Road Trip!!!

Summer is right around the corner; I can practically feel the heat right now. 

In our house, Summer means ROAD TRIPS!!! 

We love nothing more than to pile in the car and go on a road trip! Even if it's just a few hours away. We absolutely love to get behind the wheel and head out to explore. Last Summer, we drove to the beach, to Missouri, to my parent's house, and we made lots of trips to Texas.

I mean, we're practically road trip experts because we've made trips every Summer in the car- starting our first year of marriage, when Gretchen was little, and heck, we even made a road trip when Megan was 2 weeks old! See, we're experts! 

Since we love to travel so much, I thought I'd share some fun road trip toys and must haves for all ages! Grab them now, so you can plan ahead; there's nothing worse than planning a last minute weekend away, and then not having some way to keep your kids occupied while you're in the car! 

Travel Toys for Babies-Preschoolers:

Travel Toys for Elementary Kids:

Okay, now, here are my best tips for road trips:

1. Plan where and when you're going. Decide on what time of day you'll leave. When our girls were younger, we would leave right before nap time or right at bedtime. Sometimes, we would leave around 5 am, and just scoop them out of bed in their pj's and let them sleep a little more in the car. Now, we leave after we wake up & have a quick breakfast, so we usually hit the road around 8. You'll also want to keep in mind rush hour and if you'll be hitting large cities right at noon, around 3, or around 5. We do our best to time out the trips so we don't hit cities at peak times. 

2. Don't let your kids pack their own bags. I know, it's tempting to just have your kids throw their favorite toys in a bag for the car, but I promise, they'll have a random assortment of junk that doesn't go together or make sense and then they'll have nothing to do when they're in the car. 

3. Grab snacks! There's nothing worse than hearing "I'm hungry!" I always pack a bag of fruit snacks, raisins, dried fruit, granola bars, and other healthy snacks to have with us. 

4. If your kids can read, make sure they have a few chapter books with them. Gretchen once read three books through on a road trip, so we make sure she has several available! 

5. Stop at rest stops and get out at gas stations. Again, you don't want to hear "I need to potty" right after pulling out of a gas station or when you're in the middle of nowhere. We make sure everyone gets out and stretches their legs and goes potty! When the girls would younger and we would all have to use the same stall, we would play games while we were waiting our turn- Simon Says was a fun one because it gets the kids moving and gets their wiggles out. 

Here are a few other posts I've written about traveling with kids:

In 2012

In 2014

And you can find all of my traveling posts here, and my pinterest traveling board here.