We chose the perfect name in chaos because that's all we really did.
Okay, welcome to the chaos and carry ons podcast where the two most introverted people that you'll ever meet decide to start.
A podcast.
An unlikely pair.
I thought we could start off with talking about how we met.
Just kidding.
We'll just say we bonded over our love of undercover work.
And as they say, the rest is history.
Let's, let's pretend like somebody just found this, like, you know, we became famous and somebody finds this.
They don't know who we are, even though we know everybody that's listening right now.
Knows who we are.
So my name is Stephanie.
I have three kids, two girls and a boy, 16, 12 and three.
So we have all the ages.
And I don't know if I want to say where I live because I'm a little leery of the internet.
Yeah, don't say it.
We could say the state.
Yeah, we live in Alabama.
So I got my love of traveling.
Well, let me go back.
We did not grow up traveling that much.
I only ever traveled with my grandmother.
And she took us everywhere.
We even went to like Frankenmuth, Michigan.
I know that's like really random, but when we went to Disney, like that's.
That's who we went with was her.
So shout out to Nana because if it wasn't for her, probably.
I mean, we talk about that sometimes.
Like if she didn't take us, I don't know if we would have really liked traveling.
Maybe eventually.
No, you would have been in the Smoky Mountains with everybody else that we know.
Yeah, it was really her.
I remember like one time she even took us to St.
Pete again.
That's like really random, but that was just how she was.
Like she loved to go to someplace that she had never been.
Who does that sound like?
You know?
Yep.
So once we got married, that's really, well, we were poor too.
When we first started, got married.
But after Sophia was maybe about, I'm going to say five, that's when N.
Harper was born.
That's when we really started traveling a lot.
And, you know, once you start, it's hard to go back.
I think between the two of us, we'd probably stayed at almost every resort.
You mean Disney, right?
Yes.
Because up till now, these people don't know that we're Disney dorks.
We should have added that in.
Remember, we're talking to people that don't know us.
Okay.
So we're both travel agents.
But that's not what this podcast is.
We're not selling trips.
No, no.
And we're not talking about, um,
adoption journeys or trauma right now.
No cancer.
Maybe one, no cancer, no kidnappings for now, maybe one day.
No.
Okay.
So yeah, we both are travel agents, but that's not the point of this podcast.
No, just two, two friends who love to travel.
And now our kids think that it's not a vacation unless we're all together.
Which is fine with me because we've had more laughs on our vacations than I've
probably ever laughed in my life.
I know.
Well, something always goes wrong too.
That's true.
That's why this is called chaos and carry ons.
So my name is Shelby.
Um, I live in Tennessee.
I was born and raised, actually, I was born in Tennessee, but I was raised in
Alabama and I was raised in the state of Alabama.
And I was raised in the state of Alabama.
Actually, I was born in Tennessee, but I was raised in Alabama.
Um, I have been married to my Disney dork for 10 years.
I have one little girl who is almost seven and, um, we live a very boring,
low key life, nothing interesting.
Boring.
I mean, no, it's really not boring.
Um, we love, love, love to travel.
Um, like Stephanie, I did not, I didn't travel a lot as a kid.
We would go to the beach usually, like, if not every year, every other year.
Um, mostly we went to the smokey mountains because that was close to home.
And it was like a vacation without, without going big on vacation.
Um, I was 14 the first time I went to Disney world and I've probably
been a hundred times since then.
Just guessing.
Um, actually fun fact, when I was in kindergarten, mom and dad took us to Orlando
and I had the option, they gave me the choice.
We could go to Disney world or we could stay one more day at the beach.
And I chose Disney world and they took me to the phantasmagolf and told me
I was at Disney world.
And so when I got back home and all of my friends were like on spring break,
they're going to Disney world and I'm like, that place is horrible.
I don't know why you would want to go there because I thought
that's what Disney world was.
So I was 14 when I actually got to go to the real Disney world and was like,
okay, this makes so much more sense why people would choose to
go here for spring break.
Okay.
So who did you go with then?
When I was 14.
Yeah.
Uh, my mom.
Okay.
And she took me and my brother, we went, we did all the Disney parks.
We did universal, but Disney was like, that's, that's where I love Disney.
So we went more frequently as a teenager, we would go like pretty
much every year after that point.
Um, and then I met Jordan.
Well, I mean, I already knew Jordan, but when we started dating, I realized
that he had a love for Disney.
Like I did, and he actually proposed at Disney world.
We went to Disneyland on our honeymoon, uh, Disney cruise on our
anniversary, so on and so forth.
And so in that, uh, became more interested in selling Disney trips and helping
people to make magical memories like us.
And so that's where I began the travel agent gig.
And I've done it now for, I think January will be 8th of January.
I think January will be eight years, which is crazy to think.
Um, and it's crazy.
Yeah.
But again, that's not what this podcast is about.
We will gladly help you if you, if you want to book a trip, either one of us
can give you advice, but that's, that's not what this is about.
No, I think that, um, I didn't, I was like, I didn't even talk about Derek.
Poor Derek.
Yeah.
Shout out to Derek.
Just tell it now and then I'll insert it and I'm just kidding.
I won't really.
Well, what I was going to say is Derek also, so Derek only went to Disney
once when he was a kid.
So like when we got married, we went on our honeymoon to Disney.
That was his second time ever going to Disney, which is nuts.
I know.
So he didn't grow up traveling either.
I think that that's, we can probably say for all of us now, I don't know
about Jordan, Jordan went to Hawaii.
So he's not.
He's not Jordan's not included because he traveled.
He went lots of places.
Yes.
But I think that's where the deep, like want to, like, I want to see more
places that I've never been before.
Cause you feel like a kid that's like, yeah, living out your dream.
You also want, like, I feel like it's one of those things that you want better
for your own kids than you had.
And, and our kids love traveling and seeing new places.
If they didn't, then we probably wouldn't do what we do or we'd leave them at home.
Yeah.
But when I was thinking about this today, like what I hope comes from the podcast
is that somebody is like, I took a trip because you guys talked about it.
I wouldn't have planned it.
Like it seemed too, too hard to do.
Um, especially like the Hawaii trip, we both get that all the time.
That seems like daunting to like, how do you walk through planning that?
But think about how long we planned our Hawaii trip.
So yeah, I turned 30 last year and that that's where it all originated.
I wanted to go to Hawaii for my 30th birthday.
And so we started planning.
I don't know how long we planned it.
Maybe 18 months before we actually went.
That's when we were like, okay, we're doing this.
Let's go.
Well, Mattel wasn't even born yet.
Cause I re I remember when he was born and I remember you texting me something
about like, I can't wait to go to Hawaii with him.
Okay.
Well, he was two when we went.
Okay.
So it was more than so we, yeah, we already had the dream going.
Well, that was probably more like, you know, our, um, our fictional bucket
lists that we have like our non-ending bucket lists of trips.
Yeah.
But as far as like really planning, we, we plan that for a long time, but now I
feel like I could plan somebody else's Hawaii trip in two days.
Oh, for sure.
I feel the same.
I think that we actually started, like you said, seriously planning.
It was about 18 months, like where we sat down and we were like, this is what,
you know, this is what we're going to do and like really start researching it.
I mean, we're planning a trip now that's not going to take place until 2026.
We're still in 2024.
But yes, we, we have trips.
I mean, it's because like I said, our bucket list is so long and.
But we also have to plan them out when you're planning big trips.
That's a misconception.
I feel like of traveling, you go on these big trips and it looks like that you've
spent so many thousands of dollars and you've just went big and it looks like
you're flaunting your money, but really like you save and prepare for that for so
long.
And I mean, but we don't, we don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't go to the
movies, we don't go to the movies.
We don't go to football games.
So there's extra things that like people spend their money on things like that,
that we don't.
So like traveling is our hobby.
Well, Jordan and Derek don't even hunt.
No.
And that they don't hunt.
I mean, two men in the South.
Yeah.
People are probably gasping, but they just don't know.
They have no real hobbies either.
Let's be real.
No, I mean, like our hobbies are planning where we're going on vacation, going on
vacation, talking about our vacations.
Like that's it.
I mean, we have a camper, so we do go camping through the summer, early fall.
And I mean, that feels like a vacation, even though it's not, but I mean, I guess
that that's kind of one of our hobbies, but, but it doesn't cost a lot of money
to camp.
No, the closest we've gotten to camping is staying at a cabin in the Smokies.
Yeah, that doesn't count.
And that was enough for us.
Yeah.
We went, we went to one of those cabins where it's like, you would rather get out
and walk.
And that was the last time it was very foggy and rainy that night.
And you never say never because you know, on our list, we're going to the Fort
Wilderness cabins and you're doing it.
Well, luckily, we're going to the Fort Wilderness cabins.
Well, luckily it's not going to be off right off of a cliff.
And Derek, and Derek driving and being like, this is fine.
It's like going up, you know, mountain I lived at at home.
And I'm like, no, that one had a guard rail and it was nothing like this.
I don't know what you're talking about.
You've lost your mind.
Okay.
So that's, that's us in a nutshell.
I mean, we've been friends, how long we've been friends longer than me and Jordan
have been married, but we really got close.
Like probably right before Taley was born.
And then now we're in so deep that like, yeah, we know, you know, too much.
We don't have to be my friend way too much.
The voice memos at this point are like 10 minutes long.
Derek was like, how do you even remember what she said at the beginning of the
voice memo?
I was like, I don't like, I don't remember.
It's just talking.
No, but, but you know, like, you know what to reply to exactly.
And if it, if it was important, I would ask you again.
Well, like I said, I hope that somebody listens to this and maybe they decide to
go to Europe.
Maybe they decide, hopefully they decide to go to Japan.
Hey, that's on the bucket list for us one day.
It is if we can just get Jordan to survive off of rice and a sushi, that
sushi is probably not happening, but maybe rice.
I think he could live off rice.
So do you want to talk about like what we have planned or do you want to leave
them hanging and wait until like the first real episode after the intro?
We can talk about what we have planned.
I mean, I know we already talked about Hawaii, so that's going to be one of
probably the first things that we talk about.
And it's going to have to at least be a two part episode.
I mean, we could talk about Hawaii for weeks.
We had the absolute best vacation ever.
And I still love that we went when we did because we didn't know what last
year was going to look like.
And I'm so happy that we did it when we did it.
I think it, we couldn't have timed it better.
Well, we could also say that was our first trip together.
It was.
So we had not traveled together until that trip.
No, we have both been to Disney world.
Many, many times and talked about it and helped each other kind of plan trips
based on that.
But as far as going together, Hawaii was the first one.
And then after that, that's when our kids began to think that they couldn't go
on vacation without each other.
Now, whenever we show up somewhere and the kids are like, um, so what time is
Shelby and Jordan getting here?
And it's like, uh, they're not coming.
Why?
I mean, I'm sorry.
I said we're boring, but maybe we're not.
Yeah.
So it feels like, did you not invite them?
I mean, I thought you did.
I was like, no, we don't have to be invited.
We definitely did.
So, so Hawaii definitely is going to be at least two episodes.
Maybe we'll do like, uh, the travel part of it and then like things to do there.
Um, also, I think we're going to be doing a lot of, uh,
travel and then like things to do there, um, also like Disney world,
Disneyland, we're going to Disneyland together in March.
So that will be to come, um, Disney cruise line.
You just went on a cruise.
I'm about to go on a cruise or another one.
So that, that will be to come.
We have to talk about 30 a.
Yeah.
That was our, both of our first time 38.
Yes, it was.
Well, I see like, because I still have notes because I knew that I would forget.
So I have not told you everything that happened on that cruise.
Okay.
So going back to Disneyland, uh, I want to specify that that's not just
going to be a Disney trip.
Let's put that out there for the future.
Yes.
Yeah.
And a lot of our trips are, I mean, well, I was going to say when we went to Disney
in June, it wasn't just Disney, but that was a lie.
We talked about doing other things, but we did it.
We did, but like Disneyland and even Hawaii, we stayed in the Disney resort,
but we did a lot of things outside of the resort.
Yes.
Um, and when we go to Disneyland, where we really don't have just a ton
planned at Disneyland, most of what we're doing is offsite.
Um, no, and I'm so excited to go back there.
So it's going to be fun.
So let's say that that turned into Shelby's celebration trip, which, so
Sophia says we use that as an excuse for everything now.
Well, we will.
So that trip every day is a day to be celebrated.
So that trip has some pretty huge things that we both have never done going on.
We'll say that.
Yes.
Stay tuned.
Yeah.
Some things that people probably think is nuts, but you know, hey, when you
almost die, you know, I know, right.
I guess I should say, I mean, we said we weren't going to talk about adoption or
trauma, but I guess I should say like last year I was talking about Hawaii and
the timing and all that it's because last fall at the age of 30, I was
diagnosed with breast cancer, but right now I'm cancer free.
So that's in the past.
This is not going to be a cancer podcast, but I just felt like I probably should
say that anybody that knows me knows that.
Um, and a lot of people that don't know me probably know that, but you know, for
our imaginary friends that are going to listen that don't know who we are.
I feel like I should say that.
So, so yes, Disneyland is that's like my celebration trip.
That will be the end of all of my treatments.
My port will be taken out.
That will be the celebration trip.
But, you know, we went to Disney this past June, we celebrated the end of like IV
chemo and then what did we do?
We celebrated some other something, the end of radiation.
I don't know.
But like Sophia says, we use that excuse for everything.
Literally everything.
But listen, I deserve it.
I would say so.
We all deserve it.
Yeah, we all do for the trauma.
That's what this is going to be like for the trauma.
I think that wraps up our intro.
Yeah.
Stay tuned.
You never know what you're going to get.
Yeah.
Um, if anybody has that they want to throw out, you know, I mean, we do have a list
of what the episodes are going to be.
But if you have something that you were like, yes, I want you to talk about this.
I mean, we're going to talk, like she said, we're going to talk about, we're
going to talk about, um, we'll probably talk about Disneyland coming up and
planning that before we actually go.
Uh, we're going to talk about Hawaii.
We're going to talk about my cruise.
Then you're going to have a cruise coming up.
I'm thinking that we might have to touch on, um, this new, um, what is it?
What, what is it called?
They've changed it so many times.
It was like Genie plus and now it's.
Oh, the lightning lane premier.
Yes.
Is that what it's called now?
Yes.
Because we both have been looking into this because we're going to Disneyland.
Uh, even though it's Disneyland and not Disney world, they have it there as well.
I'm actually going to Disney world two days before my cruise.
So I had already thought about getting it for science just so, so I can take
one for the team and see what it's all about.
Yeah.
I mean, we'll probably touch on that.
Um, Disney world and just Disney is always changing.
It's like, by the time that this comes out, Hey, it might have some kind of,
um, what do you call that?
Like, uh, they might do it a little differently.
It may not even be called lightning pass, which I would think it would be,
but you know what I mean?
They may have some extra.
It might not even be called Disney world anymore.
They always have some kind of, you know, like, like, like,
they have some kind of like add on.
I'm going to say add on that you can buy to this package, you know,
which I think the top tier now it's getting you like all the rides, right?
Yes.
I think that's what I think.
So, so well, we'll have to deep dive into that, but I was actually just
looking at that, I think like two days ago.
It looks also have on my list, like traveling with kids, like traveling in
the world, but also like Disney with kids and why we chose to take our kids before.
Like, you know, a lot of people say they want to wait till they're five, six,
seven, so they remember it.
It's magical.
But both of us, how old were your girls when you first went?
Sophia was 18 months.
They were babies.
Yeah.
Sophia was 18 months.
Um, Harper was four months old and then Mateo, we went for his first birthday.
Um, okay.
And that's what I thought.
I really was 10 months old when we went, um, we went for her first birthday, but
we went, she was like almost 11 months old.
We went at Christmas time.
Yeah.
That those, I'm telling you easiest ages.
Honestly, it really is.
But that also is on my list.
Um, is like talking about like why we chose to do that and, and how to do that.
Um, like finding deals and discounts when traveling, that kind of thing.
Um, dining plans.
I don't know.
I have lots and lots and lots of ideas, but I guess we have to see if anybody
wants to listen to us first.
People definitely do, but they want the trauma.
I'm sorry.
The trauma will come later.
We need to, we need to cope from the trauma first.
Let's, let's do that first.
We need to get comfortable and then maybe we'll open up a little.
Yeah.
But okay.
That's going to wrap it up for the first one.
All right.
So do you want to hit them with the outro or do you want me to?
I can hit him with the outro.
Let's go.
Let's start by saying that here we didn't even talk about Derek.
Shout out to Derek.
He wrote, he wrote the outro.
Mm hmm.
He also helped with the, um, what do you call it?
The intro song.
Yeah.
That was there too.
Yeah.
Shout out to Derek.
His name, I think he came up with our name too.
This is the Derek podcast.
May your flights be on time and your luggage never lost, but if it's not,
that's where the fun begins.
Bye.
Pack your dreams, grab your back.
Adventures call at Sig and Zach from castles tall to ocean waves.
Magic made for wanderers brave.
Theme parks light up the night.
Starry eyed and sheer delight.
Board the ships at sail and sea.
Endless tales and fantasy.
Chaos set carry ons.
Let's go.
Disney dreams and so you know.
Every flight and every ride.
Join the journey.
Come inside.
From Mickey ears to Dole with tree.
Pixie dust beneath our feet.
Through the lands and sea we roam.
Feel the wonder feel at home.
From road drop to the firework show.
Lose yourself in joyful glow.
Cruising waters feeling free.
Every twist of memory.
Chaos set carry ons.
Let's go.
Disney dreams and so you know.
Every flight and every ride.
Join the journey.
Come inside.