That’s right folks, we made it to Florida! This was the first of many vacations by airfare, I hope.  It was definitely a step in a whole new direction.  I never thought a family of my size would be able to fly anywhere for a reasonable price, let alone find accommodations and be able to just handle the pure volume of stuff and people without losing anyone or anything.  But, we did it and it was a success.  I’m so excited to share some of my crazy tips and tricks for organizing such a success.  We really had a wonderful time!

1) Travel tip 1… use google flights.  If you haven’t learned about google flights yet, go to google today and look at their cool flights page.  You can add any destination and relative date to get a calendar of the cheapest flights of all the airlines and move through the calendar to find dates that are even cheaper to travel.  Last year my husband and I found tickets to visit some people in Spain for only $400/per round trip ticket.  That price was insane!  I haven’t found it again this year, but I am on the lookout.  We decided this fall that we wanted to take the kids on a trip for their Christmas present this year.  It is getting really hard to find more stuff we actually want.  With a family this big we have almost every affordable toy from birthdays and Christmas presents over the years.  So, we decided to spend the money on a trip instead.  I scoured google flights for the most affordable flights this year.  An airplane ride anywhere was what most of the kids were asking for.  They had never been on an airplane and thought it was an experience they didn’t want to miss.  So, I looked all over the states.  Orlando was actually the cheapest airfare by far than most places from our home airport.  I was ecstatic.  The fare was just over $200/per round trip ticket.  That’s more than my usual Christmas budget but combined with our vacation budget it made everything a bit more affordable.  The best time to fly was over Spring Break.  Win win.  Only problem was patience, but we managed.

2) Travel tip 2…use a vacation rental site. We use homeaway.com, but I have heard great things about airbnb too.  I’m just already an established member on homeaway.  That means that I already have an account with them and get reviewed by the owners of the places we stay.  We get great reviews from them, so when other owners look at my profile they are more willing to rent to us because other owners have had such a good experience with us.  You can also leave reviews for the places you stay and read reviews of other people who have stayed there.  Those reviews help me a lot to know what I am getting into, like is it clean and bug free, is it close to local attractions, does it keep a well stocked kitchen, etc.  The vacation rentals available in Orlando are awesome and they are more affordable than hotels.  A super big plus is most of them also have their own private pools because that is a popular accommodation in Florida.  You also get your own kitchen, laundry room, family room, and several bedrooms.  For a family with a lot of kids, there is no better way to travel.  I love having all the space.  It is also more affordable to cook a lot of meals in the kitchen and stock some snacks in the fridge.  You can’t beat the convenience of getting some laundry done before returning home to real life.  We stayed in a rental property owned by Roman Regal and Sascha Borst and they took great care of us.

3) Travel tip 3…pack light.  We decided to get a carryon suitcase for everyone that was small enough that even the littlest could handle rolling it through the airport.  I found the suitcases at Costco in the fall for only $25 each.  They are not big enough to be their only suitcase for life, but they are sufficient for a week vacation! Shoes and jackets take up the majority of space in a suitcase so everyone wore their running shoes and packed sandals or flip flops.  We also tied our sweatshirts around our waists.  It saved a lot of room in the suitcase.  Also, the airport security doesn’t make kids 12 and under take off their shoes so you don’t have to worry about trying to put the little one’s shoes back on after you get through security. Having laundry at the house was a definite perk to packing light.  You only need about four pairs of pants/shorts and a few pajamas.  I did make my kids pack shirts for everyday though.  Those tend to get more stained and stinky than pants and jammies.  Everyone also carried a backpack with electronic devices and toys and snacks for the ride.  The younger ones were able to fit a special blanket or stuffy for comfort away from home and the older ones could fit a few extra clothes or books to read while we traveled. I also was able to buy a car seat strap on amazon for our car seat to strap to the adult roller suitcase which made walking through the airport with a car seat so much easier.  The airline will check the stroller and car seat at the gate for you so you can take it with you all the way until entry onto the plane.

4) Travel tip 4…get matching shirts. You won’t believe how much easier it is to stick together and keep an eye out for the wanderers if you are in matching shirts.  I like to look for bright but attractive colors.  You won’t find a neon shirt on me let alone my teenagers.  However, there still are nice colors that are easy to spot in a crowd.  I like baby blue, purple, or red.  They tend to stand out in a crowd.  I ended up also purchasing grey just for the pure fact that I liked the color, but dark grey and black aren’t great colors for spotting in a crowd. There are many places online and in your local community that will screen print shirts for you if you want to have a saying or logo on it.  Be warned that the majority of the cost for the screen printed shirts is in the set up of the colors of the pattern to put on the shirts.  If you can keep it limited to one or two colors for your pattern you will save a lot of money.  Also, the more shirts you order, the cheaper the whole order will be because you can separate the cost of the screen print set-up among more shirts.  I wanted to have matching shirts specifically when we were at the amusement parks. If you are going to get your family more than one set it is definitely more affordable in the long run to buy them all at once and set up the screen print only one time.

5) Travel tip 5…break up the amusement park days. If you haven’t done Disneyland or Disney World or Universal before, you need to know to plan a break between days at the park. The day includes a lot of walking and standing and not having regular meals. You inevitably get extremely exhausted.  As fun as the magic and rides are it is a long day for everyone.  We clocked walking about ten miles each of our days at the park.  It’s a ton.  Your feet hurt, you back hurts,  your legs hurt, and the whining is awesome.  Is it worth it? Probably.  The memories are still priceless and bringing imagination to life for a child is certainly magical.  Anyway, you need a rest day in between days at the park. We usually choose the break day to be a fun day at the beach playing in the waves, building sand castles, and relaxing in the sun. Or we utilize the pool at the house and just stay in the rental house swimming, watching movies, drawing our favorite scenic spots from vacation, or playing board games.  These days are just as priceless as the expensive park days.  My kids love the quality time we have together even if we are doing things we could be doing at home.  Do me a favor and turn off all the electronic devices during these times and you will be surprised at the bonding that happens in your family.

6) Travel tip 6…HYDRATE! You will all be a lot happier if you are not thirsty on these busy fun days.  You ought to start drinking lots of extra fluids in the few days leading up to your travel.  It will help with swelling feet and uncomfortable tummies while flying.  As for the days at the park and at the beach you are bound to be very thirsty.  Rather than carrying a bunch of heavy water bottles for everyone around everywhere, we opted to just carry around two that we refilled.  Everyone drank out of the bottle using the waterfall method so as not to share germs.  We also used crystal light flavor packets to keep the drink interesting for everyone including the littles.  Water tends to have a bit of a different flavor in each state as well, which might be a problem among your picky eaters.  The crystal light masked that perfectly.  We also stocked up on some crystal light with caffeine for when we were at the parks.  It is a great solution for that child that can’t take one more step when it is only eleven o’clock in the morning.  We have found it to be a miracle cure for our tired kiddos to add a little caffeine on those tough park days.  They don’t normally get caffeine at home so the crystal light is just enough of a pick me up for them. Stop at the drinking fountains when you see them and pack those couple of water bottles.  In the parks we took one back pack with the water, diapers and wipes, and lots of snacks.  It was the perfect amount of stuff to be lugging around everywhere.  You do not want more stuff than that.  In the past I have tried to get a little drawstring back pack for everyone to carry their water and snacks in for themselves, but by the end of the day I found that I was holding all of the bags while kids did different rides or got tired of carrying it.  It was not a good solution.  Having one bag for the whole family to share worked much better.  I also carried my money and identification in a little belt around my waist (that runners use), so if we left the back pack with the stroller while we all went on rides I wasn’t worried about any valuables. Plus it comes in handy after the trip when we women are wearing those pants without pockets.  It can be a struggle to find a good place to set your phone when your arms are full of babies!

7) Travel tip 7…swimsuits with sleeves. Nothing can kill a vacation faster than sunburns.  The easiest places my kids get burned is on their shoulders and necks.  I just carry a little container of sunscreen for everyone’s faces/necks and then we use swimming suits at the beach with sleeves.  It saves the hassle of remembering to buy sunscreen in big bottles when you arrive (because you can’t carry a big container of it in a carry on bag at the airport). Also make sure you save a little room in your bags to bring home a few shells.  The kids will have fun finding a few great ones.  I try to limit it to just a few per kid and when we get home we try to find a place for them.  My favorite place to store collected seashells is in jars on the bathroom counters.  It makes a perfect decoration piece for your bathroom! Just get creative and see how you can help your kids keep a memento of their trip to the beach, but hopefully that memento isn’t a sunburn.

8) Travel tip 8…have fun. We like to joke in my family that plan A never works, and sometimes plan B fails, and plan C…sometimes we end up with plan F. So, we commit to each other before we leave that there are no expectations.  We will have fun and be grateful to take a trip together even if things don’t quite go the way we planned.  Traveling with such a big group is all about flexibility.  For this trip we planned some time in our schedule to rearrange park days if weather was bad or something else came up, and I’m glad we did.  Nothing catastrophic happened, but we decided to change our last day at the park to our other day so that I could use that last day there to rest, do laundry,  pack and be ready for our flight the next day. It made all the difference in how smoothly the trip went from start to finish.  Other things didn’t go great.  Eating out at expensive parks is hard with a big family.  We tried to avoid it as much as possible by eating a big breakfast, taking a ton of protein bars, crackers, and sandwiches in our backpack, and planning to eat a little at the parks with a dinner waiting at home.  It tended to lead to a lot of late late dinners and we nicknamed this vacation the starvation vacation because of all of our irregular meals.  We’ve nicknamed all of our other vacations as well, but that is a post for another day. The long story short, is be flexible.  Choose to have fun even if things turn out a little differently than you planned.  I can assure you will look back on the vacation with fondness whether it was perfect or not.  I am not saying not to make a plan though.  The better planned and prepared you are for your vacation, the better able you are to be flexible and creative when you have to. Make sure you have in order passports, tickets, addresses, accommodations, rides, and a general list of ideas you want to do before you leave.  You will be happy going into things organized even if you feel like it is all in disarray by the time you are halfway through.  Enjoy your time with your family and be grateful to have this time with each other.  Choose to be happy and have fun.  It is only up to you how you feel about each day on vacation and for the rest of your life.

I used to think I wasn’t a camper.  I didn’t like sleeping outside and being cold and uncomfortable.  I’m a creature of comfort.  I convinced my husband to buy a tent trailer a few years ago thinking I might finally be willing to go camping if I was a little more comfortable.  Up to this point we have taken the trailer out for a single night here and there and I did ok.  I wasn’t completely comfortable but it wasn’t terrible.  I liked the idea of camping… no media, bonding time, and seeing the beauty around us.  Not to mention I am on a mission to toughen up my kids, who by definition of our wealthy culture, aren’t used to roughing it.  But it still seemed like a daunting task to sleep away from home for so long with so many babies.  However, thanks to my assignment with the youth group in our local church, I experienced girls camp and a pioneer trek this summer.  I finally knew I was capable.  I mean I have done those things when I was a kid, but not with an older body that doesn’t handle things as well.  I did it, and I knew if I could do it for a church assignment, I could do it for my family.  So, with a little hope and ambition we planned a three night camping trip to a place my husband and I haven’t visited yet; Bear Lake.

It was incredible!

We camped at Rendezvous beach, which is on the south part of the Lake right on the beach.  It had a pavilion, electricity and water hookups, flushing toilets, and even showers.  I loved it.  We put the showers to good use and definitely liked the running water. 

The camping site wasn’t as beautiful as some spots we have found in the mountains, but you only had to walk about 20 steps to get to the lake, and that was beautiful.  The water was so clear and a brilliant color of turquoise.  We enjoyed watching the sunset and sunrise over the lake too.  There was plenty of room for the kids to run and play.  We set up some hammocks on the pavilion and the kids would swing and relax in those constantly.

 We went to the beach often.  The kids played in the sand or in the water.  We brought our inflatable raft and they drifted out a little bit further.   We also met up with some friends there which helped entertain the kids.  But we didn’t just stick to the camp site.  I love to see the sites of places we visit and enjoy the tourist attractions.  Our first full day there we went to visit the Minnetonka caves.  It is a short walk to one of the biggest caves I have ever seen.  There are 444 steps taking you through the mountain and then you have to come back the 444 steps to get back out.  Luckily the steps weren’t all down on the way in and all up on the way out.  It was a mixture, and the tour guide took lots of stops to tell us about things so we could rest.  There are incredible rock formations and fun stories about people in the caves in the past.  I am so glad we did it.  We learned a lot and all of my family felt so accomplished about walking all of those steps!  We also were reading a book together in the car on the way there all about a city built inside a mountain.  It really made the book come to life for the kids.  The book is called “Cove” but Jeffrey Savage.  We have really been enjoying it as a family.  (We found a microphone app for our phones that hooks into our car stereo.  I read to the kids over the microphone and the whole family enjoys the story together.  We can all hear well, and it passes the time in the car quickly!)

The next day of camping, when we weren’t at the beach, was spent in town trying the famous raspberry shakes that Bear Lake is known for.  We heard a lot of different opinions about the place to get the best shakes.  I didn’t try them all so I’ll have to give you an update about that sometime in the future.  Or maybe, one of you can leave a comment with your top picks.  We ended up at the Chevron (Really, the gas station was recommended as the best!).  The shakes were really good.  The kids thought they tasted like the homemade ice cream we make at home with the freshly picked raspberries from our garden.  Not bad at all!

 Cooking for nine people while camping can be a big task, but it worked out great.  I love crockpot cooking.  Since we had electricity hook ups I just brought my crockpot and did a few meals in it.  We had chili, and egg and hash brown casserole, and cobbler.  If you don’t have hookups, all crockpot recipes work in a dutch oven and that was our back up plan.  We also did some pizza pockets in foil in the fire and steak and hot dogs over the grill in the fire.  We certainly didn’t go hungry.  I have a lot of ideas for cooking while you are camping.  Feel free to comment and ask for more info.  There will be a post coming with some great ideas for cooking while camping for a large family.

We certainly loved our time together.  We wore out the kids and they really enjoyed each other’s company.

We would all do it again in a heartbeat.  We are already planning our next camping vacation for next year.  I think this old lady is morphing into a camper!

All of us need to experience the world.  We need to experience the beauty and majesty of nature and architecture.  We need to experience the cultures of the people of the world.  But most of all, we need to experience the people.  As you do, you learn that people are just people no matter their background.  Everyone has dreams, talents, families, and opinions.   They also have big hearts…huge hearts!

With a big family traveling on a budget, sometimes the best way to get to know people around the world is to bring them to you.  There are many programs out there for short or long term exchange students.  There are also many festivals and events that bring international visitors looking for host families to your community.  I encourage you to start traveling by bringing the world to you.  By the time travel is affordable for you, you will have destinations with friends all over the world.  Our international friends are our favorite!

We started hosting dancers from the world folk festival hosted in Springville, Utah.  We have had visitors from Czech Republic, Israel, Spain, Chile, France, and Poland and we aren’t done yet.  The festival happens every summer, and I clear our calendar so we can be a part of it.

We also added experiences with short term Chinese exchange students.In a country that is so mysterious to me but a global leader, it was great to get to know some of their kids. They are amazing.

Then we jumped into the world of hosting a year long exchange student from Spain.   We went through the Aspect Foundation and they couldn’t have been more perfect in helping us have a great experience.  We love her like she was our own daughter and she left feeling like she had a family across the world that would always be there for her.

In a family so big, people are amazed we are willing to add more to it.  But, what is one more mouth to feed when you are used to feeding an army.  My kids like to sleep on my bedroom floor whether or not there is a visitor that could use a bed.  Plus, the kids make the transition with foreigners a breeze.  Everyone is more comfortable trying their broken English with a non-judgemental child.  The kids also know how to love these people with their whole hearts and the people can feel that.  They love them right back.

Having foreign visitors really helps us to feel grateful for what we have right here.  We love to take our visitors to see some local sights.  We also took our exchange student all over nearby states to show her the beautiful places we are surrounded by.  Watching our world through new eyes has made me so grateful for what I have right here.  It is like seeing it all again for the first time.  But once again we had to get creative traveling with a crew my size plus one.  But it’s possible.  I can show you how through some of my posts about some of our vacations.  Don’t forget to check them out!