#roadtrip

Welcome, April! No, this is no April Fool’s joke, I am finally back to writing! Between the trip back to the east coast, trying to unpack, Bird turning two {as well as fighting a double ear infection}, and just trying to get settled back home, it’s been about three weeks since I last checked in. Never fear, I hope to write several posts this week, so stay tuned!

I am happy and relieved to say that we survived our journey back home. Our original plan was to drive from Utah to Florida, then home to Maryland after visiting the abuelos. The universe had other plans.

Day one, we woke up to several inches of snow on the ground in Utah and the weather called for snow along our route. ‘Okay,’ we thought, ‘no problem. We can drive in snow.’ The problem started in Wyoming, where we saw signs that Interstate 80 was closed and we could only make it as far as Rock Springs. Mind you, we saw this at a rest stop that was past Rock Springs, but quickly learned that we had to turn back. Our Google maps and Waze started acting wonky, not updating with road closures, so we quickly stopped at a local gas station and grabbed a physical map, to check our options. Really there was only one option that would take us from I-80 to Colorado, without returning all the way to Utah, assuming we could grab the southern route of I-70 or I-40 at that point. We found a route that I thought was a main road, which it may be, but was also a dirt road… covered in snow… with blowing wind and more snow. The road less traveled, right? There probably was amazing scenery along this deserted dirt road, but with the wind and snow, we could not take full advantage of said view. After an hour and a half, we finally found civilization again only to find out that both I-40 and I-70 were closed for the night. We found a hotel close to the exit and ordered ourselves some pizza.

The universe threw us another loop when my snuggle/bed buddy, Bird, began throwing up around 11 that night. This was her first real stomach sickness and I was ill-prepared; the sickness continued about every hour to half an hour throughout the night. After the second time changing the sheets {thank you to the kind and understanding hotel staff}, I was able to get her to the trash can, to her pleas of “No, phank you” because all she wanted to do was lay down and sleep. Talk about heart break! We took it easy the next morning, also known as Day Two, and by late morning, she kept down some nourishment and seemed herself again, albeit tired. We also learned that the roads were re-opening and we headed out!

Just outside Steamboat Springs, Colorado

We drove through Colorado, Kansas, and since the kids were absolute champs {not sleeping much during the night helped Bird sleep during the car ride}, we decided to go as far as we could, and got as far as Missouri… and then the stomach bug/food poisoning hit Hubby. We stopped at a hotel, around 3:30 in the morning, unpacked the bare essentials, transferred the kids into their beds, and caught a couple hours of sleep. We took it easy again this morning to figure out how Hubby would recover and let Bird run around in the yard outside the hotel. At this point, we felt the screaming urge to return home, not share a potential bug with the abuelos or extend our drive any longer, and get everyone as rested as possible. We made the call to head straight for Maryland, rather than detour to Florida.

We left in the late morning and this day, day three, we traveled until we arrived in Ohio. We then made the final trek home on day four and were grateful for relatively uneventful days! Despite my love of planning and all the research I previously completed to plan this drive, I ended up canceling every one of our hotel reservations. This trip was a terrific reminder that despite all the preparation, you never know what life has in store and to appreciate the journey.

We luckily were all feeling better by the time we returned home; this was about two weeks ago now. Last week, we began unpacking, which is still ongoing to be honest. I have little motivation to put things “away” because part of me thinks that it is silly to unpack things only to roust them again so soon. Organization started this past weekend: we are trying the Marie Kondo KonMari organization method — I’ve been watching her Netflix special to encourage our progress! Despite the chaos of organizing and unpacking at the same time, we came home to a limited toy selection and my kids completely do not notice! This is lovely and reiterates my need for a reorganization of all our items, which is motivational as well.

Now that we are a bit more settled, I promise to write weekly and I plan to write a couple more posts this week to make up for the last few weeks. Keep tuned in for my next couple of posts: one will be about skiing in Utah {from both my perspective and Hubby’s} and one will be about our organization progress!

Are you in the process of Spring cleaning or organizing? Do you have any travel stories? Look forward to hearing from you!

Hard to believe, but we are approaching the end of our adventure here in Utah. I can tell you that it won our hearts over, but more on that in a later post. This post is much more functional, as we start to pack up our belongings. Having a two year-old and a nine month-old, preparing for 36 hour drive across the country, organization is crucial. Here I am going to share my packing plans, as well as items to keep two young babes entertained and comfortable for the long days ahead.

First and foremost, it is time to pack. Sometimes it is the bane of my existence, but I am in organization mode, so I started off collecting all the clothes that we will not wear on our way to the east coast. We are making a pit-stop in Florida to visit the abuelos, so I plan to pack one bag for the family for the 3 days of hotels and traveling, as well as a separate bag for Florida. Putting aside a handful of outfits for the remainder of our days here, I started packing the majority of our clothes.

Something I do at home, and really found beneficial when packing, is the KonMari method of folding clothes. I was able to fold and pack a gigantic pile of clothes into our suitcase, then at the end I included accessories that we will not need for this last week.

By the way, the pile of clothes on the bed actually doubled in size before I was able to start folding and packing clothes! Fortunately, we are driving and do not have to worry about luggage weight because this suitcase is heavy! There are three layers of folded clothes in the big section and little accessories, belts, and socks in the thin section. Today, I also packed our paper items {kids’ scrapbooks, art supplies, tax paperwork, etc.} and some of their toys into the big bin and into the grey toy bin pictured above. More toys can be fit into the grey bin, but that can wait until early next week.

Here are the other items groups of items to pack:

Electronics: husband’s work computer, PS4, our family computer, cables, FireStick, etc.
Food items: canned goods, spices, other pantry items {I resigned myself to not cooking for the next three days, other than what we have in the refrigerator already – yay!} Baby snacks are already in a reusable grocery bag, but this needs to go in the car with us!
Frozen/Refrigerated items {this will wait until Tuesday night after we fill our large cooler with ice}: mostly just venison and condiments this trip!
Ski gear: hubby and I hope to get one more ski day in on Tuesday before we leave — fingers crossed!
Cribs: we will disassemble the day before we leave; Bird gets to sleep in a bunk bed for a night and Lulu will sleep in our pack and play, since we need that for the hotels anyway.
Miscellaneous: books, the last bit of toys, dog food and water bowls, the last bit of clothes we are wearing for the next several days.

I already started to pack what I could of the above items. Now it is time to prepare the kids’ activities for the car.

Pictured here are some of the toddler’s favorites on the ride to Utah. My favorite activity book is the scratch and sketch ‘Furry Friends’, as Bird will sometimes chew on the writing implement you give her, especially if she is frustrated with still being in the car. Having her chew on a wood stylus is highly preferable to the magic ink pen in this case {it, thankfully, has not splintered or shown any signs of doing so, otherwise that would change things considerably}. We also always have a plethora of books on hand. I am hiding a few of Bird’s favorite books, so that they seem new again when we get in the car next week.

In addition to the above activities, our friends also gave Bird some shape and color flashcards, which she really enjoys — this will make the perfect quiet activity for the car. We made whole punches in the top corner of the card and connected it with a metal ring, creating a little booklet of sorts, which I think she will really like! Also, other friends gave her a mini etch-a-sketch, which she loves! This is also packed into her unicorn backpack for the ride. For our 9 month old, who is such a chill baby {thank you, universe!} I packed a musical toucan toy, some books {that are chew proof} and teething toys. Of course, add to all of this many, many snacks and we should be good!

Our travel days are going to be about 9-10 hour driving days {meaning that does not account for stops}, so we try to leave early, after breakfast for parents, kids, and dogs. We stop once midday, which is usually the longest so Bird can run around {she likes to help Papa walk the dogs}, and I can feed Lulu. Then we all have lunch together, Bird walks the dogs with Papa again, we change what diapers need to be changed, and get back in the car. Late afternoon, we make a quick pit-stop for diaper changes, dog walk, and Lulu’s bottle, then finish off the drive with dinner once we get to the hotel. It’s quite the experience, but we were very fortunate on the ride from Maryland to Utah; the kids were absolute champs and were pretty low maintenance! We are very, very grateful and keeping our fingers crossed that this Utah to Florida trip is no different.

Preparation mode continues on my end: any suggestions on activities for 2 year old and 9 month old children in the car? Any snack suggestions?

Also, would you consider or have you completed a long road trip with the family? Where did you go and how did it go? Look forward to hearing from you all!

Home, Sweet Home

On the road again…