We made it!
Hello, all the way from Peoria, Illinois, where our family has met up with my sister’s family — at the half-way point between our homes.
An hour and half into our trip, when we stopped at our first rest area with the kids, I wasn’t real sure we would all make it. OneDaddy and I saw a Fed-X truck and were REAL tempted to ship the kids back home…
But a quick chat with our oldest about how many hours the trip was going to take, and how, “Are we there yet?” wasn’t getting us there any faster, and then letting the kids run off some energy, helped.
We also ate lunch there and watched this big buck out in the field — he stayed there the entire time we were at the rest area. 
I’m happy to say things got A LOT better when we got back in the car!
Crayons, stickers (definitely stickers!) and paper were a huge hit, so were the water pen books I had packed. Those 2 items alone kept them busy for an hour. (Want some other ways to keep kids busy while traveling, check out this previous post.)
We were going to stop after a couple more hours of travel, but the rest area we were going to stop in was closed. Turns out it was a blessing — the next one had an awesome playground at it!
The kids got to play, and so did Mommy and Daddy. 
Yes, that’s my husband, climbing on the playground equipment with his little girl. Just another reason I love my husband!
At that point we were supposed to only be an hour from our destination…. I won’t go into details, but I will say we drove up and down the street the hotel is on at least 4 times before we stopped and called for directions. It’s one of those crazy streets where the numbers go down and then they go back up… So we thought we had driven past it, but actually hadn’t gotten there yet.
Make any sense? Nope, not to me, either, but the hotel staff gave us great directions and we did finally make it.
My sister has been keeping the kids busy with crafts this morning (bless her!)… But I think we will be hitting the pool soon.
Have a terrific Saturday!
Family Travels on a Budget says
Hello from Durham (my destination for the day)
Yay for you! Stopping to blow off steam and giving kids travel perspective are two of my favorite travel tips. Keeping your sense of humor when things go wrong is another of my faves for parents! Enjoy your weekend!
OneMommy says
Oh, yeah, I KNEW we would be making a few stops along our 6 hour trip… I was so excited when our second stop had the play area — what a great idea for a rest area!
(and a sense of humor is a MUST with little ones!)
cindy says
It is amazing how food can change the mood of kids. Even the older ones moods will normally improve with food. 🙂 That is an amazing playground:-) The grandkids loved it last year on our trip:-)
OneMommy says
Yes, usually when they are cranky it is because they need to eat or they need to sleep. 🙂
So cool that you guys made it to that rest area last year, too! I marked it down so we would know where it was in the future. 🙂
Donna DM Yates says
Trips are always so much fun with the little ones. I used to have a duffel bag full of things to entertain him with.