Our family usually flies to our far-away destinations. But this year, we were presented with a circumstance that led us to drive, 16+ hours, to Houston. We are not a family that does road trips. We are not a family that seems to be happy when taken away from our "comfort zones". So this was quite a challenge for us.
Kim and I asked many people how they travel with kids. Everyone had different ways, but all were great suggestions. We decided to venture off by leaving at 3/4am and seeing how far we could go in one day. So, the night before we left, we packed everything in the car except the food (snacks and sandwiches, fruits, veggies, and milk). Kim was determined to spend the 18 hours in his "ultimate driving machine" (aka, the BMW). And sure enough, he got it all to fit. Pack-n-play, travel high chair, stroller, and all our clothes, toys, and food.
We loaded the girls in the car in hopes it would be early enough in the morning that they would just keep sleeping. Nope! Natalie stayed awake the whole time. Alli slept a tiny bit in the morning, and took a nap later in the day. The girls played iPad games most of the way. When we hit San Antonio, about 13+ hours in, we decided that another 3-4 hours wasn't do-able for us. So we crashed at one of Kim's co-workers houses for the night. I was amazed by how wonderful the family had done on such a long trip in the car, and it made the 3+ hours to Houston seem so short!
Houston was nice for visiting everyone and we got to see Jonathan (my nephew) graduate from high school! Holy cow!! Alli unfortunately got sick, so the rest of the trip was laying around the house the entire time. Bummer. But we still enjoyed the company.
Then we all took off back to San Antonio for Ben's Bar Mitzvah. We travelled one day and got settled in to our hotel rooms. The next day our whole family (ours, Andy's, and Mom) went to SeaWorld. It was a lot of fun!! And hot!! Alli was totally amazed at the tricks the animals could do!
The Bar Mitzvah service was early the next morning, and it was a bit of a struggle to get the whole family ready for it. But we did it! And for the full 1.5 hour service, Alli was sooo mature. She tried to follow along in the book. Thought Hebrew was Chinese. :) But was a wonderful example of a well-behaved young lady. Natalie on the other hand.... :)
After the service the kids got to run around, and then our family went back to Uncle Irwin's for some swimming with cousin Addison. The girls again put on their best behavior. Natalie even went to sleep by herself while there! Woo Hoo!! No laying with her to get her to fall asleep.
The next day was the long trek home. What I noticed was a big change in Natalie. Over the course of the trip, the bottle became less necessary. And a bottle before bed or nap was completely unnecessary. She suddenly started refusing the high chairs in the restaurants, and instead preferred just sitting in a chair, just like her big sister.
The ride home was a little more stressful as I didn't have as much food, and we had started out tired. But we made it. And the first thing the girls did when they got home was run into the green room and start pulling out toys and playing with them. (Alli used to do that every time we went out of town, but this was prompted by Natalie. Pretty funny.)
What we learned: I learned how to pack good snacks for a car ride. I learned that riding so long in a nice riding vehicle is a good thing (hence, I might look at a different 4WD vehicle when I'm ready to switch vehicles). And, our family is concentrating on saying all positive things when things don't go the way we want.
So, I think that means more road trips in the future! haha
