Road Trip Activities

Taking a road trip? Here are a few things that help keep our car a happy place while on a long drive.

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Last summer we drove to Seattle from Utah with five girls in tow. It was a long, long drive and I am proud to say that we didn’t have one complainer. We were so proud of our girls, even our little one who was only two at the time did so great. It helped that we had a lot of activities to keep them busy, lots of snacks, and a few breaks along the way. We are leaving on another road trip here soon and I am making sure we are just as prepared so we have the same outcome as last summer.

Here are a few things that keep our girls busy and happy. Remember, we have a wide variety of ages all the way from 16 down to age 3 so having things that make everyone happy is a necessity.

Books: My girls definitley DO NOT take after me. I cannot read while in a car or else I get car sick. They do not, so they always pack them a book to go. We also listen to audio books together. One of our favorites of course is the Harry Potter series.

Coloring Books: You can never ever go wrong with good old fashioned fun. There are so many fun books out there now that can keep you interested and busy for a while.Nintendo DS XL: This is perfect for Summer travel. It really brings me back to when I was young and we traveled to Disneyland. I remember playing the Nintendo Gameboy in the backseat of the van with my sisters. It has come a long way since then. This new one is cool because you can play together with multiplayer games, there’s a huge library of games and even ones that I know how to play like Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda. Plus you can stream videos from Hulu or Netflix on it and edit photos and browse the internet. It’s freaking cool and keeps my girls busy. You can learn more about the new Nintendo DS XL here.

We actually were able to attend at event at our local childrens museum last week where we got to try out the new Nintendo 2DS XL, we haven’t had one of these since the first DS came out when my oldest was little so this was a big surprise when we got to take one home. It’s been a huge hit and we will be taking it on our trip to Idaho for sure.

Just for fun, check out these fun photos from the event.

Fun Swag

Someone trying to find his inner Zelda….haha.

The cutest 5 Vea Sisters. Head over and subscribe to them on YOUTUBE. You can see the video there of our road trip last summer to Seattle.

Having fun with the new DS XL

So fun to have the mushrooms there. When I was little I always thought it would be cool to jump on one in real life. Dreams come true…LOL (Ok, I didn’t jump on it, but I did hold one).

Here are a couple of other things that we must have on our trips (we pretty much take all of these things on road trips, or to the airport).

More Drawing Books: Another road trip saver that we love are the dry erase books from Poppy Street Press. This book was a blast on our Seattle trip. You get to fill in the pages with your own drawings. The possibilites are endless and we heard lots of laughs when playing with this book.

Good Snacks: Being on the road can definitley take a toll on you. It can also break the bank if you’re not careful and plan ahead. We always pack a box of goodies and a cooler of treats to go so we don’t have to stop at the gas station to buy over priced treats. We usually shop for the trip as a family before we head out so we can pack up all of the goodies that everyone likes and chose together. Good food always makes things more fun and happy bellies means there are no HANGRY butts in the car.

Games: Another thing we do is play games. Usually the good ‘ol fashioned games like the licence plate game, slug bug, the alphabet game where we find things that start with a certain letter and many more. We also pack one or two easy to go games like travel scavenger hunt and You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Me. Easy to pack and easy to play.

I hope some of these ideas will help on your next road trip. We can’t wait for our next vacation. Let me know where you went on your last road trip, how long was the ride and what did you do to keep sane?