If yours is like a lot of families out there, summer calls for at least one road trip. It might be a couple hours long or it might be several days long (you are so brave!), but either way you’ll need these 6 Tips To Survive Summer Road Trips to make it there and back without going bonkers on everyone. Pass them along to a friend who’s road tripping this summer too!
*For photos and my account of the best road trip we’ve ever taken as a family, scroll down to Just Sayin’ at the bottom of the newsletter.
And these Recipes of the Week might be my favorite yet because they’re all served cold — exactly what we need on HOT summer nights.
Hope you’re staying cool wherever you are!
*The Laundry Lady will be making a BIG announcement this week! Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to get all the info! I can’t wait to share our news with you!
6 Tips To Survive Road Trips With Little Kids
By Amanda
Last month, my family was lucky enough to enjoy a quick getaway to California. We LOVED spending time in cooler weather and staring at the ocean waves while we relaxed. Since California is only a state away, about a 6-hour drive not counting any stops you make to fill up/eat/etc., we knew we would be road tripping it. I was a little nervous making that happen with a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old.
Luckily, things went pretty well. There were some things that worked for our family on this trip that might help you with your next trip on the open road. So, here are my 6 tips to surviving a road trip with little kids. . .
1. What time you leave is key!
When we took our son on his first road trip, we made the terrible mistake of thinking, “Let's leave right before his bed time so he'll sleep the whole way!!” While that was a good theory and he didn't wake up too much during the actual trip, we were then left with a baby who was woken up at our destination and figured it was time to wake up for the day. And then we had a 2:15 AM CRYFEST that led to my husband taking him for a walk for an hour in the dark. It wasn't a preferred way to start the trip.
This time we left right after both the kids normally wake up — 5:45 AM. This was great for us because traffic was minimal, the desert weather hadn't turned our car into an oven yet, and we got to our destination right around lunch time. It also included their normal naptime schedule, so we still got a bit of extended sleep. On the way back, we left right after a nice big brunch — around 12:30. They were both fed, happy, and it was just barely past their regular naptime/quiet time, so again we got some sleep but got back home at a time that let them be up for a bit, eat dinner, and then crash again at their normal bedtime.
2. Embrace car-friendly snacks and activities.
For us that meant buying some fruit snacks and sticking with apples and soft granola bars over the ever-crumbling favorite snack of crunchy granola bars or stickier, more staining fruits like berries. We also had books that were fun or well-known enough without us having to read them to our toddler. Also, our little guy loves stickers and coloring, but the idea of crayons melting in hidden corners of our car sounded horrible so we embraced things like Color Wonder products and sticker books where the stickers only stick to the pages of the book and are reusable!
3. Point out new things to your kids & listen to their reaction.
I have made the drive we took for our vacation many times throughout my life, so it all seems kind of a blur to me. For my toddler, though, everything was brand new and this reawakened my own sense of wonder. Suddenly our trip was full of conversations that included observations like: WOW! Look at how big those mountains are, look how high up we are now, yes — that is a metal dinosoar, cool — check out how many cars are part of that long choo-choo train! Bonus: This made time pass more quickly for me too.
4. Embrace rest stops — with nice restrooms if possible.
I knew we'd have to make more stops with the kids than if my husband and I were making the trip alone. If it were just me on the road, the only stop I'd make would be a super fast gas up the car and hit the restroom break, but we put a little more thought into where we stopped since we were traveling with a nursing baby and a recently potty-trained toddler. We did not want to deal with an overly hungry baby or worry about my supply dipping and we really did not want to traumatize our toddler with your typical gas station restroom, so we took the advice of where we could gas up that had either nicer rest stops or nicer grocery stores where the facilities would be well maintained. (For those of you making a trip that includes I8 through Arizona, I highly recommend stopping at the fancy Fry's grocery store in Yuma!) This definitely added to our travel time, but was absolutely worth it!
5. MUSIC — Let your kids pick the music too.
Something funny about our baby is she loves loud music. If we're up and playing then soft music is fine, but she prefers louder music or white noise to fall asleep so we had no shame in listening to our music and singing along at higher volume. Not so high we worried the kids needed headphones for their little ears, but high enough that it was definitely not background noise.
We regularly take turns playing Mom and Dad's music (careful of language of course because our son will repeat anything. I dread the day he realizes the real words to some of the songs in Hamilton instead of the words Mommy shouts over the original cast recording. . .) and playing classic kids music such as the Disney station on Pandora, so switching off during this road trip was not a break from normal, but it did keep everyone happy to have a variety.
6. Pack a SURPRISE bonus toy!
The last leg of the trip will be the hardest. There must be some sort of psychological term for the way your brain gets more impatient with things that are almost there than things that you know are hours or months away, because I still experience this so I have a lot of empathy for my toddler experiencing the same. In anticipation of this, I packed a new toy he'd never played with before as a nice surprise for when he got sick of the books he already knew and when he'd devoured his snacks and was truly antsy during the last 30-45 minute stretch.
For us, it was a simple fine motor skill toy where you thread in and out around pictures of characters and my toddler was thrilled to try out this new "sewing toy" which promptly kept him from kicking the driver's seat. Everybody won. For my baby, this meant when we got to a long time of fussing she got a new teething toy to play with. She was pretty happy with that too . . . until she dropped it and we couldn't pick it up for her. But no road trip is perfect, right? Maybe that should have been tip number 7. . .
Through it all, focus on the memories and know that the patches where the baby is screaming will end. The patches where the toddler asks you repeatedly if we can stop now or informs you he is stuck in his car seat (yes, son, that's how they work. . .) will end. You will get to your exciting vacation or back to home sweet home and the road trip will just become part of the story you tell. But hopefully you had some fun along the way.
RECIPES OF THE WEEK:
This week we’ve got five delicious dinners that will cool everyone down AND satisfy all those tummies. Think Creamy and Crunchy Tuna Salad, Cool Tortellini Salad, and yummy Crab Rolls.
You could even throw these in containers and take them on your next road trip! Happy Summer Eating!
BLT Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
1 (12-oz.) package bacon
1 (16-oz.) box fusilli or rotini pasta
1 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup whole milk
1 packet ranch seasoning mix
Juice of one lemon
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
2 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (such as dill and/or parsley)
Instructions:
Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, turning as needed, 8 to 10 minutes. (You may need to cook the bacon in two batches, draining the rendered fat from the skillet between batches.) Let the bacon cool to room temperature, then crumble up into bite-sized pieces.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and let cool.
Whisk together the mayonnaise, milk, ranch seasoning, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper in a large bowl. Add the pasta, tomatoes, lettuce, onion, herbs, and half of the crumbled bacon to the bowl with the dressing. Gently fold together to coat. Top with remaining bacon and serve.
Crab Rolls
Ingredients: