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Y’all asked, so I am sharing what worked and what didn’t from our first road trip!
Some might call me crazy for even trying this venture, but let’s be honest that isn’t the first time someone has called me crazy, haha! From the first day I began considering becoming a foster parent people have literally told me I was crazy to even think about it and discouraged me… but that rarely seems to stop me. Maybe it even may have inspired me!
Over the last week of 2019, my boyfriend and I embarked on a long road trip from Colorado to Oklahoma with my three kids (3.5 yo, 2.5 yo and 16 months at the time). I had been trying to convince him to do a road trip with the kids for a while, but he was skeptical to say the least. I have traveled a couple times with all three kids previously via airlines and let’s just say that one trip was enough for my boyfriend to say “Maybe we should wait until they are all over 5 before we travel again?”. The gear (cribs, high chairs, strollers, car seats, etc) alone needed for three kids is ALOT… and we also carry along the thickeners and special formulas the kids need that are not available in grocery stores. I feel like it was a game of Tetris just to get the gear in the car to get to the airport, haha! 
We could just stay home all the time because that would be EASIER… We could avoid grocery stores because taking 3 kids means the cart is full before we even enter the store with the kids. We could skip church because it is easier than dressing all 3 kids and myself plus feeding them and getting out the door “on time” for a one hour service. We could skip out on a LOT of normal experiences because it really is easier, BUT that just isn’t life I dreamed for my kids or myself. We need food and to use our WIC benefits which are a HUGE help, we have to go to the grocery. We need community and support, so we vary from our nap schedules and dedicate our Sundays to our church community. And we WILL travel so that the kids will have unique experiences and spend time with family and friends outside of our home.
That said, it’s never easy and I have lots of anxiety which results in over planning and overpacking, haha! Thankfully, my boyfriend also agrees he would rather be over prepared than stuck without what we “might” need.
Here’s a list of some of my strategies for keeping the kids calm and happy for 12 hours on the road:
1. MOVIES….
Thank heaven for the headrest tvs that came with the “kid car” I purchased this past summer. I wasn’t something I was looking for and it was quite a surprising bonus when I saw them. I purchased a 2010 Toyota Sequoia to fit all the kids (and potential future kids) so the gear in the car is “old” but it still works. This trip was the first time we actual used them.
Lesson Learned: Try them out BEFORE you take the trip so you know how to work them and discover the batteries for the remote are dead BEFORE you are miles into farm land 🙂
I rented their favorite movies for FREE from the library because DVDs are a thing of the past around our house with Netflix, Hulu, etc.. Much cheaper than trying to buy 4 movies, which is the number we rented to take along. I got two they love and ask for all the time and two new ones. They enjoyed the old more than the new… so I was glad I had both.
If you don’t have TVs in your car, which I assume is rare to actually have then you could easily use iPads or kindles if you have those for the kids. And I would suggest preloading with some of the kids favorites if you have Prime or Netflix account. If they are young like mine, I do suggest trying to hang them up and not leave them in the hands of the kids. I would get something like this for a Kindle or this for an iPad. Mine turn them off or mess with the video constantly if they can touch it. Plus they fell asleep often watching them and would have run the battery out while not even watching.
Overall, I think the movies were the most impactful items to keep the kids content and happy because we do not watch a lot of TV at home so it was a treat.
2. TOYS…
Obviously space is limited so I needed to be creative with what we brought along. Thankfully we left the day after Christmas so we had access to multiple “new” items that were exciting to the kids.
My sister gifted us with these Melissa and Doug Reusable Water-Reveal Coloring Books that the older two children enjoyed the most. I like it because it only needs one pen that can be refilled with a SMALL amount of water from a water bottle. Not a risk of a huge mess or spill was a big plus. The pen did “drop” multiple times so that was a fun challenge while driving down the highway with the goal of not stopping a lot. The movie helped distract the kids when this happened.
We discovered this Light Up Magic Ball Wand while at a fluoroscopy appointment at Children’s Hospital… it was the only thing that would calm Jackson while 4 adults held him down to try to get films. So needless to say, I ordered one for him for Christmas to help at future appointments. It was his FAVORITE toy on the car ride… every time he cried, I asked the kids “where is the ball?!” Once we found it, all was good again.
We also brought along these two Magnetic Drawing Boards (and this one)for the toddlers to use. One was old and one was a ne
w Christmas gift. They were small enough to slip right into the seat back pockets. No mess to clean up, reusable, and the pen was attached which was HUGE. One of them came with magnetic that I did not let them have because I knew they would drop and be hard to find since they were so small. I placed them in the bin with the rest of the toys we brought to use once we arrived.
Surprisingly those are the main toys/activities the kids used on the trip . I packed a large Rubbermaid container of others and strategically packed it where it would be accessible if needed to switch out the toys, but I never needed it in transit. We did use lots of the toys though once we arrived, because the family we were visiting do not have kids so we brought the fun along for them… something that would be much harder if flying.
3. FOOD…
Let’s just say I brought enough to feed a small army! The kids eat dairy free and my boyfriend eats no sugar, no grain… so eating out is challenging. And it’s expensive. So we planned to bring along our food and reduce the need to stop. I packed a large bin of food for the kids over the stay and for the return, and then a smaller plastic container with food for just the way there. I packed a large cooler with Jackson’s oat milk since it is hard to find and we were headed to a small town and also packed other frozen foods they liked in hopes to not have to shop when we arrived. I packed a small cooler with sandwich meats and cheese for the adults and a pre-cut peanut butter and jelly for the kids. I packed multiple snack size plastic bags with popcorn, nuts, crackers, pretzels, animal crackers, etc that would fit right into the 3 snack containers I brought (one for each child so no arguments over containers). When they needed something else I just had to grab a bag and refill.
As dinner time approached, we hadn’t let the kids out of the car for quite a while and we found a McDonald’s at the exit we got off on. I saw it had a playground, which I thought the kids probably needed at this point. We had plenty of food, but obviously felt obligated to buy some food in order to use the playground. So we bought two kids burgers and some fries thinking the kids would likely eat them… we guessed wrong. The baby wanted nothing to do with it. And the big kids slowly and begrudgingly ate a couple of bites. The kids rarely ever eat out and apparently do not like fast food, haha! Lesson Learned… find free places for the kids to run and stretch their legs because they prefer their usual foods to fast food!
4. VACUUM…
The center console on the Sequoia is huge, and I discovered it would fit a role of toilet paper, wet wipes AND my Handheld Dyson Car + Boat Cordless Vacuum, woohoo!! It comes with a car charger, so it’s perfect for taking on a road trip to clean up all the snack mess.
All in all the kids really did well! My boyfriend agreed road trips are the way to go in the future, so we will likely br driving more than flying in the future. Which is quite hilarious since he is a pilot and you would think he would prefer flying, haha! If you are nervous, I think we preparation and planning it isn’t too bad… although I will say we were VERY glad we had 3 kids still in diapers so the bathroom stops were really only when we needed fuel.