Ok So it is 2 am Monday morning. I cannot sleep. I am anxious I am gonna forget something(inevitable), worried about why it is so important to get son into Dr before we leave, worried the Dr will require other tests at other buildings before we go thus adding to the confusion in our scheduled, considering why I have waited until this week to do try to do roadschool stuff, is the road school stuff necessary?
Anyway, Here I am knowing I have to be up at 7 to function and be at husbands work to pick him up to get to drs on time and still cannot sleep.
Good news though, got snacks, activities, car supplies and kids clothes packed. Now Down to mine and Hubbies. Less good news 29 degrees and snow in Yellowstone has caused us to rethink packing. Need more pants and long sleeve and less shorts and t shirts.
Packing was interesting, because I just decided too difficult to hit that many states with that many temperature differences, and know what I needed in the small hotel bag for each one. So,,, We packed in Kids's canvas bins from Target. Each person has their own bin. We get to a place we are staying, one rolling duffel bag will be packed at the car from the bins to take into the hotel. Then we are able to pack for the next days weather appropriately. Swim gear and Pjs will always be together in their own respective locations, that way one parent can either get the kids ready for pool or ready for bed based on when we get into hotel while the other packs.
I personally think it is a brilliant idea on a trip of this magnitude. Also, much easier on my simple brain to consider what to pack. To make it simple we packed for 10 days with 2 spare outfits for the kids(12 if they don't need their spares). This means we will do laundry potentially 2 times to be able to make the entire trip. This cuts back on the amount of clothes we need.
All sounds great in theory,but I am truly learning as I go on this cross country trip. I have yet to find a great website to tell you the best way to do a trip like this with kids. Lots of great ideas, but truly everyone's cross country trip is different.
Stick with me now, later today is 2 drs appts, store return, last minute list items purchase, laundry day, pedicure and manicure, and packing grown-up clothes.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Count down begins
7 days! ok, so I have been very busy with all kinds of hurdles to get over. Like organizing classes for our homeschool preschooler groups, cakes every single weekend now for the month of April, my son's 4th birthday, catching up on laundry since we had clogged drain issues and needed plumber help. Anywho... here I am bloggin again about where I am in this trip planning.
Have decided to treat it as tiny trips in 12 different places to help me pack.
So, I will be packing instead of for 26 nights, for 12 different city's. But to make it even easier we are packing only a wekk and half of clothes and will do laundry in Seattle for the Seattle trip and then again after Yellowstone for the last leg of our trip.
I know laundry on vacation??? Well, sometimes you must do what you must do to function and unfortunately with a 4 year old boy I cannot leave clothes sit up to 26 days before they would get washed. They would be better off to be thrown away! :)
In addition to packing clothes we are packing snacks and lunch foods. Well isn't that interesting since we are gone for almost a month. You should see everything I have laid out on my very LONG kitchen counter. You would think VA is the only place with markets(grocery stores),Targets or WalMarts. We must have every last morsel of food from the stores on our couner as though my family is gonna starve going west.
It makes me recall a quote in the St Louis Arch Museum regarding going west. A women recalled losing her baby to sickness and now her husband was sick and had been in bed for over a month and she was doing all the work to keep their piece of land and few animals going, but if only they could have access to the medicine. She discussed her tiredness, her loss and regret.
Well, here I am going west like her and I wonder if my fear of not having enough crackers for a 6 hour drive is anything like her fear of leaving her comfort zone with an established civilation to go somewhere she couldn't google on the internet. I assume the mother role is a little the same no matter what country, what era or even cultures you are gonna worry about details like food and happiness for your kids.
So, we have clothes to sort through, snacks to sort through, toys and activities to go through. We have some more hotels to find and polish out a few more activities. BUT my MIL is coming this weekend, so my hubby has promised to sit and discuss more lists. Which I am becoming somewhat a fan of lists while also a loather of lists.
My biggest fear of this trip is BORED KIDS!
Gonna research maybe some carschooling(a recommendation of my friend and fellow homeschooler). So I am off to research so lapbooks, maybe some notebooking. Gonna journal anyway, but maybe something else to throw in!
Have decided to treat it as tiny trips in 12 different places to help me pack.
So, I will be packing instead of for 26 nights, for 12 different city's. But to make it even easier we are packing only a wekk and half of clothes and will do laundry in Seattle for the Seattle trip and then again after Yellowstone for the last leg of our trip.
I know laundry on vacation??? Well, sometimes you must do what you must do to function and unfortunately with a 4 year old boy I cannot leave clothes sit up to 26 days before they would get washed. They would be better off to be thrown away! :)
In addition to packing clothes we are packing snacks and lunch foods. Well isn't that interesting since we are gone for almost a month. You should see everything I have laid out on my very LONG kitchen counter. You would think VA is the only place with markets(grocery stores),Targets or WalMarts. We must have every last morsel of food from the stores on our couner as though my family is gonna starve going west.
It makes me recall a quote in the St Louis Arch Museum regarding going west. A women recalled losing her baby to sickness and now her husband was sick and had been in bed for over a month and she was doing all the work to keep their piece of land and few animals going, but if only they could have access to the medicine. She discussed her tiredness, her loss and regret.
Well, here I am going west like her and I wonder if my fear of not having enough crackers for a 6 hour drive is anything like her fear of leaving her comfort zone with an established civilation to go somewhere she couldn't google on the internet. I assume the mother role is a little the same no matter what country, what era or even cultures you are gonna worry about details like food and happiness for your kids.
So, we have clothes to sort through, snacks to sort through, toys and activities to go through. We have some more hotels to find and polish out a few more activities. BUT my MIL is coming this weekend, so my hubby has promised to sit and discuss more lists. Which I am becoming somewhat a fan of lists while also a loather of lists.
My biggest fear of this trip is BORED KIDS!
Gonna research maybe some carschooling(a recommendation of my friend and fellow homeschooler). So I am off to research so lapbooks, maybe some notebooking. Gonna journal anyway, but maybe something else to throw in!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
How to you plan for a spontaneous trip?
Great question right. I mean this trip started as a spontaneous thing and now it has grown into a multi-page Excel spreadsheet.
Yes people a spreadsheet, spontinaity needs organization!! We have hotels to find, routes to plan, stop overs to decide on, daily activites to choose, and car activities for the kids. This trip will be a total of 6800+ miles there and back. There will be more miles, I am sure, as we drive around Yellowstone, inevitablely get lost in Denver, drive for hours trying to find dinosaur items and historic houses. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!
At any rate, I have discovered www.hotels.com as a great resource. If we book 10 stays through them, we can earn a free stay. You have to sign up for their welcome rewards. Since we are staying at 12 hotels along the way, this is a perfect deal for us. Not to mention if we continue to use www.hotels.com we can earn more free stays.
On top of that, we have Hilton Honors, so we earn points for stays are participating Hampton Inns, Hiltons, etc.. So we get a 2 for one kind of deal! I love it!
Always look for a bargain when you can, even the littlest ones can add up. No bargain is too insignificant!
Back to planning.....
Yes people a spreadsheet, spontinaity needs organization!! We have hotels to find, routes to plan, stop overs to decide on, daily activites to choose, and car activities for the kids. This trip will be a total of 6800+ miles there and back. There will be more miles, I am sure, as we drive around Yellowstone, inevitablely get lost in Denver, drive for hours trying to find dinosaur items and historic houses. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!
At any rate, I have discovered www.hotels.com as a great resource. If we book 10 stays through them, we can earn a free stay. You have to sign up for their welcome rewards. Since we are staying at 12 hotels along the way, this is a perfect deal for us. Not to mention if we continue to use www.hotels.com we can earn more free stays.
On top of that, we have Hilton Honors, so we earn points for stays are participating Hampton Inns, Hiltons, etc.. So we get a 2 for one kind of deal! I love it!
Always look for a bargain when you can, even the littlest ones can add up. No bargain is too insignificant!
Back to planning.....
Saturday, April 17, 2010
26 Days
So here it is, 26 days of away time time with the kids in a car! I know sheer craziness, but memories people, we are making memories(whether they be good ones or not, it won't matter). I am sitting here now staring at the computer in complete amazement that a joke has turned into this, and to admit I am a smidge excited. Oh and scared, definetly scared.
I do have a plan to keep the kids busy in the car. It involves lunch bags and a novelty toy assortment from oriental trading. We are going to take 26 lunch bags and put 2 or 4 little toys in the bags and tape them shut. Then each day the kids get something new to play with in the car. A new little toy that wasn't there the day before, plus they get the excitment of knowing that "yes we are in the car again, and yes it is a long ride, but I get to get a new bag".
Bride you say...totally, but inexpensive and worth it.
I will let ya know the results.
I do have a plan to keep the kids busy in the car. It involves lunch bags and a novelty toy assortment from oriental trading. We are going to take 26 lunch bags and put 2 or 4 little toys in the bags and tape them shut. Then each day the kids get something new to play with in the car. A new little toy that wasn't there the day before, plus they get the excitment of knowing that "yes we are in the car again, and yes it is a long ride, but I get to get a new bag".
Bride you say...totally, but inexpensive and worth it.
I will let ya know the results.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Long Long Journey west
Ok so I made a joking comment to my husband and now it seems he is taking me serious and planning a large trip. Let me start at the beginning...
We are driving to Kansas City in May for my brother-in-laws graduation from seminary school. We had originally planned to do some zoos and children's musuems and the St.Louis Arch along the way. We figured 1 week to drive out and back and see some stuff along the way, maybe 2 weeks if we want to do more stuff.
Well, after letting everyone know our intentions my husband gets an opportunity to go to a training class in Seattle. So, we say that will be great and decide the kids and I want to fly out with him.
Turns out the class is the Sunday after my BIL graduation. So... the night my husband tells me I say "Well we are already half way across the country, we should drive the rest of the way to Seattle and see Mt Rushmore and Yellowstone National park while we do it!" Mind you I was joking! Now it seems I am being taken seriously and we are planning a trip to Seattle after we drive to Kansas City. Then of course there is the drive home from Seattle Washington to Northern Virginia a whopping 2874 miles and that doesn't include any of the side trips around the towns we will be in.
So, call me crazy but we are taking a 4 year old and a 6 year old cross country! I will keep everyone posted how it goes and the things I discover along the way.
We are driving to Kansas City in May for my brother-in-laws graduation from seminary school. We had originally planned to do some zoos and children's musuems and the St.Louis Arch along the way. We figured 1 week to drive out and back and see some stuff along the way, maybe 2 weeks if we want to do more stuff.
Well, after letting everyone know our intentions my husband gets an opportunity to go to a training class in Seattle. So, we say that will be great and decide the kids and I want to fly out with him.
Turns out the class is the Sunday after my BIL graduation. So... the night my husband tells me I say "Well we are already half way across the country, we should drive the rest of the way to Seattle and see Mt Rushmore and Yellowstone National park while we do it!" Mind you I was joking! Now it seems I am being taken seriously and we are planning a trip to Seattle after we drive to Kansas City. Then of course there is the drive home from Seattle Washington to Northern Virginia a whopping 2874 miles and that doesn't include any of the side trips around the towns we will be in.
So, call me crazy but we are taking a 4 year old and a 6 year old cross country! I will keep everyone posted how it goes and the things I discover along the way.
Bathroom problems
I am not sure about you, but I know I have had some carseats that have been chrisened with pee, juice and vomit. The one that gets me the most is the pee because the kids should be able to tell me they have to go, but ineviatably the words come out "I have to go pee" and then 2 seconds later... "never mind I already went". So... To help us along the way, especially when the kids were potty training, we bought a potette.
Which is a little foldaway plastic potty that is portable. You fold it open, put a little plastic bag(looks like grocery store bag) with a little absorbant pad(looks like a maxi pad with turtles on it) in it on the potette. The kids sit on it and pee. Then, you take the bag off, tie it shut, fold up the , throw away the bag(if we are on the interstate we put it in our trash bag- I don't condone littering)and away you go.
So... this thing has saved us so much time trying to find an exit off a freeway/interstate to get little ones to the bathroom. We still use it now and our kids are older. Not teenagers, but not middleschoolers either. They even come in handy when you do stop and all there is is a gas station bathroom that seems like it hasn't been cleaned in 2 years.
We have also taken ours into Disney, Busch Gardens, Hershyparks, Zoos Children's museums and numerous fairs. It is convienent when there doesn't seem to be a bathroom in sight or you have been waiting in line for 30 minutes you are almost on the ride and suddenly your 2 year old has to go!
I totally recommend them and I think I will miss mine when my kids are too big to get away with using it in public.
Which is a little foldaway plastic potty that is portable. You fold it open, put a little plastic bag(looks like grocery store bag) with a little absorbant pad(looks like a maxi pad with turtles on it) in it on the potette. The kids sit on it and pee. Then, you take the bag off, tie it shut, fold up the , throw away the bag(if we are on the interstate we put it in our trash bag- I don't condone littering)and away you go.
So... this thing has saved us so much time trying to find an exit off a freeway/interstate to get little ones to the bathroom. We still use it now and our kids are older. Not teenagers, but not middleschoolers either. They even come in handy when you do stop and all there is is a gas station bathroom that seems like it hasn't been cleaned in 2 years.
We have also taken ours into Disney, Busch Gardens, Hershyparks, Zoos Children's museums and numerous fairs. It is convienent when there doesn't seem to be a bathroom in sight or you have been waiting in line for 30 minutes you are almost on the ride and suddenly your 2 year old has to go!
I totally recommend them and I think I will miss mine when my kids are too big to get away with using it in public.
Starting out
Where to start on a journey such as this? I want to share with others what I have learned over the years traveling sans kids and now with kids. I am by no means an expert, but really enjoy traveling and my kids, so why not blog about the two things I love most!(well, other than my hubby(: )
I hope to review products, share games, snacks and tricks of the travel trade for those of us with little ones taggin along.
For example, my cars have a bottle of hand sanitizer in them. Anytime we get in the car after being anywhere, eeryone in the car sanitizes their hands. It helps cut down on number of times you pick up colds, flus and rotoviruses when you are out and about. Because if you have kids and especially little ones 9 times out 10 they have touched something they were not suppose to (like petrified dog poop that looked like a rock) and somehow mange to then find something, like a piece of gum, that they must touch a billion times before they put it in their mouth, thus passing germs on and spreading them through our house.
Rule #1 always travel with hand sanitzer(especially with little boys)
I hope to review products, share games, snacks and tricks of the travel trade for those of us with little ones taggin along.
For example, my cars have a bottle of hand sanitizer in them. Anytime we get in the car after being anywhere, eeryone in the car sanitizes their hands. It helps cut down on number of times you pick up colds, flus and rotoviruses when you are out and about. Because if you have kids and especially little ones 9 times out 10 they have touched something they were not suppose to (like petrified dog poop that looked like a rock) and somehow mange to then find something, like a piece of gum, that they must touch a billion times before they put it in their mouth, thus passing germs on and spreading them through our house.
Rule #1 always travel with hand sanitzer(especially with little boys)
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