Travelling with Kids

I've learned a few things over the years (and during this trip) that has helped when travelling with children.  Probably the coolest thing discovered over the last couple of weeks has been "family rooms" otherwise known as the hotel suite. 

I packed our queen size air mattress to take on this odyssey for 2 of the kids to sleep on since 2 rooms is (for as many nights we have to sleep in hotels) out of our budget.  One of the nights with Ga-Ga (in Utah, I believe) all they had were suites left.  When we opened the door to our room, it was like a ray of sunshine.  2 queen sized beds and a hide-a-bed couch!  No more hauling the tote with the air mattress in.  Also, there's generally a mini fridge and a microwave plus the room is more spacious.  Sometimes, a little extra room makes all the difference in the world.  Especially when you've been cooped up in a minivan with 4 kids. 

A few other tips...

• Packing a portable potty.  As you can see from my earlier entries, ours was well used.
• Snacks for the car (goldfish crackers are our snack of choice) and snack sized baggies for distributing the snacks.
• Pint sized water bottles for the kids.  If they're thirsty, it's enough to quench their thirst but not so much water that you're pulling out the portable potty every hour.
• Having ALL the kids try and use the bathroom when you are stopping for gas or food.
• Limiting the use of electronic devices (Nintendo DS, DVDs, etc.)  For my kids, a little bit in the morning and again in the afternoon if it's a long driving day is enough to keep them from becoming bored but not so much stimulation that they don't nap.
• Packing a container with a lid for car sickness.  Luckily, we haven't had to utilize ours yet but it's there if we need it.  I use a gallon ice cream pail.

One thing I did for this trip that I don't normally do for our 1-2 day driving trips was bring along new activities for the kids.  Kakes and Pat received this mp3 player that I loaded with songs for them.  The mp3 player also serves as a camera for Pat.  Both have really enjoyed listening to their music.  For Malone and B-saurus I purchased sticker books.  I didn't pull those out until several days into the trip when Malone had become so cranky that nothing was going to distract her.  Having something new to do distracted her and for a little while at least, we had a happy M.

We left Idaho this afternoon and are now in Montana.  The next 2 days we'll be in and out of Yellowstone.  All of us are looking forward to that!