Enjoying A Vacation With Kids

“Is it really a vacation though?” I have heard this so many times – taking your kids on vacation can be just as (if not more) exhausting than being at home with them if you let it, but we have learned our own ways to ENJOY time as a family.

Many people would hesitate to bring kids that are still napping but for us it works! We actually get a little time for R&R and alternate our adventures. For example today the hubs is out having a drink and taking a chance to explore and do some photography while I rest up (and work) with the kids! Tomorrow I’ll do a little kayaking while he takes a nap or enjoys the balcony. It gives each of us some grown up time and lets the kids rest up for the afternoon fun too.

It can be so much more stress free if you go with it – I forgot just how much more stress free it is to let the kids run around outside and get into whatever they like. Being indoors all winter is a constant battle of “no you can play with the electrical outlet” or “no we don’t lick the vacuum,” but here I can sit on the beach and watch as my daughter decides she’s “rollie pollie” and rolls herself down the sand – knowing theres a whole ocean and outdoor showers to rinse her off with. Hell even the showering off has become an exciting game – who can push the button, stand on one leg and shake the other one under the sprinkler.

We eat outdoors and leave our crumbs for the birds and all in all my kids are so much more well behaved sitting in a resturant at night when they’ve exhausted themselves running around all day.

Plus they learn so much by doing. Sure – when they grown up they may not remember this trip, but I don’t consider it wasted whatsoever. I’ll always hold dear the memories of digging on the beach and watching my daughters splash in the waves. Or watching my son learn how to float. Plus every second we are here is a new sensory experience for them, a new smell, a new chance to learn, expand their vocabulary to sights, sounds and things we’d never see back home and understand the world and culture and language around them. So many connections are being built in their brains and they are gaining flexibility in their routines, their sleeping arrangements and their diets that there is no substitute for – all these things will benefit us greatly throughout the toddler years.

We are extremely fortunate to have these opportunities to explore with our kids and we do our best to enjoy all of our time with them. I hope as they grow up we will continue to have these chances to expose them to their world and let them grow up curious and ready to learn and experience new things. Even if that’s not true I’ll continue to treasure my babies holding hands and walking down the beach as much if not more so than my own time in paradise.

Easter
Ready To Travel

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