** This year on the blog, we’re diving a little deeper… or veering off course … however you want to think of it. And while pretty pictures and beautiful families, seniors and more are still coming your way, of course, I’m also adding MORE content to be both helpful and entertaining! Starting with a series of suggestions/tips/ideas/resources/recommendations. And since we are T-minus 5 days away from our first big camper trip the first of these posts is all things road trip! Hope you enjoy…..
If you haven’t seen (anticipatory posts on my IG @sarahjaneshorthose), the Shorthose family is about to take our biggest vacation adventure ever. We’ve decided that it’s a good idea with a dog, a 5 year old and a 2 year old to spend 15+ days (“+” because Lord knows if we’ll stay on schedule) traveling from Illinois to Utah and back.
We don’t know what to expect other than the unexpected but we definitely knew we couldn’t just ‘wing-it’ on this trip and that Ryan was going to need to do some planning on the actual logistics … where we are staying, how far could we get in a day, which route was best for our truck/camper to actually make it through the mountains etc (another post on the amazing resources he used to chart our course coming soon!). And that I would need to do some planning on how to keep these girls/dog bearable in the car for a billion hours, because I don’t know if you know this but kids can be bored sitting in a SEA of amazing toys on a sunny summer day with the ice cream truck driving by….. so how are we going to avoid the “I’mmmmmm BOOOOOORRRRRRRDDDAAAAHHHHHHHH!” whines for two weeks in the truck?!?!
This post is a peek at the buckets and buckets (and one literal bucket because #carsick preparations) of activities and toys and #allthethings we’ve put together for our kids to be bored with anyways… and all the essentials to make a cross country family trip amazing for all of us #fingerscrossed.
#1 – Ok my number one necessity isn’t frilly or fun or anything but it’s number one because nothing can ruin … RUIN … a roadtrip like a puky kid. And it took us half dozen ruined trips to tune into the fact that duh, they make meds for this and ones for kids and it works amazing! So we’ve stocked up.
And because you never know… we also snagged this handy reusable/collapsible bucket… #justincase.
#2, 3 & 4 – Now, onto the fun stuff. They’ll only color for so long and coming up with the ‘car games’ off the top of your head is just too much for this momma. We’ve geared up with Highlights Magazines but I was giddy when I found the Highlights books of hidden pictures as that’s a standout hit with our kids and will actually keep them occupied seeing who can find all the pictures first.
Plus the On-The-Go games so we can car bingo, license plate hunt, and so much more and these flipping MAGIC LCD color screens…. like have you seen these!?!?!? IDK how they work but color color color, click a button and POOF – blank page start again!
#5 – Organization (aka, please don’t make me have to pick up & hand you things for 147 hours straight)! Ok so my hopes are HIGH for this thing but it’s yet to be tested. I just want them to be able to reach their own sh** please!
Each girl got her own and it’s loaded down with all the car activities and pens/colors/snacks with the plan that they get to choose something new every hour (because let’s be honest if I let them go to town they’ll be bored with it all in about 38 minutes).
And bonus #6 for the dog … not only are these long days in the car for kids but our pup will be along for the ride too 99% of the time in the cab with us (though she might get some bed of the truck fresh air on the shorter legs / nice days). And once we reach destinations there will be some excursions she isn’t included on so we needed to be sure she had some things to keep her occupied & cozy.
Stay tuned to my IG for real time updates along our trip and for a follow up post to this one highlighting some awesome tools we (ok just Ryan) found to plan our trip.
*This post contains affiliate links. Shopping links gets you the same great deals on these actual products we’ve purchased and earns me a small commision.