Let me start off this post by saying that an iPad mount for the back of the car seat was probably the KEY element for keeping everyone sane during our 11 day road trip out west. Without a doubt.
If you are even thinking of traveling with kids for an extended amount of time, in a vehicle that doesn’t have tv screens (like ours doesn’t) do yourself a favor, and grab one of these iPad mounts here. Best $25 you’ll spend. Okay moving on…
So it is no secret to those that know us well that my husband Scott and I really enjoy traveling with our family of five.
And thank goodness! Because on our recent trip for our kids spring break, we traveled through 12 states…via car. Starting in Georgia and going all the way to our ultimate destination, Colorado. And yes, we still love each other now that we are back home 🙂
There is nothing more fun than exploring different places and cities with our little people and exposing them to places outside of our hometown of Athens, Georgia.
As a parent, we all know that at some point (possibly soon) that our kids aren’t going to find traveling with dear old mom and dad as cool as they do now!! **sniff sniff** So we want to pack in as many memorable family trips and experiences as possible right now.
Luckily, our kids are at great ages, 13, 10, and 8 to enjoy traveling. Especially for attempting such a long trip in the CAR. (not positive I would have tried this with them at toddler ages however!) I gotta give Jack, Walker, and Vivian major props, because they were excellent in terms of being ideal car mates. We praised them often for being so easy breezy.
The only real spats we had were them disagreeing to what the rear temperature in the car should be OR who got to sit closest to the iPad to watch whatever movie was playing! Small potatoes in my opinion and being that close in a vehicle makes for lots of interesting conversations and discussions which is a huge plus in my opinion.
Red lipstick : MAC “Lady Danger” // Rolling Stones Sweatshirt, on sale for $15 (I’m wearing a medium)
I will say that because we were on the road so often, I did 90% of all of my makeup application in the car while it was moving!! Ha! I got pretty good at it – and honestly, it helped to pass the time. This was my makeup case I travel with from Vera Bradley and I love it because it holds my brushes and so many products.
Also gas station stops accompanied with snacks, helped to make the kids look forward to the next hundred miles! Cheetos, fountain drinks, Skittles, etc, all diets were off on this road trip. I’m not proud of it, but it worked to keep their spirits up to let them indulge a little in snacks I normally don’t have in the house. #thelittlethings
My Instagram posted on day 2 of the trip spoke to this love of road trip appropriate snacks…
Our ultimate destination during the drive was Keystone Resort to go snow skiing in Colorado.
Could we have just bought plane tickets and flown straight to Colorado?? Sure we could have.
But my husbands way of thinking was, “If we are going that far, wouldn’t it be fun to actually drive through all of those states? We can see some additional stuff along the way we wouldn’t experience if we just flew over those states??” I wasn’t completely 100% sold on the road trip until I realized that Scott was willing to drive the entire trip – there and back home. I think that was best for our marriage 😉
I also know what was in the back of Scott’s mind when it came to road tripping.
He wanted to be able to add more push pins to our USA map. We have it hanging in our boys room in between their beds which shows where all they traveled to. So far, our kids have seen and been through a total of 25 states. Great little lesson in geography right??
Before this trip, our kids had only been on skis one day in their entire lives.
We had taken them for a day trip up to Cataloochee in North Carolina, about 3 hours from our home. Our reasoning behind that trip, was to pay for a MUCH cheaper ski school for the kids than it would have cost us out west. And it worked perfectly. That way when we got out to Colorado, we could all ski as a family and not waste the two days we had on the slopes being separated.
Scott created a pretty awesome short video of their first ski experience here.
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Of course I wore makeup on the slopes but it was pretty minimal. Products I relied on for the cold weather were :
- First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 30 (so important for glaring sun off the snow!) in color “sand”
- It Cosmetics Je Ne Sais Quoi hydrating lip balm in “honey”
- Waterproof mascara by Maybelline Rocket Volume
- Makeup Revolution Define + Conceal full coverage concealer in C6
- Juice Beauty Phyto Pigment cream blush in “seashell” (bc of the dry weather, a cream blush looks more natural than powder blushes on me!)
Now I’m just scratching the surface on this 11 day trip and basically given you the WHY we decided to do this and what it was like in the car for that long. There’s so much about this trip that we did and saw, that it would take me a lot longer to write out in this post.
But luckily, I’m not going to have to do that.
Because Scott, who has a HUGE passion for documenting our family life through photos and videos, has already written a very thorough blog post of exactly what we saw and did on his own blog HERE.
His post is full of amazing photos and descriptions of the towns and sights we saw if you want to see his great recap.
My Red Teddy Coat from Shein is only $12 + comes in 7 colors! It’s the perfect piece to throw on over anything (wearing a small)
Scott also has a video in the works for this road trip, but he said it’s going to take a bit longer of course because there is soooo much footage!!
The kids and I love watching the videos he makes over and over again to remind us of past trips. As much as it annoys me sometimes when he’s got that camera in my face at 7am in a hotel with crummy lighting, I’m always thankful once he’s created those videos!!
Not much can top the memories we created on this trip as a family. The new places we drove through, the friends who have moved away that we were able to visit with, the landscapes of America we saw, it was just all fun to do it together. Traveling with your kids is a special bond. I am super thankful for this experience and I feel it brings us closer every time we travel. It’s always fun to have these photos (and soon to be video) to help spark a memory so we can remember how much fun we had doing this in the years to come!
Looking back at this trip, I already think to myself, were we CRAZY to do it?? But I know we will never forget this 11 day road trip and it was totally worth it.
So tell me, what’s the furthest road trip you’ve ever taken?
