On The Road With The Kiddos

We've been on the road a lot this summer. We drove to Minneapolis in June to meet Mom, Dad, Mark, Melinda and the cousins for a family reunion/vacation. We went to visit the Kleindorfer's in Cincinnati in July. We drove to Mackinaw City in Northern Michigan and took a ferry to Mackinac Island for a vacation/CME trip. We're finding out that driving with 2 young children is a lot different than driving with one. Alex (5) is fairly distractible with a portable DVD player. Aaron (18 mos.) is much harder. He sleeps a lot thankfully, but when he's awake, he's hard to keep happy. Becky packed snacks and milk already in a sippy cup on ice in an insulated bag. Books that played music or sound clips when he pressed buttons on the side were popular. He'd occasionally try to watch what his brother was watching, even if he couldn't hear it (Alex usually uses headphones). Otherwise the parent that wasn't driving was in charge of handing back toys to replace the ones he got bored with and tossed over the side. We tried to plan for longer "lunch" breaks at fast food places with playgrounds, but once we spread out a blanket on a grassy strip near a gas station and had a snack picnic and let the kids run around on the grass. If we're stopping overnight, we get a hotel with a pool so we can wear the kids out. They sleep great and travel better the next day.