Road Tripping With Kids!

Oh boy, this post took me only a whole week longer to write than I had planned.  Last week was killer - nothing like a week of blissful vacation to create a nightmare when you get home, right? Monday I had nonstop meetings from 6:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 600 emails to catch up on at work! Insanity!  So, unedited pictures and probably lots of typos, but I am submitting this post!

I am excited to share with you some things I learned planning our road trip to the beach!  A LOT of planning went into this trip, obviously because I wanted to have a fun, relaxing vacation without tears. But more than that, honestly, I spend MONTHS looking forward to this trip - there were some very stressful weeks this spring and summer at work, and rather than lying awake at night thinking about that, I would lie there at night and think about what I would pack, or what I would bring for the kids in the car, when we finally went away to the beach...

And here's what I came up with! I am happy to report that, truly, we had a very pleasant trip ~ with four kids ages 7, 5, 2, and 8 months.  We hit some crazy traffic in Alabama, so overall we were in the car for 15 hours with only one hour break!

Okay, let's start with the girls...

I was VERY excited to find this bin thing to go between the girls' seats in the third row of our Expedition (Sophia is in a booster seat, and Amelia is in a GIANT Britax Regent car seat, and this fit PERFECTLY between the two).
I also love that it fastens to the seat, so it stays put and I don't have to worry about it flying around if we have to brake hard.

 
 

I loved that the top was hard, so they could use it like a table.  Each girl had a cup holder for water bottles, lots of little pockets on the sides for gum, chapstick, etc. and then a very big compartment inside for lots of goodies.



Normally, I am ALL about sharing things and I really try not to encourage all that "this is mine, that is yours" business between the girls.  But life is life, and two sisters 19 months apart will fight over ANYTHING if they are together long enough... say, for example, in a car for 15 hours.  SO, I came up with a color-coding system for our trip.  Everything green is Sophia's and everything pink is Amelia's (their favorite colors).  Blue was Henry and orange was Wyatt.  I bought these little mini round stickers and stuck them on EVERYTHING.  Every little snack pouch, every individual pencil, everything had those stickers on them.  And it worked!  Not a single fight.



So, in that big black box, the girls had little packs of trail mix, Poptarts (we leave at 4:00 a.m. while the kids are sleeping, then when they wake up 2-3 hours later, they get to eat a breakfast treat that they don't normally get at home ~ that keeps them happy for another little while!), packs of gum, fruit snacks, and water bottles.  Oh and Cheetos ~ this is a (gross) road trip tradition in our family.  It was nice not to have to dole out snacks.

For sleeping, I got these for the kids, and they loved them.  This was especially nice for Sophia, who has complained that it is much harder to sleep in her booster seat than a 5-point harness.



I made little binders for each of the girls to put in the big black bin.  I got these 5x8 inch binders and made one for each girl.



On the inside, I stuck a little piece of hard cardboard that they could use to put behind pages they were coloring for a hard surface.



Then I put pencil holders in each one.  No crayons in a hot car! And no I wasn't kidding - each pencil had a green or pink dot on it!



I made some laminated pages that could be used and re-used with a dry erase marker.  I hot glue-gunned a pom pom (oh yes, pink and green!) on each one, which the girls could use as an eraser - this worked great!



The first item in the binder, was a laminated sheet that showed our trip.  I numbered milestones along the way - (1) home, (2) welcome to Louisiana, (3) welcome to Mississippi, (4) lunch in Hattiesburg, (5) welcome to Alabama, and (6) condo.  It was great to be able to just refer to those when the kids asked where we were or how much farther.



Also, I made little clippies out of clothespins, which I clipped to the visor in the front seat.  If the kids were being good, their clippies stayed up.  If they were crying, whining, fighting, etc. their clippies came down.  If their clippies were up when we reached one of our milestones, they would get $1 to buy a treat at the next stop.  Only one clippy came down the whole trip! (Henry, of course)



Behind the map, I had a roadtrip bingo game that I found online, which I also laminated so they could play and erase.



Then a tic tac toe sheet, also laminated.



And then the rest of the pages were all different coloring sheets, word searches, and other simple games I found online and just copied and printed. I didn't laminate those, they just colored them in with their color pencils.  I also had some blank pages at the end for them to doodle on.








They also each had their Leapsters, my old camera (to share), an iPod Touch (to share), and a bunch of books.  I also found this travel memory game, which was GREAT! I also ordered some of these sticker books for the girls.



Honestly, this was WAY more stuff than they needed! We could have probably driven twice as far.  It's been kind of nice, when we've been in the car since our trip, the kids have been really happy, playing with their binder and stuff.

Henry was surprisingly happy too.  For him, I just used one of these stroller clips to attach his little backpack to the door handle on his door so he could reach it and it wouldn't spill.  I put a sippy cup of water in the cup holder on his car seat.  Then he got snacks, books, sticker books, and toys like Matchbox cars and trains and toy dinosaurs in the backpack.




He also loved this and this and this sticker book.

He was also really happy to just watch trucks and trains along the way.

And when we were stuck in traffic, he got the iPod and was perfectly entertained the rest of the way.  I will do a post at some point about good apps for toddlers and preschoolers ~ there are some really great, educational ones out there that the kids love.  Henry learned his colors from one on this trip!



Oh and the Magnadoodle! How can I forget that... all time BEST entertainment for toddlers.  All of my kids have loved these at this age.  Henry is obsessed with Blues Clues right now, and he calls this is "notebook" :)




Wyatt, well, he's just happy.  He is.  All the time.  I nursed him and changed him a couple of times, and he had this robot, which he LOVES, but mostly he was just his normal happy, laid back self!



I am pretty strict about limiting stops when we are on the road.  I make sure we have everything packed and organized in the car (I made a binder for us, too, with maps, a menu from the restaurant we were stopping at, stamps for postcards, and all the information on the condo, etc.) and the car full of gas, and then I don't stop except for planned stops and emergencies.  When we stop for gas, I make everyone get out and go to the bathroom and get anything they might need/want.  Except for the big traffic jam at the end, we were actually ahead of schedule all the way!

And on the way down, we never even used the DVD player - the kids were happy with their toys and binders and books, and we played a few road trip games. Happy, happy memories!

Our {Instagram} Beach Vacation

We got home late last night from our glorious beach vacation.  It really was perfect - one evening, just to PROVE to me that it was perfect, God arranged for pink sunset waves, a full rainbow, and jumping dolphins as Amelia and I swam in the ocean.  I felt like I was in a poster or dream!

My obsessive planning worked out perfectly, and I'll be posting about our road trip strategies and condo crock pot meals and things... BUT I did not properly research or think about the use of my expensive camera on the beach.  For one thing, I was a nervous wreck with all the sand and water, having it on the beach.  I refused to change lenses for fear of sand getting down into the camera.  And because of the insane humidity, whenever I took the camera out of the cold condo, it would fog up horribly.  Add to that the bright sun, which made it impossible for me to see the screen to check my settings, I totally gave up trying to take fancy pictures at the beach.  I regret that a little, and I'll post the few pictures I did take later... but mostly I just enjoyed a break from the camera, from my computer, from blogs, and Facebook, and just carried my phone and took Instagram pictures.  It ended up being the perfect, low key way of documenting our vacation.

So here it is :)

(oh my gosh, this is SO many pictures!!)

We headed out at 4 a.m. with all the kids still sleeping



And at sunrise we were already almost out of the state

 

and the kids were still asleep

 

Our first stop was at McDonald's somewhere out in the middle of nowhere for some coffee and a potty break ~ the kids were SO happy that we were headed to the beach!

 

Henry saw a train in Vicksburg and talked about it for the next hour




Perfectly on-schedule, we stopped in Hattiesburg for lunch at Baker's Burgers ~ SO, so yummy and cheap!



We stayed on schedule until Mobile, when we hit some horrible traffic. All the way from Mobile to our condo in Orange Beach, we averaged about 5 mph. Thank goodness for the iPod Touch! At this point we had been in the car for about 11 hours, with only one major stop, and the kids were still doing great.




Almost there!




Because of the awful traffic, we didn't get to our condo until almost 7 pm. I needed to order dinner (Lillian's Pizza ~ super yum!) and get things unpacked and ready for bed, so I stayed in the condo with Wyatt while Davis took the big kids to the beach. Poor Wyatt!




I made myself unpack everything and put things away and then go grocery shopping for the full week that night, even though I was exhausted. I'm SO glad I did, because the next morning we woke up to perfect weather and all headed straight to the beach!




Oh happy, happy day!




Sophia ~ always doing cartwheels!




The kids had so much fun catching those tiny silver fish




My friend Gretchan gave me the great idea to bring a little baby pool, which ended up being perfect for Wyatt! The big kids brought buckets of ocean water and some sand to fill it up, and most of the week, Wyatt was perfectly happy just sitting and splashing in the pool.




The outdoor showers at the condo were a lifesaver ~ we were covered in sand!




We also had a great pool at the condo, which had COLD water ~ it felt SO great on days that it was a little hot!






One of my absolutely favorite things about vacation are lazy mornings. I would wake up and kids would come crawling into bed with me, and none of us were in any hurry to get up.



One day I even laid in bed and read my Southern Living magazine ~ in bed! In the morning!




Probably my very favorite thing about this week, was that I got to spend some really special one-on-one time with each of the kids. That is one thing that is hard to come by with me working, the big kids in school and different activities, and just having four kids. The times we spent together this week will be special memories we can hang onto when things get hectic. Amelia and I went on a walk at sunset one night ~ it was magical!




I LOVED having a washer and dryer in the condo. I didn't feel the need to bring a million clothes, we were able to cloth diaper, and I also didn't come home with a ton of dirty laundry. Here are all the swimsuits hanging up to dry!



Ah beach reading ~ I had a lot to catch up on! One night after the kids went to bed, I laid in the jacuzzi tub and read a book cover to cover. Wow!



We met some very special friends for breakfast one morning, and they were sweet enough to get a family picture of us ~ that is a rare thing!



And then we headed up to Foley to see the trains. Henry was in Heaven!



I said, "Henry are you happy?" And as I took this picture, he was saying "YES! I'm ridin' the train!"


 

The model train exhibit was amazing!! That's a drive in movie theater in the back, which actually played a movie!



I'm framing this picture and hanging it in Henry's room. That boy loves trains!



One night I made milkshakes. They made Amelia so happy, she took a picture (that is an old camera of mine, and I let the girls use it on the trip ~ I can't wait to download their vacation pictures and look at them!)



It stormed on night, and Davis and I sat on the balcony and watched the thunderstorm over the ocean. I love watching storms!



We loaded the kids up with hearty breakfasts every morning, and then usually ate a pretty light lunch. Bacon and eggs!



Beach ball! I love this picture ~ it looks posed, but it's totally not. I just looked up and the girls were tossing a beach ball.



It was raining one afternoon, so we loaded the kids up and drove over to Pensacola to the Naval Aviation Museum ~ Henry loved it, of course (the rest of us were pretty impressed too!)



Pilot and copilot :)



Babies are fun to pose ha!




Here are the kids in President Nixon's Marine One helicopter







This was Henry's face almost the whole time



More lazy mornings



The kids eating ice cream and watching dolphins from our balcony




Group pictures ~ SO hard with four!!




It rained for an hour or so another day, and the girls played Chutes and Ladders




Headed to the pool!

 

Another special moment ~ going on a beach walk with Henry. We actually went on a walk one morning at 6 a.m. while everyone else slept in, and then again another day to collect "treasures"









What a view from my bed!



With a cute baby



who just so happens to be the. happiest. baby. ever.



Amelia the fish ~ that girl sure loved the water! She let waves crash down on her and just laughed to do it again, and she could have spent every waking minute at the pool.




Our last evening, we got a bunch of different seafood ~ different kinds of shrimp, crab legs, etc. ~ so yummy!



And then the girls and I went on one last beach walk




Davis had taken Sophia on a late night walk to look for crabs another night, and just as I suspected, they freaked Amelia out



She said, "they freak me out, but I like those crab legs we had for dinner tonight!" Ha!!

And all snuggled up ~ everyone slept GREAT at the beach!



It was truly a dreamy, relaxing, wonderful week. I loved that it was just our family and that we had no obligations or plans. Our condo was right on the beach, so it was easy to go back and forth ~ I could even call down to let them know dinner was ready and they could hear me on the beach, and Sophia could go back and forth alone. It was also REALLY nice to have enough room for the girls to have their own room, Henry had a room, and our master closet was so big that we set up a little nursery in there for Wyatt. The master bathroom was as big as our bedroom at home! Having enough space was nice, because often traveling with four kids no one sleeps well when we are all on top of each other. I wouldn't change a thing!