Before we get started: This Wednesday at 8PM EST come hang out on Twitter, where I’ll be chatting family vacations past and present with some other CTMs using the hashtag #AlamoDriveHappy. 

Now: let’s talk travel.

My mom, dad and I always traveled together a lot, and kept traveling together way past the age when kids typically enjoy running around the world with their parents. I remember once asking them why they never packed me off to some relative or another so they could take a trip alone together and they said, “Because it’s more fun with you.”

At the time I was a teenager and probably rolled my eyes – goddd you guys are so unromantic – but I get what they were saying now. Because while I do miss (and plan to have) just-us-two trips with Kendrick, once your kids hit the age when they’re actually experiencing things, making memories of their own…you just want them to come along for the ride, I guess. All of the rides.

The orangest sweater in the whole wide world is now my favoritest sweater in the whole wide world (Ralph Lauren, from TJMaxx; I saw a bunch there so run run run if you, too, enjoy looking like a citrus fruit). In related news, I would like Francesca to come live with me and photobomb all of my Instagram pictures, please.

This slideshow of what really happens during a baby's first hour of life is so cool.

Not too terrible of a location for a runway show.

OK, so Cotton's 24-Hour Runway Show (you can see the highlights here) was SUPER cool. I'm not sure if you realized this, but the 24-hour thing wasn't an exaggeration: the event went from 8PM Friday to 8PM Saturday, and there were literally models walking the runway at 3AM. I mean…I can't testify to that myself, because I was basically comatose (all alone in a very large hotel bed, yesssss), but it was live-streaming the whole time, and even ended up setting a Guinness World Record for longest runway show.

You may have noticed that we’re pretty big on family trips.

As difficult as traveling with a toddler and an infant in tow can be, it’s one of our all-time favorite things to do, because sure, when kids are involved you have to be flexible, and sure, sometimes things may not go as planned…but those are the best parts: those unplanned detours and wrong turns down dusty roads so often end up being the moments you remember most of all. It’s not about staying in fancy hotels or eating expensive meals or planning out the ‘perfect’ itinerary…it’s about taking your family on adventures that are unique to you, creating the kinds of experiences that your kids (and you) will remember forever.

But getting it together to plan family trips isn’t always easy. You mean to book that special vacation that you’ve always dreamed of going on, but then the months fly by and all of a sudden the time when you could have gone is past. You want to try out a new destination, but it’s so much easier to just head back to that same town and that same hotel you’ve always gone to. You tell yourself that this is the year you’ll have that experience you’ve always dreamed of, but then just…don’t. Because it’s easier to do what you know.