This Christmas, we loaded up Miles and Vivienne for their very first road trip. We went to Georgia to visit my parents. I have to say that I was not very excited about the "road trip" part of this. Growing up as an airline baby, we usually didn't drive for vacation unless it was less then 4 hours away. My babies, however, will probably have a very different childhood.
Packing for a family of four (two of whom are less than 6 months old) is very different from packing for a family of two adults. We practically spent all morning getting everything together and checking our lists of "don't forgets" and "to do's." We had so many bags - suitcase for the babies' clothes, diaper bag, extra diaper bag for Jason (so we could each change a baby when we made pit stops), bag of toys for the babies, reading materials, snacks for the road, breastfeeding pillow, Christmas presents, bags for Mommy and Daddy. We packed the little Rav-4 to the brim, but somehow it all fit.
We started a Fox Family tradition of praying before we hit the road. We left the house around 2 PM. The babies magically slept through until about 5:30 (don't ask me how that happened?). Then we stopped at a Chick-fil-a, changed the babies, ate some dinner, fed them in the parking lot (never thought I would tandem breastfeed babies in a Chick-fil-a parking lot!!), gassed up the car and hit the road again. They fussed a little bit, but then they settled down and slept all the way to my parents' house.
We arrived around 10:30 that evening. Jason and I were pretty exhausted, but overall the trip went much better than I would have ever expected. We went 445 miles and only had to stop once. The babies were amazing in the car.
More posts to come with details about Miles and Vivienne's exciting first Christmas!
I'm pretty impressed that you managed to fit all the 'gear' AND yourselves into the Rav4. Won't be too long before you'll be forced to join the "Swagger Wagon" club...
ReplyDeleteWow, great job! YOu have it downpat already on the first road trip. It is so amazing how many bags it takes to pack nowadays.
ReplyDeleteBabies at that age sleep great in the car, it gets harder when they out grow the infant car seats. I think we are going to invest in one of those bags that strap to the roof of your car when we have another kid, I am not giving up my RAV-4.
ReplyDeleteThe discouraging part (and this is more true as they get a little bit older) is that they sleep in the car, and you are basically working. You are exhausted when you get there, and they are recharged! You want to sleep, they want to play!
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