It's a Wrap! The final days.

Nick preaching it

My man singing it

Ireland doing her thing (w/Nick)

Well the "Stand Strong Living Without Limits West Coast Tour" is coming to a close. We have only a few more days left as I am writing this. I am currently with my girls on the tour bus without Tyrone (who had to play at a wedding in Dallas).  We actually got off the bus last night at 3am to move into hotel rooms because the AC stopped working on the bus. It was getting hot real quick.

Am I exhausted and  a bit sleep deprived? Yes. Has everyday taken some work to get going with our family of four (up and out of the bus for showers, breakfast, lunch and dinner, unpacking, re-packing etc)? Yes. Did the planning take some time? Yes. Were we all out of whack, off our schedule and some form of routine? Yes.

 

But would I have rather stayed home- comfortable and predictable? No. Would I have wanted to miss out on the friendships and the memories? No. Would I have wanted my girls to miss this opportunity to interact with so many amazing and loving people? No way.

Last night when we got to our hotel room at 3am, (so many lovely new found friends helping get my girls and I situated) Aria started to whimper and she said "I miss all of our friends!" She meant being with all our bus mates.  She may take it hard when we have to leave our bus family. Aria has been the social butterfly. She wanders around saying hi to everyone and if I forget to say hi to someone she quickly reminds me "Say Hi to ______ mommy! Give them a hug!" She also asks Nick and everyone else (especially men I might add) "do you like my dress?", almost every morning without fail.

Aria and Kiyoshi looking for "ghosts" in the green room with Michael (LWL staff). Mike volunteers regularly to help Aria find ghosts in between his many tasks.

So would I do it again, if given the opportunity?  The answer is a resounding YES.  I am always up for the adventure even if I belly ache about having to pack, plan, and be sleep deprived. I know it was better to go on the adventure. To learn. To face the challenge. To see that I could accomplish mothering on a tour bus for 2 weeks! To adapt. To see how well my kids adapt. To interact with and love others. To experience how well others could love and support us back too.

On big travel days with the kids, I have always prayed that I would make it through okay, and I have always seen God be faithful and provide me sweet people (Angels truly) along the way. This tour was no different.

A while back I ran into another mother traveling with her kids and she came up to me and she said:

"I have followed all of your travels and seen all your pictures! I remember reading once that you were nursing your daughter on the top of a double decker bus in NYC, under a pancho in the rain! And I thought if you could do it, I could too! Thanks for inspiring me!" 

I totally forgot that I did that until she reminded me! Suddenly funny traveling memories flooded my foggy mom brain! Memories I can laugh about and be grateful for. 

I hope that I will always be up for the adventure and I hope you will too.

Ireland with Irma and Uri, our bus mates and new found friends.

The amazing Peter. Always around to help!

Kanae with the kiddos. A stop at Laguna Beach

Playing in the sand

Thai food take out in a hotel lobby somewhere - someplace.

It's always time to play and dance. Lunch time with the whole group.

Bedtime routine in the bus

Ireland giving Nick the stare down in the back of the car.

Mommy friends. So nice to have Kanae Vujicic with me on the journey. (Kiyoshi and Aria had fun together as long as they weren't wanting the same toy) ;)

Family Tour Bus -Day 9- Sleep

(Aria and Nick on the family tour bus.)

I never realized how important sleep was to me until I became a mom and I didn't get enough of it. I think I took sleep for granted, because I could always get more of it here and there when I had no kids and no one to take care of but myself.  I used to sleep in. I used to stay up late without feeling guilty. I used to get productive and creative late at night. Now if I stay up late, I already get grumpy about it knowing that I'm gonna have to get up so early and hate it. So really someone smarter than me should just sing me a lullaby and put me down to bed at an appropriate scheduled time nightly, because I can't seem to.

I have a friend that has 4 kids and she used to host all of us friends at her house  (when her 4 kids were maybe 5 years and under).  Come 10pm, as we were all laughing and having a good time, she'd announce very forwardly and quite loudly, "Goodnight, I'm going to bed!" and then she would disappear. I used to laugh about how militant she was about her sleep... but now I totally get it. 

If I don't get my sleep, I kind of hate the world. I may even hate you, and anything else that crosses my path. Everything looks a little bleak. My "love" and my "serving" meter is quite low. 

Can you tell that I am writing this after not having enough sleep?

I am on the tour bus awake with Ireland at 6AM in the back lounge while everyone is sleeping, cozy in their bunks with visions of sugar plums and goody gum drops dancing in their heads (side note: who has ever had a sugar plum or a gum drop dancing in their head?! Really?! I'm not a sweet tooth, so I don't get that visual for a dream- if you have had that dream, please do share!)

This tour has been a family adventure and we have already built some great memories as a family and with others, but I have been non-stop busy with little break or rest. I'm exhausted at the moment.

This same friend who would announce her bedtime to all of us when we were at her house, inspired a duet Tyrone and I wrote for our duet album. The story goes, that I was talking to her over the phone one night, she (already 3 kids in to mom life) and me (no kids and completely oblivious). She was talking about all that she had to do, how little time she had for anything, and how stressed her body was. Like the amazing and understanding friend I was, I decided to interject my "wisdom lacking" two cents, and said "What you are in need of is a girls night out!" (I was probably seeking some kind of fun night for her and I, because I missed her having time for that- a completely selfish suggestion on my end) and she immediately shut me up and said, 

"No! What I need is a hotel room by myself, with no kids, no husband, and no one needing me so that I can sleep!"

Hearing her, and all my other friends in the thick of child rearing, inspired some of the lyrics to our song "The Exhausted Spouse".  I hear them in a whole new way, now that I am also in the thick of mothering young kids. I understand your pain friends!

Hmm, all this rambling has produced a great thought. Maybe I should just ask the whole team on this tour if I can have a hotel room to myself for the night, and if they could all team up and watch my kids on the bus?!

I think I could use a little alone time, just God and I, to rejuvenate my mom battery.

Nough said.

A rare moment to enjoy my Ireland on a rocking chair

Hotel time and room service in Seattle

Creative activities are a must when traveling! (Aria makes up a game on the Seattle ferry)

Family Touring Day 4, 5 and 6

Traveling in a tour bus is kinda like camping in style.  

It's a tour bus- it's cool, it's comfy, it's sleek, it's got leather couches, sinks, a toilet, electric plugs, flat screen TVs, a microwave, drink holders, lights and cabinets. It's expensive (just the daily cost to use a tour bus for example is, I don't know, A LOT!), it's a big hunk of metal and of course it looks cool pulling up to a venue ("whoever is in it must be a big deal").

It's like camping because-You are always around people. You eat together. Sleep in bunks by each other. Tell stories into the night. Group text to communicate your whereabouts. Help each other pack things in and out of the bus. Share food. Share the bathroom. Keep your stuff in small limited space compartments. etc.

Every morning you need to pack a little  "get ready bag" with fresh clothes, toiletries etc (in my case 2 large tote bags, a diaper bag, a back pack of toys, snacks and a stroller for our family) and you get out of the bus to head over to the hotel that the bus has pulled up to overnight while you were sleeping. You head over to the hotel (sometimes a close walk, sometimes a farther one) in your pajamas and messy hair (if you're too busy to care what people think, like me). You get to use one of two hotel rooms shared by all of us on the two tour buses to take showers and get ready for the day.

So this touring life is a good amount of BUSY for us as parents of two little ones. Lots of pre-planning on my end every time we leave the bus. Do I have everything? Enough diapers?  Distraction toys for Aria? Water? Snacks? (Cause I know half way into our short journey to the hotel Aria will desperately say "I'm thirsty" or "Mommy but please can I have a snack?") 

All of this to say it has taught me to be flexible and just go with the flow. Traveling as a family just makes me totally appreciate how much of a team my husband and I are together as we parent both of our daughters' as they have needs sometimes all at once.

The Vujicic family and their team have been so easy to live amongst. They are all kind, helpful and thoughtful. Nick treats us like we are his guests visiting his traveling vacation home. He is very intentional. He constantly asks if we need anything, if he can help and he communicates lunch gatherings and other group plans to us and makes sure we are content. Nick also has several people who work for him and help Nick to help others the way Nick sees fit. (Tour managers, admin assistants, media guys, camera guys, a Compassion rep, a publicist  and merch helpers. He has a handler who picks him up, helps move him and really his whole family (including us) whenever it is needed. It's been eye opening what an operation Life Without Limbs is and Nick truly is the well respected and loved chief of staff.

I knew of Nick, but I never realized until we joined them on tour what a big name he is. People recognize him all the time and sometimes even if they don't recognize him, they can't help but stare at the phenomenon of him. The first thing I witnessed that Nick does when he enters a place (and all eyes are on him), is say 

"Hi I'm Nick, what's your name?"..."Give me a hug." He seems to have learned to break down the barriers of awkwardness and staring with his friendly and confident nature. 

You can't help but not like Nick. You can't help but not be impressed by what a confident man of purpose he is. He lives a life many people with arms and legs could only dream of and be jealous of quite frankly. He lives a confident life of purpose. God has truly given Nick a platform like no other to encourage and uplift others with hope and faith in Jesus. He is the first to admit that he didn't always think he had purpose, but now he is walking in it and my can you see how it glows.

Aria and Todd (who runs the bus operations) sharing toys on the bus.

Ireland is now 6 months old on tour!

Strolling to the hotel for showers

Stopping to have daddy put a flower in her hair.

Playtime at the hotel.

Quick stop at Snoqualmie Falls. Breathtaking.

Kanae and Ireland having a sweet moment in one of the church nurseries.

Stand Strong on a Tour Bus

After days and nights of mommy research (of "how to sleep a 3 year old and a 6 month old on a tour bus"- not a lot of posts/blogs to find about that), we are finally beginning our family road trip on a tour bus for 2 weeks! My talented man @tyronewellsofficial will be playing some of his music before the amazing Nick Vujicic (www.lifewithoutlimbs.org) hits the stage (all over the west coast). It's gonna be pretty great and what will also be an adventure is our families will be living life on a tour bus together! I will be posting blogs about all of this very soon (when I get a moment to myself where I don't want to sleep) #standstrongtour #livinglifewithoutlimits #lifewithoutlimbs #nickvujicic #tyronewells #tyroneandelina #cosmopolitanhousewife #travelandeatwithtyroneandelina #travelswithfamily #travelswithkids #tourbus #tourbuswithkids 

Planning for a Tour Bus- Day 1 & Day 2

I once heard that you should have a short engagement before marriage (I followed those instructions as best I could in my own engagement) Date someone for a good long while to get to know them and then once you know you want to get married and you get engaged why drag on the planning of your wedding for a long LONG time?!

 Why plan for 2.5 years a big ONE day event? 

Why torture yourself?

I think your engagement should be short because you can get stressed with all the details and you can keep adding more unnecessary details to your wedding the longer you have time to think about it. I can plan, but I don't like to plan, maybe that's why too much time to plan a wedding sounds absolutely dreadful to me.

Why am I talking about this? I am losing my train of thought...mom-nesia, mom fog-whatever you call it (You must know that I drove 3 miles home with my iPhone on the roof of my car! So grateful for my Speck grip case! At least my kids were in the car strapped in. I have my priorities straight.) 

 

Oh! Here's why...All that rambling about planning weddings to say that I liken the stress of planning a wedding to planning for a trip with kids! I just hate the planning process. You do all the hard work to plan for the wedding day so that on that day you can let go and have fun. Planning and packing for a trip is my least favorite thing and I can't wait til it's over and we are on the trip having fun. 

My husband knows that a cloud gathers over my head and my demeanor when I am about to pack. He looks at me and says something like "Let me guess, are you starting to pout about packing?" I begin to whine about the job and hard work of packing. He must know every detail and all my thoughts about "shoud I do this?" and "should I do that?" 

Tell me I get to go on a trip and explore somewhere new and I am so happy like a child at Christmas. But tell me I have to pack and I whine like a child who dropped her ice cream.  I. Just. Can't. Stand. Packing. I think I need someone to hold my hand and give me hugs  throughout the whole packing process. Wah!

I didn't even like packing for myself when I was single. So now that I have to pack for myself and two young kids (and sometimes a dog), I can get a little crazy in my head until the day when we put all the suitcases into the car and drive away. Once we drive away, I breathe a sigh of relief that I did what I could do and that's the end of it. The planning process is over yay! I am a whole new person and I can just roll with it!

Speaking of "roll with it", we are literally rolling on the wheels of a tour bus right now. And I am lying here feeling a bit of satisfaction and success that I did PLAN. Below my bunk is my 3 year old daughter Aria (who sleeps like she's in a wrestling match) secured in her bed with a Zippy Sack (there is an obnoxious commercial on TV about it, luring all kids to want one. I hope you get to see it!)  I PLANNED for how I could keep her in a bed while flying down a highway at full speed and so far it's doing the trick! Thank you Zippy Sack for your obnoxious commercial.

 Directly across from Aria is Ireland (6 months) and she is sleeping in a Crib tent (secured with straps underneath the mattress) because I PLANNED ahead of time how I would keep a rolling and face planting 6 month safe in her own tour bus bed. So far so good with the plan. Mommy success!

I know the first thing about keeping them safe is to plan to not have them sleep with me.  I learned early on as a child that I was a dangerous snoozer when any stuffed animal I had on my bed would be flung across the room by morning. The end of my wanting stuffed animals as a child, I didn't see the point. 

Well all this PLANNING didn't help me PLAN for how I would sleep in a moving hunk of medal. I am still awake. It's not normal to bounce and sway while I sleep. Maybe I should have ordered another Zippy Sack!

The Gear! (Our first night was in a hotel)

Heading over in our caravan of cars to load onto the tour bus. It's a whole crew of us but it already feels like new family. (More details about that later. Now I'm nursing a child in the back lounge, surviving on maybe 3  solid hours of sleep)