Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Booking 2026 Travel on Points - Thailand, Scotland, Switzerland, Italy? (+ a few Travel Goals!)

• Raya & Duane

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Next year we've got three big trips on the docket - Thailand, Scotland/ London, and Switzerland/Italy. By mixing cash fares, smart point redemptions, and repositioning, we share the exact math behind paying cash to Asia, and two goals to keep travel calmer and on budget.

• booking strategy for a family of five using points, cash, and portals
• why one‑cent redemptions lost to Amex travel offers and 5x earning
• routing choices to access lounges and smoother layovers
• Thailand plan with Phuket, Koh Samui, and Bangkok as bases
• London and Edinburgh logistics for seven travelers
• chasing return award space after routes vanish
• Aeroplan business class to Zurich and Boston repositioning
• hotel approaches in Zurich, Lake Como, and Italy
• domestic add‑ons to Oceanside and Disneyland with Hyatt certs
• budget tracking on trips to curb overspend
• ADHD medication updates improving family travel dynamics

I think I’m like very close to a thousand followers on Instagram. So if maybe you don’t already follow, go over and give us a follow @travelpartyof5


SPEAKER_01:

Booking ahead is one of my secrets for making points and miles travel possible, even as a family of five, especially if you're a beginner. So in today's episode, I'm sharing what we've got booked so far for 2026 again as a family of five, how I booked it, along with a few travel goals I'm setting along the way. So listen in. Hi, I'm Raya.

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And I'm Dwayne.

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And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

SPEAKER_00:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

SPEAKER_01:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family, but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

SPEAKER_00:

So welcome to our podcast where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

SPEAKER_01:

My name is Raya. I am your host today. I am solo again today. Dwayne is off running a million errands, dropping off the dog and the kids and all the things because we have one more trip left for this year. And we leave tomorrow from the day that I'm recording this. So we have a lot to do. Um, potentially on my list might also be addressing and mailing about 75 Christmas cards. And I can assure you that not one has been addressed yet. So that is on my list to do and get done today, along with packing for all the kids plus myself and all the winter gear because we are headed to European Christmas markets. I am so excited because this has been on my bucket list for over 10 years. Like since our oldest was a baby, I somehow learned about Christmas markets and as a side note, spent my entire life not having any clue what a Christmas market was. But you know, thanks to the internet, now we all know way too much about all the things happening. And I just remember like learning that these Christmas markets existed and just immediately being like, I need to go there. And it has been easily in my top five on my travel bucket list for over a decade. So the fact that it is finally happening and we are flying business class both ways as a family of five, which is wild to me, thanks to Points and Miles. And on top of that, our kids have no idea that we are flying business class. So I'm so excited because it feels like our trip is gonna start when we get to the airport versus having to suffer through yet another economy flight internationally. Um, because we've done that, you know, quite a few times this year already. So it really feels like a true vacation. It is gonna be cold there. So we are packing a lot of like warm winter gear. Um, we're attempting to go carry-on only still. Dwayne is not loving that part of it. He keeps telling me, look, it my suitcase is full and I've only put sweatpants in it. So I hope he laughs when he's editing this later tonight. But I don't know what's gonna happen with carry-on only, but we will report back on all the things, of course. Um, I do actually think our next episode will be part one of two all about Christmas markets. So we are visiting Strasbourg and Cologne, Germany. And then we have a couple day trips planned from each of those spots. So super excited. Anyways, let's dive into 2026. This is going to be a little bit of a different episode in that I don't really have an outline or anything. You might hear me clicking around a little bit. That is me just kind of searching for email confirmations or whatever, so that I can give you the most accurate information about, like, oh, I booked this flight and it was this many points and this many taxes or that sort of thing. So let's dive in. So far on our agenda for 2026, we have three international trips planned. And the first one is Thailand over spring break. The second one is Scotland and London over the summer. And then the third one is a fall break trip. And the tentative plan for that right now is Switzerland and Italy. Um, this the reason I say tentative is the plan has already morphed several times. It was just going to be Italy, and I had a pretty good plan, but I couldn't find the flights that we needed because we wanted to fly business class. And so I did actually just end up booking these flights there yesterday. And so I'll share more about that when we get to the that trip. But the flights back are not booked yet, and I'm not 100% sure where I will be able to find them from. So that's why the trip is kind of TBD. But let's first talk about Thailand. So we will be visiting Thailand over spring break 2026. I booked this trip in April of this year. So in April of 2025, I booked for March 2026. I booked both flights and hotels. And the hotels I might change because that is easy to change. But the flights are booked, and I have no intentions of changing them, even though I wish we were not flying economy. So um it is what it is. But I did something I didn't really think I would ever do once we found credit card points and miles, and I paid cash for our flights both directions. So going there and going back, they're they're one-way flights, but I did book them with cash and not with points. And the reason why I did that was the cash price was let's just call it roughly$600 per person. It was a little bit less for the little for the little kids and a little bit more for the adults, but on average around$600 a person. So$3,000 total one way for five people in economy from the west coast of the US to Thailand. And the the points cost was the best I could find was$38,500. And that was on Singapore Airlines. Let's just call it$38,000 points a person for easy math. And so that comes out to 190,000 points total for the five of us, plus the taxes and fees. And the taxes and fees were over$1,000. So even if I used points, I still had to pay$1,000 out of pocket. But if I didn't use points, then I was paying$3,000 out of pocket. So the difference is$2,000. And that's how you would calculate your cents per point, is you would do that$2,000 divided by the points that are required, which in our case was 190,000 points. So that is basically one cent per point, which is a really terrible use of your points, in my opinion. Now, I do want to add that the ability to pay cash for these flights, I do think is a privilege. And I'm that part is not lost on me. Um, and so I just want to acknowledge that if the only way that you can take a trip is by using points, even if it's a bad quote, sense per point usage, I think you should still use the points. And who cares about the cents per point? Because you're gonna get a trip where you can make amazing memories with your family. That being said, we do have the ability on occasion to pay cash for flights. And so I took the opportunity to do that this time. But there was one other thing that swayed that in my favor. And so let me share that. So earlier this year, American Express had a card-linked offer on some of their cards, and it was if you spend$2,500 or more on flights, you get$500 back as like a rebate or a refund, and it comes as a statement credit. So again, I knew and I think I had it on my my first business platinum card. And so I thought, okay, well, now the offer is only, you know, I'm really only paying$2,500 out of pocket versus the$3,000. And so that actually even makes the cents per point worse, right? Because then if I used points, I'd only be saving$1,500, but I'd be using$190,000 of my hard-earned points. And so that was kind of the the tipping point that swayed my opinion in favor of cash. So what we ended up doing was we paid like three a little over$3,000 for the the tickets on Singapore Airlines, paid cash. It is a basic economy fare. And then I got a statement credit for$500. So essentially, we paid$2,500 out of pocket for five people to go to Thailand one way. And I think we fly out of San Francisco, we have a layover in um Singapore, and then we fly onto Phuket in the morning. So um I feel great about that. I think$2,500 is a steal. I mean, I was looking up domestic flights the other day, like from coast to coast, and they were over$500. So I'm calling that a success, but um we also did something similar for the flight back. So the flight back, we are flying on Cathay Pacific, and I did another thing that I don't normally do and don't recommend doing, and that is that I booked through the Amex travel portal for that one. So I around this time got a um uh mailer for a second American Express business platinum card, and it had no lifetime language, so I applied and was approved for it. Part of the signup bonus for that card was again that same offer, except instead of you know it being a card-linked offer, it was part of the signup bonus. So it was earn whatever number of points plus$500 back if you spend$2,500 on or more on flights, either booked direct with an airline or through the travel portal. The other thing that is important to note here is that the Amex business platinum card gives you 5x points on travel booked through the travel portal. So not booked directly with an airline, you have to book through the travel portal to get the 5x points on the business platinum. So those two things combined, along with the fact that when I looked at booking directly with the airline to come back, so this is us flying from Bangkok back to the US now, again, March 2025. Um the basic economy option like wasn't good. And it appeared that if I booked through the travel portal for the same exact price as the basic economy, I could get like a main cabin economy, which has, you know, all the the benefits, the checked bag, all the things. So I did. I booked through the travel portal coming back, and so let me give you the details on that. Okay, so I booked for the five of us. Um, the flights were$3,119, adults were$488 per person, and children were$366. So both on CAFE and Singapore, the children's tickets were less than the adult tickets. My oldest will be 12 next year. He is considered an adult on both of these airlines, and so um, you know, so it's we're basically paying for three adults and two children, but important to know if you have kids that are maybe right on the cusp, try to go when they're younger. It's cheaper. Um, and so again,$3,100. And then I did get the$500 credit again. So essentially$2,600 back,$2,500 there. So roughly a total of$31, I'm sorry, that's terrible math. Roughly a total of$5,100 for a family of five round trip flights to Thailand. And we do still need to position. I do not have both positioning flights booked yet. One of the tricky things is when we land back in the US, we land at 5 p.m. And so it's gonna be a little tricky making sure I can get a flight that isn't a million points per person back home on that same day, but I will do my best. Um, I have already looked and I didn't see any good options, which is why I haven't booked it yet. But that's just kind of something on my checklist to get done in the next month or two. And the other thing I wanted to mention is that when we leave Bangkok, we fly to Hong Kong and we have like a three or four hour layover in Hong Kong. And what's exciting about that, first of all, I've been to Hong Kong before. I actually had a 24-hour, I've been there twice, but one of those times was a 24-hour layover. And so we stayed in a Marriott. I was with my mom. We went out and explored the city, we saw the Big Buddha, we ate at Din Tai Fung before it was a worldwide sensation. Um, and so it was a it was a fun little um, a fun little excursion on our way home from Bali. But in the Hong Kong airport, there is a Chase Sapphire Lounge. And Dwayne and I are both Chase Sapphire Reserve card holders. And so we will be able to get into that lounge with all five of us, even though we are flying economy. So part of the reason that I chose this route is because I knew we would fly through Hong Kong and I knew that we could easily access the lounge there. So these are all the things that I think about when I'm looking for flights is I do consider, is there a lounge there? And can I get can we get all of us into the lounge? So that that is a consideration when I'm considering different layover options. In Thailand, our the plan is three home bases, and so it is uh Phuket, then Kosamui, and then Bangkok. I have Hyatt's booked in all of those places for now. However, I am trying to see if there's a way that I can utilize some of the edit credits to either book our second room, because you know, in some of the properties we'll need two rooms. But the frustrating thing is that there are not a ton of hotels in Thailand that are considered an edit hotel. So the other piece I need to look at is the fine hotels and resorts uh or the hotel collection options and see if any of those will work too. And with everything going on in the holidays, I just haven't had time to kind of piece that together yet. Um, I can tell you that the current properties that we have booked are not listed on the edit at all. Um, and so TBD on how that ends up shaking out, but obviously we will share all the details when we do the actual trip recaps. But just I I want you to be aware that even though I've booked these trips early, um, there is still a lot of like flux that can happen. And I do think it's important to be a little bit flexible. So as a side note, if anyone has stayed at the Park Hyatt Bangkok with little kids and has gone in that infinity pool, send me a DM on Instagram and ease my anxiety because that is one of the properties that we have booked. And while I love a good park Hyatt, um, I have a lot of anxiety around my kids swimming in that pool because it looks like they're just going to swim right over the edge. So send me a DM if you have been there and can ease my anxiety or make my anxiety worse. That would also be fine. And then I will absolutely book a different hotel instead. Thank you. Okay, let's move on to our second international trip, which is Scotland. So this is going to happen over the summer. We have mentioned before that our kids are in what's called a year-round calendar. And so that's why they get two weeks for spring break and two weeks for fall break. But the downside of that is their summer break is shortened by two weeks. So they really only get about six weeks of summer break and maybe seven weeks, depending on when they end. But it's a little bit tricky trying to fit in a vacation during those six weeks because ideally, I'd like to take two summer vacations, and we really can't make that work with time off of work. So this is also a multi-generational trip. So, in addition to our family of five, my sister and my mom are also coming. So we will be a total of seven people on this trip. And we will do a few days in London first that is already booked. We do have flights. We got super cheap economy flights booked through Virgin Atlantic for the five of us, nonstop from LAX to London Heathrow. It was 75,000 points and$549 in taxes and fees total. And um, I feel like that was that that's really cheap for economy flights, like$500 and 75,000 points. I mean, that's a steal. Uh, the flight leaves on a Sunday night out of LAX. And so likely we will probably just fly over earlier in the morning. That's my intention. Probably won't even do the day before. So, um, and then I also booked my mom. So my mom also lives in in Phoenix and is coming with us. So I also booked her uh on a separate ticket using her points um on the same flight. And I chose her seat to be directly next to ours. So hopefully that sticks. I probably should reach out and have them link the two PNRs, but I have not done that yet. And then my sister will be flying from the East Coast out of Orlando, and she also has her flight booked um, I think also on Virgin Atlantic, and um she lands like I don't know, maybe an hour before we do. So should all be, should all work out pretty easily, I think. Um, and then flights back we do not have booked yet. Part of that is because I fully, and I think I mentioned this on one one episode in the past, but I had a route where I was fully ready to book six business class tickets um on American Airlines actually, and was ready to go. And then the route just completely disappeared, like not available for award booking at all. The route still exists and you can book it for cash, but I am not doing that. And so I have been noticing the route is slowly coming back, but for next summer, it is still not back yet. But there are like dates even as late as April where it is uh bookable by points. So my hope is that if I wait another month or two, then it will all write itself and then I will be able to book our flights back. Um, but as of now, we have no flights back, and I'm really not even that stressed about it because I feel like I have some good points balances that I can like pull on if needed, if my American Airlines plan does not work out. So no flights back, but we do have everything else booked. So we will be in London for three days, then we will go to Edinburgh. Um, in London, we are staying at a Hyatt. We have three rooms booked for all seven of us. I will gift my um mom and sister a guest of honor so that they can have access to our benefits, uh, my or my globalist benefits when we're there. Um, so that will be really nice. And then we will go to Edinburgh. We're gonna take the train. We have a Hilton booked there using Hilton points, actually. It is a double tree. So we're staying at the double tree in Edinburgh, and I don't have high expectations for this being a luxury property, obviously. Um the funniest part is I already emailed them and asked for connecting rooms and also like a potential upgrade. And they wrote back and were like, we don't have any up, like any rooms to upgrade you to. Like all of our rooms are the same. And I was like, surely that is not true. And then I looked on their website, and that is actually a hundred percent true. They only have like standard rooms, so there are no suites or anything like that. So just pretty funny because I was shocked and appalled at that, but it will be fine. Um, after three days in Edinburgh, we will then go on to the Scottish Highlands and we have Airbnbs booked in um both the Highlands and on the Isle of Sky. So that is the rough plan for that. I just need to get our flights back and we will be in business. I don't actually mean business business class, although I hope they are in business, but I just mean we will be ready to go. And then our last trip is um going to be over fall break, and it is has morphed into a um combo of Switzerland and Italy. So originally my plan was we will just do Italy, we will fly into Milan, we will do Lake Como for a couple of days because I have not been there. And while I've been to Italy twice, the rest of my family has not. So my uh, you know, Dwayne and all my kids have never been. So that was my initial plan. We'll do Milan, then we'll go down to Florence, then on to Rome, and then maybe Sicily or somewhere in the south of Italy, because it'll be like end of September, beginning of October. And so it will be a little bit colder, but the farther south you go, the more warm it should get. And so I thought that would be a nice kind of way to end the trip is like a few days, you know, where it's warm and we can go to the beach or whatever. An Italian beach club is just 10 out of 10. But I found flights into Switzerland, and Switzerland is also very high on my list, and it turns out that is a very good time to go to Switzerland. So I think this trip has now morphed into we'll do maybe five-ish days in Switzerland, and then we will stop in Lake Como for a couple of days, and then we will go down and maybe just do one of the Italian cities, whether that is Florence or Rome. I don't really know. I'm probably honestly gonna let either Dwayne decide since he's never been, or I'm going to let the flight home decide because we don't have flights back yet. And ideally, I would like to fly business class both ways. So literally yesterday I booked us from Boston to Zurich, five people, business class, 60,000 points a person, so 300,000 points total. I booked us on Luftanza, but I booked through Air Canada Aeroplan. I transferred my American Express membership rewards points to Air Canada and then booked um through the Air Canada website, but the flight is on Luftanza. So Luftanza is one of the ones where it's not uncommon to be able to find five seats in business class. This is not super ideal for us because we do have to reposition to Boston, which Phoenix to Boston is a four to five hour flight. It's a actually a five-hour flight. Let me not trick myself into thinking it's only four. It's a five-hour flight. So that is not ideal for us, but my kids have never been to Boston. So what we will do, similar to what we did when we repositioned earlier this year to Chicago to fly to Paris, is we will make a weekend out of it. So we will fly over, we will fly over either one or two days before. We will stay probably at a Hyatt in Boston, and we will do all the Boston things. We will eat the seafood and we will do the Freedom Trail. And there's like a tea party museum that I've heard is super fun for kids. So we will do all of those things. My kids can check off Boston and Massachusetts off their little state checklist, and then we will get on our business class flights over to Switzerland. And that sounds like a great plan to me, actually. Um I could have gotten us flights out of from the West Coast into Zurich. So there's like a San Francisco to Zurich nonstop flight, but it was 90,000 points a person. And so that's much more than 60,000 points a person. And surely I can get us from Phoenix to Boston for less than 30,000 points a person in economy. So um not worried about that part at all. Um, there's plenty of non-stop flights from Phoenix to Boston, and so that is the plan. Um, and again, there is no plan coming back yet. Uh, and I also don't really know the plan once we're there. So TBD, because my next step is I'm going to go onto YouTube and I'm going to watch all the videos of Switzerland with kids, and I'm going to then filter that information through what I know my family likes to do and won't like to do, and what will work best for us specifically, and then I will book accordingly. Um, I would love to stay at the park Hyatt Zurich if we could swing it. I don't know because we would for sure need two rooms. So I just don't know. Um, I do think we're gonna have to pay some cash out of pocket for at least one hotel or Airbnb, if I had to guess. Um and then I would like to do, I would like to stay at the Grand Hotel Victoria on Lake Como for a couple of days using Hilton Free Night certificates. And then um, you know, if we do to go to Florence, I would love to stay at Il Tornebuoni again, but again, that's a hefty amount of chase points and we would need two rooms. So all of these things are very much up in the air, obviously, when we do the trip recap in a year, we will share all the details. Um, but I think what I wanted to like the the overall point I wanted to get across today is that we are in flux in booking most of our trips for 2026. And generally by now, I would have had everything set and booked, but there's just been a lot of circumstances out of my control that have been, you know, which is why it's not, right? Like I can't control that AA stopped releasing award flights and I haven't been able to find anything else that was even comparable, even in economy that would work that was not astronomical in taxes. So things like that, I think you just have to kind of roll with the punches, and I just kind of go with the flow. Um the other thing I wanted to briefly like mention is that I am a huge proponent for booking a year in advance when you are new in this hobby. But what I have been finding for us in the last three to six months is that I am a lot more confident now in my ability to find flights that will work for us, which means I am kind of loosening the reins a little bit on having to book exactly a year in advance when availability opens. I also have been finding, and if you've been noticing this too, send me a DM on Instagram and let me know. I have been noticing that a lot of airlines are not releasing like the savor fares that we are accustomed to right when the calendar opens. Like I check on the day of opening and I am not finding the good like discount fares that I want. So I don't know if it's just me. Maybe someone is beating me to it every single time, but I really just don't think they're releasing those saver fares immediately anymore, like they were doing maybe a year ago. So, you know, this hobby is always changing, things are always changing. You gotta get while the getting is good, and then uh probably the getting won't be good anymore after a while, and then you move on to the next thing that's good. And so that's kind of what I've noticed. But um let's jump into like maybe a few domestic trips that I'm gonna try to sprinkle in throughout the year, and then I've got a couple of travel goals, and then we will wrap it up for today. So every summer we like to go to Oceanside California. I love to stay at the seabird, it is my absolute favorite hotel in California. There's just something about it that makes me feel like I'm in like Cape Cod or something, and I grew up in the Northeast. I grew up going to Cape Cod as a little girl, and so I really love the seabird. Um, we do not have it booked so far this year. However, I am hoping that potentially, if I'm not able to use both of our edit credits in Thailand, um, the Seabird is on the edit. And so my hope is that I can use the edit credit plus hopefully it'll be on the points boost, or I can do a cash plus points stay for like a long weekend sometime over the summer or into the early fall. And so that is my hope. I do want to do that. We also would like to take the kids to Disneyland. We will have a few Hyatt category one through four free night certificates that we need to use up. And And like I have two right now, I think, or maybe I have one and I'm gonna get two more. I think yes, I have one and I have two more on the way. And so I would love to utilize those, like on a, you know, the Hyatt House Disney Anaheim convention center or one of those properties. Um, but we don't have we don't have that booked yet either. So those are like kind of the other easy trips that we like to sprinkle in. And then the last thing is Dwayne and I will do uh, we think, a getaway, just the two of us. Nothing is booked for that yet. Not only is nothing booked, but we don't even have what we would need to book it in terms of hotels because I want to go to the Conrad Bora Bora. And we don't even have the Hilton Free Night certificates yet to use for next year. So, you know, I don't know. Everything feels kind of up in the air, but that is my plan. If I can find like a five-day time frame where we can get away, where the kids don't have a major event, it's not the end of school, it's not the beginning of school. Like there are pros and cons to having this kind of year-round schedule. One of the cons is that I do find it difficult to book things because, for example, one of my kids doesn't get out of school until the week after Memorial Day, whereas my other two are done the week before. So we can't even plan a Memorial Day trip where, you know, Duane and I would already be off work because one kid still has two or three days of school left. And it's like, well, he obviously doesn't want to miss the last couple of days of school. Those are the most fun days of the whole year. So we can't do anything that week. And then we're uh, anyways, I'm just ranting at this point, but the pros are that we get a solid chunk of time for spring and fall break. The cons are that summer is a little more limited, and you know, that's like peak travel time in a lot of places, especially if you want to go to Europe and have good weather. So, anyways, there are pros and cons. Um, let me quickly talk about two travel goals that I have for both myself and for our family for 2026. Um, and as a side note, my family is completely unaware of these goals, um, as they are with most things that go on in my brain. So, will they actually happen? Who knows? Because probably I need some buy-in from everybody else. But one of them solely relies on me, and that is I want to have a budget set aside per trip, and I want to stick to it. It is very easy in the moment while you are traveling to go over budget, and I am not good about tracking expenses day by day. Matter of fact, I just don't do it. So, my goal for 2026, and actually for our Christmas markets trip coming up too, is to track our spending day by day so that I know exactly how much of our budget we have used up so that we can then adjust accordingly. We did spend more money than I anticipated in Japan, partly because I didn't realize the bullet trains were so expensive, but also it was just you know, all the little things add up. The 7-Eleven runs, like even though the yen to dollar is is a really strong um for you know Americans right now, it's it still adds up. So we spent more money than I had intended. And when I added it up, I was like, whoa, that's more than I thought. So I really want to be more intentional about keeping track of our daily spending while we're on the trip so that we can adjust accordingly if needed. Um, so that is my goal for myself. And then my other goal is we have um we talked, I talked about, you know, having two kids with ADHD on the podcast a month or so ago. And since we've been back from Japan, they are both medicated now. And I'll probably need to do a more in-depth update maybe after we've been down this road for about six months. But I can say that so far it has been absolutely life-changing. And Duane and I wish that we had done this years ago, not only for our own sanity, but also because our kids seem to be enjoying their life more. There is less anxiety, there is a lot more positivity. Um, the way that it affected, or the way that it affects each of our kids is different. So the way that like the benefits that they're experiencing are obviously different as well. But, you know, one, I just found them being super negative all the time, just kind of hating life, hating school, hating all the things. And now that same child has a much more positive attitude. We are able to joke around, which I feel like we haven't been able to do in years. They are doing things the first time we ask them to do them. They have no missing assignments at school. And for contrast, like the first quarter, they had like nine. So, I mean, it has been, I think, life-changing for us, but also for them, even if they won't admit it. Like one of them is like, I feel the same. And I'm like, Well, you seem very different to me. So we're just gonna keep going with it. Um, and then the other child was experiencing a ton of anxiety, was always scared, would have these really big tantrums that would last for 30, 45 minutes, and they just could not get out of that reactive part of their brain. And it was always triggered by something very small. Someone took the remote from them, like very small things. And so we have noticed that not only have the uh has the amount of temper tantrums decreased significantly. Like we were going through this every day, sometimes multiple times a day, if they were home for the weekend or whatever. Um, but we were this was happening at least once a day. And now not only does it not happen every day, but when it does happen, the tantrums, like the time of the tantrum is significantly reduced. Like we're talking maybe it's five minutes now. They are much more able to like process and kind of get back to the logical part of their brain. Um, and even their therapist um has has noted that they seem to have more room to process like what's actually happening versus just kind of reacting to it. So they're on completely different types of medication. One is a stimulant. The first one that I talked about is a stimulant, the second one is not a stimulant, and they actually take it at night because it makes them drowsy. So given those updates, my other goal for our family is to like have a more enjoyable time when we are traveling so that not only can Dwayne and I not feel like we're losing our minds, but also so that our kids can feel successful and that they can like enjoy the trip. Because is it enjoyable when your parent is telling you 17 times to stop doing something? No, it is not. It's not enjoyable for me as the parent, and it's not enjoyable for you as the child. So that is my other hope is that medication can help us like just kind of ease the bumps a little bit and have a more enjoyable time together as a family. So those are my two goals. I feel like I've been rambling for a really long time. So I'm gonna end this episode now. But if you have any questions, always send me a DM on Instagram. I will be doing my best to kind of live broadcast our trip in a way that is safe, um, obviously for us and the kids. And I think I'm like very close to a thousand followers on Instagram. So if maybe you don't already follow, go over and give us a follow. And I would love to get to a thousand. That sounds really exciting to me. Um, and yeah, obviously just send me a DM. Let me know if you have any questions or how I can help. And we will be back next week with a very exciting Christmas market recap. So we will catch you then and have a good week. Bye.