Ahhh…

 We have finally arrived, all 6 of us, after a 2 day drive to visit my family in Arizona.  When we left home, it was before dawn, and both the landscape and the sky were thick white.  The barns and silos we passed almost seemed to be floating along as we could barely distinguish between the ground and the sky.  Everything was just so white. (This picture was taken once we got onto plowed roads.  In the beginning, the plows hadn’t been out yet and the roads and everything were just white.)

Silje, our resident cruise director, was full of ideas for what to do on the road trip, so 5 minutes and not enough cups of coffee into it, she started asking if we could sing songs.  No one seemed up to it.  The alphabet game?  No takers.  After hassling all of us to play a road game with her, she suggested I-spy which normally gets some takers.  David then spoke up and said with very dry humor: “I spy white.  Snow.  I win.  Game over.”  Knut and I couldn’t stop laughing, and it was a fun start to 2 long, long days of driving.

We’ve done the trip so many times that we know exactly where to stop, and could almost do it in our sleep.  This was Solveig’s first time making the trip, and we were worried how she would do, but she proved once again, that traveling with a 3 month old is much easier than a 3 year old.

We saw some amazing sights on the way down, with the highlight being the descent of hundreds of thousands of cranes in Nebraska that we once saw a documentary about.  They were not exaggerating at the awe of it, as the lake in Nebraska is something like the only place this type of crane nests?  I can’t remember, but that was were they all migrate every year.

After the first day of driving, we stopped at with dear, dear friends in Denver, where I spent most of my childhood.  Darwin and Doreen were one of my mom’s greatest supports and dearest friends when I was growing up, so staying with them was, was (as my mom describes) like getting a taste of heaven.  The deep fellowship and instant comfort makes it the ideal stopping spot!

It was tough to leave them the next morning, but Grammy and Papa were anxiously awaiting our arrival in Phoenix, and it’s a long way.  So we were stuffed with caramel rolls and sent on our way.

For those of you wondering what it’s like to travel cross country with 4 kids ages 6 and under, here are some tricks I’ve learned over the years:

1. In addition to the regular suitcases, pack an overnight bag with p.j.’s, a set of clothes, and toiletries for the whole family.  This way when you stop overnight, you just have to haul out one small bag, and not everyone’s individual bag.

2. Go to the dollar store and pick up little toys and new coloring books.  I stock up during back to school time with fresh, new boxes of crayons for these occasions too.  Don’t give them the things all at once, but have these new little toys ready to give as a distraction throughout the day.

3. Don’t forget the Advil.  It gets loud and you’ll need it.

4.  When you’re used to using cloth diapers, but use disposables for trips, remember that baby pants might need to go down a size during vacation, or they’ll be falling down all the time.  (I learned this lesson a few years ago!)

5.  Also, if you’re used to cloth diapers and are using disposables for the trip, don’t just pack an extra outfit in the diaper bag, pack 3.  All one piece sleepers that go on and off easy and look comfy.  Because poop will go up the back, and you’re not used to that.

6.  Also, pack an extra outfit for the child who is prone to motion-sickness, and a blanket that will work for laying over a carseat if it gets thrown up on.  (Fortunately we didn’t need to use this tip this year.  Well, we did need a blanket over a booster seat, but that was a disaster from the other end.)

7.  A new one this year, (or I should say, one that will be implemented on the way back) pack an extra outfit in the van (not buried in the trunk) for the nursing mom in case she get’s spit up on…everywhere, while at a McDonalds, or if she had to wait just a bit too long to feed the baby.

8. Don’t group the kids together by age so that they can play together (that’s a rookie mistake).  That only leads to loud fights and crying babies.  Put a big kid next to each little kid.  Silje was in charge of looking after Solveig, and occasionally helping keep the pacifier in.  David was in charge of Elias, and helped disperse snacks and drinks to his toddler brother.  Silje and David could reach each other enough to pass tic-tac-toe between them, but were unable to punch each other.

9.  Don’t try to recreate the road trips of your childhood, because, let’s face it: you didn’t have to be strapped in a car seat for hours without mercy.  You probably were wrestling with your siblings on a mattress your parents threw in the back of the van, replacing the bench with lap belts.  So have some pity and get the portable dvd player.  We limit ours to one movie in between stops during awake times, and we stop every 3-4 hours.  That way we can still squeeze in some old fashioned boredom that leads to all those silly road trip activities.