Road Trip

We are about to take a month long sabbatical. Keith has been working on his D Min for a couple years now. The first couple summers were spent in classes. Now he's working on his dissertation. We are going away so he can really have time to research and write. (Will that even be possible when you have a wife and 3 young kids around?) It will be a little harder to be in a new town; no family to help out, no ESY(extended school year) or therapies for EK, smaller living space. We do have friends there and we visited there last summer, so I know my way around town. They have grocery stores that can accomodate the kids' food allergies, we have friends to hang out with and we're staying in the same condo as last summer.
It takes us 2 days to get there (about 10 hours of driving each day). While it would be nice to fly and be there quicker, it's just not feasible with EK. I think she would freak out with so many people crammed in one place and there's no way to ask the pilot to pull over so we can exit if she does. The kids did really well last year. I think it was the hardest on AK b/c he was crawling but not walking. (I can't let a baby crawl on nasty floors.) We'll spend one night in a hotel (which honestly is the part I'm most stressed about...how to get EK and AK to sleep when we're in one room...I'm praying for the Lord's grace!) We have a DVD player and of course, we'll have lots of snacks. I decided to look on the internet for a few extra ideas though. There are a lot of creative people out there and I thought I would share. Maybe you have a trip coming up and these will help occupy your kids.

http://travelmamas.com/packing-lists/: This site is fabulous!! They have made a checklist that you can print. I'm sure I'll have to add a few things that are particular to our family (like vitamins/supplements, special snacks, etc), but a lot of the think work is done for me. YEAH! :)

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/06/50-road-trip-ideas-for-kids.html 50 road trip ideas for kids. Ideas like road trip scavenger hunt, sticker books, pipe cleaners, audio books, and magnets on cookie sheets. I will be getting some of these things together for my kids to do. :)

Now, I'm actually getting a little excited about our trip!

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