Taking This Circus On The Road

E and C’s spring break arrived early this year—there was actually no spring in sight as we packed up our SUV to head to West Virginia to visit with our parents for the week.

My husband MJ packs for 1, I pack for 3. So while he’s, ahem, busy trying to figure out how many pairs of underwear he’ll need for 7 days, I’m running between the boy’s rooms trying to get all of the things they need into their suitcases. I have to make a list to keep track of everything. More detailed than a pre-flight checklist, everything on the master list is ticked off as it goes into a bag, suitcase, or my purse—my big purse. I organize the medicine bag, the snack bag, help the boys pack their backpacks with DS’s and games, pick out movies, and gather chargers for the cell phones and cameras. All of this before I can even begin to think about packing for myself.  When we finally begin to pull out of the driveway, I can breathe a sigh of relief and expect a relatively peaceful hour hour drive, thanks to technology.

We have a DVD player in the SUV that has headphones for the boys. They can listen to their movies in the back and MJ and I can have an uninterrupted conversation that lasts longer than two minutes. We try to pick up a new movie for the kids before we leave so they have something to look forward to. Before we bought the SUV with the DVD player, we had a portable one that worked just fine. It was also great on flights.

Handheld game systems also have been a good investment. The Nintendo DS’s are a Godsend, and keep the boys happy and busy. When they were younger, they had Leapsters. The Leapsters have educational games and are easier for little ones to use. The guys like to trade games and watch each other play. Another option, if you don’t mind your kids playing with your phone, is to download some apps for them to play. Some of E and C’s favorite games on the iPhone: the Creeps, Chop Chop Runner, Veggie Samurai, and of course, Angry Birds.

We always take our time on our long trips. We like to stop for lunch and eat inside the restaurant. It gives everyone a chance to stretch their legs and see something besides the inside of the car. It also gives me a chance to restock my glovebox napkin supply.

We broke up the trip for the first time this year. MJ and I ran in the Cottleville Fire Department’s Run for the Helmet race that morning, so we decided to leave later and stop halfway at a hotel in Louisville, KY. We got there around 6 and had a nice dinner and then let E and C play in the pool. They fell asleep before their heads hit the pillows and when we got up the next morning, we only had a few hours to go. The guys love a hotel stay and it made the drive so much easier.

We try not to over-schedule once we arrive at our destination. I still have nightmares about our trip last September to Disney World and Universal Studios. (Five theme parks in five days? WHAT were we thinking?) I still like to plan activities, but I limit it to one per day. If the kids are just done running, and they let us know pretty quickly when they’re done, we scrap it and spend the day relaxing at the hotel pool. At my parent’s house, we go to the park or walk to the creek, or challenge Grandpa in a game of ping pong—where he whoops us every time.

The drive home reminded me of a particularly helpful motto the boys learned in scouts this year: always be prepared. About an hour outside of St. Louis, C threw up all over his lap, his seat, and the floormat. I pulled over beside the interstate (a big safety no-no!) in Illinois and had the poor little guy stand away from the road in his t-shirt and underoos while I tried to clean up the mess armed with only my glovebox napkins and a bottle of Germ-X.

My vehicles will, from now on, be equipped with a towel, Lysol wipes, and a couple of garbage bags.