On this episode of Hey, Boomer!, Wendy Green and Maddie are in Nashville for a special show, where they talk about being a mom and a grandmother, and traveling together. They also discuss Wendy’s tradition of hosting “Camp Wey-Wey” with her grandchildren and taking them on individual trips between ages 10-14.
Wendy and Maddie visited Chincoteague Island, a natural resource preserve with wild ponies and beautiful egrets, for their grandparent/grandchild trip. They enjoyed a picnic, campfire, ice cream, and s’mores, along with learning about the wild ponies and the island habitat.
Wendy then segues into her thoughts on being a grandparent versus being a parent. She feels that being a grandparent is more about fun and being a role model, while being a parent is more about responsibility and teaching moral values.
Listeners will enjoy this episode for its mix of personal anecdotes, and tips for traveling with grandchildren.
Thanks so much for listening.
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Email me with questions or comments at wendy@heyboomer.biz
–
Wendy Green is a Certified Life Coach, working with people going through the sometimes uncomfortable life transition from full-time work to “what’s next.” Find out more about Wendy’s 6-week “What’s Next Transition” Coaching workshop
Transcript
Hello. Hey, Boomer. Listeners.
Speaker:Welcome from me and Maddie. Hi. We are here
Speaker:in Nashville for a very special show for all
Speaker:of you. I think some of you know that
Speaker:it has been my birthday. Hi, Heidi.
Speaker:And I've had such a wonderful time here.
Speaker:We had an amazing meal for my birthday because my son
Speaker:is quite the chef and we had a beautiful death
Speaker:by chocolate cake because Maddie's mother is
Speaker:an amazing baker. And then I got
Speaker:presents and we played in the pool and we went to a soccer game.
Speaker:So we have just had the best time.
Speaker:And today hi, Doris. Today I
Speaker:want to talk about being a mom and a grandma and traveling
Speaker:with your grandchildren. Hi, Gail.
Speaker:So being a mom, as you all probably
Speaker:agree, is one of the hardest jobs because you're
Speaker:trying to raise your children and teach them lessons and have all these
Speaker:moral conversations and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And being a grandmother is
Speaker:just a joy because you don't have to do that. You don't have to do
Speaker:the parenting right, and we help you, and we just
Speaker:get to play and love. So all of that is
Speaker:wonderful fun. And one of the ways
Speaker:that I started doing that, because it was super important to me
Speaker:to be involved in the lives of my grandchildren
Speaker:and really get to know them and have them get to know me
Speaker:and hopefully be a good role model for them.
Speaker:And so one of the things we did early on when they were little is
Speaker:we had Camp Way, Way, and Way. Way is what they call me.
Speaker:That's short for Wendy. And I
Speaker:would have Maddie and her brother Alex one
Speaker:summer, or I would have Grayson and Griffin one summer,
Speaker:and we would do art projects and we would go on little adventures, and that
Speaker:was always fun. But I promised the kids, each one of them,
Speaker:when they were somewhere between ten and 14,
Speaker:let's say we would go on a trip,
Speaker:just the two of us, and we would pick a place to
Speaker:go and we would have our own individual adventure.
Speaker:And so the first trip was with Grayson,
Speaker:my first grandchild, and we
Speaker:went to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and then we
Speaker:drove from there to Nashville and we went to the Grand
Speaker:Old Opry and we went to the Ryman Auditorium and we
Speaker:saw Vince Gill, and that was super fun.
Speaker:And my second trip was with Maddie.
Speaker:That's me.
Speaker:And Maddie and I did a road scholar trip.
Speaker:Road Scholar is a travel organization
Speaker:for older adults, and they
Speaker:also do grandparent trips. And we're going to actually have them as a guest later
Speaker:on, I think next month or maybe October.
Speaker:But Maddie and I went to Chinkatik Island.
Speaker:And you read about Misty of Chinkatik before we went, right?
Speaker:Yes. So we did a little preparation for what we were
Speaker:going to do there, and it was a science
Speaker:kind of a trip. We went to see the Wild horses, but we also
Speaker:did a lot of ocean science and bay science and learned
Speaker:a lot while we were there. So we're going to talk,
Speaker:Maddie and I, about our experience on that trip.
Speaker:But first I want to talk about doTERRA,
Speaker:the essential oils company. And I
Speaker:remember somewhere when we first started talking about doTERRA
Speaker:that some of you talked about having experience with
Speaker:doTERRA. So if you have had
Speaker:doTERRA products, if you would kind of put a little
Speaker:comment in the chat and let me know that
Speaker:you are familiar with doTERRA, what you liked about it,
Speaker:maybe what oils or products you used. I would just like to get a
Speaker:little feedback on that. And I wanted to
Speaker:point you towards my doTERRA wellness advocate,
Speaker:Heidi Woody. And Heidi
Speaker:is absolutely committed to
Speaker:learning as much as she can and sharing her knowledge and
Speaker:wisdom with us about doTERRA and about how
Speaker:it can improve our lives. And you can reach
Speaker:out to Heidi through texting her
Speaker:at that phone number on your screen,
Speaker:864-23-8812,
Speaker:or you can email her at http://www.doterra.com
Speaker:heidig Woody so
Speaker:get in touch with her. There's no commitment.
Speaker:Just ask her if you're having aches and pains or you're feeling a little stressed
Speaker:or anything like that. Just reach out to Heidi, talk to her
Speaker:a little bit about it, see if you think that doTERRA might help.
Speaker:I can tell you it has certainly helped me.
Speaker:Another thing, labor Day is coming up, right? And so
Speaker:I didn't book anybody for Labor Day because I figured everybody off
Speaker:doing stuff, but it's the Delta variant, so we may
Speaker:not be out doing too much. So I thought
Speaker:instead of that, maybe you all would like
Speaker:to get together and have like, a little hey Boomer
Speaker:Chat. And so I'm thinking we would do it on Zoom
Speaker:so we can all get to know who's in our boomer community.
Speaker:If you think you might be interested in that and you think it might be
Speaker:fun, drop me an email at wendy at Hayboomer
Speaker:Biz and I'll compile this little email list, send out
Speaker:some proposed times that might be good and
Speaker:we could have fun. Just bring your my tie or your iced tea
Speaker:or whatever you want to drink that day. And let's have a little
Speaker:hey boomer chat for Labor Day,
Speaker:okay? You know, I love to see you out
Speaker:there. I love having the comments. Hi, Susan.
Speaker:And so thank you all who have already commented and said hi
Speaker:to us. Continue. That another thing. If you know
Speaker:people that you think would enjoy this show, whether they can watch
Speaker:live or not, if you put their name in the chat with
Speaker:an ampersand, it's going to tag them and let
Speaker:right the little A sign, it's going to tag them and let
Speaker:them know, oh, I was thinking about you. About you and
Speaker:your grandchildren. I bet you would like this show. So go and
Speaker:watch it. So go ahead and do that and let your friends know.
Speaker:Hi, friends. Are you ready? Yes. Okay.
Speaker:We introduce you to the fabulous, amazing Maddie.
Speaker:It's nice to meet you guys.
Speaker:I said she's my granddaughter. I'm her granddaughter.
Speaker:My second granddaughter sickly first.
Speaker:She's 13 years old. Maddie was born in DC.
Speaker:She has lived in Pennsylvania,
Speaker:she has lived in Asheville,
Speaker:and now she is living in Nashville.
Speaker:And I still can't spell Nashville, right? Because Nashville
Speaker:has an e and Nashville does not.
Speaker:So confusing. Maddie also has an amazing
Speaker:entrepreneurial spirit. Last year
Speaker:she had an ice cream subscription
Speaker:business, right? She made her own ice cream.
Speaker:She sold it by membership to
Speaker:neighbors. And she was making ice cream all summer. Right.
Speaker:And the best part was I got 50% of the ice cream I made.
Speaker:And you made money. Yeah. Hey,
Speaker:so that was part of our trip out, too. She was talking to me about
Speaker:how she was going to take over Amazon or compete with
Speaker:them. You know, we might do that in the future.
Speaker:Like that future.
Speaker:So anyway, Maddie is a natural leader and she's a friend magnet,
Speaker:which helped a lot on this trip because she made friends
Speaker:right away. So let me just tell
Speaker:you, we left Asheville
Speaker:and we had a very long drive to
Speaker:get from Asheville to the shore of Maryland
Speaker:where Chicatik Island was. So we stopped.
Speaker:So Maddie, do you remember where we stopped that first night?
Speaker:Wasn't it like a great with the hotel,
Speaker:whatever. What was your excitement about seeing that hotel? So I got all
Speaker:these butterflies in my stomach and I was like, oh, my goodness, I get to
Speaker:unpack all my stuff and then I see this pool
Speaker:there and it looked so fun. And they had the best waffles
Speaker:in the morning and that was a lot of fun. And we had been stuck
Speaker:in a bunch of traffic on the drive, so we got to rest.
Speaker:And I was really excited about that, right. Pool.
Speaker:Pool was important in that hotel. Before we and we also
Speaker:went to the Walmart, remember? And I got a giant ball.
Speaker:We kind of played the Walmart game, running around Walmart like, oh, what are.
Speaker:We going to do? Some time before it's dinner, we got.
Speaker:A giant blue ball that was bouncy and a lot
Speaker:of fun. And before we went on to
Speaker:Chinkate, because we couldn't check in too early,
Speaker:we decided to stop at the Norfolk Naval base.
Speaker:And we took a tour of the naval base. That was so
Speaker:cool. I mean, there's all these giant things.
Speaker:Just giant things. What are those things called?
Speaker:Ships. Yes,
Speaker:there were ships. And there was this bus and we took this bus and it
Speaker:looked so sketchy from the outside because it was. All like dark and black.
Speaker:And then we get in, and there's all these cool, giant seats, and it.
Speaker:Was so much fun. And cool was the operative
Speaker:word because it had been pretty hot that day.
Speaker:Yeah, but that was a cool trip to go around the naval base and
Speaker:learn about the different ships, destroyers and battleships
Speaker:and whatever heck they were. I thought I was playing the game.
Speaker:And they let us letting us get pretty close.
Speaker:Yeah. And there were the statues with all the labels,
Speaker:and then we got to read the labels and learn about it.
Speaker:Yeah. I have to say she was a great travel companion because
Speaker:Maddie has this brain that is interested in everything. Very curious.
Speaker:So we were so excited to finally
Speaker:get to Chinkatik, and we left the naval base, and we're
Speaker:driving along, and we're driving
Speaker:along, and we're driving along, and it's becoming,
Speaker:like, less and less populated, and we're, like,
Speaker:wonder where we're going here. And the answer was to the middle of
Speaker:nowhere.
Speaker:It was called the Chinkatik Field Station,
Speaker:and it was like a dormitory, kind of a set up.
Speaker:What was your first impression when you saw it? Okay, so I got again,
Speaker:the butterflies came back, and I wanted them to go away, but at the same
Speaker:time, it was kind of tickly. And then we get into this dorm,
Speaker:and it's like, there's three beds, so we had an extra bed for storage
Speaker:and safe. And I love setting up
Speaker:bunks and stuff, so that's always my favorite thing to do at camp, is get
Speaker:in and just set up the area. So we set up all of
Speaker:our stuff, and then we met a bunch of people in our dorms, and we
Speaker:played with the giant blue ball that we got at Walmart,
Speaker:and we got introduced to everybody, and then we went and did we
Speaker:have lunch? We did. And we had lunch. And we found
Speaker:this creepy crawley that you didn't like very much. There was
Speaker:a spider. It's like that big.
Speaker:It was that big. That big.
Speaker:I learned that Maddie was afraid of spiders.
Speaker:They're crawling.
Speaker:She's like, she says she's setting up. She's unpacking her
Speaker:bed, you know, setting every hanging things. Yeah,
Speaker:everything is set up so nice. And there's spider girls out. She was like,
Speaker:on the bed. Oh, my God, there's a spider.
Speaker:It's just a spider. It's tiny, tiny, tiny.
Speaker:No, that was it was so big.
Speaker:It was like a balloon. It was a balloon.
Speaker:So that was kind of funny for us.
Speaker:So, yeah, like she said. So we got our room set up,
Speaker:and then we met some of the people in the
Speaker:dorm. And then Maddie just immediately was,
Speaker:like, out in the mix meeting everybody.
Speaker:She became, like, the little team leader there.
Speaker:And we had our introduction to what
Speaker:the events were going to be like at Chinketik. It was
Speaker:crazy. It was like, okay, we're going to do this, then this, then this.
Speaker:And I was like, whoa. Then when you actually start, it's like,
Speaker:okay, yeah. So it was kind of
Speaker:cool. Can I see that book? So I
Speaker:made a book for us, a memory book. I did this with Grayson also,
Speaker:and it tells the story of our
Speaker:trip, and it's a great reminder and
Speaker:of what we did. So the first day, we headed out
Speaker:to the nature center there, and they had
Speaker:that touch tank. There were, like, little stingry
Speaker:thingies, and I thought horseshoe crabs,
Speaker:horse, those creep me out. They're like,
Speaker:cool from the outside, but on the inside, it's like it's like the spider again.
Speaker:But the person with us from Rhode Scholar
Speaker:was explaining all about the different sea creatures, and then they
Speaker:had, like, these binoculars look out over the
Speaker:water. It was like one giant sort of telescopey thing that
Speaker:I loved looking out of, and you could see everything.
Speaker:Yeah. And then we got to have a picnic and play in the
Speaker:Atlantic, because on Chinkatik Island, you have the
Speaker:bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side.
Speaker:And we learned that the reason Chinkatik
Speaker:Island was made a natural resource
Speaker:preserve was because of the wild ponies.
Speaker:And there's some discrepancy or disagreement or whatever about
Speaker:how they may have ended up there. The exciting story is that
Speaker:a shipwreck happened and the ponies all swam to this island
Speaker:and then the egrets, right? So there's a lot of these beautiful
Speaker:egrets on the island now, but at one time,
Speaker:people were hunting those egrets for their feathers,
Speaker:and so they created this natural preserve
Speaker:area to protect the ponies and to protect the egrets.
Speaker:So after that, we headed for ice cream,
Speaker:back for dinner, and then, of course, we had to have a campfire s'mores.
Speaker:S'mores so good,
Speaker:right? You have a day of ice cream, and s'mores doesn't get
Speaker:better, and you. Have to take the chocolate off the s'more and then eat
Speaker:it separate.
Speaker:And one thing that I also always do with my grandchildren
Speaker:when we go on these trips I don't know if Griffin is going to go
Speaker:along with this is we journal. Yes.
Speaker:Right. So that's kind of part of the trip. I journal,
Speaker:and my grandchildren will journal.
Speaker:And it's a way to have a memory book also
Speaker:of what we did.
Speaker:I remember this one time where she told me to journal,
Speaker:and the only thing I could remember from that day was,
Speaker:like, driving around town and seeing this guy, and he
Speaker:had this giant backpack on. He was walking his dog,
Speaker:and on the top of his backpack, there was a cat. I remember that.
Speaker:And I had to draw it in the journal. I remember
Speaker:that. That was pretty funny. It was amazing. I would like to teach my
Speaker:cat to do that. Just stay on top of there. I know,
Speaker:but, like, what happens if they jump down?
Speaker:I guess the cat was trained to. Stay up or duct
Speaker:taped. Cat tape. Duct taped. Cat taped.
Speaker:So the second day, we really kind
Speaker:of went out on our adventure. So we started with something called the Godzilla
Speaker:line. Do you remember what that was? Yeah.
Speaker:Everybody holds hands and lines up. And then a few people take
Speaker:this giant net, right? And then they hold it at one
Speaker:end of the river downstream. And then the people who are upstream,
Speaker:they run down and chase all the fish into the line and
Speaker:the shrimp and everything. And then you pull up the god,
Speaker:and then there's all these fish in it, right. So it's sane
Speaker:netting, it's a way that they used to catch fish. And what we
Speaker:did was we would capture some of the ones that
Speaker:were caught in the net, and we brought them back to the lab
Speaker:so that we could study them and learn about the different
Speaker:creatures that would be in the water. And we all had these little,
Speaker:like, the magnifying
Speaker:glasses hung around our necks. And we would all look at the. Little fishes
Speaker:and the crabs. You remember catching the crabs?
Speaker:How was that? They were big.
Speaker:Yeah, I think you liked netting them.
Speaker:Better than yes, I liked netting them, and I liked
Speaker:when we got to put them in the bucket and
Speaker:then. I'd go, yeah, because she didn't like all the icky stuff you had to
Speaker:put on the hook to get the crabs.
Speaker:And they were over here like, I'm. Going to get you.
Speaker:Okay, so after the same netting, I think that's when
Speaker:we went to the mud pits, right? Oh, my goodness.
Speaker:Maddie had a question for me about the mud pits. Like, she asked me
Speaker:what was one of my what was one of your.
Speaker:Favorite experiences, or like, most memorable with
Speaker:the grandparents, right? So you've got to understand this was grandparents.
Speaker:So we were ages in our 50 plus.
Speaker:I think Maya's grandpa was in his eighty s. Yeah.
Speaker:And so walking out to the mud pit, I mean, it was
Speaker:sucking our feet really hard to walk
Speaker:in. And I'm trying to walk
Speaker:with some of these grandparents that were not as balanced,
Speaker:hoping we weren't going to lose any of them in the mud pit.
Speaker:Only a few. Only few.
Speaker:It's a little treacherous. But when we got to the mud.
Speaker:It was like this giant pit, and I had never seen so much mud.
Speaker:And I was so excited because then we got to cover ourselves in mud,
Speaker:right? And I was like, OOH, all this essentialness. And I
Speaker:covered myself in mud and I put some on my face,
Speaker:and all I remember was how bad it smelled.
Speaker:It smelled so bad. Picture of
Speaker:the girls with the mud all over them. It smelled so bad. It was sulfur,
Speaker:kind of. It smelled like rotten eggs.
Speaker:And it was gross,
Speaker:but fun, but gross when it dried
Speaker:and like caked off. It was so good for your skin, my dear.
Speaker:Flourishing. Very lovely for the skin.
Speaker:The girls loved it. I think I stayed out and
Speaker:held on to some of the grandparents. You didn't
Speaker:get fully encased in the mud? I did not.
Speaker:But it was good for your skin. It was good for your skin and
Speaker:it wore them out, I'll tell you, that. Bus ride back to the
Speaker:field station that day. Hello, David.
Speaker:Hi, David. I think most of the kids
Speaker:kind of fell asleep on the bus on the way back. I did.
Speaker:You did. So our third
Speaker:day was when we were doing a lot
Speaker:of the science work in the lab and learning about
Speaker:the different creatures that were in the bay and down
Speaker:by the bay, down by okay. She's the singer.
Speaker:Yeah. So do you remember any of the science
Speaker:stuff, what we learned? Yeah, so I remember there being a bunch of samples
Speaker:on the big table in the front, and we were all sitting it's kind of
Speaker:like a college classroom. It was. And we all
Speaker:had magnifying glasses and like what
Speaker:are they called? The microscopes. Yes. And we put
Speaker:the stuff on, like, a little tray under it, and then we got to
Speaker:look at it and it looked crazy weird, like all these little
Speaker:tiny and then the person was coming around and
Speaker:she was talking to us about what we were seeing. And it was really cool.
Speaker:And me and Maya had a lot of fun looking at them.
Speaker:I just remember laughing a lot. Yes, there was quite a bit
Speaker:of laughing. And because some of the stuff you just put that drop
Speaker:of water and you don't think there's anything in it until there
Speaker:is. Little squirmy things.
Speaker:Weird, but fun. But weird. Yeah,
Speaker:mainly weird. And then the final night,
Speaker:the counselors or the leaders were so
Speaker:excited that they were going to well, first of all, we did the talent show.
Speaker:Wait, let's think about that first. So me and Maya decided
Speaker:that we were going to do toe painting with ketchup and mustard.
Speaker:So we had these two bowls of ketchup and mustard
Speaker:in front of us and ketchup
Speaker:in the picture. Yeah. You would ask the audience, right? Yeah.
Speaker:We said, what should we paint? And we
Speaker:painted with our toes.
Speaker:Toe painting. Can you see the toe painting?
Speaker:Because that was the best thing to do at a talent show. Very creative.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. I have to say that was the. Counselors or the leaders did it
Speaker:once. Did they? I think they did. Is that where you got the idea?
Speaker:You think maybe they did
Speaker:something like much more competitive, like a
Speaker:bear wearing a halo?
Speaker:I don't know. And then the kids would vote on. Oh,
Speaker:maybe they did that. They were helping you prepare because there were times
Speaker:you were with them and you weren't there.
Speaker:Yeah, they gave us grandparents a little break every once in
Speaker:a while. Oh, and then I was the host.
Speaker:You were the host? I was the host. I had the fake microphone,
Speaker:right? Like, no surprise.
Speaker:Maddie's the leader. Maddie's the friend magnet.
Speaker:Everybody wanted Maddie to be the leader and in charge. Actually,
Speaker:I kind of just said that I was.
Speaker:Is that what a leader does? Bruce Malcolm, though. Yeah, I'll just
Speaker:take over, right? Yeah, you know,
Speaker:I think so. Then I got the funny voice and the hello,
Speaker:people. So after the talent show,
Speaker:as I started to say, the counselors, they put together
Speaker:this fabulous meal for us.
Speaker:They did a low country boil. We were in the
Speaker:eastern shore of Maryland, right, with these great crabs.
Speaker:And so they did a low country boil. And they were so excited.
Speaker:Everything spread out with the brown paper on the tables.
Speaker:And they were going to show us how to pick crabs.
Speaker:Okay, so I have never liked seafood. So they tell us
Speaker:to open up the crabs and then there's going to be mustard in it,
Speaker:right? So I open it. There's this brown squishy stuff. And I
Speaker:was like, oh, no. So then on the drive home, I texted my parents
Speaker:and I was like, mom, dad, I am now vegetarian. She did.
Speaker:And I was vegetarian for six months.
Speaker:Not just seafood. She gave up all meat for a while because of
Speaker:that one experience with picking crabs.
Speaker:I loved it. On the other hand, everybody did. People were just eating
Speaker:the crabs all around me. And I was like, oh, my goodness Grish. And it
Speaker:was fortunately, there was corn, of course, and potatoes and so other things that
Speaker:she could eat. But she was not enthralled.
Speaker:They weren't dead. They were dead. They were like
Speaker:there with their claws. They're going to pinch your mouth.
Speaker:No, the Maryland crabs are some of the best.
Speaker:Let's see. In the fall, I'm going to
Speaker:take Griffin to Atlanta. Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Griffin and I got delayed on our trip because of COVID so we're replanning.
Speaker:So we're going to go to Atlanta. And then next year is the trip with
Speaker:your brother. He's so excited. Do you have
Speaker:any advice for him?
Speaker:Mainly just to not freak out. He gets homesick,
Speaker:but he won't admit that he's homesick. Like, you'll know that he's
Speaker:upset, but he won't tell you that he's upset.
Speaker:So as long as he stays open,
Speaker:then he makes a lot of friends. Because I think
Speaker:the main thing is making friends. As long as he makes friends, as long
Speaker:as he is good with you, then he'll
Speaker:be perfectly fine. He loves trips. He loves getting
Speaker:out of the house. He does love travel. You guys are both good travelers.
Speaker:And I'm sure we will have a few laps of our own and
Speaker:we'll work together to kick the trip. He's going to love it.
Speaker:He's going to love it. He has his mind set on the grand canyon.
Speaker:Oh, really? Well, we may have to talk that through because that
Speaker:was also going to be a family trip for your family.
Speaker:There are other national parks we'll have to talk about that.
Speaker:We'll see. So did you have some questions for me?
Speaker:Yes, I did. What inspired you to start taking
Speaker:your grandkids on trips and why at the age you
Speaker:picked? And I love that question.
Speaker:And like I said,
Speaker:I love visiting the families and everybody's excited
Speaker:and talking, and we're all interacting, but to have
Speaker:that one on one time,
Speaker:I'm going to cry. To have that one on one time with each
Speaker:of my grandchildren separately, to get to know them,
Speaker:to watch them and their excitement, to live it
Speaker:through their eyes, to have that time.
Speaker:And I picked the ages, Maddie,
Speaker:like, between ten and 13, typically,
Speaker:because you're young enough that it's
Speaker:still cool to go out and be with your grandparents,
Speaker:right. But you're old enough that
Speaker:it's not too scary to leave.
Speaker:You don't need a whole lot of care.
Speaker:So it's a good age between ten and 13
Speaker:to do it, and it's just been the best thing.
Speaker:I have loved it. What was it like going for the first time
Speaker:with Grayson? Like, were you nervous? Were you scared?
Speaker:I think she was a little nervous, I would imagine.
Speaker:Yeah, I think she was a little nervous, but she
Speaker:was great, like you, because in the car, we had
Speaker:great conversations. I mean, Maddie was telling
Speaker:me about all her business ideas, and like I
Speaker:said, she's going to take over the Amazon market,
Speaker:not totally take over multibillion.
Speaker:Grayson was into the women's soccer. Oh,
Speaker:yeah, right. So she was naming all of the women's soccer team
Speaker:players.
Speaker:Maddie's family and Grayson's family, they try to keep
Speaker:a very healthy, nice meal balance and
Speaker:all of that. Well, when we're on the road,
Speaker:right, we're eating at the Waffle House or Kentucky Fried Chicken. I had Waffle
Speaker:House for the first time, and it still remains the first time.
Speaker:So, yes, they get to have travel food when they're with me,
Speaker:but I don't think I was really nervous. I was so excited
Speaker:to go. So was I. I was like, whoa, junk food. Yay.
Speaker:Junk food. What else?
Speaker:What were some of your favorite
Speaker:moments? I asked you about it with the grandparents.
Speaker:Do you remember any with you and me?
Speaker:Oh, yeah. So many favorite moments.
Speaker:I think just driving out the first time,
Speaker:I was like, okay, so this is a long drive.
Speaker:What are we going to talk about? We talked. We talked
Speaker:and talked. I know. It was so fun. We had
Speaker:so much to talk about. It was really refreshing.
Speaker:Refreshing? Well, because the
Speaker:parents are like, yup while they're reading the magazine,
Speaker:and we're just sitting here on the six hour car ride just talking.
Speaker:We had so much fun, and we
Speaker:were silly. And I think
Speaker:watching you. I didn't know how much you
Speaker:just gravitated and people gravitated to you. I didn't
Speaker:know that because when I would visit, I'm usually with your family.
Speaker:Yeah, right. And to see her just she kind
Speaker:of hurted people towards her. She didn't hurt her,
Speaker:but like a people hurt her. People hurt her. I know. They were
Speaker:climbing trees and they were like, oh, is Maddie there? Can Maddie come play?
Speaker:Yeah. She was such a natural leader. I loved watching. It was just
Speaker:a lot of fun. I think that if you have fun, everyone around you has
Speaker:fun. It's like the mood. They explain this
Speaker:at camp to us, but it's like happiness is like glitter. Once glitter
Speaker:is out, it's out, and it can't come back in, which can be very
Speaker:annoying because then it's in your carpets.
Speaker:But at the same time, you can also throw
Speaker:it. You can throw the glitter everywhere and
Speaker:it's sparkly. Yeah. So I
Speaker:am telling you, I would highly recommend traveling with your grandchildren
Speaker:and getting to know them. It is
Speaker:so much fun. And building those memories,
Speaker:like, that's going to be there forever. Oh, yeah.
Speaker:She has the book, the picture book. She has her
Speaker:journal. If she doesn't lose it. No, I still have it.
Speaker:It is in my bookshelves. When we got
Speaker:to the hotel, what were some of your first thoughts?
Speaker:Like, were you excited or were you like,
Speaker:oh, man, look at this hotel. I was glad to be there.
Speaker:I mean, it was a long drive.
Speaker:It was a long drive, a tiring drive,
Speaker:because we had all that delay, the big backup that we ran
Speaker:into. So I was just glad to be there and
Speaker:let you play in the pool. And I could chill for a few minutes.
Speaker:Chill being, again, the keyword, because it
Speaker:was hot or car. Then we got the pool and
Speaker:we got to chill. Right. We got to have dinner and rest and get
Speaker:ready for any waffles. I eat waffles the next morning before
Speaker:we went to the naval base. Oh, yeah.
Speaker:That was a lot of fun. So would you recommend traveling
Speaker:with grandparents to your friends? I would give it
Speaker:six stars. Because six out
Speaker:of ten. Five. Six out of five,
Speaker:which is like. Twelve out of ten.
Speaker:Okay. And then because you get to
Speaker:be with your grandparents, and you don't get to do that a ton,
Speaker:especially when they live in a whole nother state. And so
Speaker:we got to connect a lot. And our room was super
Speaker:cool, minus the big giant spider.
Speaker:Yeah. And it wasn't fancy.
Speaker:It was a dorm. Yeah. Right? So we had our room. We had to share
Speaker:the shower and a bath and all, but it was. Still a lot of fun,
Speaker:like, waking up and being like, oh, my goodness, what are we going to do
Speaker:today? Are we going to see more wild horses? Are we going to go.
Speaker:Into town and see a lighthouse and get souvenirs and
Speaker:it was so much fun. Hey, we didn't even talk about the lighthouse,
Speaker:did we? Oh, no. So one day, it was a free day,
Speaker:and me and my friend Isabelle, we went into
Speaker:town with her. With her grandmother?
Speaker:No, we just walked out by themselves? Yeah. She gave me
Speaker:the car keys. I was gone.
Speaker:And then we went to the lighthouse.
Speaker:And then we went souvenir shopping, and we spent
Speaker:30 minutes and I spent 30 minutes at the store. And I bought three
Speaker:magnets. You have to have magnets of
Speaker:your trip. Oh, yeah. Super important to have magnets.
Speaker:Right, for your refrigerator. And I really wanted this purse,
Speaker:but I didn't get the purse.
Speaker:But you got something for Mom, dad and Alex, the magnets. That's right.
Speaker:Super important magnets. And I picked each magnet
Speaker:individually because it looked like the mom, the son and the dad.
Speaker:How thoughtful. Yeah.
Speaker:And I think when we came home, I think you were ready to be home.
Speaker:Yeah. There was no giant spiders
Speaker:in my room. There was not a moth flying around.
Speaker:There was a moth, too, guys. It was real scary.
Speaker:It was buggy. It was buggy. There were two.
Speaker:It was crazy. But,
Speaker:you know, it was a great time. We thoroughly
Speaker:enjoyed it. We were ready to come home. We were both tired. We were both
Speaker:tired. Really good showers. So much fun. And we couldn't wait to tell mom
Speaker:and dad about all we had to tell him everything and
Speaker:have a good dinner. Oh, yeah. We knew dad would cook us a good dinner
Speaker:that night. Yeah. I love
Speaker:you guys, too.
Speaker:So that's the takeaways.
Speaker:Travel with your grandkids. Make it a special time.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be fancy. I hear people say
Speaker:they take them anywhere in the world. That's fine if that's what you want to
Speaker:do, but make it special and make it about them.
Speaker:And them.
Speaker:Thank you. What? People are saying you are the
Speaker:most inspirational guest yet. I'm blushing.
Speaker:But you can't see because there's a white light.
Speaker:So let me tell you about next week's guest,
Speaker:who also, I think is going to be inspiring.
Speaker:All right, so next week's guest, I was
Speaker:introduced to him. His name is. The future is bright with Wendy
Speaker:and her grandchildren. Thank you, Susan. She has a lot of them.
Speaker:So, anyway, next week's guest I was introduced to by
Speaker:a friend. He is a retired journalist with
Speaker:the Detroit Free Press, and he recently wrote a book
Speaker:he recently wrote a book about oh,
Speaker:wait, bruce wants to hear more about the ice cream subscription. We'll tell you in
Speaker:a second, Bruce. Anyway, John Gallagher recently wrote
Speaker:a book called The Irishman and Detroit.
Speaker:And it's a great story about two people that
Speaker:well, two people, the man who is
Speaker:a boomer and Detroit, who were both down on their
Speaker:luck. I mean, certainly you've heard about all of the hard times
Speaker:Detroit has had. So this is kind of a comeback
Speaker:story for both Detroit and this
Speaker:gentleman and entrepreneurship in Detroit.
Speaker:It's a fascinating read. Please join me next week.
Speaker:Bruce wants to get your ice cream subscription company on Shark
Speaker:Tank. Well, it all started with one Borg summer,
Speaker:and I was like, man, we have nothing to do. And my
Speaker:mom was like, I forgot. I bought an ice cream maker
Speaker:a few years to one year ago, and we never used
Speaker:it. So I was like, oh, my goodness. What if I sold ice
Speaker:cream to our street? You and your
Speaker:dad made a business plan? My dad made me write a whole outline,
Speaker:and I had to make a logo and everything. So then
Speaker:we printed out the what. Did you call it? Funny koalas homemade
Speaker:ice cream. Homemade gourmet. Yeah,
Speaker:because it was super fancy. My favorite flavor I made was coffee
Speaker:Oreo. That was really good.
Speaker:A Christmas special. And then I passed
Speaker:out all the flyers, and the emails came in,
Speaker:and I was like, oh, my goodness. I didn't actually realize I said, have to
Speaker:work. I thought I could just eat ice cream. So then I made the
Speaker:ice cream, and my brother, he would give them to people,
Speaker:and I paid him by giving him ice cream.
Speaker:So he basically just got to lick the bowl, which was like three servings of
Speaker:ice cream. And then we filled up these little containers,
Speaker:and we biked really fast down the street so it wouldn't melt.
Speaker:And we knocked on people's door, and we stood there like, come on, come on,
Speaker:come on. Because we didn't want it to melt, right? So they
Speaker:opened the door, and we're like, here's your ice cream. They were like, thanks.
Speaker:Here's your money. And we're like, thanks. And then I got this jar,
Speaker:and we made some money, and it was a lot of fun. Shark Tank.
Speaker:Here we go. All right, so anyway,
Speaker:thank you for tuning in today, Bruce. I think we'll
Speaker:work on her presentation, but she may get
Speaker:there. She may get there.
Speaker:Support Heidi, Woody, and doTERRA, go ahead and
Speaker:contact her and let her know what ails
Speaker:you and see if there's something that they can do that can help.
Speaker:Let me know if you would like to whoops that's? The website
Speaker:email me. Let me know if you would like to join us
Speaker:for our Labor Day zoom, where we're going to kick back with
Speaker:our chill drinks and just kind of get to know each other and chat about
Speaker:whatever we want to chat about. So drop me
Speaker:an email. I'll put you on the list, and we will cover
Speaker:that. And I think that's all
Speaker:I want to hello, Anne.
Speaker:Whoops. I need to take that off. Oh, hi, Anne. Yeah,
Speaker:I wanted to remind you where did my cursor go?
Speaker:That I always like
Speaker:to leave my show with this note. Maddie, you are
Speaker:never too old. Wait to set another
Speaker:goal or dream a new dream. Got it?
Speaker:So keep dreaming. Got it. Come back next week.
Speaker:Join us. I love you all. My name
Speaker:is Wendy Green. This is Maddie, the reporter.