Texas: The Drive

Well, I have some serious blogging to do about our trip to Texas (among other things). Instead of doing a day-by-day recap, I think I will just devote one blog post to each notable, blog worthy event. The first post (this one) isn't exactly exciting enough to be characterized as "blog worthy" but I feel the need to include it for future reference about what works for lllllooooonnnnngggg car trips!

I retrieved this dry erase pad from the depths of the toy bin. Paired with a set of dry erase markers and an eraser, it killed several hours.

A bit of a last minute, impulse buy, this $10 lap desk from Target was a HIT! It made everything way easier, although she did complain of it making her hot a time or two. I'm not sure what got into her on the way home, but she colored and drew for over an hour straight.

After seeing a similar Bingo game in the newspaper one day, I created two kid-friendly versions for this particular trip. It was more of a scavenger hunt than Bingo, really.

She enjoyed this, although it was definitely a MISS at first. We were on the highway where most of the pictures I chose were more likely to be seen during city driving. She kept the ideas in mind, though, and we found pretty much everything on both sheets while driving around Texas.

Another bit of an impulse buy was a huge book with Where's Waldo-type seek-n-finds. The book had tear out pages so she could mark up the page. There were several items to look for on each themed page and a box to mark it off once it was found. This bought us about 2 hours off and on. There was more than enough for Amelia so she shared them with several other cousins in Texas. We still have more than half of the book left for the next road trip. It was around $7 on clearance at Barnes and Noble (luckily I had a gift certificate).

These were the "winners" I think. We also tried a book on CD for the first time. I chose "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" from the library and she enjoyed following along with her copy of the book. I will definitely try that again and bring more than one. There was also the DVD player, books, and plenty of snacks to keep her occupied.

We stopped in Joplin both directions (approximately halfway) and the kids really did amazing! I'm not saying I want to do it again anytime soon, but 22 hours in the car is a lot for anyone! I am pretty sure the kids did better than Jason and I.