Friday afternoon we started our road trip adventure down to St. George. We always set a time to leave and then almost always end up leaving between 30 minutes to an hour later than we hoped. This used to bug me to know end in the early days of our marriage – but now I have come to accept that everything takes longer than you think when you have 6 little people to take care of and pack up – and it doesn’t bother me so much anymore.
On road trips Adam and I have worked it out that I do almost ALL the driving. And funny enough as it sounds – we both love this arrangement. I get super car sick if I’m not constantly watching the road so being the driver and listening to tunes as I drive is perfect for me. Adam on the other hand LOVES to read, play games, watch movies, or catch up on work over driving, so its a total win win. The only thing I do miss occasionally is getting in a good road trip nap – but even that is okay because Adam will switch me if I ever feel I need a nap. Its awesome!
We have found over the years that one of the key factors to having a successful road trip is to make sure the kids also get in a good nap! We used to let the kids watch DVD’s most of the time in the car to keep them entertained and from screaming and driving us crazy – but we found that the kids will stay awake instead of taking naps and then be super cranky the rest of the day. So now we have the “nap first” rule before the movie marathons begin. Works out wonderfully! And usually all 3 kids will crash for awhile even though Brans and Harry aren’t normal nappers anymore. Makes for a nice and peaceful couple hours for Mom and Dad too which we love!
One of the things we love to do on road trips too is to play games. One of our favorite games is to guess how many cars we will pass in a certain amount of time. It can be the time we are in a canyon, or 10 minutes, or from when we leave such and such place and get to our destination. The kids love it and it helps them all learn to count. We also play the cars game where we each pick a number and then count the cars up until that number. Whatever car the hits the number you pick is your car. We also sometimes play the alphabet game too where we look at road signs, billboards, or license plates for every letter in the alphabet. The kids really seem to enjoy games like that. Another favorite is the “eye spy” game where we take turns picking something we see and then everyone takes guesses to try and figure out what it is.
Another one of our favorite things to do is to sing songs on road trips. This came from my side of the family and I love continuing that tradition in my own family. Some of our favorites to sing are “Hieda” “An Austrian went yoddeling” and anything from the Sound of Music. The kids also love choosing songs so we get a lot of “I love to see the temple” “I am a child of God” “Give said the Little Stream” and “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam” in there too.
Snacks on road trips are also somewhat traditional. In my family my Dad always had a bag of red cherry or strawberry licorice handy that we would eat. So often if we stop at a gas station those are what I crave. Either them or red vines. But I’m also a big chocolate fan so we often will also get sixlets, reeces, snickers, twix, or peanut butter M&M’s. Yum! Adam usually prefers sunflower seeds, salted nuts, or donuts. Because we are trying to eat healthier though now we tend to take a LOT of fruit and lots of water bottles for the kids. We also usually have fish crackers, dried cranberries, raisins, and fruit snacks handy too.
Lastly we LOVE to listen to music on road trips. At least Adam and I do (the kids prefer the movies). My favorites are all of the musicals I grew up loving as a child like Oklahoma, Sound of Music, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, South Pacific, Peter Pan, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the Opera with my new favorite being the Wicked soundtrack. That is unless we are going up a canyon and then for some reason the only music appropriate is Fresh Aire or John Denver! Love that stuff! Adam’s favorites music is usually his Korean Hip Hop music, anything John Denver, Jack Johnson, Harry Conick Jr., They Might Be Giants, Smashing Pumpkins, U2, and the Origin.
The good news is that for the most part we really like each others music. But the even better part is that whoever the driver is gets to listen to what they want which means that most of the time I get to choose! So its a pretty sweet deal for me! đ Below are some pictures from our 4 hour drive down to St. George.
Some of the Mountains just outside of Cedar City. So pretty!
Harry up from his 1.5 hour nap – watching his first movie. The other kids were all still sleeping.
Adam working – he didn’t take the day off so he was on calls and doing email most of the way down.
Driving and listening to the Oklahoma Soundtrack.
Sure is fun to spend a few hours (4 or 5 is good for me) on the open road bonding with family! Love how many traditions we have passed down to our own kids.