Driving to VA

Before we left for our trip we had heard all the stories about driving with our children. People laughed when we told them we were going to drive and said "good luck with that". So we decided to leave MO at 4:00 am to get some of the driving out of the way while the kids were still asleep. However, the kids were so excited that they didn't fall back to sleep and instead looked around at everything while the sun was coming up. Right before we entered St. Louis, Jodie asked if we were there yet, which we laughed at. This was the only time anyone asked this question. Jodie did say multiple times that she was ready to go home, but was easily swayed with suckers, or toys. We did bring our computer so we could play movies for the kids if that was needed, however, it didn't work. Lucky for us the kids didn't seem to mind!

So here are some good time killers for the car...

books on cd (or in our case, downloaded from the library). The kids loved listening to the books and I bet it allowed us 5 or more hours of quiet in the car.

Snacks: all kinds of snacks, from sweet to salty. Including suckers. Even Ryan loved sucking on suckers (it kept us awake on the way home!).

Lots of things to color, and doodle on. I brought coloring books, blank maps, road scavenger hunts, and the license plate game. I also brought their magnetic drawing boards.

Small games, and other car activities including pipe cleaners. The kids loved the pipe cleaners and were entertained for a couple hours with them.

Last but not least rest stops. We stopped at several rest stops some of which were very nice, most were very clean, and all had grass to play in. It gave us a chance to stretch our legs, clean out the car, and go potty.

The only rest stop that had a playground. The kids loved playing.