Home Family Art Homemade Frugal Living Travel

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Road Trip - 2


Ah yes, it's our 2nd road trip as a family and I'm shocked to say how smoothly it went. I don't mean to boast, well yes I do actually but it was kinda easy! Kids were well behaved and that's the key isn't it!

Yes we stopped many times, but from the last experience we learned to keep each one as short as possible and stayed on the road 13 hours! Here's some pointers (for future reference, in case I forget and can't figure out why the next one is so bad):

1. Consolidate stops, for example, baby needs to eat at 11am, so we all have lunch early.

2. Potty breaks for 3 year old - pull over to side of road, let her use her own personal portable potty and dispose a few yards away from road. We have van, so she can even utilize discreetly inside the van. Although had too laugh when husband opened back hatch and perched her up onto the stool in broad view of rest stop, but it was raining so who's paying any attention right? Only a women thinks, hmmm, let's move this side show to a discreet angle.

3. Stop for every potty break, but make it 15 min max!

4. Make super amazing pasta salad the day before and eat it for lunch and dinner! Less time & money spent at restaurants.

5. Keep solid food to a minimum for 11mo old, although by 6pm he requested in his own very special way to have some solid food - I think his exact words were - WAH WAH WAH, MMMM GOO GAH BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Translation, feed me woman! So we passed him crackers and some Gerber freeze dried fruit/veggie bites. Actually Charlotte held the bag of Gerber bites and gave him a piece by piece. Adorable!

6. Pack variety of entertainment for 3yr old - including stack of animal books (go through all animal sounds while reading), iPod loaded with favorite games and SpongeBob episodes and more books. And finally favorite bears, along with a place for mama bear to sit while Charlotte holds her hand - the cooler. How cute is that???

So a day filled with adorable memories, good kids and safe arrival to Charlotte, NC. Plus less than $10.00 spent on stuff. Awesome 1st day of vacation!!

And you know the best part? Everyone's asleep while I type this post!!! How much fun is that! Total quite alone time. Sweet.

1 comment:

amanda said...

Oh dear heavens you new header made me laugh...just wasn't expecting it. :)
We stopped @ Costco in Cincinnati, since we can't bring most stuff over the border, and hubby remarked that like usual we're probably buying more than what we will eat. As is typical...we ate out more than planned. Love your idea of bringing the pasta...I think we can bring THAT across the border.