I think one of the biggest gifts we can give our kids is the gift of travel. Not only does travel expose children to amazing locations, but also it teaches about other cultures, develops situational flexibility, encourages imaginative thinking, and helps illustrate a sense of world scale.
When my first son, Alexander, was only 5 months old, we had the amazing opportunity to pack our bags (and our house!) and head to England for 3 years. While some might find the thought terrifying, we were so excited about the opportunities it was going to give us to go, do, and see!
While in England, our family grew with the birth of our second son, Edward. But even with a toddler and a newborn, we took every travel opportunity we could (the Ergobaby Carrier sure did help!!).
Our first holiday as a family of four was to England’s famous Lake District. We found a nice holiday cottage to rent just outside of the town of Keswick. Weather in England can be quite unpredictable, but the Weather Gods must have been pleased with us because we were graced with 6 days of beautiful sunshine (yeah, we did have one day of rain…but it’s England!).
Our first day in the Lake District, we loaded the car up and headed to Muncaster Castle. We spent the day exploring the castle grounds and while my husband played with our toddler, Alex, I got to explore the castle with baby Eddie sleeping in the Ergo! I actually got to go slowly, look at things and read signs! Unheard of usually since I’m almost always chasing a toddler around!
Day two in the Lake District kept us closer to our holiday cottage. We rented a boat and toodled around Lake Derwent Water. The rocking boat ended up putting both boys to sleep. My husband and I enjoyed holding sleeping babies and riding around the lake together. Later in the day, we headed into the town of Keswick to do a little shopping and we visited the Puzzling Place museum and puzzle shop. Keswick is a lovely little town with a great High Street (like Main Street) filled with charming shops and good pubs. The Puzzling Place museum was amazing. There were some really cool optical illusions and our toddler really had fun in some of the puzzle rooms. We got some really neat photos of some of the illusions that look photo-shopped, but we promise they are straight out of the camera!
I’m a “relax at the lake” kind of girl…but my husband is a “climb up a mountain” kind of guy…so I had to give him at least one day of hiking in the Lake District. On day three, we decided to take a moderately challenging hike up one of the Lake District’s Fells (a hill or mountain) – Catbells. When hiking with two kids, backpack arrangements can be challenging. We had three things to carry: 1. Alex, our toddler, 2. Eddie, our baby, and 3. A day pack with water, lunch, & snacks. We decided the most even distribution would be one person with Eddie on the front & the daypack on the back and then the other person just with Alex on the back. I carried Alex on the way up (stopping often to rest…err…to enjoy the beautiful views!). We made it to the top and had a beautiful view and picnic lunch. After snapping a family photo, we decided to head back down. This time I took Eddie & the daypack. Being a mother, I naturally could multi-task and I hiked down the mountain, enjoyed the beautiful scenery, carried the daypack, and breast-fed my child all at the same time! Unfortunately, my “fun tickets” began to run out about half-way down the mountain. In an attempt to squeeze a few more “fun tickets” – my husband took the day pack leaving me just to carry Eddie. It definitely helped. We all slept really well that night!
Day four brought some chilly weather and quite a cold whipping wind, but we managed to drag our sore bodies out to visit a Stone Circle nearby. Castlerigg Stone Circle was constructed somewhere around 3200 BC and, unlike Stonehenge, you can actually touch, climb on, sit on, explore all of the stones up close and personal! Even with the cold wind, we managed to get a lot of fun in while visiting Castlerigg. I mean, I have two boys (three if you count my husband)…boys and rocks go hand in hand.
Wanting to try something different, on day five, we headed to Ostrich World – a working ostrich farm and fun place to play! We had a blast! The animals were nice, but the best thing there was a great roller-coaster like sled on the playground. We all rode it over and over and couldn’t stop laughing the whole time!
Day six was our rain day and we enjoyed a quiet day at the holiday cottage and ventured into Keswick for lunch and to finish up a little shopping. Finally, on day seven, we packed our bags back up and journeyed 4 hours or so back to our Cotswold home.
The trip to the Lake District did a lot for us. It was some great family time together to allow our new family of four to figure out how traveling will work with an even adult to child ratio. We did some relaxing things and some challenging things and saw more of the beautiful English countryside. But perhaps most importantly, it built my confidence as a mom in a foreign country – even though my husband was there the whole time to help with both kids…I learned that my children are great travelers and explorers. They are able to go with the flow and enjoy simple things. This realization opened up a whole other set of possibilities as we returned home. I was no longer scared to take both kids out by myself. And losing this fear allowed Alex, Eddie, and I to explore castles, churches, parks, zoos, farms, museums and villages by ourselves.
Now we are back in the US, facing a whole new adventure (settling into a new house and city!)! But I don’t think our adventurous spirit was left in England…there may not be castles to explore around here, but I’m sure the three of us can fill our days with exciting outings and countless adventures!
This post was submitted by ErgoMama Carolyn Bookholt as part of our Summer Travel Series. Carolyn Bookholt is a stay at home mom to two fantastic little boys, 3.5 year old Alex and almost 2 year old Eddie. Her family has recently moved back to the States after spending a fairy-taled three years living in the Cotswold Hills of England.
Christina is a mama, conservationist, DIY’er, vintage fanatic, dog lover and the Ergobaby director of community.
She is passionate about babies, babywearing, birth, yoga, natural living, and healthy eats. When not online reading and writing about all of the above, she can be found spending time with her daughter, creating their family story in Los Angeles.
