§ We came to this world to LIVE OUT LOUD.
What it’s really like to travel the world with 3 kids
I’m sitting on the first 14-hour leg of our 36-hour journey back to Colombia after a 4-week road trip around Australia with 3 kids.
I’m exhausted.
Not just because I only slept about 4 hours last night.
But because TRAVELING WITH TEENAGERS IS EXHAUSTING.
Even though we have traveled to over 20 countries together as a family and often in fairly basic and even rough conditions, this trip to Australia was the hardest trip we ever had.
Despite Australia being beautiful, easy to navigate, efficient, very friendly and with plenty of sunshine.
As I’m sure you all know (or remember), doing anything with teenagers is hard. Add in super-hot weather, packing up and moving pretty much daily, driving long distances with 2 teens and an 8-year old crammed in the back seat with grocery bags at their feet (because our trunk was packed to the gills with our luggage) and biting flies and mosquitos… let’s just say, all of our tempers were flaring.
And did I mention that many places we
stayed at didn’t have internet?
I thought the teens were going to
kill me.
You get the picture.
And yet am I happy we did it?
Absolutely!
Sure, there was lots of whining, yelling and complaining but there was also laughter, heart-to-heart conversations and memories that we will never forget.
Nothing like waking up before dawn and putting bug nets on our heads to protect us from the ruthless, biting fliesas we get a hike in before the temperature turns a scorching 110 degrees Fahrenheit (over 40 Celsius) in Australia’s Red Center.
Or being hot on idyllic beaches but not able to swim due to people-eating crocodiles and killer box jelly fish.
Or spotting cuddly, cute koalas mapping in Eucalyptus trees.
Or feeding wild kangaroos who came, with their joeys, to check us out in our home on the range.
Experiences we will never forget.
Indulging my passion to show my kids the world is priceless to me.
To spend a month, uninterrupted with each other, while not always fun, is ultimately priceless as we bond as a family and love each other.
So as I sit here on the plane, I am already planning next December’s adventure…
And what about you? How are you going to indulge your passions in 2019?
I would love to hear from you so leave a comment below or reach out to me by email at natalie@nataliematushenko.com.
Happy Tuesday!
Natalie
My passion for 2019 would be to visit Kenya and Tanzania to visit some children we support and to spend sometime in an orphanage
Thanks for your comment Sue! That sounds like an amazing passion! What do you need to do to turn it into reality?