Hit the road, Jack!

 Family vacations are a very important tradition for us. Over the years, we have visited Zion National Park, Arches National Park, Disneyland, Oregon coast, Mount Rushmore, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Missouri, Minnesota, Goblin Valley (several times), and plus several other places that are near and far. Needless to say, over the past 14 years, we have learnt a few tricks that work for our family when we hit the road.

1. Take time - I usually plan on an extra 2 hours of travel when children are involved in road trips. So if it's 10 hours with no stops, that becomes at least 12 hours with very few stops. We usually choose to break our travel days up if the travel time will be more than 8-10 hours total. For us, this is the max that we can all handle in our family. :) We also choose wisely where we eat lunch. Usually we bring lunch fixings with us and make lunch at a park. This lets everyone get out and stretch. It also lets us all get some energy out.
I have also found that it is better to plan an extra day than to feel rushed and not get to enjoy your time.

2. Potty Time - A mandatory rule in our family is that EVERYONE tries to use the bathroom when we are someplace that has a bathroom. We instituted this rule when we went on a multi day, multi state road trip when our older children were younger. We quickly learnt that if we didn't take a potty break when we filled up with gas or stopped for some other reason, with in 30 minutes of being on the road, one of the children would say the dreaded words "I need to go to the bathroom NOW!". To avoid frustration, anger, and making a long day longer, we now have EVERYONE try to use the bathroom when we stop. If we have a child in diapers, we change the diaper as well.

3. Entertainment - We have made a conscious decision NOT to have a dvd player in our vehicles.  We did purchase a portable one that has been great. We have used it maybe 5 times in our van, but countless times at the various hotels we have stayed at. For our children, they do better if we don't have a movie on in the van. They are more aware of what is going on and what we are seeing as we drive.
So you may ask, "If you don't have a dvd player, then what do you do for entertainment?" We LOVE listening to audio books. I try to find ones that both children and adults will enjoy. One of our favorite series is the "Henry Huggins" books. They are funny, geared towards boys (always a plus when you have several boys), and entertaining. We've also enjoyed "Chitty, Chitty, Bang Bang" and for older kids the "Fablehaven" and "Ranger's Apprentice" series are wonderful.  For the younger crowd "A to Z" and "Baseball" mysteries have been fun. We always try to make a fun road trip cd with songs that we like.
We always encourage our children to bring a bag of things to do. This can include small toys (but no legos, they get lost too easily), books, coloring and/or art supplies, and small crafts. We have discovered some fun travel games that the kids have enjoyed. Some favorites include Bop it, Stencils, Hang man, and tic tac toe. If you search on Amazon, you can find loads of magnetic games.
I highly recommend getting a magnetic cookie sheet from Dollar Tree. These are just the right size for kids laps and perfect for magnetic games.

I always check out the dollar section of Target. I usually find some good things there too. Once I found some rhyming, abc, and counting puzzle cards. They fit perfectly into a pencil holder bag. I also found a mini jenga type game either at Target or Dollar Tree.
I also try to find some new to us toys that the kids might like. I also have "educational" workbooks that I encourage my kids to do to help with boredom and learning.

4. Packing - A family of 8 has a TON of clothes! I learned to use gallon size ziploc storage bags to help with fitting it all into our luggage. For younger children, you can actually fit two outfits in one bag. For the older children, you can put one outfit per bag (socks, underwear, pants, & shirt). Then you press all of the air out of the bag so it's like a vacuum bag. I like to write my child's name on it as well as what days they plan on wearing the clothes. If we are gone longer than a week, we just plan on doing laundry while we travel. I usually take a few 'pods' of laundry detergent and a ziploc sandwich bag with dryer sheets so I don't have to purchase the more expensive items at the hotel.

5. Lodging & Food - We have a big family, and if possible we try to get a suite size room that sleeps 6. Since some of our kiddos are still little, we can squish some together and we fit. If we can't get a larger room, we usually get a double queen room. We also ask for a roll-a-way bed and use that for two of the younger kids. Sleeping bags that roll up small work good too. As our children grow, we will probably have to get two rooms or look at doing airbnb or vrbo if those options are available.
Breakfast - When we stay at  a hotel, we look for one that offers breakfast so that we can eat there and not have to worry about eating out or bringing cereal with us. Occasionally that doesn't work and we pick up a box of cereal and some milk at a local grocery store.
Lunch - We bring along lunch fixings - bread, meat, peanut butter, jam, chips, fruit & veggies, crackers, etc. If it is a travel day, we usually make the meal at a park at lunch time and let the kids play. If it is a sight seeing day, we make lunch before we leave the hotel and keep it in a small cooler (if possible). We also bring along snacks and trail mix for after noon hunger cravings, especially if we are going to have a late dinner (think Disneyland). This helps tide us over until we can grab dinner.
Dinner - Depending on where we are, sometimes we will either purchase food at a local grocery store and make dinner at the hotel, eat out (fast food usually), or bring left overs from home.

6. Plan it out - I have found that I'm not as stressed if I take time to plan it out. For bigger vacations, I start about a year in advance. This gives me time to research what we want to do and how long we should take in each location. It also is nice because I can watch hotel prices and book when they are first available.
A few years ago, we started creating an itinary for our trips. This gives us an overall view and big picture of what we are doing and where we are going. I include the address of the lodging for the night along with the price, phone number and other important information. This is great, especially if we don't have cell service nearby. I print off each day on a separate page. I put all of the pages into a three ring binder along with any coupons, information, or other items that we might need for the each day. If they are loose, I put them in a sheet protector. This binder stays next to the passenger seat.

We have saved our itinaries and shared them with other people to give them an example of a plan. We also make notes on them so we can remember what worked and what didn't.
My children love to see where we are going each day. I try to either give them a copy of the itineray or a copy of a map of the area with the places we will be visiting highlighted. This can be taped onto the back of their cookie sheet.
We like to try to go during the off season. It works better for everyone, but especially for our son with autism. Less crowds, less anxiety, and less stress are always good combinations for a fun vacation! This often means that we take our children out of school to go on a family vacation. We both value education very much and feel like it's very important. However, quality family time and fun learning experiences are part of that education. We are careful to work with the teachers and try to utilize random days that they have off.

I hope that you will take the time to create some fun family memories with your family. I hope that this post helps you to do that!