Traveling With Kids

Thursday morning we packed up for a 3 hour trip to Fargo North Dakota. Hurt Hubby needed to see another Neurosurgeon for the back injury he suffered the day after Christmas. We decided to stay in Fargo for the night returning this afternoon. I remembered lessons I'd long forgotten when traveling with children. Here's a few reminders for anyone planning a road trip with children.

1. Pack each child's clothing in a separate smaller bag if possible. This helps when making pits stops and when you get to the hotel. Pack at least ONE extra outfit per kid-you WILL need it!
   
2. Keep a separate diaper kit in the trunk on top of all the other bags for fast pit stops. Diapers, wipes, ointments, baby blankets or changing station liners, powder, etc all in the bag. For road trips under 4 hours, pack diapers, wipes, everything for each kid in the same bag unless you have one who "goes" often!
   
3. For recently potty trained kids, pack the potty or the potty seat topper with the wipes. Children recently potty trained sometimes become finicky about going in strange places and having their own potty seat is comforting. Try to avoid traveling with kids in the middle of the potty training process to avoid set backs.
   
4. Create an activity bag or backpack to keep in the cab of the vehicle. Find age appropriate items the kids can easily play with in the car. This can range from crayons, coloring books, Bendaroos, books, math worksheets, dry erase board, small cars, sewing card with yarn, video games, Ipods, DVD players, etc. Just don't forget the chargers to all electronic gadgets! Learned this the hard way yesterday!
5. Pack a snack bag. Avoid the high convenience store costs of chips, candy, and sodas by packing a bag full of snacks. Ideas include chips, peanut butter half sandwiches, nuts, trail mix, fruit, etc all packed in individual sized servings in plastic baggies. See my Trailblazin Mix recipe below.
   
6. Take your potty and snack breaks at the visitor's centers or rest stops along the highway reserving the convenience store stops for refueling the car.

The money for your trip can be handled a number of ways but first a budget must be created. I create a budget for travel related expenses and a seperate one for the activities planned. This helps me stay organized an on top of our budget.

• Traveler's checks are wonderful. If lost or stolen, they are replaced like credit cards but are used everywhere like cash.
  
• Check cards tied to your checking account eliminates the need for your checkbook. Check with your bank on daily limits, fees, etc.
  
• Cash in an envelope works for me on a small two day trip but I wouldn't recommend it for long trips or if you need large sums of money for your trip.
  

Here are some excellent travel resources to help planning your trip.

• AAA's Trip Gas Price site will help you create a fuel budget traveling anywhere in the US.
• Take public transportation to avoid high gas prices when your there.
• Find hotels along your route, gas stations, repair shops, etc online.
• What can you see on a tankful of gas?
• Printable toddler travel games. Check out the other sections for great kid travel related articles including FREEBIES.

Trailblazin Mix Recipe

Cereal (Cheerios, Trix, Fruit Loops, etc)
Raisins, Craisins, or other dried fruit
Nuts
M&M's, Reece's Pieces, or Chocolate Chips (if kept cool)
Bite Sized Chips, popcorn, etc

I mix all equally except for the one item I have the biggest supply. The item with the largest supply gets doubled or even tripled depending on the number of additional ingredients I mix into my trail mix.