Road tripping

So what was it like spending three days in a car with a 3 year old and 18 month old? Not too bad. We had some whining, a few messes, but other than that it was pretty uneventful.

Rw entertained himself pretty well, and didn't need much attention. He didn't sleep a lot during the day, and when he fell asleep in the evening the only problem was he did not like the dark when he woke up, and would cry bc he was scared.

Ginny was not so easily entertained, and more than once we just let her whine and fuss herself into a nap. There was only so much we could do for her. Her biggest problem was the hotel rooms, I'm not sure why but she just was not a fan. I would walk in with her and the second the door closed she would scream. Silly girl.

So what was my game plan?

A couple weeks before our trip I went through their toys and took some of the ones that entertained them best and his them away. I did the same with books. They never missed them. Then we went to the store and bought each kid one exciting new toy and then a couple cheapie dollar type toys. I had crayons and coloring books as well. I also found some great deals on a few of their favorite snacks so I grabbed those as well.

We made the trip in a Honda accord. A tight fit and not the best for being awesomely organized, but it worked. The thing that helped the most was organizing toys into gallon ziplock bags. Each bag had a set for Ginny and a set for rw of similar type toys. That way all I had to do was grab a bag, divide the toys, and then put them back in the bag before getting more out. Initially I just had all the toys in a big reusable grocery bag and I was going nuts trying to find toys.

The books I kept I between their carseats so I could easily grab them if they couldn't reach. Coloring books (with clipboards) stayed at my feet, and I gave them a page and two crayons at a time. I kept only enough snacks for a day with me and the rest were in the trunk, that way I wasn't tempted to just keep throwing food at them to keep them happy.

The other great thing I did that I think really helped with the trip was to get some car seat travel trays. I found some simple ones for $10 online and ordered them a couple weeks in advance. It gave the kids a nice play area for their toys and a place for me to put their food. Most of the time toys never made it to the floor, just the carseat, so finding toys that were dropped was easy. They were not perfect, but they made a big difference. I think if we didn't have them I would have gone a bit nuts.

So that is how I survived the car ride. It helps that we have some pretty easy kids.

Also I do want to add, in case you were wondering, we made the whole trip without the aid of electronic devices. All we had was a car stereo. No movies, no games, just simple old fashioned fun.