Why I quit my job teaching to travel the World

Back in the states, I had a wonderful job at the most amazing school helping young minds learn. I taught 1st grade and absolutely loved it! I had a great Principal that gave me freedom and trusted me  to teach how I thought was best. I worked with people that became my best friends and helped me through life's ups and downs.  So why would I stop working such an amazing place? Why would I leave that behind to travel the world?

It's not because of the pay if that's what you were thinking. Although, teacher's pay isn't great, I'm truly passionate about teaching kids.

It was because of 3 things:

1.  The biggest one: my cute 11 month old boy Crosby. I wanted to spend more time with him.

2. Traveling with my husband, I rarely went to his races because I had to work.

3. Since my husband and I married, we have always wanted to travel the world. We talked about where we would want to go and what we would do. We never thought it would become a reality, but now our dreams are happening!!!

But how is this happening? Simply put, Hayden runs for a living (he's 3rd in the world in the Ultra distances 50k-100 miles), so as we travel, he is making money. He runs from 50k- 100 mile races on trails in the mountains of any place you can think of. The biggest races, UTMB, Laverado, etc... are in Europe, so we are here! .

We left behind a home, family, and friends for a time, but we are experiencing and learning so much as we travel.We are growing as a family and learning how to rely on each other. I do miss my family, I do miss teaching, I do miss our home, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that we could not pass up!

Flying Solo to Europe with a baby

Flying solo with a baby to Europe was quite the adventure and a big undertaking for me! Initially I was pretty terrified of doing this. Usually Hayden takes care of the details and I just follow along. Hayden was already in Europe for a race, so both me and the  baby had to make the trek overseas alone. Flying alone with a baby was something I was very worried about. Crosby is a pretty chill baby and usually a great traveler on shorter trips, but we were entering new territory here. We would have 26 hours of traveling counting layovers and flights. By the time it was all said and done 5 different flights...ughh!!! I wish we could've done a straight shot but we had to make some changes and I had to fly in somewhere else after we'd bought the tickets.

On top of all of this Crosby got the stomach flu the week before and was throwing up for an entire day. He felt better but was fighting off a cough the next week. He wasn't feeling great and the night before we got on the plane we both got awful sleep. I thought that there was no way that I could do this. He never gets sick and just happened to get sick that week. I was even contemplating not getting on the plane. The odds were definately not in my favor and I was bracing myself for a super hard flight.

Our flight
After all of this craziness and making it through security with a very upset baby, Crosby finally fell asleep in his stroller. Whew!!!

I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to my family. They got a hotel in Vegas and drove me down, my dad went to get cough medicine in the early morning, and they helped me take care of an upset baby and check my bags in. I could not have navigated without the help of my family, they are the best!!

Back to the story.... Our flight went surprisingly well! Crosby slept on the plane most of the time. I guess he was so tired from being up a lot the night before. He is never a snuggly baby but with him not feeling good, all he wanted to do was snuggle in my arms! He was a lap infant, so that worked out perfectly! Another great thing is that people were very helpful. I had people offer to help fold up the stroller and help me carry my extra carry-on baggage onboard. (In hindsight, I probably would have checked the stroller and carseat at the check-in counter and just have brought a small front baby carrier so I could be hands free.) The flight attendants were awesome and helped entertain Crosby, hold him when I needed to go to the bathroom, and they found me a row of seats with no one in them. IcelandAir was great for that! I had plenty of room to spread our stuff out and they even gave me an extra meal for kids even though I didn't pre-order it. I sure got lucky or you could say very blessed that on every single flight, no one was sitting next to me! One great tip, if you have a lap infant, ask the flight attendants if you can move next to an empty seat if you have a baby, it is so much more comfortable.
Apart from throwing up a few times because of the landing making Crosby's stomach drop, it was an ok time. Thank goodness I put 2 extra blankets in my other carry-on and  5 changes of clothes!!

We finally got to Vienna to meet Hayden at 8pm at night on Saturady (we left Friday) Crosby was done, I was done and I was about to cry when I saw Hayden because I was so happy to be done! All in all it wasn't as hard as I expected! After a few days we are now caught up on our sleep, Crosby's cough is gone and we are all happy!!

Here are some great hacks that saved my life when traveling alone with Crosby

1.  a small fanny pack that I wore and carried our passports, tickets, and money and made everything super easy to find and access.

2. a backpack diaper bag- BEST INVENTION EVER!! I bought this one- HaloVa Diaper Bag Multi-Function Waterproof Travel Backpack Nappy Bags for Baby Care, Large Capacity
3. bags of snacks that a 9 month old could eat (cheerios, fruity pebbles, MumMums, Gerber baby puffs, and baby food in the pouches that could open and close easy)
4. pre-portioned formula in little bags was a great idea too
5. 5 changes of clothes and 2 blankets, we used every single one!!!!