WEBVTT
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Welcome to We are the Hansons, where we share the raw, real,
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and often hilarious moments of life in our big family
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of thirteen kids. I'm your host, Maya Hanson, and today
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we're diving into the organized chaos of a family vacations.
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Planning a trip with a family this size isn't just
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about picking a destination. It's a logistical masterpiece. From coordinating
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fifteen toothbrushes to fitting luggage, snacks, and people into one
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vehicle or maybe two, every step is an adventure. We'll
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talk about how we budget for these trips, the rosiest
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family member plays to make it work, and how we
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manage to create special memories for everyone. Vacations for us
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are less about fantasy destinations and more about togetherness, road trips, camping,
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or even a day trip packed with laughter, occasional meltdowns.
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And a whole lot of love.
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Get ready for insights into how we make family vacations
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not just possible, but unforgettable. Let's dive in, all right, everybody,
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So why are family vacations non negotiable? Vacations are a
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priority for us, even with thirteen kids. It's not just
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about getting away from home. It's about giving our kids
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and us as parents a chance to connect without distractions
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of everyday life. That's always a joy. These trips where
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some of our most treasured family memories are made, and
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we wouldn't trade them for anything. That said, planning a
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vacation for fifteen people isn't exactly a pack and go
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situation for us. It takes time, strategy, and good sense
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of humor to pull it off. Let me tell you,
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let's start with the planning stage. So planning a handsome vacation.
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One of the first steps to a successful family vacation
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is planning ahead, way ahead.
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It takes a lot.
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We usually start brainstorming and vacation ideas six to eight
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months in advance. That's a long time for a lot
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of people. Here's how we do it. One we choose
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a budget friendly destination. Let's be honest, traveling with fifteen
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people is not cheap, not cheap at all. We try
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to choose destinations that are family friendly and budget conscious.
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Some of our go to options are national parks, beaches,
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and road trips to places with lots of free or
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low cost activities. We do a lot of camping, We
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do a lot of day trips for us look like fishing.
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Walking around Branson. We do a lot of that kind
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of stuff. Number two, booking accommodations Hotels are rarely an
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option for our family unless we can get a good deal. Instead,
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we would rather rent an airbnb. That way, we can
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cook meals, spread out and not worry about disturbing our guests.
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Our family is very loud our kids when we go
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on vacation, we enjoy.
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Plus, it's more.
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Affordable when you're splitting the cost over multiple nights, so
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when we have to split cost when we get an airbnb,
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it's definitely cheaper than renting a hotel, and the hotel
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rooms are smaller. Transportation for us, it's silly. We have
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a large suv now that our older kids drive. We
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usually have one or two drive behind us and our
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other kids carpool with them, so usually it's taking one
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to maybe three cars, which is an absolute life saver
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for us. Plus we have to get all our luggage
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that tends to be chaotic for longer trips, will sometimes
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run an additional suv, so we just drive two SUVs
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instead of three cars or whatnot. We involve the kids
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in planning. We let the kids have a say In
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the itinerary, each child gets to pick one activity or
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stop they're most excited about, whether it's visiting a zoo,
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hiking a certain trail, or checking out cool museums. We
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love to do hiking, museums, zoos.
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We love all that.
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It really doesn't bother us to let our kids help
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decide what we're going to do packing like a pro.
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We are very good at packing.
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You know.
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We've had to do it for fifteen people, you know,
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in our family, so packing for us for fifteen is
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an art form. Here's our system, packed by categories. We
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pack instead of packing for each person separately. While this
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was more so when they were younger, what we would
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do is we'll pack one bag for toiletries and meds
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and et cetera, one bag for shoes, and the rest.
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Each kid would have their clothes.
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This makes it easier to find what we need without
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digging through fifteen separate suitcases or bags. Now we only
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pack for the five of us because the older kids
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packed their own stuff, so it's a lot easier. Now
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we do have one bag essentials only. With limited space,
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we pack only what we really need. Each person gets
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a backpack for their personal items. And we limit toys
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and gadgets to just a few favorites, because if it
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were up to my little ones, we'd be taking all
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of their toys every time we go on it trip.
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It is a mess.
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Most of the time, they just take dolls or their tablets.
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Sometimes it's a lot easier when there's when we go
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places and there's no toys that they have something to do,
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something to playlist, So with taking a couple dolls, it's
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a lot easier. Meal prep on the go. We bring
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a cooler with snacks and meals for the road. We've
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learned that a well fed family is a happy family.
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Our kids definitely eat a lot. It also saves us
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from making a dozen fast food stops and money. It
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gets quite expensive when you have fifteen people to buy
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for at McDonald's or Culver's or Arbi's or wherever you're
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going to stop. Even at a family restaurant, it is
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expensive for us. And then you got a tip, so
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that is a big thing. We put our food in
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the cooler and we go on our journey. This is
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gonna be funny surviving the journey. Traveling with thirteen kids
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can be very chaotic, but we've learned a few tricks
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to keep the peace. For entertainment on our trips, we
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stock up on audiobooks, movies, and travel games. One of
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our favorite things to do is play the ABC game together.
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The ABC game is we do it two different ways.
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One you can do the animal ABC game where each
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person goes around.
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It starts with A.
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The first person starts with A, and then everyone in
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the car has got to try and guess the animal
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that they picked that starts with the letter A. It
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gets really really hard when you get down to an
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animal in the z's well besides zebra or x's, it
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gets really really hard. It's a lot of fun and
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our kids are enjoy it. We also play the license
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plate game. We try and see how many license plates
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we can get with and we write them down, like
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how many Texas license plates we see on the road,
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or how many Minnesota plates we see on the road,
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or we just go through and we look at the
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license plates on cars and we just mark. We tally
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it up to see how many we see and by
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the end of our trip we count them down and
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see how many people came from that we spotted from
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Texas or how many people we spotted from Wisconsin and
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we just keep going like that. We also play the
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I Spy game. It gets very difficult when you're moving
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because you got to be quick, like if they spy
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like a certain building or something. If you are not quick,
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you will not get that. You'll lose your turn or
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lose that round. The next thing we like to do
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is listen to a lot of music. The kids have
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a few favorite songs that we will play in the car.
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They will sit there and say, oh, we want this,
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we want that, we want this song, and we usually
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jam out to that.
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They dance, they sing. It's fun.
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And now that we only got the three younger girls
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that usually ride with us, it's a lot easier because
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most of the time they'll sleep, so it tends to
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be quite quiet in the car. Frequent stops long car
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rides mean lots of bathroom breaks and opportunities to stretch.
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We try to stop every couple hours, even if it's
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just for a quick walk around to rest area. My
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little Anna, she has a hard time driving long distance
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because of her medical stuff, so just getting her up
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out of the car fresh air, being able to move
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around it helps us a lot because sometimes she gets
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car sick and it makes a big mess. So we
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come prepared for that situation. But sometimes we have accidents.
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It's usually her getting sick and we have to stop
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and get her cleaned up, clean the car, and just
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get reorganized and that kind of thing.
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So that is another thing.
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We have traveled back and forth to Wisconsin from Missouri
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for the last few years. Our trips to Wisconsin tend
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to be rather fun, just by everybody getting in. We
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always have something bad happen to us on our trips,
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and it never fails. We either hit an animal and
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destroy our car, hit a pot all and break our car.
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Our last trip that happened. I mean, there's never a
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dull moment in our family. But at least we're all
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safe and we are not hurt and we are good.
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So needless to say, there's always one bad thing that happens,
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and it just it's very frustrating. Sometimes we make it
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through and we enjoy our family vacations. I mean we're
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all together, everybody's happy, healthy, and it's fun. We make
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sure that our kids enjoy and have fun. That is
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our goal is to make memories with our kids something
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that they will never forget. Most of the time. Guess
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what they're not forgetting. They're not forgetting about the time that, oh,
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Dad hit a wolf in Illinois, or on our way
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home from Illinois, we hit a pothole in Saint Louis
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and the car sounds like a demo car. We still
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made it home. But we sit back and we laugh
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about those times because even though it was a bummer
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when it happened, as we look back, it is hilarious.
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At the time we were mad about it, it's funny now,
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and our kids remember that. They also remember, like when
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we go to the beach or go.
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Fishing or something, they remember.
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Who caught the biggest fish, or if somebody didn't catch
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a big fish, or somebody didn't catch a fish at all,
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they tease the person that didn't catch them.
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And most of the time it's the.
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Boys teasing their dad because he always says, Oh, I'm
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going to out fish you. It's usually the boys that
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tease because Dad always says, oh, I'm going to catch
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the big one, and usually Dad doesn't catch the big
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one as one of the boys. So that being said,
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that's how our family vacations are planned and the fun
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things that we do.
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We also like to go to like resorts that have
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indoor water parks.
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That is one of our favorites because the memories that
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the kids make together playing at the indoor water park
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dunking each other in the water to.
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See who can dunk who.
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And usually it's the big boys fighting the little boys
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on dunking them, and the little boys usually get dunked more.
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They definitely try to dunk their older siblings. That's one
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of our adventures is just going to the water park.
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We love it.
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Our kids are water bugs, so they always like being
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on the water. I hope that this summer we can
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do more water time with them because it definitely is
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a blast. And I'm hoping to do videos so that
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i can share them to We are the Hansen's Facebook
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page so that we can share what we do and
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what are trips, day trips or long trips look like,
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so you guys can see a little bit what our
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family does and how much fun we create. And we
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always make sure that we're creating something fun.
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The kids really enjoy it.
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And then later on we reminisce on the holidays or
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just sitting down for dinner, hanging out. We reminisce on
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what our favorite vacation, or what our favorite day trip
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look like, what we should do next, or how to
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make it better. And there's always somebody in the family
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that can tell you, oh, well, we should do this
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next time, or we should do that next time. It's
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always something different, and each child of ours has their
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own idea of what fun looks like. Sometimes we have
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one kid that says, oh, that wasn't very fun, But
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most of the time I never hear that wasn't very fun.
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So other thing I want to address is people have
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asked us how we fit everything in our vehicles. Well,
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I'm going to tell you, and you can visually look
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at this. We do a cooler in the back and
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we put lunch meat and bread and cheese and little
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snacks like apples and oranges and stuff like that.
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In the back.
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We have usually the three girls, the three younger girls
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will share a bag together and I usually, depending on
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how many days we're going for, I'll pack an outfit
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for each day and then one set of jammies that
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they can wear for three days. It's not going to
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hurt them. I always bring a little extra for Anna,