Most my preparations for a trip DO NOT usually go into the packing of the bags....BUT consist of car ride survival strategies!
I spend most of my time packing for the ride. An awful car trip can make or break a vacation for you. You can arrive SUPER frazzled or finish off a perfect vacation frazzled.
SO...I try to make it a "happy" time...although Dacie usually has other plans!
Utah is NOT that intimidating of a drive for me...considering my parents live 12 plus hours from us, so the 9 hours to get to Utah is nothin'!
I am blessed to have a hubby who does NOT get car-sick and is extremely agile jumping over seats.
I also have a son (Colton) that all you have to do is hand him a game boy remote (Thanks UNCLE BRENDON) and you do not hear a peep from him the ENTIRE trip.
I was feeling guilty about the amount of hours he was spending on it--so we took it away for a bit and 3 fights IMMEDIATELY began. I quickly removed the guilt and put the game boy BACK in his hands (I know, I know that is bad parenting and I am "giving in" by doing that...but for the sake of sanity and Dacie's fits--it is what we HAD to do! ha ha).
Sterling CAN watch movies, and will IF he is not in a teasing mood.
Ryland is a hit or miss on the movies...usually a hit.
AND DACIE is NOT a movie watcher AT ALL, NOR easily pacified with a bin of toys....
You can't win em' all I guess!
It was a higher maintenance trip already despite the car ride packing, because it was a wedding and Easter trip...so we had allot of matching fancies to get together, keep clean, and not wrinkle!BUT thank heavens for Aunt Cara's who can come over so you can start the packing process a week or so early w/out kids!
Because of my recent preparations for the 2 mile run...I had seen 17 MUCH UNWANTED pounds shed, SO I was going to try to keep car snacking healthy (even though I still managed to gain some back on the vacation---what a rip!). Dan had recently done a presentation at a local health food store...so we had a gift certificate to capitalize on.
SO I went in and tried to by wholesome kid-friendly car snacks. I even found some ginger to help car-sick upset tummies. The food lasted us well and there were definitely some favorites and UNfavorites! It was a good thing we had a certificate because the prices were NUTS!
We made both legs of the trip in good time with NO SNOW (as the weather called for)...but Dan warned me it would be cold. So my poor flip-flopped Texas Arizona children suffered from a mom stuck in warm weather mode.
A place we stopped for gas had this really really cool and GINORMOUS rocking chair in front of it AND Ryland wanted to take funny pictures to put in a notebook he is doing--
That same gas station had attendants come out and wash your windows (without being in full-serve) and had some of the cleanest bathrooms we have been too!
So if your going to Utah, stop in Beaver!
Really, it was worth THE CRAZY car rides ( I would NEVER want a reality show to tape our car trips inside the car EVER). We were grateful we were safe and had a car that worked!!!!
~
3 comments:
The last time we went up north we stopped at the same station and Darin took my picture on the huge rocking chair. I also took a picture of the guy who came out and washed my window. He thought it was strange. I told him that what he did was a rare thing these days (I mean someone doing something nice just because) and that I needed to document it.
Congrats on losing 17 lbs! I am impressed!! You look great in all the pics, I must say. I am glad you guys had a fun trip, even if it started and ended with a long car ride. Sounds like you pulled it off though.
Wow--I'm so impressed with your weight loss--that's fantastic! I'm glad you survived the car ride with kids, it's not the most pleasant thing in the world. Glad you found a good place to stop in Beaver. We usually stop at their McDonald's...whose bathrooms are McNasty!
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