Road Trip

may was a busy month for the beynon's. i celebrated my 29th birthday (just kidding) with lots of friends and family and we planned our first road trip since finley was born. we have taken trips as a family before, but never just the 5 of us and never 10+ hours in the car with three little ones. some of you might think we are crazy and maybe we are a little, but it worked. how you ask? just a few simple rules we followed. i can't say that i am an expert, pretty far from it actually, but this is what worked for us.

Wear earplugs. seriously, sometimes we wear earplugs. not when you are the one driving of course, but earplugs work well.

Time it wisely. plan most of your travel during naptime or bedtime. we are lucky that all three of our little beauties still nap. finley is sometimes good for two naps still, but they all three always take an afternoon nap. you can really get some good travel time behind you while they are all asleep and not fighting!

Bring library books or magazines. seriously. are kids eat these up. something new to look at can keep them occupied for hours. or at the very least 5 minutes. 5 glorious minutes...

DVD's. enough said. lots of DVD's.

Focus on surviving.
car time may never be our family’s biggest bonding time. and i’ve learned to be okay with that. sometimes, i just focus on surviving. if everyone’s alive when we arrive at point B from point A, i consider it a job well done. really, isn’t that what motherhood is about sometimes?

Stop frequently. But not too frequently.
we make some stops when we travel, but for the most part, we barrel on down the road, just trying to get where we’re going. besides, when one kiddo falls asleep, we hate to stop because we know that snooze will come to an end. when we do stop, though, we burn off as much energy as we can. find a place to eat with a playground. let the kids play while you eat. they can eat in the car once you start driving again.


Realize that, no matter what, we will get there.
and won’t everyone be happier if Mama didn’t shout on the way there? sometimes, i just give into the chaos, letting it wash over me instead of reacting. it’s true. i sometimes ignore it. they’ll only be little once. they’ll only have obnoxious, squealing toddler voices once. they are my life. i love them. even when it's 10 hours in the car.