The Love of Travel

Jeff travels occasionally with his job and when he wants to take us with him we jump at the chance! We have dear friends who are willing to rabbit sit and feed the African water frogs, so there are no worries on the home front to be gone!

It's highly entertaining to watch the younger boys pack their back packs, usually several days before we are scheduled to leave. We start a countdown and they carry them around throughout the day and add to their load more books and favorite things to take along.
The night before we leave, I usually stay up late to finish the packing because I love sleeping in the van! We have a list on the computer of what to bring, so it's pretty simple and we rarely forget anything.

Once everyone is up and has had breakfast, we load the last minute things (coolers of drinks and snacks, pillows, etc.) and then the kids buckle up anticipating the excitement! Jeff and I go through the house, making sure everything is off, flushed, and locked. When we're all in the van he takes a moment to pray for safe travels and a memorable time before we leave.

Right away I have to start a garbage bag to collect our trash. Someone needs a tissue or has found a piece of paper that is no longer needed. Then someone wants to play the alphebet game, but that is pretty hard to do out in the country, so we try to hold them off a bit for that!

We sing, play the grocery game ('I'm thinking of buying something from the grocery store that starts with a 'w'', and then everyone has to try to guess what it is.), the alphebet game, find how many different states we find licence plates from, look for deer (of course!), and sleep. Lydia watched me do some crocheting and was entertained for a long time with a crochet hook and left over yarn! Matthew, Joey and Ben have their seats all in a row and there were a lot of truck and car noise coming from the back and they worked hard to make the semi's honk!

The kids determine a good hotel from a bad hotel depending on the breakfast that is served. We almost always have fresh fruit for breakfast at home, so when bagels, donuts, sugar cereal, waffles, bacon and sausage is served - it's a really good hotel!

With the size of our family most hotels won't allow us to be in one room, so we have a 'girls' room and a 'boys' room.
Girls room rules: HGTV is on, only to be flipped to the food channel.
Boys room rules: hunting videos before bed, and you must never put the seat down!
Usually the little ones run back and forth between the two rooms, this time we had joining doors so that was nice.

Another favorite is snacks. We pick out several different bite size snacks and throw them all together and serve it in little paper cups, and the kids just love it!
We also never eat in the van, but when we're traveling a long ways it makes sense for us to use our stopping time to stretch out and move around, and sit and eat in the van. It's a special treat we all think is so fun!

On the way home we traveled 360 miles and only had to stop once! Jeff and I look at each other amazed the kids are traveling so well, finding it hard to be the adults and not whine ourselves! After a potty break, Jeff ordered our dinner and the rest of us did calisthenics in the parking lot next to the van. Highly entertaining to watch Ben and Lydia try to do jumping jacks!

When we got home we emptied the van and it looked like the bomber threw up all over the house! We had church the next day and had packed our church clothes just in case we didn't get home in time, so Sunday morning some clothes were a bit wrinkly, but we were sure the Lord wouldn't mind.

Now to catch up on the laundry! Weed the garden! And get back to our normal state of chaos! Always ready to go again!