I am dusting off the following blog post. I originally wrote it in August 2017. The kids were 9, 7, 5, 5, 3, 3, and 3 months. I was trying to start a blog back then, but didn't end up following through.. because life. Now that the baby and kids are older (6 in school now) I seem to have a few extra minutes to myself every day. Here goes my first, long awaited blog post! 👇
We recently went on vacation with our seven kids in tow. We traveled from our home on the coast of California to Bellingham, Washington. Wow! What a gorgeous place. I've never been through Oregon or Washington before and it exceeded all of my expectations. We visited arboretums, several rose gardens, incredible restaurants and a brewery or two (or three). We found a beautiful waterfall and enjoyed some gorgeous hiking spots.🌳
I am here to share with you some things I learned about traveling by car with so many young kids plus a baby. How we saved money, saved time, and how we stayed organized and kept the car (I mean van) clean. It seats fifteen so it's more of a bus than a van though. 😅🚐👫👬👭👭👶
Baby
First of all, let's talk baby. My youngest, at the time of the trip was three months old. Diaper wise, I wish I would have used diapers that were a size larger when we were on the road. We stopped as much as we could but during times of traffic and long stretches of road, a larger diaper would have suited her needs better. Next time too, I will dress her in older clothes, perhaps that are already stained or she is getting ready to grow out of. That way they can be tossed out if they become too soiled to keep. I packed a large zip lock bag and stored her heavily soiled clothes in there until we could wash them at our destination. They were brand new so I didn't want to give up on them just yet. I brought along a little bin for diapers, burp cloths and wipes so I could easily get to them, that helped A LOT. In our van, I was able to set up a little diaper changing station in the back. I highly recommend doing this if you have the room. The changing station was especially helpful when she had blowouts!
Traveling with kids
If you've ever been in the car with children you know how impatient they can be. We gave each child a backpack to use as a "busy bag" for the car ride. We took them to the dollar store and let them each pick out some things to keep them busy in the car. The younger ones chose journals, stickers, envelopes, calculators, coloring books, post its..etc. We supplied them each with regular and colored pencils and they spent hours making letters and pictures along the way (in hindsight what a mess, but it did keep them busy). The older ones took along chapter books and magazines and read most of the time.
Food
For food we gave each of them a mini water bottle and a zip lock bag filled with snacks. We didn't stop to eat fast food which helped financially and saved time. The snacks we provided consisted of cut up apples, blueberries, grapes, cut up carrots, granola bars, rolls, bananas, and dried fruit. I also packed cherry tomatoes, cheese sticks, and trail mix. We kept an ice chest up front between the driver and passenger seats and filled it with ice, water bottles and the perishables. Having the ice chest up front also saved us from having to stop too often. The food arrangement went great!!
Clothing
I have two three year old girls, two five year old girls, a seven year old boy and a nine year old boy. All are capable of carrying at least their own clothes. I gave each of the girls one of my large purses and they used those for their clothes. It was so cute to see them carrying their own "duffel bags". The boys used their school backpacks for their clothes which worked perfectly for them. I made sure to dress the kids in comfortable clothing and in sandals so we could quickly put them on instead of worrying about socks, tying shoes, etc. during bathroom stops. One of the little ones fell asleep in her seat and had an accident, so next time we will need to put a towel or car seat protectors under the car-seats just in case and an extra few pairs of underwear and pants in an easily accessible spot.
Restroom stops
Every single time we stopped the car, we had all of the kids use the restroom. Even if they said they didn't need to. Because you know as soon as you start traveling again they will need to go. The key to surviving public restrooms with young children, is to keep them from touching ANYTHING! I brought along travel size wipes in my purse to wipe down the toilet seats (and latex gloves for myself) then added two toilet seat covers and lifted the child up onto the toilet so they didn't have to touch the toilet (I am talking about the girls here). As I sat them down, I reminded them to lean forward and keep their hands together. The other children who were waiting to use the toilet were to keep their hands together (interlocked in front of them) and I reminded them repeatedly not to touch ANYTHING. I explained to them how dirty public restrooms are and because the two youngest still constantly suck their fingers, I kept a close eye on them. When we finish taking turns using the toilets, we all took turns washing our hands really well.
Then when we got back to the car we would give them all hand sanitizer for their hands, just to be safe. One of the three-year-olds had taken off her sandal while we were driving and was chewing on the sole after a bathroom break. So I threw my seat belt off and dove into the back row to retrieve it. I explained to her that the floors of the public restrooms have things on them that transfer to our shoes. We don't want to lick the floors, right? By chewing on your sole you are basically licking the bathroom floors. She and the rest of the kids said "ewwwwww!" then giggled. After that I had everyone take their shoes off and leave them inside the van door upon entering.
One thing I noticed when we got back from the trip was my hands are ridiculously dry from all of the different restroom soaps and all of the sanitizer I used. Generally, I am not a crazy germaphobe but I am when it comes to public restrooms, you really cannot be too safe.
For our next long road trip I am going to keep a nice and hardy hand lotion in the car and find a nice sanitizer that doesn't dry my hands out.
As it turned out, things went pretty well for having so many people to accommodate, keep busy, fed and hydrated. I learned a lot. I can't wait for our next vacation!
I love feedback, please comment below with any questions, comments or insight you might have.
How do YOU travel with kids? What are your dos and donts? What have you learned from your own experiences? I'd love to hear.
Thanks for reading!
Danielle~
Below you will find pictures of our trip.
