How to Survive a Road Trip with Young Children

We are finally adjusting to life after our glorious beach vacation last week.  Our little family had so much fun visiting with Rhett's bigger family and the trip positively flew by.  The rest of the family left a bit before we did, and once they were gone Cate cried and cried that things were ending.  Sad as it may be, that is the mark of a good vacation.

While I was suuuuuper anxious about the drive to the beach given traffic on 95, near Virginia Beach, and across the bridge to the Outer Banks, we breezed up and down the highway the entire time.  THE ENTIRE TIME I TELL YOU.  Our drive was downright pleasant!  I can say that because 1) We had zero meltdowns and 2) Rhett drove the whole time.

You may recall I had a lengthy list on how I might try to keep my girls happy.  Most of that I ended up bagging simply because between me, Rhett, the girls, and our sitter, Sarah, our car was packed to the gills.  We had no space and something like a cookie sheet for Charlotte to play with magnets on?  That was deemed, among several things, as a non-essential item.

Here were the keys to success:
1. Early Departure Time
When we left for the beach, we got the girls out of bed at 6am (Cate's normal wake-up time), took a quick bathroom break, and put them in the car.  This was good because the first half hour of the trip was spent "waking up" and talking about what we were doing.

2. Food
The girls ate all but one meal (I'll get to that) in the car.  This took up a ton of time--we had trail mix and other fun snacks they enjoyed eating.  In order to curb the crumbs, I put beach towels down under their seats and on the floor.

3. Movies
What would I do without in-car entertainment in the form of my iPad playing Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo?  We watched one movie on the way down and another on the way home.

4. New Toys
Each girl got one nice new toy--Cate got a Strawberry Shortcake activity pack and Charlotte got a Minnie Magnadoodle--which they played with A LOT.  I did try wrapping up Dollar Store toys as well but this sort of fizzled.  The novelty of the cheap toys wore off almost instantly.

5. Regular Breaks
With Cate, we have to make potty stops so this is a requirement.  But, I found that stopping every two hours or so really broke up the drive well and gave everyone a fresh start.

6. Sunday to Sunday Rental
No brainer--traffic is way better on Sundays.

So, nothing novel in my list, but I felt fantastic about the drive.

One other note--when we left for home, we took off right after the girls' naps on Saturday.  We weren't planning on that, but they took really short afternoon naps, and it just felt like time to go.  Because of the timing, we did end up stopping and eating at the Cheese Shop in Williamsburg, VA for dinner so I could consume my weight in house dressing so the girls could run around.  While it did add 30 minutes to our drive, it was so worth having dinner somewhere other than the car.

Three cheers for a successful drive!

Our captain

Cate was ready to get this party started.

We left our house at the crack of dawn--Charlotte's pacifier had not even been removed yet :)