Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Summer 2012 Road Trip: Getting Ready

Earlier this year, good friends of ours invited us to join them for part of their family vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Of course, we said yes and quietly began planning, leaving it a surprise for the kids (because surprises are fun and being asked "are we going today?" 1,000 times is not).

As we kept looking at the map, we decided to make the trip out to the Hills (a good 10+ hour drive from our home) more of a memorable journey than a race. We planned for a night in Sioux Falls, S.D., a fun trek across the state of South Dakota, a couple nights in the Hills, another night up in Dickinson, N.D. to see friends and, finally, a rather short drive home.

This way, we hoped we'd never have to spend more than 5 or 6 hours at a time driving, not including fun stops. I'd like to say this was mostly for the kids, but, honestly, I'm the one that usually loses it first on long car drives. (Though the kids do contribute to that threshold.)

Until the night before the trip, I didn't have a single bag packed for us - except for the entertainment bag for the car. As I figured it, we technically could wear the same outfits for five consecutive days. We could not, however, survive four days of driving without some creative activities for the kids. Priorities. Priorities.

During the weeks prior to the trip, I stuffed our bag with the following:
Finally, we tossed a suitcase in the van and gathered up other important additions - bug nets and other outdoor toys for the Hills, Jason's telescope to watch the stars, tons of good snacks and my camera. We told the kids the exciting news, tucked their hyper little bodies into bed and rested up for an amazing adventure.

Bring on family road trip 2012!


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