Summer Lovin' (Part 2)

The biggest downer about a vacation is that they NEVER seem to be long enough.  We are in a position where my hubby gets 2 weeks of vacation per year, and we try to divide it up between our two families when we get a chance to head home.  My parents and hubby's parents live about 7 hours apart, so it's not a quick jaunt between them! 

After our (very much too short!) visit with my hubby's parents, we headed out on the road again to go visit my side of the family.  We had a couple of extra days there because one of my best friends was getting married, so there wasn't a lot of time to get visits in with my folks or my brother, but luckily, G was entertained the whole time!! 

When we left the Kootenay's, we knew it was going to be a long, hot day.  We are VERY fortunate that we FINALLY have a car with air-conditioning.  But this is the first car that has.  In the past, summer trips have been VERY hot and VERY uncomfortable.  This is definitely something to take into account as you travel.  If you are somewhat lacking in the cooling department, make sure to take extra steps to keep your little one comfortable in the backseat.  A hot child is an uncomfortable child, an uncomfortable child is often a whiny child and a whiny child makes a 3 hour trip seem like a 3 day trip!  Plan on having a cooler with cold snack and drinks in it, like veggie sticks, cold fruit and water.  Try to schedule stops at a lake or spray park.  A lot of cities have a Chamber of Commerce (or the equivalent) website, or an attractions or tourism website that will often list local parks, wading pools and spray pads.  If you can, try to schedule a lunch break or snack break at one of these places.  This will not only give your child a chance to cool off, they will get to burn off some energy, too!!  Growing up, we'd always take a summer trip to visit my grandparents.  And I remember my mom having a bag with a cold wash cloth in it. I think it was more to wash hands and faces after snacks, but it somehow always ended up being a way to cool off 3 kids in a hot back seat!!  They also have those one-time use cold packs that you crack and they become cool which could also help on those blisteringly hot days, although I would definitely use those with older kids and not with those who have the potential to put it in their mouth.  (On a side note, if you do have to travel on SUPER hot days, remember to carry some extra water for the engine, just in case!!)

One of the things that was a constant fascination to G as we went on our trip was the fact that the water levels were ridiculously high this year.  At my in-laws home in the Kootenay's, the river has taken over the beach and they have actually had to open more portions of their Dam to accommodate all of the extra water.  It was crazy, and G was suitably impressed!!

This is one of the local Dams that has had to open extra portions to keep up with the water.  Even as far away as we were from it, the noise was crazy!

This was a really neat experience for G to have with her Grandma and Papa, as they are both super knowledgeable about their local area and had a ton of information on the water and the dams, and G just thought that that was the coolest thing ever.  They took us on a tour to show the water levels and various dams in the area, and that's one of the biggest memories that she has from the trip.  For days afterwards, she'd say "Remember when we saw that water?  My Papa told me that the water is very cold and very fast, even though it doesn't look like it on the surface".  She loves looking at the pictures from our trip and remembering the cool sights that she saw.

Anyways, after our visit with hubby's parents, we hit the road.  We were on the road by about 8:30am, only 1/2 hour behind my schedule.  Now, I totally get that schedules can change.  If you are traveling with young children, if you are up with them until 4, unless your spouse/partner is sleeping so he/she can drive, you are likely not going to hit the road at 6.  It's not safe, it's not logical.  And I will guarantee you that 9 times out of 10, your little one will be so jacked up and ready to go that sleep the night before a big trip may be elusive.  We were really lucky with G, as she is a sound, deep sleeper.  So even though she was excited, she still went to sleep.  If you have little ones who get super excited and unable to sleep, you might want to hold off on telling them that you are heading to a special place until the morning of.  That way, you'll all get your beauty sleep and be fresh and ready for your trip!

We knew that the trip between parents' houses was about 7 hours, so we tried to find things that would keep G entertained on the trip.  Grandma and Papa gave G her birthday gift, princess shoes and crowns to wear!  She LOVES them, and she spent at least 2 hours in the car trying on each pair of shoes and wearing the different crowns.  She and her cousin even wore them to lunch!!  It's great to have a bored bag in the car, but it's also fun to have some new surprises every so often, like a new coloring book, or a neat craft.  Again, the Dollar store will come to your rescue!  They have all kinds of neat craft and coloring kits.  We got some that were Dora-themed that were like little mosaic tiles made of foam that you used to decorate a picture with.  Craft kits are also fun, just make sure they don't require glue or you may find your back seat a little more sticky than usual!

We had a lot of family that we wanted to visit on the way, so we took a tiny detour to get to see my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins.  It worked out perfectly because it was about 3 1/2 hours away, which is about the time that it takes for G to start getting a bit squirrelly and wanting to get out of her seat!  It was great because not only did we get a great visit with my aunt, G also got to run around and play and burn off energy!  She also got to hang out with family that she had never really met before, and it was a great experience.

Watering the wall at Auntie's house :) 

After another brief visit, we were on the road again!  This time, G slept all the way to Baba's house so we were good to go!

One thing that we really prepared for was down-time when we got to our destinations.  Because the purpose of the trip to my parents house was to go to my friends' wedding (where I was the MC!!), we wanted to make sure that when I had wedding-related things to do or when we had other stuff going on, that we had stuff for G to do.  That's where her inside bored-box came in handy.  We had her play-doh in there, some markers and a coloring book, and a painting book.  These are SUPER handy as they have the paint on the bottom of the page, all you need is water.  I didn't want to have to deal with paintbrushes, so we brought some q-tips to use instead.  We also had a container (from the Dollar store, of course!!) that had some pony beads and pipe cleaners in it to make some jewellery on the way.  You could definitely do this in the car, but beware the bumpy road!!

Now, because we were going to the wedding, and because I was involved, we had a dinner with the bride and groom's families.  It was awesome for G because there was a little girl who was the same age, and they played together famously all night.  It wasn't until the end of the night when they tried to knock each other down the stairs that there was an issue!  The only down side was that we had to leave earlier than we would have liked, to accommodate G's need for sleep.  DON'T try to push your child's limits in terms of needing to sleep or eat, or you will definitely be sorry!!!  As the bride and groom had already tied the knot in New York, the wedding that we went to was actually their reception.  In order to make sure we kept G entertained, we had brought along some goodies in her backpack, but the bride and groom also had thought ahead and had bought the girls coloring books with new crayons and puzzles to do!  Although, once the music started playing, dancing was in full force and the coloring books were completely forgotten :) 


The day after the reception, we were on the road at 7am.  Check out our next post to see more!!

Summer Lovin' (And Summer Travel!)

Well welcome back!  It has been far, far too long!!  We have had illness and surgery and work, work, work coming up, so my poor little blog has been shamefully neglected!  Well worry no more, we are back and ready to post!



Recently, we took on a BIG family trip.  We drove almost 3000 KM in 7 cities in 2 provinces.  Crazy?  Maybe!   Fun?  Absolutely!!  Would we do it again?  YES!!!  We passed those kilometers having fun and laughing and enjoying each other.  I was begged by a friend to post how we kept a very active 4 year old busy in the car, so here you go!!

We started out visiting my hubby's family.  It was 650 KM to get there, and I worried about how Gele would last in the car.  We packed a Bored Bag, and let her pull things out as she wanted them.

Here's what was inside:

A Portable DVD Player.  We got G's as a Christmas gift, but they do sell them at Wal Mart and they can be fairly inexpensive.

DVD's.  What's a DVD player without DVD's?  We bought some CD sleeves that fit in a 3-ring binder and filled them up with movies from home.  Don't feel the need to take along dozens of cases.  The sleeves will keep your movies safe :)

Books.  Take two or three of your little one's favorites, not the whole library.  We took along one book that had 6 stories in it, and it was full of pictures that kept her entertained.

Blocks:  We hit up our local Dollar store and found some fun toys for the car.  We found a little travel bag of Duplo-style blocks.  There are about 25 blocks in it; the perfect amount to make a few creations!

A Lap desk.  We got ours at Michaels.  It sits on her lap and has a small holder on each side which was perfect for holding her felts and crayons and coloring books.  It was also great for when she  was eating her snacks, as it kept crumbs off of the floor!  We waited to get ours on sale (It was $12), and then we used a 40% off coupon and it was even cheaper!!  It was great!!

Color Wonder books and felts.  TRY TO AVOID REAL FELTS!!!!  Unless you want to find your child's graffitti all over the back seat of your car, go Color Wonder all the way!  They have dozens of options for boys and girls, and the felts are specially designed to ONLY draw on the special paper!!  It can get a bit pricy, but they are often on sale at Wal Mart or Michaels, and if you get them at Michaels, you can often use the 40% off coupons!  We are big fans, can you tell?  :)  The Dollar store will sometimes carry them as well.

Play Doh.  If you are feeling brave and using a lap desk in the back seat, pull it out!  I had some small tubs of play-doh left over from G's birthday party favor bags, so we got a couple of colors and put them in a Ziploc bag with a couple of craft sticks for cutting and a couple of shape cutters.  We actually saved this in a separate box with some paints and real felts that we saved for Baba's house.  We weren't brave enough to do it in the car, but because we stayed with my folks while we were in town for a wedding, it was great when we had wedding stuff to do as G had lots of time to get crafty :)

Coloring books and crayons.  Always a hit!  We also had a bag of stickers that she had picked out for the trip. Just make sure that if you are driving in the heat that you DO NOT leave the crayons in the car!  You may come back to a bag of melted goo if you park somewhere hot!!

Books on tape.  We went to our local library, and G picked out a couple of books.  These weren't as big a hit as I thought they would be.  She listened to one at Grandma's house, and then she was done.  She had lots of cousins to play with and she mostly just wanted to look out the window and watch her movies and color in the car.

Snacks!!  Part of the fun of going on a car trip is eating snacks.  We went to the grocery store (Wal Mart is often cheapest!) and we found some fruit snacks and crackers.  I bought some individual Goldfish packages, and those were perfect for her.  Be careful with sugary snacks, though.  They tend to cause blood sugar to rise very quickly, which can often lead to having VERY cranky kids if they can't burn off their energy.  We took along our camping Thermos as well.  It holds about 2-3 litres of water, which was a nice switch from pop and juice.  G was super content with her cup of cold water, which suited us just fine!  We also included some snacks like some chips, sunflower seeds, and fresh fruit.  You can't drive through the Kootenay's and not stop at a fruit stand!!  We had plums, apples, blueberries and raspberries.  Bring along some baggies to keep the fruit in and you are good to go!  Again, make sure you don't leave it in a super hot car, as it may make your fruit go moldy.  Wash the fruit in a washroom along the way, just make sure you watch out for "Don't Drink The Water" warnings!  We kept ours in the fridge when we'd stop for the night.  G actually preferred the fruit to the other snacks;  works for me!!

A potty!!  Seriously!!  I stole the idea from a wonderful friend, and I cannot tell you how many times it saved us on the trip!  When you are driving and there are 80 kilometers before the next rest stop, there is no way a 4-year-old is going to wait that long!!!  It is WAY easier sometimes to find a roadside pull-out than a bathroom!  We got a small potty at our favorite Swedish box store, and put it in a large garbage bag with a roll of TP and a second bag for dirty paper.  We also had alcohol soap to wash out the potty after each use.  Trust me, you do NOT want to leave a dirty potty in the car if you stop!! Obviously this isn't an issue for boys and older girls may not be able to use the small potty, but at this age, it was perfect :)

A pillow or neck support.  It's hard for little ones to stay awake for a long drive!  Make sure you have something to help keep their heads up if they fall asleep.  The last thing you want is a cranky toddler with a crick in her neck after a long sleep!


Music.  Daddy and I had our own music up front, but we also had a few CD's that G loved as well.  If you're lacking on kids' music, stop by your local library to take out a few CD's (just make sure you don't lose them on the trip!).  Wal Mart also has a great selection of inexpensive CD's.  We got one that has 50 songs that G just loves!

And that's about it!!  We had one bag for food, G's toys/books etc. were in her back pack, and the pillows were on top of the snack bag.  Everything was in easy reach for her, and it made the trip a lot easier!!


Here are some simple do's and don'ts for traveling with young kids:

DO:  Try to take some time out to stop and take in the sights!!  We stopped twice on the way to Grandma's, and it was awesome!!  We got a special pass that allows us to go to any government-sponsored educational site in AB!  G had a blast, and she even learned a lot in the process.  Win-win!!

Checking out the view!!

We also stopped for bathroom breaks, and we tried to stop where there was something to see or something to learn.  And sometimes, it was just for fun!!  

HORSES!!

We stopped as often as we needed to, and we really enjoyed getting to spend time seeing the world through G's eyes.  It was the first time that she was old enough to really enjoy the trip.  Daddy and I pointed out things that we remembered from our childhood trips through the area and things that we had learned along the way, and she loved it.  She thought that we were brilliant, and she even told everyone all of the stuff that she had learned along the way!!  She is still talking about all of the landmarks that we saw and all of the cool things that we did.  

DON'T: try to do a long trip without stopping at least a couple of times.   Remember how tired and sore you get after sitting for long periods of time.  Kids often have less wiggle-room as their car-seats are designed to keep them in snug, so remember that little bottoms need to stretch, too!

DO:  Try to let your child linger at special sights and stops.  It can be SO hard when you are trying to stay to a schedule!  Trust me, I know!!  We run into this every time.  But it is so important to allow your child the opportunity to stretch, learn and enjoy.  We spent two hours at a historical site, even though we really wanted to get going to Grandma's (and I am sure that Grandma was anxious, too!!)  But G was getting so much out of it that we just couldn't make her leave.  I was so glad that we had planned to stop for a bit when we were mapping out our trip!  It was really special for us because there were a lot of firsts on that first leg of our journey.  She saw her first theater movie (it was a 30-minute history movie based on the historical site we were at), it was her first museum trip, and it was her first look at history.  Daddy and I are both really in to history and want to teach G what we can, so it was super cool that she was so on board with it!!

DON'T:  Try to schedule too much at once.  We only had a couple of days in each place (and sometimes we only had a couple of hours!), so we tried to plan more visiting than anything else.  At Grandma's, we only had 2 whole days there, so we tried to get in as much visiting time as we could.  We had a picnic in the park, an outdoor movie with Grandma, dinner with the family where we were joined by two of our favorite aunties, a tea party in Papa's backyard, and lots of hugs and snuggles.  We had a new nephew to meet (PRECIOUS, SWEET BOY!!!), we had my brother-in-law and his family to see, and of course my hubby's parents to visit with!!  The trip was definitely not as long as we would have liked it to be, but we got some great visiting in and we made some great memories for G as she got to visit with her grandparents, uncle and cousins, and see some amazing sights along the way!! 

The second leg of our journey began the next day, so be sure to check our next post for the rest of the adventure :)