I just arrived at my parents house for the second time this summer. It’s been quite the experience. I drove from Colorado to western Washington on June 14th with my mom (who flew down and rode back with me). Then on June 27th the hubby and I loaded up the kids, borrowed my parents tent trailer and headed towards Yellowstone. On the way we stopped at his brother’s house in central Washington where it just happened to work out that his wife, Andrea, (one of my bestest friends) went into labor with their second child while we were there. So we stayed an extra night and I was able to freeze a bunch of meals and a batch of sticky buns AND I got to be there to see Levi John come into the world. What a joyous and incredible thing to witness!
Handsome little guy, huh?
Well, little is relative. To his older brother.
He was 9 pounds 8 ounces.
He likes to eat.
Anyway…. so once we felt like things were under control there we took off again.
We stopped again at Jeremiah’s grandma’s house in Cheney, WA and spent a night there.
Then we went to Yellowstone and spent three nights there.
The thing about going to Yellowstone is that you have a couple choices. You can see the park by car and then you get to see a pretty good portion of it. Or you can just choose to hike – I mean certainly if you had more time or fewer kids with you, you could certainly do both but we had to choose. So we drove it. (We were later glad we did since almost at the same time we were there a couple was attacked by a grizzly)
Which added 2 days of driving to our extravaganza.
Which was fine.
So then we headed home – 14 hour drive.
Stayed for one week.
Then I loaded the kidlets up again and headed back to Washington. Where I just arrived.
Three days later.
I did it solo.
Meaning it was just me and the kids.
For 23 hours.
It went well actually.
Better than I expected.
SO. What I learned?
1. Buy a DVD player. They are priceless. (we really didn’t use it much when I had Jeremiah in the car with me, it was mostly for when I was alone) One needs a little sanity after all.
2. Make goodie bags!!!!!! I blogged about this after the first trip click here to read about them. They do take a little money, a little time and a touch of effort. They are totally worth all that. Praise the Lord for Buffy Ostlund for giving me the idea!
3. If you have a 18 month old – put a box at his feet to catch toys. Worked like a charm, I tell ya!
4. When you stop for one person to use the facilities, make everyone in the car use them too. Even if they claim not to need to. No exceptions. Even the 18 month old.
5. When your truck stops working going over a mountain pass because it has an oil leak and has run out of oil, you pour more in and tell your kids to pray. Then when it starts again and gets you home, talk to your kids about the power of prayer and how they just had a prayer answered.
6. Bring extra oil along with you.
7. Get really good at throwing food to the back bench seat if you have a large vehicle. I am now extremely accurate at throwing things to the correct child without breaking/spilling whatever it is. They are getting better at catching.
8. Another great rule is to have a shoe catch. Every time the kids get back in the car they place their shoes in the designated shoe spot so that when you try to get them all out the next time, they can find their shoes quickly. I had one of the seats on the middle bench folded down for this last trip so the kids placed their shoes on it and that worked great.
9. Have everyone wear flip-flops (if it’s summer), easy on and off.
10. A classic: pack an over-night bag. My dear and lovely friend, Beccy, made a gorgeous bag for me a couple months ago and it was the perfect size for each of us to have a pair of jammies, a change of clothes, diapers, wipes and toothbrushes in. This makes your over night very simple.
11. Go to Costco and buy a case of water. I am always amazed how much we go through on a car trip. Plus it comes in really handy for rinsing out sippy cups.
12. Keep a pack of wipes in your console or somewhere you can reach them while you are driving.
13. My 18 month old thought it was super fun to be able to dig through a bag and select his own toy. So rather than me trying to figure out what would entertain him, find it and then hand it to him, only to have it rejected, I put all his toys in a reusable shopping bag and when he needed something I just handed him the bag. When he was done with the selected toy, he would throw it on the floor where it would land in the box I had placed there. Then every time we stopped, I pulled all the toys out of the box and put them back in the bag and started over.
14. To Mom: pack yourself some treats. You will need them. I went the good chocolate section before each trip and selected myself something dark and expensive for those little (or long) moments when all three kids are crying, hitting, and/or tattling or I was just plain sick of driving and you find yourself just on the edge with 5 more hours of driving to do, then take a deep breathe, a bite of chocolate and threaten to pull over….
I may end up thinking of more things and adding to this but it’s a good start. Hopefully you find this helpful and I do have one more 23 hour drive to do in a couple weeks or less so if you have any other fabulous suggestions I would truly LOVE to hear them!
- Huckleberry Plum Pie - January 1, 2017
- Fresh Mango Sorbet - July 17, 2016
- Steak Caesar Salad - June 8, 2016
