Hitting the road

We knew as we approached the summer of 2012 we wanted to take a vacation out of state.  It had been awhile since we visited family and friends in both NY and MI so we planned a three-legged trip to both areas.  But we didn't predict that 6 months later Michael's ENT would still not give him the, "Okay" to fly.  So onto the back burner those visits go. Bummer!  Instead, we decided on a road trip back up to the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  Which is where we are now, getting ready to start our trip...

We have had a GREAT trip so far! The boys were a delight all two and half days on the road. I have a LOT of experience with road trips and know exactly how boring they can be for a child.  So with this first hand knowledge I did as much research and pinning on Pinterest.com as I could to find creative and fun ideas to keep the kids distracted.  There were so many fun ideas that even I was excited for them.  Here are a couple of the fun things I came up with: 1)  Purchased about a dozen or so gifts from the dollar section of stores (an equal amount for each child), wrapped them and kept them in the front seat with me so when the kids started to become fidgety or impatient I pulled out a gift for each of them to unwrap.  They LOVED it, which means we loved it! 2) Purchased some new games off Amazon.com that came highly recommended that took 2 or more players so we could play them together in the car.  This one was another great hit, because then it didn't seem like everyone was always doing their own thing, but we had something new and fun we could do together...always a big hit with me.  3) Found some fun multi-compartment containers that we stocked each morning with snacks so that the boys could keep next to them and pick at during the day as they pleased....this one proved to be very very handy.  So those are just a few ideas that proved to be great fun for the boys, which in turn made Michael and I's driving much more pleasant.

Wrapped gifts

Storage containers for toys, markers, macaroni beads, etc...

Happy faces as we pull out of the driveway....

First nap of the car trip.

Still smiling as we check into our hotel after day 1.

Opening one of his gifts

One of the fun games

Day 1 we left the house around 1:30 and ventured to our hotel in Stockton.  We made excellent time on the road which allowed time for the boys to run around for awhile and burn some of that pent up energy.