A few months ago it dawned on me that we had never gone to see my sister Sherri in Florida so we planned a trip for apring break and made it happen. I love family vacation road trips. I like having the whole family stuck in a car and having no real schedule. Just a week of hanging out and having fun together. As the kids have gotten a little older and more self sufficient it is even better. We have our fair share of arguments, tiredness and emergency potty breaks, but overall I really enjoy our road trips. We have made a few guidelines for our trips over the years that make things go smoother for us.
Rule #1- Talk it up before hand and dicuss things they can watch for and look at on the way. If you miss these things as we are driving because you are sleeping or have your nose stuck in an electronic you can not throw a fit about it. 🙂
Rule #2- If we will be traveling over 12-13 hours we will split it up and take two days. Then the drivers aren’t exhausted and the kids don’t have cabin fever when we arrive.
Rule #3- When staying at a hotel, pack a small overnight bag ahead of time with pj’s, clothes for the next day, swimsuites, and toiletries for everyone. Then when we get to the hotel we will be staying in for maybe twelve hours we grab one bag to take in with us and don’t have to haul EVERYTHING in and repack it. So much easier.
Rule #4-The kids are in charge of picking the movies and toys they want to bring. I used to try and pack the toys and movies and other things that I thought the kids would want. Then get frusterated when they weren’t interested or never used half the stuff I brought. They bring so much less stuff and play more with it when they pick what they bring. Even if it is a broken piece of a toy that does nothing…???
Rule #5- Everyone has to give me a treat and healthy snack idea to pack for the same reasons that apply to rule #4
Rule #6- When we make a stop, everyone has to use the restroom whether they think they need to or not. NO exceptions. If mom is driving without dad this rule includes limiting your liquids because I stop a lot less than dad does.
We like seeing the different parts of the country as we drive too. This trip took us through the Smokey Mountains. They are so beautiful and literally look like they are smoking with fog. There were lots of trees starting to bud for Spring too. We added Alabama and Georgia to our list of states we have now traveled through on this trip. Alli had a brief relapse of the flu right before we left but it only put us a half day behind our original schedule. We left Friday afternoon and stayed at a hotel in Mt Vernon MO.
Our kids are pretty good travelers thanks to electronics, snacks, and toys. One of the highlights of any vacation for the kids but especially Emilee, is staying in a hotel. She asks me to go on vacation to sleep in a hotel all the time. Sometimes we go swimming (I don’t, hotel swimming pools gross me out big time) but not always. They love going down to breakfast in the morning and picking whatever they want to eat.
We drove the rest of the way to Florida on Saturday, and got to the French’s about nine that night. The last hour or so we did another one of our favorite car ride activities. We play a bunch of our favorite songs and sing along while we rock out. Our songs change pretty often but these are the current top 20 of our favorite rocking out songs for this trip. We pick songs that everyone knows so we can all sing.
- Fight Song-Rachel Platten
- Good to Be Alive-Andy Grammer
- How Far I’ll Go- Disney’s Moana
- Sweet Caroline-Neil Diamond
- Let It Go-Disney’s Frozen
- HandClap- Fitz & the Tantrums
- Just Give Me a Reason-Pink
- Sweet Baby James-James Taylor
- Demons- Imagine Dragons
- Cecilia- Simon& Garfunkel
- Believer- Imagine Dragons
- Thunder-Imagind Dragons
- Stitches-Shawn Mendes
- Defying Gravity- Glee Remake
- Carolina In My Mind- James Taylor
- We Are the Champions-Queen
- Happy- Pharrell Williams
- America- Neil Diamond
- This is Me- From The Greatest Showman
- I See the Light- Disney’s Tangled