It is wonderful to be traveling with the kids. It is also very, very difficult.

It is wonderful for all the usual reasons. Their excitement at seeing new things. Their enjoyment of swimming pools and street performers and hotel bathrooms with all the tiny soaps. Their delight in spending so much time with me and with each other (24 hours a day! Never out of each others’ sight!) It is very difficult for most of the same reasons: their excitement jacks them up like little sugar-amped badgers. The round-the-clock character of that excitement is exhausting. And my husband isn’t here to spell me off. When the girl goes berserk, or the boy flips out, or I simple don’t get enough sleep, there’s no one else to turn to. And that’s hard.

And yet, and yet…  we’re having an adventure. We’re having an adventure, together. We’ll talk about it forever. And although it seems beyond trite to say, that? Is worth all the exhaustion I can take.

Yeah. All of it.