Monday, June 09, 2008

Road Trip Ahead



Bright and early tomorrow morning, the kids and I will be heading out of town to visit my family. Everyone is very excited for this trip, although I do not think Alex and Olivia fully understand yet that Dada will not be coming with us. They will enjoy playing with their cousins immensely, but I know we will all miss Eric so much!

This will be the first time I have made the drive on my own since Alex and Olivia were potty trained. When we made this trip at Christmastime, the usual 5 hour drive took over 7 hours due to all the potty breaks we had to take. This should prove very interesting!

I have spent much of today packing and getting everything all ready to go. I am a chronic over-packer. I'm not so bad with my own clothes anymore, but it's so tough with the kids. First of all, even though I know I could, I really do not want to have to do any laundry while we are gone. Secondly, the kids all have so many cute outfits it's hard to pick just one for each day. There's just no telling what I might feel like dressing them in from one day to the next. A girl needs options, right? I forced myself to limit it to 8 outfits for each child; one for each day, plus 3 spares. I think that should cover it.

I borrowed some audiobook CDs from the library for us to listen to. I tried to pick things that everyone could be interested in, so I got Wind In The Willows and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have never tried this before, so I'm curious to see how it works. We also have a few music CDs, but those are a last resort. I prefer to not have "The Muffin Man" stuck in my head for 3 days straight.

We will be eating a big breakfast right before we leave in hopes of not having to stop for lunch until we are at my sister's house. It used to be really nice to just pack some sandwiches or swing through a drive-thru and pass out lunch to everyone while we continued to drive. However, Gracie is now at that in-between stage where she needs to be fed. So stopping for lunch would mean we'd have to all get out and go in somewhere. I'd really like to avoid that. If we leave early enough, and don't have to stop for too many potty breaks, we should be just fine. I've also packed a few snack bags for everyone, so that should help too.

I am so thankful for this opportunity to take the children to visit my family. I know the memories they make over these next few days will last a lifetime. What a blessing it was to realize, on the spur of the moment, that we could go.

Would you like to share something that you are thankful for this week? If so, head on over to Laura's blog to participate in Gratituesday.

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6 comments:

Laura 11:57 PM  

Wow, Kate...you have worked so hard and gotten everything ready and organized so well!! I pray your travels will go smoothly with all your little ones and that you will have a wonderful time with your family!

Anonymous,  1:33 AM  

Oh, I hope and pray your trip is a good one! Have a super time!

(Btw, I posted about going on a trip too - too funny!)

Teresa 10:32 AM  

Have a great time, Kate!

Jennifer 2:49 PM  

I think the books on tape will work great. We have started listening to these at lunch and snack time and it has totally cut out the fighting among the kids at meals. Also, they are getting exposed to things that they would never sit on the couch for. It has worked so well!

Another thing, when I drove with the kids by myself out to Chicago in March, our VCR broke on the way home, meaning no videos. It took us 9 hours, when it should have taken 6, but that was due to other circumstances. At rest areas I dug deep in the van to come up with any and all children's CDs I might have in the car. I didn't enjoy it so much, but it kept the kids happy the whole time. I think it will work great for you too. Drive safe!

Kirstin 7:08 PM  

Have a fun trip. My parents used to live 2 1/2 hours away and I made that trip quite often by myself with the girls. They usually did pretty good. It was harder when they were little, but we got routines down and it worked. We did invest in portable DVD players which proved to be lifesavers on long trips.

MamaMia 7:15 PM  

Happy Travels! Hope your potty breaks are few! Visiting those we love is always a great time!

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