Family Road Trip

Every time I mentioned that we might be taking a road trip with our three children, including a newborn, I got a look. Most of the time I think people were questioning our sanity and truly I was questioning it as well. What the heck did we get ourselves into ? BUT, I have to say, although there was some little bumps along the way, this road trip was an absolute blast and I would one hundred and ten percent do it again!

I’m not sure that I have any actual advice to share because I think a lot of our success was simply good luck but I will still share what we did and how we made it from Bracebridge to Nashville and back again all in one piece. I am going to be honest snacks were a major factor in our success. If you were wondering how much food is too much to bring , the answer is you will not have enough. Anyone else wonder how they are going to afford to feed their family past the age of five . . . cause SAME.

ANYWAYS . . . I think it is best we just start from the beginning here and give you the full details of what our first official family of five road trip looked like from start to finish so, here we go . . .

Our original plan included us leaving at dinner time with the intention of driving through the night. I truly thought this was the most genius plan and figured we would breeze through it all. We grabbed happy meals to kick things off and everyone was feeling good. We got to the border around 8:30/9:00PM and figured the boys would be falling asleep right around then. We did our bathroom break, teeth brushing, all the bedtime things, just before heading over the border and we were ready for what we thought was going to be sweet dreaming for all the littles. Well, let me tell you, Watson had a different plan for us. We quickly started to realize he would not be sleeping at any kind of reasonable hour. 11PM rolls around and Watty is still showing no signs of slowing down. Beau is snoring in the back. Princess perfect, Scottie, who you will likely hear very little about throughout this reenactment because she barely made a peep for the entire trip, was also sound asleep. Anyways, I digress. 11PM ish rolls around and Chris has also now decided he is getting quite tired. Please keep in mind working nights is his job and he had the entire day as an opportunity to sleep. But, whatever. Chris is getting tired and Watty is not sleeping. At this point I am still convinced we can do it. We grab some energy drinks at the gas station, get some fresh air pumping in for Chris and Watson would have to sleep soon, how much longer could a two year old really last? Well we stop for the gas. Beau stays asleep, Scottie poops her pants, and Watty is bright eyed and bushy tailed still. Get the princess back to sleep after a little bum change. Watty seems to be getting tired but Chris does not seem to be perking up. 12AM. We have made it a little further into our drive. We keep going. Watson stays awake. Needless to say in the middle of Ohio our two year old son won the “we are stopping battle” (much to Chris’ delight). We find a spot around 1AM. A king size bed for the team.

A refreshing couple of hours of sleep for everyone really did do us all some good and we got back on the road around 8AM the next morning. The drive that day was much easier on us all. Naps were had, everyone was laughing, eye spy was played, all the snacks were eaten and we made it to Nashville around 3PM (central time so actually 4PM). It was long but it was manageable and I think we all actually enjoyed it to a certain extent.

P.S. a cozy fit was essential to survival! All Brunette from Belle’s - link!

Now what really kept us alive were snacks, stickers and mess free colouring activities. Linking what we used the most below for you. Also pro tip: only easy to remove stickers for the car. By the end of the drive Watson had his seat, his door, and my legs completely covered. Easy snacks were lifesaving for me and I was glad I spent a little time prepping food prior to leaving. You might be wondering about feeding the baby in the car. I will say with the boys on long drives when I was breastfeeding I would just hang my body over them and feed (IYKYK) but with Scottie since she has decided the bottle is for her I was able to pump and bottle feed the entire way. Neither are glamourous but it was doable and relatively manageable despite likely showing my boobs to a large portion of Ohio and Kentucky.

Links you need | Stickers | mess-free colouring | back of the car seat holder organizers |
snack holders | water bottles . . . I know there is more but those are some essentials. Also buy all the individual, small snack packs of everything so you can pass them around easily!

The way home we had learned our lesson about driving over night and planned to just take our time and stop at a hotel when everyone had enough. Surprisingly enough when we were thinking we might stop around dinner time everyone was very well behaved and we were only 4 ish hours from the border. We decided driving straight through was going to be our plan of attack so we gave everyone a sit down dinner (Cracker Barrel for the win), got our nighttime sillies out, and made our way. Our total travel day was 8AM until 2:30AM and although we were all tired it was well worth it to be home in our beds instead of stopping at a hotel and having a full second day of travel the next day. If / when we make this trip again we will leave bright and early, maybe 5AM, in the hopes of arriving before midnight with a straight through drive next time. The way home truthfully was smoother than we could have hoped and despite the fact I had to sit in the middle between Scottie & Watty (where I do not fit, have you seen the size of me??), it was all really great!

My best advice for any longer road trip with kids is to have high hopes but low expectations and envision the drive going somewhere in-between that. In general when doing things with kids I think this is a great attitude and it is helping my type A personality to enjoy the chaos of motherhood and embrace that I cannot control everything but I can be prepared for almost anything. Does this make sense? Would you drive 14+ hours with three kids ages four and under? Ya it still sounds crazy even as I say it but we are here to tell the tale so that has to mean something LOL! See you on the gram babes. Have a great rest of your summer!

xo

P.S. Took all hideous pictures on the drive so leaving this here for you. Enjoy!