Road Trip! (& some tips)

I know I posted a few pictures from my iPhone last week of our road trip to Indiana, but I thought i'd post a few more and try to go into some more detail. 

I think I've learned pretty well on how to keep the girls entertained while we are traveling. We travel so often to visit family, that G does so well in the car anyway! But, i'll share a few of my tips.

~ Eat at your house, clean it up, and leave. You don't want to leave and then stop within an hour because you or your kids are hungry.
~ Pack a travel snack bag. I used lots of travel containers, and emptied out cereal boxes, brought fruit snacks, oranges, yogurt & breakfast bars. We also packed a cooler for drinks, and I had sippy cups already filled. Make sure that everything is within reach.
~ I let G choose toys for the trip. I wanted her to choose so she would be interested in them. She was allowed one bag. She chose a few books, potato head (all the pieces fit nicely inside), a small magna doodle, and a doll.
~ I also let her choose about 5 DVDs, and we recently purchased a new one that I saved for the trip.
~ I purchased a few goodies as surprises along the way. One was a tinker bell coloring book and another was gummy bears. Our hotel was near a mall, and I told G that she could pick out three types of candy the night before our trip back. At random intervals, I would give her the candy bag for a few minutes, and then take it away. That way, she didn't eat tons of candy at a time, and it continued to be a treat.
~ Make sure your kids potty at every stop. When filling up with gas, get them out of their car seats and let them walk. I made a game with G and had her take giant steps, march, anything to get her legs moving. We let MC crawl around in the back (watching her of course and being there so she couldn't fall out.)
~ MC hates the car, but we recently purchased her big-girl carseat and head rest DVD players, which I think really helped her. We also brought her favorite sleep toy, to provide comfort in the car. She had a paci clipped to her clothes and to her carseat, so she couldn't loose one!

 Thankfully, they'll sleep at least for one hour! Although, MC slept longer than that.

 Here are the girls playing in the back of the car while we are taking potty breaks and filling up with gas.

At some point in the trip, I realized it was Mother's day, and that we would be going through St. Louis. We happened to be in St. Louis for DJ's convention on my very first Mother's day, so I thought it would be neat to stop and take pictures.

Plus, it was good to stretch our legs again. At this point, we had traveled from Joplin to St. Louis without stopping, and I think we were all ready to get out of the car!

After this stop, we drove two more hours to Effingham, IL and spent the night. We should've stopped right past St. Louis to at least eat, but if that was our one mistake, then it wasn't a bad one! We ended up eating at Ruby Tuesday, and I do recommend it while traveling, or even with young kids. It's not a typical place we eat, but I can add on a salad bar, and share my meal with the girls, and the three of us still have plenty of eat. The girls enjoyed cucumbers, grapes, cheese, eggs, and mini pieces of ham.

I also don't make them go to bed as soon as we get to the hotel. After all, they've been cooped up in a car all day, so we either swim for a bit or just play in the room. This evening we face-timed with DJ's mom, and the girls didn't get in bed until around 10:30, but I also knew there would be more car time in the morning, where they could rest, and that we would be having naps once we go to our destination. I try to be flexible with the schedule during our travels, but also try to keep meal and snack times consistent. We can always catch up on sleep when we get home!

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