Mike and I drove down to DC once when Mazzy was about 9 months. That was a harrowing experience, where Mike’s only job was to drive the car while I played waitress, lady servant, one woman entertainer and pacifier retrieving acrobat for five straight hours. We didn’t drive anywhere farther than two hours for the next five years.
That record ended this past weekend, when Vaseline® sent us to Vermont for a ski trip to test out their Vaseline Intensive Care™ Advanced Repair lotion in the cold. We chose to go to Sugarbush, putting us a solid six hours in the car.
With both kids.
We decided to break up the trip by leaving late Thursday night, driving to Westchester and spending the night at Mike’s cousin’s house, shaving about an hour. I suspect Mike’s strategy was also to prevent me from running back in and out of the house ten times to get things we had forgotten, pushing our departure time even further back, as I have been known to do. That means, Friday morning, when I realized I had forgotten my contacts, there was nothing to do but SIGH LOUDLY and get in the car.
I packed a big bag of things to do, snacks to eat, diapers to change, Frozen dolls to play with and assorted sundries, including a bottle of Vaseline Intensive Care Advanced Repair lotion (obviously).
Graphic of only 1/16 of the items I packed for the trip:
How do you busy yourself for six hours on a road trip to Vermont? Besides pray you’ll be visited by the napping gods who will make both your children pass out at the same time?
If you’re me, you record a play-by-play of the entire trip on your iPhone, times included, just so everyone can endure the same agony I did. Inbetween doling out snacks, of course.
Breakdown of a Five hour trip with two kids:
10am: We leave Westchester.
10:05: The first “are we there yet?” followed by “this is taking a long time”, from Mazzy, of course. Uh-oh, this is going to be a long trip.
10:10: Mazzy asks where we are going and even though I have told her 20 TIMES over the past two weeks, this time I have her undivided attention. I tell her about Vermont, how I used to ski there when I was little, how she is going to ski school, etc. etc. etc. She gets all excited and says, “When will we see Ella???” That’s Mazzy’s best friend. “Ummm…. sorry, honey. Ella is going to be in Utah when we are there in March. She will not be in Vermont.” “NO FAIR!” Yep, this is going to be a long trip.
10:12: First request for snacks. I list everything we have and get turned down on all counts. We have been in the car 12 minutes.
10:15: We stop at Starbucks to get coffee and bagels. While Mike runs in to get the coffee, the kids gets restless. I break out Mad Libs, way earlier than planned.
10:30: After 15 solid minutes of Mad Libs (seriously, bring this on your next car trip), Mike returns with the coffee.
10:32: We pull out of Starbucks. “Let’s do another Mad Libs!” “NOOOO!!!” Uh-oh. At least they seem happy with their bagels.
10:35: Mazzy says she wants to draw. I say (quietly so Harlow can’t hear) that we will let her draw on the iPad as soon as her sister falls asleep. We’ve actually never let the kids use smart devices in the car before (to ensure they took their naps) but think this trip warrants it.
10:45: Harlow falls asleep, we give Mazzy the iPad, and have “the talk”. You know, the one where you have to explain to your child that she won’t be able to watch YouTube because we are not connected to wireless.
11am: Mazzy says she feels nauseous and wants to get out of the car. OH GOD OH NO OH GOD OH NO. We take the iPad away.
11:15: Twenty “I need to get out of the car” screams later, we find a place to pullover which wakes up Harlow about an hour too soon. For the next 45 minutes, we all hang out in a gas station convenience store eating crackers until Mazzy feels okay.
12pm: We get back on the road and Mazzy promptly falls asleep. Harlow is wide awake and will remain wide awake for the remainder of the trip.
12:15: We give Harlow lunch, she stares out the window, listens to music, plays quietly with an Elsa doll, and we realize our two-year-old is way easier to travel with than our five-year-old.
1:15: I make the mistake of turning around to look at Harlow through the space between the back of my seat and the head rest. Harlow thinks this is hilarious and wants me to do it over and over again until I think I might throw up and throw my back out at the same time.
1:20: Mike says, “Gee… my hands are dry. You got any lotion I can use?” This will be his running joke for the rest of our trip. I hand him the Vaseline Intensive Care Advanced Repair lotion and use some on myself as well. My skin is very sensitive to the cold and often gets itchy (which can aggravate my eczema), so I am happy for the reminder to keep moisturized during the drive.
1:31: Mazzy wakes up and is surprisingly, in a good mood. I break out the Mad Libbs again and one of the prompts is “an occupation”. “What’s an occupation, Mom?” “It’s a job.” “Okay, a blogger,” Mazzy says. I have never been so proud.
1:45: I say, “Look at all the snow! I think Elsa was here!” Mazzy groans and says, “Elsa isn’t real, Moooom.” Oh, right. I’m THAT parent.
1:48: Mike gets pulled over by the nicest cop on the planet for going 60 in a 50, who lets us off with a warning as long as Mike promises to spend the ticket money on me for Valentine’s Day. I suspect the adorable kids in the back seat have something to do with it as well. The cop tells us his wife is pregnant with their first child— a girl. While we wait for him to fill our paperwork back in his vehicle, we have a good discussion with the kids about why we have to follow the rules. Nothing like thinking your dad is going to be sent to jail to teach kids a lesson about authority.
2:15: Mazzy and Harlow go completely stir crazy. But they are laughing, not crying, so it’s okay. They make weird noises, they talk gibberish, they crack each other up. It’s loud and jarring and if they were anybody else’s kids, I would want them to SHUT UP IMMEDIATELY. But they are my kids and they are completely in tune with each other and it is A-DOR-ABLE. It also lasts a good 45 minutes.
3pm: The kids start asking for more snacks but we are minutes away and say we’ll be eating dinner soon. Mazzy and Harlow go silent as they stare out at the beautiful scenery, pointing out houses with especially long icicles hanging from the roof.
3:30: We arrive, ahead of schedule. The ride was actually not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Now how will we brave below zero temperatures with snow higher than Harlow’s head?
I’ll be blogging about our ski trip all week, while protecting my family’s skin with Vaseline Intensive Care™ Advanced Repair lotion, which is specifically formulated to immediately hydrate and temporarily relieve symptoms of dry skin. Plus, it is clinically proven to heal very dry skin within five days, with a blend of humectants that pull moisture into the skin and micro-droplets of Vaseline Jelly to lock moisture in.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Vaseline prevents frostbite, so we’ll see how much we actually get outdoors.
I’m also giving away a $500 CVS gift card and a Vaseline prize pack. You can enter under each post about the trip (find the first post here) for additional entries.
JUST FOLLOW THE GIVEAWAY RULES BELOW:
1) You must be a Mommy Shorts subscriber and “like” or “share” this post in some way to enter. Then leave a comment answering the following question in the comment section below:
What is the longest road trip you’ve ever driven with your family?
2) For an additional entry, follow @vaselinebrand and @mommyshorts on twitter and tweet the following, leaving a second comment saying you did so:
I just entered to win a $500 CVS gift card from @mommyshorts and @vaselinebrand! #vaseline #staywarmmommyshorts
You can see the full rules here.
Winner will be announced Monday, February 23rd when I give a recap of my trip. That’s after we make the six hour road trip back home.
I hope it goes half as smoothly!
—————————————
This post sponsored was sponsored by Vaseline, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I fb liked and pinned. 5 hours with a six month old. Never ever ever again.
The longest trip I’ve done was 6 hours with my son when he was a year and a half. We were driving to spend the weekend with my husband while he was working out of town for 3 months. The most memorable part was the windy picnic rest stop to change and clean up the messy diaper he managed to smear up his back… I’m just glad the battery on the kindle I rubber-banded to the back of the headrest lasted till he crashed!
Longest family vacation road trip, 22 hours straight driving from IN to FL with a 10 yr old, 5 yr old, 3 month old, and 90 lb family dog. Stopping for food, gas, and bathroom breaks! The trip was actually pretty good. Thank heavens for SUV DVD players!!
Right there with you Katie! NC to IA at Christmas time with a 6mo and an almost 3yo. Then again the next year at Thanksgiving….but this time without the built in dvd player, so it was a little more tricky.
We drove about 9 hours to Tennessee with our 4 month old. We left at 4am so she would sleep for the first several hours, which she did. But once she woke up she screamed almost the whole way.
I think our longest road trip thus far was when we only had one kid! He was 2 1/2. We drove from CT to Hampton Beach, NH. It was 3 1/2 hours, I think. This was the second year we had done it so it couldn’t have been too bad!!
We traveled from Michigan to Texas with my then 2 year old..in a van for his uncle’s wedding. We enjoyed a lot of Netflix on that trip.
12 hours with a 6 month old, Virginia to Indiana. The way there wasn’t bad, but headed home with a teething baby is NOT fun.
My family lives 12 hours away. We have made the trip numerous times with my daughter (6yo) and now also with her brother (2yo). We leave in the evening and drive through the night arriving usually around 4 in the morning. This allows the kids to sleep 3/4 of the way. Other than this, when my daughter was 3 we took a road trip from SLC, Utah to the Oregon Coast. About 15 hours total. Our daughter is an awesome traveler, but we definitely rely on a movie player!
what should have been a 5 hour drive from chicago to Detroit with 22 month old twin boys. We were caravanning with family and *had* to stop off at the outlet malls in michigan city (one hour into the drive). i definitely prefer flying than a long road trip.
I love your blog. The longest we’ve braved with our 9 month is 3 hours to Mt Snow. Luckily he slept and stayed occupied with getting his socks off. A cvs gift card sounds awesome.
We drove from Virginia to Georgia for Spring Break. It was supposed to take 9 hours, but took 12 both ways. This is the trip we realized my 6 year old gets car sick. And did I mention I have anxiety when my kids get sick? It was wonderful, not!
First of all, I literally almost peed myself when you were talking about throwing your back out from peeking through the seat at Harlow. LOL.
The longest trip I’ve ever taken with family was with my all adult family – and it was terrible enough that I can’t imagine having a child along for the ride. It was a 13 hour road trip from Michigan to the Big Apple – everyone’s first visit to the city that never sleeps. We had a fantastic time while in NYC, but seriously – 6 full sized adults crammed into an Envoy = painful. My favorite part was when we had just gotten out of NY on our way home, and my mom and I spotted an outlet mall that, obviously, we HAD to stop at. My dad was very annoyed at the request and vowed not to stop, but changed his mind at seriously such a late moment that I’m not sure how we didn’t roll our vehicle getting off of the exit ramp. He didn’t even get out at the mall… just circled the parking lot like a shark, waiting for us to get our asses back in the car. LOL. Oh, and I was also 10 weeks pregnant at the time – so there’s that.
Did 10 hours with my 12 month old once… about to do 16 hours with my 8, 6, 2 yo’s and 9 mo. Help me.
The longest road trip we took as a family was to Montana from Seattle. That’s about 13 hours in the car. We left at night so the girls would sleep at least part of the way there. It was a yearly trip that was started when the girls were 4 & 5. The first trip was unbearable! It was full of “I’m hot.” “I’m bored.” “Are we there yet?” ” I’m starving to death” “She’s touching me.” “She’s ignoring me.” But after the first time, it became more fun. As they got older, we would play the license plate game, or guess what each farm was growing and then see if we were right. This year we are taking a road trip to NC via Texas and California. Now that one should be fun. How long can a 14 year old, 12 year old, and a 8 month old last in a car together?
we’ve driven 7hrs multiple times with our two kids. The first time they were 1mo and 16mo. The most recent time they were 18mo and almost 3. They were easier when they were just babies. Now it consists of my husband driving while I sit cramped up between the two car seats catering to their every need!
Many, many road trips. Myrtle beach to Chicago was the longest, with 4 kids 9 and under. I don’t really remember how it went, so that means really good or so bad I’ve repressed the memories. Myrtle beach to Washington, D.C., Miami to key west and back. No more car trips for us that are over 6 hrs. Anything over that and we are flying!
Boston to Florida- 21 hours to first destination broken up into 3 legs… Va, Georgia, then to first Florida destination and home 2 weeks later after basically hitting all the stops of family and friends leaving out only the Keys and disney world. The trip was the hardest on out dog… She thought every house we were leaving her at. Our 10 month old actually wasn’t too bad because he still took 2-3 naps a day so we could time then with driving and when he woke up get food and let our dog stretch her legs. My husband still blames the trip for the reason our son will not lay down for diaper changes.
Our extended families live in Nebraska, so we make the 6-hour trek from Minneapolis to Omaha 3-4 times a year with our two girls, who are now 3 1/2 and 1. The first trip was when our oldest daughter was just 4 weeks old! All I have to say is praise the Lord for the iPad! It will be very interesting to see how our 1-year old does when we head there this Spring. Have a great time and good luck on the drive home!!! Tell Mike it’s his turn to entertain the girls 😉
liked!! What are the multi-colored stacking things called in the bottom of the picture?? We’re taking a long flight soon with out almost 2 year old and I think they will occupy her nicely. Fingers crossed
They are crayons. 🙂 They fit on your fingers. http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1795273/alex-10-pk-click-finger-crayons.jsp?ci_mcc=ci&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=95444875&CID=shopping15&gclid=CjwKEAiAx4anBRDz6JLYjMDxoQYSJAA4loRmAgCHM85MHdbXz-GV0NMHNBkweyX-xIz1M0FH7TapXBoCuGfw_wcB&dclid=CPCZ5I-i58MCFYYSRQodYF0Anw
We drove to Colorado and back from Oklahoma when the boy was about 14 months. It is about a 12 drive each way. On the way home we were like, “He’s riding so good, lets just push through and drive the whole way.” After 10 hours, he let us know that was not going to happen. After an hour of screaming we decided to spend the night on the road.
I’m a subscriber! Good job on the trip. Sounds relatively painless except having to wait out Mazzy’s car sickness. Glad she was ok. The longest trip we took in the car was 4 hours. We definitely allow electronic devices for trips longer than 3 hours.
I drove from Pennsylvania to California in 3 1/2 days with a two year old and a cat. My husband was in the vehicle ahead of me with the dog. I think he got the better deal. Good luck, and have a great time!!!!
Liked! We drove an 8 hour trip (which actually took us 10 hours) with a colicky 7 week-old to my sister’s wedding (where I was the Matron of Honour and my daughter perfected the art of projectile spit-up). It was hell, and I am surprised I ever got in a car again.
We did a lot of roadtrips, but the best one was on Christmas Day. We drove an old VW van and the heater controls froze off, so we had no heat. We were driving my grandparents to Seattle where they were departing for a cruise. My dad got a speeding ticket with my grandfather in the back seat saying he had never gotten a ticket and that was going to be expensive, etc. The heater finally defrosted, but as we were driving through No Cal, my dad got another speeding ticket, which is pretty impressive he was driving an old VW van! At least my grandfather wasn’t there to rag on him.
We travelled to Greece with our 3 year old and 1 year old. 3 1/2 to JFK. 3 hour wait at airport. 7 hour flight. 3 hour layover and another 2 hour flight followed by 2 hour car ride. If you think that is bad coming back it takes longer because of the jet stream and traffic at JFK made us circle around for an extra hour. Although when we got to passport control a really nice women let us cut ahead if the line. Thank goodness.
The longest road trip is getting ready to happen in March. It will be a 9 1/2 hour drive with our daughter and the dog… She is usually good in the car but we are driving to the beach for Spring Break and she is already asking are we there yet! So we shall see…
12 hours/day for 2 days with a 4 year old. (Chicago to Boca Raton, FL) He was AWESOME! We didn’t have iPads then so he used a portable DVD player and a game boy. At one point he asked for a snack and I handed him the bag of goldfish. A little while later, he complained his stomach hurt. He ate the WHOLE BAG! Oops! But he did awesome. I only fly with my 4 year old and 2 year old now. I know they wouldn’t do so well!
I drove from IL to NC with a 3 year old, 1.5 year old and a 3 month old baby. 13 hours but we had to pick up my dad on the way which added 3 hours to our trip. Yep 16 hours in the car!!! The kids were shockingly well behaved but I went stir crazy and couldn’t wait to get out.
We had to have “the talk” many, many times. I don’t know how my 1 year old survived without her YouTube videos from the crazy Disney collector.
Longest road trip: from Indianapolis, IN to the thumb of Michigan to see Grandma and Grandpa. Should have taken 5.5 hours. It used to take 5.5 hours, even with an 18-month-old. Then, we tried it with our newborn who was still getting the hang of nursing. 8.5 G%^ D#%^ED FREAKING HOURS.
We have been in the car on long road trips way too much with my 16 month old! The longest was 13 hours but we’ve done 8 trips that were all 8 hrs or longer. All but one of these trips were not our choice, gotta love the life of a military family : )
We live 10 hours away from most of my family, so we make the drive from South Carolina to Ohio every summer and Christmas. Last summer my husband wasn’t able to take time off work so I drove by myself (6 months pregnant) with the kids (4 and not quite 2). It went surprisingly well, but I don’t think I want to do it ever again.
We haven’t had a more than 2 hour drive with our 20 month old yet but that will change this summer! Plus I’m just crazy enough to be considering us all flying to France with my husband when he goes for business.
Our longest road trip was from Utah to Alaska with a 3 yr old, plus I was pregnant. Almost 3000 miles! I drove almost the whole way but at least we stopped in hotels. It is a beautiful drive but holy crud it was rough. They don’t have enough bathroom stops!
Two weeks before our first turned one, my husband and I road tripped/camped from Michigan to Bozeman, Montana for two weeks. In a five seater truck with both my parents, their golden retriever and our Rottweiler. That’s right… count up those bodies. We pulled a 150 year old 5th wheel with the dogs riding in there. It was not feasible or legal for any of the human passengers to be back there with them.
We have driven a few two day adventures: Florida when they were little, once to Maine and this past summer we did the two day drive to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore.
We’ve done a few long ones. An 8 hour with a 3 month old and another 5 hour when he was 6 mo old. Then we took both kids on the same 8 hour again (and to a funeral while there) when they were 3 years old and 1.5 years old. Our kids are decent travelers. We always stop over at playgrounds on the way. Since we have them rearfacing, they tend to not get car sick and just sleep through the trips, which is a blessing! I, on the other hand, get car sick every time! The longest trip we took was a ten hour when I was 19 weeks pregnant with kid #1…I guess he kind of went on that one. 🙂 That was miserable.
10 hours to Destin with an 8 week old. At night. He slept the WHOLE WAY. It was fantastic. He’s 2 now and we’ll be flying instead of driving this year.
I have been on many road trips–but the furthest one I can think of is my trip to Alaska. I was gone for over a month that summer with my grandparents and little brother in an RV. It was just the best time! So many great memories and I wouldn’t trade all that riding down the road for anything now.
I moved last year from TX to DC, and drove with my mom, a 3 1/2 year old and a not quite 1 year old (and two cats!) for 22 hours over three days. I was prepared for the worst, but they did really pretty well, considering the recentness of the 3 1/2 year old’s potty training. I’m not itching to do it again any time soon, but we all survived the experience. 🙂 (I’m a subscriber!)
We drove from Chicago to Atlanta this summer. Left at 5 am, got there at 11pm….19 hours in the car with a 2.5 year old and a 2 month old. Hit traffic a few times and rain. Ugh. And I was in between them in the back seat the whole time. The ride back was faster and nicer, but my son got sick and threw up a bunch too. Never again….not until they are waaaaay older
We drive 12 hours from NC to NJ to see my in-laws….once when our daughter was 1 which was the worst hell of my life. She did not sleep a single second and it was beyond miserable. We did it again last year when she was 2…was a little better, but that again, is just comparing it to my worst hell ever. So not really “good”. This year i am trying to skip it all together…not sure I’ll win, but I will put up a great fight.
16 hr. from pittsburgh pa to boston ma. Supposed to take 10 ish hours but two new parents to a 6 month old and first family long road trip took a but longer
8 hour drive, twice a year, through a section in PA called the “Wilds” AKA, there’s nothing there but wild stuff. Then we usually get stuck in traffic in CT which my daughter prefers to scream her way through. It’s fun, I highly recommend it
We drove from southern Arizona to Connecticut with 2 1/2 year old twins. That was a LONG week! Then, a year later we drove from Connecticut to Colorado. Gotta love military moves!
9 hours to go to a wedding. I told my husband that next time we need to fly!
8 hours in the car driving to Chicago with 1.5 year old. The drive was not awesome. We left at 2 am to make sure he was asleep for the majority of the drive (and we slept of course hardly at all). Seeing our friends and their 1.5 year old after several years was amazing.
We used to drive 14hrs at least once or twice a year to visit family. We lived in Philly and all our family was in WI. We did it with the 2 boys lots and the last time we did it with boys and 3month sister. Let me tell you contorting my body to breast feed the baby while praying she didn’t wake the sleeping boys was no fun! Or the time we were stuck in rush hour traffic with unhappy infant was no picnic!! I would say I’m never doing that again after ever trip, but we would still make the trek!!
17 hours. Seventeen long, painful, I’m-on-my-way-to-the-guillotine hours to drive and be forced to see the most toxic in-laws in history; my husband is also the worst, most high-strung traveler ever.
The return trip, which extended to 18 hours, were the BEST hours stuck in the car ever. Every mile that passed, the happier I got – even with the constant questioning of “Are we there yet?” from the 4-year-old. I was positively giddy by the time we got home.
I have driven six hours with my 2 year old and 1 year old and surprisingly, they didn’t make a peep. I have flown many many times alone with them and whenever I do, one of us ends up throwing themselves down on the floor screaming. It’s usually me. In 2 weeks, I’ll fly 4 hours from Detroit to Phoenix alone with a 2-year-old and 1-year-old. I bring lots of snacks, lots of toys I don’t mind losing, and the coolest sippy cups I can find. Oh, and drink tickets for the person sitting next to me.
I did a 16 hour trip (each way) last year with my kids who were almost 4 and 2.5 at the time…by myself! I also got pulled over on the trip home, by an officer who was not nearly as nice as the one you encountered. The only plus of it was a learning moment and much calmer, more behaved kids for the rest of the trip!
Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your trip. And I will be looking for the new Vaseline lotion. My kids and I have terribly dry hands this winter!
The longest road trip taken with my family was when we drove from CT to Niagra Falls! Fun times were had by all 🙂
I tweeted about the #giveaway
https://twitter.com/saraeh26/status/567451884353781761
<3 Sara
We flew from Kansas to Boston (switching planes in Dallas) then drove from Boston to the very edge of Maine where my FIL lives all on my daughter’s second birthday. We left at still dark o’clock in the morning and got to my FIL’s house at around 11pm. The car trip from Boston to his house should have taken 5 hours, but between having to stop multiple times and traffic, it took 7 hours.
Every Grandma visit is 24 hours total on the road and we do it in an 18 hour and 6 hour block. Never have any crying/fighting/puking/ out of either of my 4 year olds and we’ve done the trip 3 times.
I’ve never done a “family road trip” but I have driven 24 hours to Florida. Thankfully we had college kids’ stamina and many a road trip cd.
We took our first and longest family trip when my daughter was 10 weeks old. We drove from baltimore to myrtle beach- a 9hr trip that took 12hrs. My husband thought I needed to get out of the house during my maternity leave and that the beach would be fun. The thought of traveling to the beach with our tiny baby as first time parents was overwhelming and I may have insisted we turn around several times in the first hour but eventually I got the hang of breastfeeding in random parking lots and we shushed her to sleep with the sound of our fingers rubbing the carseat fabric. We drove in complete silence for fear of waking her but somehow it became peaceful. As it turned out the beach had just banned sun tents so we ended up staying inside the condo anyway 🙂 but now any time we face a long drive we know we can handle it based on our first family road trip!
6 hours to the opposite side of SD for state swimming last year with an 11 month old, 4 year old, and 8 year old. Trip out…not so bad…trip back…pure hell. Stomach bug for hubby and baby…barfing and bathroom stops about sums it up! Hope your trip back is less eventful! I am thankful that state swimming is only 4 hours away this year!
We turned our move from Fort Leonard Wood, MO to Fort Lewis WA into an epic 32-hour road trip. I was pregnant with our first at the time, so between demands for snacks and bathroom breaks, I was probably as needy as traveling with a toddler.
The longest car trip was from Indianapolis to Wisconsin. Just me and my then 10 month old. It wasn’t too terrible but he did cry quite a bit.
i fb liked…we went to Rhode Island when my son was about 6 months, and it was pretty easy back then…cant imagine now that he’s 3.8 to go on a long trip like that
We live in the uk. Last year we drove to the south of France with an almost 2 year old and 6 month twins – 13 hours driving in total broken up (after 2 hours)with a 12 hour ferry crossing. This summer were driving again to France, it’ll be 13 hours again with no break and this time with an almost 3 year old and 2 18 month olds! Must be mad!!
15.5 hours with a four month old last June. From New Hampshire to Michigan to visit family. We decided it would be better to travel by night since she sleeps through the night. She was awesome. And we were exhausted. Only the two of is driving so we switched off and took naps. By morning she was awake and we arrived. Family watched her while me a hubby took a good nap!
50hrs with our 1.5 month old. Then again at 10 months. We drove from Detroit to Seattle. It was harder when he was a 10m, but not much more.
We drove to Florida when our kids were 7 and 10. 24 hours in a minivan with no movies ( we did stop for the night). And to top it off the speedometer started whining 12 hora into the trip. Thank god for the ford dealership in Atlanta- such gentleman who understand when mom is on the edge!!
We frequently take long road trips as all of our family lives far away. Usually a 12 hour road trip to one Grandparent’s house and 7 to the other Grandparents. Like you said, the younger ones are better at road trips! Thank the Lord for DVD players. (He invited those right?)
In rapid skimming, I think I beat everyone lol. We drove 30 hours (including stops) straight through from Colorado Springs to Atlanta with a seven year old (whose bladder I think must be damaged by my early attempts to PT), a 5 year old, and a 3 month old.
After that trip, they got kindles for Christmas since I was flying with all three of them BY MYSELF (4 hour drive to the airport in a snow storm, a non-sleeping night in a hotel, a 3 hour flight, and a 12 hour pass out once I got to GA).
When my son was 2 months old we moved to a new state, meaning 13 hours away. I drove our car with my son in the back all by myself for only the first day of travel. Thankfully my mom met me and helped drive the next two days so someone could always be in the back with the baby. I’m actually lucky he was so young because that trip was the last time he ever slept in the car until he was over a year old. We could’ve made the trip in 2 days because he slept through it, but about 2 hours from our destination he decided he couldn’t take it anymore and we spent a night in a hotel.
We moved from California to Montana when my son was 4 months old. 18 hours in the car. There were good parts of the trip, and terrible parts of the trip. We left at 1:30 in the morning and he didn’t fall asleep until 7!
The play by play is hilarious. Your girls are way to frickin cute. Love them. And I need that Vaseline right now. My hands are so dry our here in the 75 degree winter in California. In my defense, it’s very dry out here.
Longest trip ever: a 5 hour trip from Los Angeles to Mexicali, right across the Mexican border, turned into a 25 hour drive. We reached our destination exactly 25 hours later. How you ask? Well, let me tell you. I was travelling with my 4 yr old girl and 2 month old newborn baby boy. It was Labor Day weekend and we depart at 2:30pm. In LA traffic. Need I say more? I had just fed the baby before leaving so I had a solid 3 hours before the next feeding. I thought we would be in Palm Springs by then, or close to it. Nope, we were only about 50 miles into the trip, stuck in horrible traffic. And he NEEDS TO EAT NOW. I was breastfeeding so we had to pull over. There went a good hour. We’re finally back on the road and get to Palm Springs area at about 8pm. And baby needs to eat again. From that point on, you have to take a highway to the border, then drive the crazy Mexico roads to our destination. My sis and I decided that it was best to stay in Palm Springs for the night and wait until daylight to finish the drive. The thought of 2 women with 2 babies crossing the border at midnight sounded pretty scary. The next day, we got back on the road after breakfast and got to our destination 24 hours after we had left the previous day. And that was the longest trip ever with my two kids.
We just did about 6 hours with our 3 year old and 3 month old. Survived the way there, but I’m thinking all the traveling will get real old for the 3 year old by the time we head back. I’m a subscriber and I liked the facebook post.
Following and tweeted. https://twitter.com/eluellwitz/status/567887617062096897
6 hours from CT to NH for a summer lake vacation last year with a 2.5 year old. Wasn’t (too) bad. Doing a repeat this year and not looking forward to it so much now that she’s potty trained which will probably make a 6 hour trip and 8 hour trip!
I’m a subscriber, not on social media, but I forwarded the blog post to a GF.
We moved from Alabama to Alaska with an 8-month-old and a 2-year-old in 2005 – long before ipads or kindles existed and even before portable DVD players were common. 5,000 miles and two full weeks, all the way up on the Alaska-Canada highway. The two years later with 4 and 2 -year-olds, we took the ferry to northern Washington State and drove from there to Maryland. 3,000 miles in 7 days. Military kids are travel pros early on!
Longest trip I ever had was with my 1 year old at that time on a 12-hrs flight! Yes you heard me right! The flight was 12 hours and we didn’t stop for food or gas 🙂 It was psychologically the longest trip ever as well! Unfortunately that’s the only way to visit my family in Europe from West Coast.
I drove 8 hours when my son was 4 weeks old to visit family. He was great in the car and then promptly projectile vomited all over me once we arrived.
15 hours. We’ve done it multiple times. Starting when my oldest was two(actually pretty easy trip). The worst time was when we did it in a truck with our two boys(age 15 and 8 at the time) and our niece (age 4). Not enough room between kids, everyone was “touching” everyone else, “breathing” on each other, etc etc. When the fighting got too crazy, I shocked them all by squirting them with water. That worked for about ten minutes, then the youngest decided it was fun and purposefully tried to annoy her cousins so I would squirt them all. Sighhh
When I was pregnant with my son we drove from near Cleveland, Oh to Tampa, Fl (about 16hrs) to see my in-laws. My dog that freaks out when he is in a car rode with us (with anti anxiety meds, he ended up thinking my husband was a tree and peed on his leg). I had to stop about every hr to pee. Then when my son was almost 3 we drove about 9hrs to Philadelphia to go to Sesame Place. He did well but I was miserable being in the car that long.
Six hours with a 1 year-old and a 3 year-old! Longest six hours of my life!
We drove from PA to Fl when I was 8 and my sister was 5. Back Then we could ride in the back of the pick up with a cap and my grandparents were also towing a trailer. Did I mention that it was December and the bed of pickups aren’t exactly the warmest places? Luckily we were riding in style with a little couch and lots of blankets! Let’s just say the license plate game loses its excitement very quickly!
Michigan to Wisconsin with a 1 and 3 year old on probably the hottest summer day ever. About an 8 hour trip, which was plenty for me!
[…] Study: How We Survived a Six Hour Road Trip With Two Kids | Mommy […]
We took a long trip to visit Grandpapa and Mee-Maw last year on spring break. Disaster.
Joseph, who was five at the time, napped the the whole trip except for an hour. He played quietly with his Handy Manny toolbox, and all of his figurines of the characters for the the hour he was up for.
Brooke was 1 at the time, and also napped for most of the five hour trip. She was getting a new tooth at the time, so when she was awake, she bit on a teething ring.
Our only problem was Allie, who was three.
After being in the car for five and half minutes, her little recently potty trained bladder decided that it was time to go. But Allie didn’t realize that. Thank goodness for extra clothes. We pulled over and she put her extra clothes on.
Then the complaining began. She wanted to watch Diego, not Toopy and Bino, the car was hot, the car was too cold. The chedder bunnies were yucky, the carrot sticks were “too orange” and the travel cup (what we call sippy cups that we use in the car) wasn’t the Cinderella one.
Then Joseph, announced he wasn’t feeling too good. We pulled over at a rest stop, and he vomited in the parking lot.
We were going to get back in the car, but Allie’s uncontrollable little bladder made her have to go to the bathroom again.
When we got back in the car, Joseph played with his Handy Manny toolbox and figurines, and watched Handy Manny on the screen in the back seat. He soon fell asleep.
Brooke was now sleeping too, leaving us with Allie.
Her complaining stopped, and the requests began.
“More juice” even though we had no more and her travel cup was empty. “Book!” which ended up with her holding the book, Is your Mama a Llama? for two seconds before dropping it. “Lunch” which equalled her taking one bite of her peanut butter sandwhich, and tossing her baggie of apple slices on the floor. The final request was “Crayons” which equalled her coloring for a minute, and then tossing her crayons on the floor and then having a massive tantrum.
Her nap lasted two minutes. Lucky us.
Brooke was up for a few minutes, but only to bite on her teething ring.
The next few hours were better.
Allie fell asleep from all the crying, requests, and complaints.
After five hours of all this, we finally made it to Grandpapa and Mee-Maw’s house. Thank god.