Family Road Trip 2012 Day One
Family Road Trip 2012!!
Well, here we go again! We are still working on our goal of visiting all of the lower 48 states before our oldest graduates. This summer, as I mentioned in my previous post, we are only traveling for two weeks.
Preparing for this trip seemed so much easier. I know a lot of it is because we made it through last summer's trip with a minivan and a trailer. If I could make it through four weeks, I know I can handle two :). Plus, since we are not going as far west as last summer, and visiting larger cities, we did not feel as much of a need to bring along as many emergency supplies and food. We are not staying in rental houses this year (last summer we stayed in two), and 7 of our 14 hotels include breakfast. Harvey has spent the last month making reservations in hotels (he is a pro at Priceline :).
Also making things easier was having a lot of our committments over about two weeks ago. Plus, I realized that last year I was directing a church musical just days before we left!! I do not know how I got us ready to be completely honest :).
This year, as on our last big trip, I gave out tickets for chores for our daily road trip ticket prize box. I still thank Beth Pinckney for that idea! I even got part of our fence scrubbed one afternoon that badly needing scrubbing, thanks to Rebekah and her motivation to earn tickets :).
Harvey found another Dad of the Year trophy in the dollar spot at Target and is going to award it again every morning to the winner of the previous day. To be a winner, you have to be extra kind and helpful while traveling. Winning the trophy means picking your seat for the day in the car, so understandably, winning it is a big deal :). As last year, Trey does not participate in that one since he is now over 6 feet tall and may also be driving some!!
The final idea from last year is the use of Travel Notebooks. Last year's were pretty beat up as they stayed in the van all year. So, everyone got a new notebook for this trip. When we get to a new state, I pass out a state page to color. I also have some coloring pages from previous landmarks we have visited. I have a lot of pages in page protectors and each child has an erasable marker with an eraser attached. I got those from an e-book I purchased a couple of years ago that I love "Travel Activities in a Bag." I have adapted a lot of their pages to go in our notebooks. Every notebook has a pencil pouch in the front with a set of Crayola twistable pencils with erasers (thanks to Pamela & Constance for introducing me to these)! These eliminate the need for pencil sharpeners, and the potential mess that melted crayons cause in the minivan :).
Okay, sorry to bore with details, but I always like to know how families travel well. Not that we by any means travel without our share of fussing, but I think that travel notebooks for younger kids, choosing a seat (diplomatically), and earning tickets for being helpful, obedient, & kind to earn prizes really helps break up hours together in the minivan.
As for yesterday, our day consisted of packing the trailer, leaving the house clean for my brother-in-law the pilot who will be periodically crashing in between his trips (Bryan, check on the fish please :), and heading to Atlanta! Rebekah had some birthday money she had been saving for a trip to the American Girl store. The boys walked around the mall while we girls enjoyed some girl time. We ended with dinner at the famous Varsity restaurant, where we enjoyed burgers and their famous orange freezes. Yum!
Thanks for following us on our trip! We appreciate your prayers :).
Carried by His Grace,
Well, here we go again! We are still working on our goal of visiting all of the lower 48 states before our oldest graduates. This summer, as I mentioned in my previous post, we are only traveling for two weeks.
Preparing for this trip seemed so much easier. I know a lot of it is because we made it through last summer's trip with a minivan and a trailer. If I could make it through four weeks, I know I can handle two :). Plus, since we are not going as far west as last summer, and visiting larger cities, we did not feel as much of a need to bring along as many emergency supplies and food. We are not staying in rental houses this year (last summer we stayed in two), and 7 of our 14 hotels include breakfast. Harvey has spent the last month making reservations in hotels (he is a pro at Priceline :).
Also making things easier was having a lot of our committments over about two weeks ago. Plus, I realized that last year I was directing a church musical just days before we left!! I do not know how I got us ready to be completely honest :).
This year, as on our last big trip, I gave out tickets for chores for our daily road trip ticket prize box. I still thank Beth Pinckney for that idea! I even got part of our fence scrubbed one afternoon that badly needing scrubbing, thanks to Rebekah and her motivation to earn tickets :).
Harvey found another Dad of the Year trophy in the dollar spot at Target and is going to award it again every morning to the winner of the previous day. To be a winner, you have to be extra kind and helpful while traveling. Winning the trophy means picking your seat for the day in the car, so understandably, winning it is a big deal :). As last year, Trey does not participate in that one since he is now over 6 feet tall and may also be driving some!!
The final idea from last year is the use of Travel Notebooks. Last year's were pretty beat up as they stayed in the van all year. So, everyone got a new notebook for this trip. When we get to a new state, I pass out a state page to color. I also have some coloring pages from previous landmarks we have visited. I have a lot of pages in page protectors and each child has an erasable marker with an eraser attached. I got those from an e-book I purchased a couple of years ago that I love "Travel Activities in a Bag." I have adapted a lot of their pages to go in our notebooks. Every notebook has a pencil pouch in the front with a set of Crayola twistable pencils with erasers (thanks to Pamela & Constance for introducing me to these)! These eliminate the need for pencil sharpeners, and the potential mess that melted crayons cause in the minivan :).
Okay, sorry to bore with details, but I always like to know how families travel well. Not that we by any means travel without our share of fussing, but I think that travel notebooks for younger kids, choosing a seat (diplomatically), and earning tickets for being helpful, obedient, & kind to earn prizes really helps break up hours together in the minivan.
As for yesterday, our day consisted of packing the trailer, leaving the house clean for my brother-in-law the pilot who will be periodically crashing in between his trips (Bryan, check on the fish please :), and heading to Atlanta! Rebekah had some birthday money she had been saving for a trip to the American Girl store. The boys walked around the mall while we girls enjoyed some girl time. We ended with dinner at the famous Varsity restaurant, where we enjoyed burgers and their famous orange freezes. Yum!
Thanks for following us on our trip! We appreciate your prayers :).
Carried by His Grace,
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