2We've got the, and it was before. Their joy was authentic. Yeah, versus a 14-year-old's joy is covered with. I must preserve how I appear in this moment to myself and to the people around me, and it's. I'm not saying they're inauthentic, it is inauthentic. A 14 year old is rarely authentic. So it was. They were the age where if they were sad, you saw it. If they were mad, you saw it. If they were happy, you saw it.
Speaker 1It was authentic. And we were aware because when it started to happen, we were like all let's go back to the hotel. Yeah, because, honestly, on day one we felt like we had done everything, so everything else got to be bonus. So if we needed to rest, we did. And when we rested is when the kids who weren't napping were playing, and so we knew we could stay out and be the latest ones there, because the kids were old enough that they could stay up till 9 o'clock Night one at Disneyland.
Speaker 2Every single major ride we did in that short little window and we still had another full day in that park and that gave us the hey, let's be there for the very beginning and then let's take a nap. Yep, let's relax. We even spent time at the pool. Oh, we sure did At this Disney hotel. Yeah, we even spent time at the pool. Oh, we sure did At this Disney hotel. Yeah, we could have been in the theme park, but instead we're like, let's try out the pool. It was awesome and there was nothing about us that was like we're missing out on Disney now, because in the past all Disney experiences was like a one-day thing. Maybe, maybe it was a one-day California adventure, one-day Disneyland yeah, that was the first time where it was a multi-day pass, because it was the first time that we were in a position to do a multi-day pass. But the multi-day pass really wasn't a whole lot more than a single day.
Speaker 1Whatever it was we, it ended up being their Christmas present and I remember giving that to them and that was the bomb, and I mean almost as good as we decided we were going to go to Disney World, those blue sweatshirts that you yeah, you wrapped up and they were like what, what does this mean?
Speaker 2oh my god it was, it was, it was an amazing Christmas moment it was an amazing.
Speaker 1Yes, and the best part was is we come home from leading worship. It was very late at night and Santa comes at night time in our house and it was the last present and it was awesome, so awesome. Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2I was so excited and the trip was like 12 days later.
Speaker 1Yeah, it was like 12 days later. It was great. So, yeah, take advantage of those moments. And I think you said something powerful earlier when you were like, when we take the three-year-old to Disneyland, we do that for us. I think that that's what the social norm is. Right is that Disneyland is for young kids. I don't know that I grew up the way. I mean I can remember the first time I went Well, what I think was the first time I went, but I think we went to Disneyland for my dad. He always wanted, he wanted to be there, like it was his happy place. So, yeah, really cool, really cool stuff. Take advantage of those moments, little or big. On the travel or adventures, and I feel like, even if you're going to travel people, what is the adventure, the epic things that you want to do? Is it the going to Topgolf or taking a?
Speaker 2three-hour bike ride to do a picnic in a park.
Speaker 1A road trip that's two hours away that takes you up to the mountains for a hike To drive in movie theaters.
Speaker 2Oh my gosh, yeah, to get a double showing of something. Those are epic moments, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1That's so much better. Going to the batting cages, going to a baseball game, going to a concert I feel like Samantha's lovely. She just concerts me. She wants to be at a concert every day if she could. So, yeah, I think if you're not a tribal people, you don't have to be like, what are the it's? I think having teenagers we talked about this in another episode. We haven't dated in forever, but I think having teenagers is like probably like dating. Do the things they want to do so that they want to do them with you.
Speaker 2So I mean it's totally like dating. Uh, the other day the side thing before I pull over to turn off the podcast uh, the other day I wanted to play pool with isaiah you baited him, you didn't want to you didn't want to play with me.
Graduation Trips and Building Relationships
Speaker 1I literally thought you wanted me to play. That's why I went into the room. I waited for you to ask. Isaiah came down, and then what happened? I, as soon as you said, hey, isaiah, or whatever you said, I don't know what you baited him.
Speaker 2I was like, oh, they don't want to play with me, I'm a jerk I wanted to play pool with isaiah but I knew he in like 30 minutes was going to be leaving for a conference and I'm like, no, he doesn't want to, he's too busy, that's just all about me. But I walked up to his room to invite him to play and I'm like, but he really doesn't want to. Then I didn't. Then I went downstairs and I played pool and then it did bait him in. I'm going to pull right here. Yeah, but that was Sorry, you did come into that room.
Speaker 1Shame on me. No, it's totally fine. You were baiting somebody else into your life, not me.
Speaker 2But the whole thing about dating, like, ooh, I should call him, I should call her, oh, but they're too busy. Are they thinking about me as much as I'm thinking about them?
Speaker 1No, the like getting invested in what they want to do.
Speaker 2The Tina Fey thing, I think when she's being interviewed on Jimmy Kimmel, it's, I don't know, fallon, yeah, it's so good, it's so good, all right.
Speaker 1Yeah, learn what your kids like. Do what they want to do. Do it sometimes with them, make it epic.
Speaker 2Yeah, and don't wait until it's too late. Don't wait, do it now, stop whatever you're doing right now, when you're number one in their life. Enjoy every moment.
Speaker 1Even if you're number four in their life, because soon you're not going to be even number four.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You said we're'm like number three or four with liana. Yep, anyways, until next time enjoy an epic life.