Live in the D: Summer Travel with Kids Tips

 As you may have seen Instagram and/or read on my blog, I recently returned from a beach family vacation, which included my parents.  Because I love to travel therefore creating a need to make sure my kids love to travel, we will be embarking on a road trip to New Jersey to visit family.

I have used or will be using these travel tips in my near future and feel excited to share them with you and talk about them on Live in the D.

Here's the clip from the show.

Ziploc bags for everything

Because we flew to Myrtle Beach, our toiletries obviously needed to be in a quart-sized bag.  However I think the gallon-sized bags are the unsung hero of travel organization.  They prevent random action figures from going MIA in a time of need and help to keep snacks from exploding in the backpack.

Letter Activities on the Plane/Car Ride

I love a break from the school grind that summer offers; however, I do become really nervous that the kids (more specifically, Thomas) will forget how to hold a pencil.

I created a letter book in a spiral notebook that was small enough to fit in my purse.  On one page, I wrote the uppercase and lowercase of each letter and left the other side blank.

When we had time, I would ask him to think of a word that starts with the letter on the page.  I would write it lightly in pencil, and he would trace it in crayon.  I can’t say that he loved it since writing is not his favorite, but I can say it was a short activity that could be done on the fly without a lot of prep.

For Marie, I had her do a letter poem.  She wrote out our location M Y R T L E B E A C H.  She then added a word for each letter.  Writing is Marie’s thing so she enjoyed this activity.

Baby Powder on Beach

Did you know baby powder could remove sand?  Not like sort of remove sand, like when you use the foot shower thing at the beach.  I mean totally takes the sand off of your skin and leaves it silky smooth.  I do not know why this is not printed on the container. I had a friend share this trick with me when Marie was a baby, and it has been a lifesaver ever since.

If you do not like baby powder, I am sure cornstarch would work well, too.

Manners Boot camp

While on vacation, it became obvious that I tolerate really bad table manners at home (some days out of laziness, other days because I am saving my energy for the bed time saga).  This does not translate very well out in the world of restaurant dining or sharing a table with other people, like my parents. 

Because we will be houseguests on our next adventure, I made a laminated chart to keep at the table.  Depending on their choices, they can either get a smiley face sticker in the Excellent, Doing OK, or Needs Work columns.

If they have more smiley faces in the Excellent or Doing OK columns, they can have a little reward (choose what we eat for dinner, a special dessert, etc.)

If this is too complicated, cut out stars (or even scraps of paper will do) and put them in a jar each time they make good choices.  When you feel that they have earned enough, give them a reward.

Road Trip Bingo

I do not know what it is about road trip bingo, but I’m intrigued.  Maybe it’s because it would force the kids to look out the window and away from any and all screens.  I found this on the Reading with Kids website.

We are going to use bingo daubers, and the winner chooses what playlist or CD they want to listen to.

Laminating an Atlas

This idea was inspired by a blog post by It’s Always Autumn.  She suggested laminating a map, but instead, I bought an atlas and had the pages carefully removed. I put them in a small presentation binder with laminated page protectors and BOOM we have our own personal atlas with a highlighted route to our end destination.

This may also serve as my hardcopy of directions the in the event that Map Quest stops working.

Vacation Photo Art

How many times do you take photos and they just sit there in your phone or camera?

I took photos (and started to let the kids take some before an unfortunate sand incident).

I then edited my photos on my phone (Snapseed is my favorite)!  I ordered my prints from Prinstagram (a Social Print Studio app -  I cannot express how much I love this company)!  I used the 4x4 squares for the project, but love the Mini Squares, too.

I went to Michael’s Craft Store and bought a 2 pack of 9x12 canvas and some Modge Podge.  (I have been looking for a project to use this ever since Angela from Jumping with My Fingers Crossed handed these magnets at one of her gatherings).

Marie chose the photos she wanted to use, glued the photos on to the canvas with Modge Podge and then brushed it over the photos to seal them to the canvas.

Voila! Perfect real life art pretty much created by online apps.

Have you hit the road yet this summer?  What are your favorite travel tips with kids? 

My Family Summer Beach Vacation Summed Up in 10 Phases

I just returned from my family beach vacation in Myrtle Beach with the kids, the husband, and my parents.  The good times were the best!  The not so good times, well, I believe I said it best in this Instagram photo: 

Having said that, I present to you the Phases of My Summer Family Beach Vacation.

The Planning Phase

This phase was done in the dead of winter.  I found a place at Ocean Creek Plantation, the same place I went to as a kid, and booked it on the 27th snow day in January.

I knew that we were going to have the best family beach vacation in the history of family vacations.  I pictured Harrington, the kids, and my parents playing on the beach, laughing and having fun. 

Kind of like when Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation when he was dreaming of installing his in-ground pool and the amazing time his family was going to have.

The Payment Phase

This is when all the money is due.  Gulp. There is no turning back.

We *will* have the Best! Vacation! Ever!

The Laundry Phase

Staying on top of the laundry on a regular week is hard enough, let alone packing for a vacation. 

I considered packing dirty clothes. 

The Packing Phase

The commencement of this phase signified the completion of The Laundry Phase.  The elation was brief as I contemplated how to fit all of those clothes into a carryon due to my self-imposed “no checking of the bags” rule.

My triumphant moment of packing the kids’ and my clothes into a single carry-on occurred in the wee hours of the night before we departed.  I celebrated with wine and slept for 4 ½ blissful hours.

The Travel Phase

Yay!  It’s finally happening!  

As we manage our four carry-ons plus four personal items plus two car seats, feelings of excitement quickly turn to feelings of concern: is it possible that we are this close and won’t be allowed on the plane with all of these bags?  Or worse yet, forced to check a bag? 

My concerns about one of the kids having a meltdown shift to my concerns about me having a meltdown.

The Beginning Phase of Vacation

I am here!  I am finally at the beach!!  I am so happy!!  Everyone is happy!

For a brief moment.

The Despair Phase

As we settled into our daily beach routine, Thomas acted like I was torturing him by depriving him of his iPad.

The withdrawal of technology combined with Thomas’s hatred of doing new things (unless they are his idea) made me feel like a horrible parent.  How could I be raising a child like this? 

Blue Moon and Kleenex, you may have seen a surge in your sales. 

You’re welcome.

Take Control Phase

I needed to regain control of this family fun vacation ASAP.  Luckily this is when I stumbled across Wendi Aaron’s Facebook status update about her post on summer camps we wished existed.  Too Much Mouse in the House Camp scared them both to tears.  I told them there was one about Quitting Screen Time.  I had never seen such terror in their eyes, not even that one time when they googled “Is Blood Mary real?” and found scary videos that gave them nightmares for months.

I do not usually advocate parenting by fear, but I seized this moment to put our fun family vacation back on track. 

The next morning, we went to the beach in our jammies and find seashells.  

No one complained about lack of screen time or wanting to watch The Disney Channel.

Boom.

Success.

The Acceptance Phase

This family fun beach vacation is clearly not going as planned.

I accept that I need to manage my expectation.

I accept that Thomas can’t hack it all day at the beach.  I also accept that Marie can spend all day at the ocean, but her fair skin cannot. 

I accept my parenting mistakes.

I accept that traveling with kids is hard.  So very hard.  So hard it brought me to tears several times.  But I love to travel; it does something magical to my soul, and I want to instill that love into my kids.  So I accept the hardships because I have faith that it will get easier and more fun the more times we travel together.

The Mourning Phase

The bad parts of the trip begin to fade from my memory, and I felt sad that it is over. 

Despite all the drama, I was grateful to connect with my kids in a way that is difficult to do at home with the distractions of daily life and thankful for the time I spent with my parents.

I wanted to keep that part of vacation, so I started making promises to myself.

I promise not to get lost in laundry. I promise no to get lost in the buzzing of work emergencies.  I promise to parent more mindfully.

Most of all, I promise to get a handle on our freewheeling screen time.

I promise to travel again with the kids.

What are your family vacations like?  Please share your real moments in the comments so I feel less alone about the chaos.