Road-tripping with Toddlers

It’s been a while since I last posted about the boys and since its #twintuesday… let’s catch you all up on what’s been going on with the Vigoas. The twins are officially no longer babies. They are all about doing everything on their own such as eating, putting and taking off clothes to just name a few. Last month we took a mini-road-trip to Louisiana for work and although I already blogged about our time there by sharing the Kennedy’s photos there is still these next sweet pictures my husband snapped of us while we enjoyed a break from being in the car at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park in Gainesville, FL. D is no photographer ( at least not yet 😉 anyways ) but he agreed to indulge me and give in to my requests. After giving him a run through as to what I wanted him to capture I brought Matthew out of the car and slipped on a dress. (Sure wasn’t driving in this friends.)  Matt and I enjoyed the rare time of being just us two. Of giving him 100% of my attention. Slobbering him in kisses and receiving the tightest and most heartwarming hugs. It was just what I needed to continue driving our fourteen hour trip. This was the boys fifth time out on the road for an extended amount of time and by far the easiest. I’d like to share with you all what we have learned so far that has worked wonders for us so that the next time you embark on a family trip there will be a little less ( or none at all ) trauma than we have previously experienced.

How to Road-Trip with Toddlers

• Expect NOTHING else other than there will be moments of I AM DONE. This was our first mistake way back when we took a trip to Canada when they were just about a year old.
• Entertainment via TVs. If you are not traveling in a vehicle that already has TV’s installed… make the investment. It is by far the best thing I have ever purchased for my car. I will recommend it to each and every parent I ever talk to that is planning to be out on the road. It literally was the best thing we could of done this whole trip.
• Bring along their favorite shows, songs and movies (even if it means you will be listening to Peppa Pig for 10 hours straight).
• Comfortable clothes… also known as separates. This is not the time for onesies or anything that requires extra work to change diapers. Shirts and pants so that if there are any emergencies… or outburst of any kind, you can quickly change them and not have to replace more than a whole article of clothing.
• Snacks. Our car had a full grocery cart worth of cookies, crackers, fruit, juice and everything else they love and don’t always get to eat. You would think all that sugar would make them hyper.. but instead it would just get them excited for more. MORE cookies. MORE raspberries. MORE banana. We all pigged out.
• Don’t stress about crumbs, sticky fingers and how much of a chaos your car will be. (Once you get back home you can spend a whole day cleaning every fold in those car seats.)
• Take full breaks instead of just pulling over for gas. Walk around, eat… let them run and be adventurous for a good hour and they will be happy campers for the next three hours or more if they happen to nap. This park stop in particular, we knew we wanted to have dinner in Gainesville, so we picked a park so that all of us (primarily the kids and I, would have something else than stores to explore… this is the kind of park I would of loved to actually come back to take the different hiking paths they have, but even for the short period of time we were there, we felt refreshed.)
• Toys… we bought them surprise toys that they had never seen to keep them really entertained between movie breaks. I went to the dollar store and grabbed a couple of things I knew they would love.
• Have an actual sit-down dinner. You are trying to make time to your destination, but you’ve got your babies in tow… there’s no reasoning with them why it is they are continuously in a car for days. Dinner time is the perfect break to unwind and give you an extra push before bedtime.
• Call it a night before they get really cranky. We would already have our hotel booked after dinner since we knew we would only drive about 2 hours more after eating. This gave us plenty of time to get everyone ready for bed and rest so that the next day we were all ready to do it all over again.

And finally my Will was up from his nap…

Like I mentioned before, this trip fueled me in the most positive way. Spending all that time with my family (even if it was inside of a car) was the greatest. It made me realize that everything I treasured most in this world was right there with me. I hope you all are a bit less afraid to go explore with the little ones and that you enjoy yourselves as much as we did.