Refugio State Beach, over and out

  857 mi, 13 hours 47 mins

give or take a few potty breaks!

That's how far we travel, one way, to get to:

Refugio State Beach in California.

(now you know, Tauna!)

As you've seen in the previous posts, we feel like it's worth it!

 

But I've had a few people ask me how we make such long trips.  So I made a list...

1.  ALWAYS be on the look out for travel toys.  I always glance through the bins at Target and clearance aisles at Walmart, but I've found grocery stores usually have some great deals.  Since people don't usually buy that stuff there, it almost always goes on clearance and you can get it cheap, cheap cheap!  (This year I found 'magic' marker books, where you color over parts of the book with the marker and images show up).

2. Save old kids magazines to read again.  We keep our Friends.

3. Be plugged in on your schedule.  So far we don't have personal play devices but we do pass my ipod around, with a timer.  Jane and Jeffrey each have an MP3 player but they share with others.  We also don't have in-truck movie players, though the back seat watches a movie on the laptop now and then.  The only time we want everyone playing on or watching something is when we go by Vegas!

4.  This year I made the girls magnetic paper dolls, using a gift card box as container. I found the shapes in the Silhouette store, then manipulated them to get different clothes and colors of hair and such before cuttin them out.   As you can see from the pics, they loved them there and back!

5.  The girls still like to color so we take the twistable crayons and clipboards.  We also take color wonder books and a travel Aquadoodle.  Did I mention stickers?  They love stickers.  And stickers are cheap.  I even buy those colored dot stickers in the office aisle...more bang for your buck!  If you buy the white ones they can draw little pictures on them, or YOU draw on them.  And one more thing...a small white board with wipe-off crayons.

6.  The girls (and one boy) had their softies.

7.  You might have noticed that the kids had a camera to play with.  They love to take pictures and look through them.  Costs a few batteries but it's worth it.  Even when you get pictures like this :)!

 

8.  When my kids were little I made sure to only take toys with OFF buttons!

9.  Candy.  We take a trip to the store for candy they can dole out to themselves but when it's gone, it's gone.  Except for pez, which we only take on big trips.  We take plenty of snacks in ziplocks.  which I pack in a cooler bag.

10.  We sing together!  You should hear our "Eye of the Tiger".

11.  Downloads on the Ipod...besides music you can download podcasts including children's stories, inspirational talks like general conference, and game shows (we like Ask Me Another).

12.  The last thing you should pack is EXTRA PATIENCE! I try to be funny and nice and talkative with the kids.  Until we go home. Then we plug in a lot more.  We are all tired and worn out by then so we just watch movies more.  It's actually a pretty fun family time!  Try it!