I had a rough week. Granted this might be a whiny post, "get it off my chest" type writing but that is how I like to express myself. Feel free to scour the rest of my blog and ignore this post.

My family loves the outdoors and sometimes we like extend my husband's business trips to mini outdoor vacations. I am fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom to our two toddlers so we occasionally tag along on business trips. My kids love traveling and if they are home for more than a week they ask to "go to their new house" aka hotel or "go build a tent." This week we decided to extend a business trip and explore Orange County, Southern California - aka The OC. My kids are normally champs when it comes to traveling but this trip was a little rough on everyone. More details on our actual outdoor adventures later but first I need to get stuff off my chest about my traveling debacles this week.

Transitions: Transitions were a constant battle during our Orange County trip. When we had to say goodbye to daddy so he could work, getting our car rental and checking in at the hotel was just awful. I was alone with two cranky toddlers, a large suitcase, a backpack, two car seats and had to walk all over the airport and hotel. A stranger at the airport saw how much I was struggling and felt so bad he helped me carry all my gear. Why didn't I get a cart? Well I just didn't think about it until after I had lugged all my stuff into our rental.

Meltdowns: Constant meltdowns. I think my daughter had the worst meltdown ever this week. Why you may ask? Because she fell down on the grass and got her pants slightly wet. This is the girl who loves to rub dirt and mud ALL OVER herself whenever she can...45 minutes of blood curling screaming because I would not pick her up. Hotel employees were looking at my all crazy, I didn't care. My son is growing out of meltdowns but he cried more than normal for any little reason like an dropped item, a stick that broke, etc. Someone was always crying even me...

Sickness/Migraine: My kids had a little cold, I mean really weak cold but throw in travel and probably not sleeping enough exasperates everything which probably perpetuated meltdowns. I'm prone to migraines and the perfect migraine storm occurred, so I spent a portion of a day in "migraine mode." If you are a parent and have migraines screaming little ones don't really help alleviate your migraine pain. Thankfully, my doctor has prescribed me a migraine medication that 99% of the time helps my migraines disappear.
Theft: Someone in a coffee shop stole my Nexus 10 tablet. Seriously. I doctored my coffee, sat my kids down outside with 10 things in my arms, realized I had left my tablet inside, ran in and it was gone. There was only one person gone after I ran outside so I'm assuming it was him. I tried to keep my tears in but ended up crying like a baby when I got to my car. My kids haven't really seen me cry and were very worried that I had injured myself. I explained that Mommy was sad and they showered me with hugs and "I love you." I just needed to vent and get over the fact that it was just a thing.
Hotels: I love hotels but they stress me out as a mother. It resembles too much like a home where my kids know they can watch whatever show they want. Unlike our home, hotels have regular TVs with a weird thing my kids don't understand: commercials, that don't always show their favorite shows... Also so many sharp edges and shiny things for my kids to break. I share many of the same views on Camping vs. Hotels that Mae of Mommy Loves Trees talks about!

O'Neill Regional Park, Trabuco Canyon, California

I love traveling and fancy hotels but by the time we left Newport Beach I was ready to be outdoors, on the foothills of Saddleback (Orange County). It's not always sunshine and roses when traveling with kids, but we do it because we always like to have our family together. My husband has been told on many occasions by his co-workers that they are jealous that we are able to join him on business trips. We love traveling but that doesn't mean it is easy because the matter of fact its not, even for an "experienced family travelers."

What do you dislike the most about family travel? Especially traveling to get outdoors with the family?

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