My (Epic) Summer Vacation Part 1: the drive

We drove to Utah this year.  It took five days.  And several weeks of stressing.  Because driving with children, especially with a baby is a pain.  

Here's how we did it:

1. Packed by night, not by person--that way we only had to unpack 2 bags at each stop, one for clothes and one for toiletries.  Best idea ever.  Thanks Pinterest.

2. Lots of DVDs.  Ok, we really didn't have that many, but why do you need more than two right?  Who doesn't like to watch Frozen and Harry Potter twice a day for five days.  I loved it.  LOVED IT!

3. Pack a big box and toys--play dough, foam, crayons, coloring books, felt board and then number them.  Put all the numbers in a jar and then have the kids pull a number out to tell which toy they get to play with. Also make each kid a tray out of dollar store cookie sheets that attaches to their car seat to put their toys on. Then have the kids complain about their toy, throw them on the floor or just want to play toys.  Give up and watch Frozen, again.  I take it back--the kids played along with my games the first day.  Day 2, we just watched movies.  I did try to make them take a 30 minute break between each movie.

4. Ate breakfast before we left each morning.  We tried to leave between 6 and 7 each morning, which normally I'd try to sneak the kids in the car so they'd sleep a few more hours.  I don't know how the parents on Pinterest managed to do that one, but we failed every time we've tried to do that in the past and end up having to stop an hour after leaving for breakfast.  So this time, I just woke the kids up at 5:30 or so, dressed them and fed them.  Then we only had to stop once for lunch and usually once more for gas and potty--or 2 or 3 more times because Alice is a pregnant 2-year-old and can't pee in all out in one sitting.  Seriously, she'd ask to pee, we'd stop, she'd pee then repeat 20 minutes later.  

We ended up getting to our destination for each night around 3 or 4, which was nice because it gave the kids a chance to run around an play.

5. Bring a super nice breast pump and then fill Henry full of so much formula mixed with breast milk that he can't cry.

Now that we've done all that planning, our actually trip went fairly well.  But I forgot to take many pictures.

Day 1: Drive 503 miles to Nanna's in Princeton, KY

 Day 2: Drive 585 miles to Travis and Emma's in Manhattan, KS

We picniced at the St. Lois, MO temple--because it was on our bucket list and I love picnics.

When we go to Emma and Travis', the boys were tired from sitting and watching DVDs all day, so they sat and played XBOX instead--eventually, Emma and I walked the kids to a park to get out their squiggles.

 Day 3: Drive 584 miles to Evan, Amber, Autumn, Ethan and Ella's (good guess Amber?)

Cheyenne has a super rad public library--we played a few hours, while Greg went to his store-crush, Sierra Trading Post

And we obviously had to take a picture with a boot--it's the thing to do in Cheyenne

 Day 4: Stay in Cheyenne an extra day to hang out

Alice and Autumn being semi-twinners at church

After church Greg and Evan took the kids to a super rad and mildly dangerous park while Amber took a nap and I hung out in case Henry woke up from his nap--meaning I also fell asleep on the couch.

Then the kids ran in the sprinklers because it was soooo hot (like 80),  we had a picnic out back, played with chalk and in general had a good time.

Day 5: Drive 462 miles to Grandma and Grandpa Robins in American Fork, UT and being phase 2 of our (epic) vacation.