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During the month of July our family embarked on a two week road trip to the Midwest, where my husband and I are originally from and much of our family still resides. I was super pumped about our trip, taking weeks to plan what kind of activities we would bring for the kids to do in the car, marking our routes in the road atlas, and researching the best healthy snacks we could pack for munching along the way. I also researched how we could pack very minimally for a family of 6, and what, if any, stops along the way might be interesting for the kids to explore. I really thought I had everything figured out. Of course, things don’t always go as planned!
Here’s what I can tell you did work:
- Kindles – Our kids are very avid readers. I did not want to tote around a giant collection of books that were just going to take up valuable space, so after doing some research, chatting a length with my husband, and getting over my “anti-tablet” issues, we decided to go ahead and invest in getting each of the three older kids a used Kindle. They were complete lifesavers!!! We were able to set the controls on them so they had to read for an hour first before they did anything else. We also set the controls so they also turned on and off at a certain times of the day. Even Jonas, who can’t quite read on his own yet, really enjoyed looking at books. They all had their own pair of headphones so the noise was contained, and they were only allowed to be on them for an hour here and there during travel time. Once we got to our destination, we collected them and they weren’t allowed to use them so that they could focus their attention on visiting with family and friends we rarely see.
- Paint By Sticker Books – Oh, my, word! The kids loved these! It kept them busy for a good hour or more at a time. They each got a different book to work on and could switch with each other if they wanted. Here’s a link to one that we purchased.
- Subscription Services – With the Kindles, I wanted to get the best bang for my buck, so I signed up for as many subscription services Amazon had to offer. You can typically get a free month to try their various services, so I waited till the week before we left to sign up for a few. We tried Free Time (their kids program with books, games, and videos), Audible for audio books, and Kindle Unlimited for books. I have to say, that across those platforms there wasn’t a large selection of specific book titles the kids enjoy, but it was worth the free trial. Mom and Dad also enjoyed a discount subscription to Spotify, in which my husband made some fun road trip playlists for us.
- Minimialist Packing – I was bound and determined to get us all packed in ONE suitcase for the entire trip, and I did! I packed a week’s worth of outfits for everyone, one set of pajamas, one bathing suit, one jacket, and we survived! We never really needed any more than that and we were able to do laundry at several points along the way. It was amazing considering all the other baby equipment needs we had this time around. Totally saved on car space!
Here’s what didn’t work for us:
- Too Much Food – On our last road trip, a little over three years ago, it seemed like all the kids wanted to do was eat! Well, I overstocked on the snacks this time around and we had way too much food to cart along with us. At one point I was trying to get the family we were visiting to eat it so we didn’t have so much on the return home.
- Too Many Activities – Again, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I packed way too many activity books and games. I had a crate that I packed with ALL of our Usborne activity books, thinking they would get so bored in the car or at whatever location we were at in our journey. I also packed a small plastic container of card games too. Well, I should have known that in new locations and situations, they would be so busy and wouldn’t need them. They hardly touched anything in the crate or game box!
Overall, we had a fantastic trip! It think we spent well over 20+ hours in the car each way and traveled several thousand miles. Cece was a dream traveler for a baby, the older kids behaved wonderfully (though each had “moments” along the way), and we enjoyed seeing so many family members and friends we hadn’t seen in years! Oh, and we also stopped off at the St. Louis Gateway Arch on the way out at the kid’s request. I had never been before, but Eric had. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience, meaning you only need to do it once in your lifetime and that’s it 🙂
Next month on LOL we’ll chat about all things back to school. After this trip, I’m MORE than ready for school to start! Below are some fun pictures from our trip.
