Travel season in here.  After Mr. Napping and I got married, we would make spontaneous trips together on occasion.  When kids started to join our family, it didn’t take us long to realize that spontaneously traveling with kids is incredibly hard and stressful.  Over the past (almost) six years, I’ve developed a list of things that we take on our travels.  Of course there are the typical things like snacks and things to keep the kids entertained and busy while we’re on the road.  I’ve written those posts, but this one isn’t like that.  These aren’t things that will excite the kids and help time pass as you put more and more miles behind you.  This list will help you, yes, you momma, make the trip as smooth and hassle-free as possible.  This is a list of the 12 things we always take with us when we are traveling with kids, no matter where we’re going.  Or at least try to always take with us – because no one is perfect and even I still forget the essentials some times… like a bottle for the baby, true story.

12 THINGS I NEVER LEAVE HOME WHEN I’M TRAVELING WITH KIDS

1. A good water bottle. We love these Nalgene 12 ounce bottles. Each of our kids has their own and they are amazing. They are some of the best spill-proof cups I’ve found (and I’ve tried A LOT of cups). They can be a little hard to suck through at first because the spill-proof valve is so stiff, but Baby N (15 months) manages alright with the one he got last week. Over time, they aren’t as difficult to suck through. If it’s a major issue, you can take the valve out (but then the cup isn’t spill-proof). I will usually do that when I want Baby N or Little J to do some serious drinking. Short car rides are perfect for this. Even if they drop it, it won’t be upside down long enough to make a huge mess.  I usually leave them in for longer rides or when they are in the diaper bag. One of my very favorite things about these cups though is that they are incredibly easy to clean. Big J took his bottle to Disneyland a couple years ago and it was perfect! These are definite must-haves in the car! Available in orange, blue, green, pink, purple. Designer options are also available. I opted for solid ones, hoping the bottles will grow with my boys. I have a hard time picturing my 7 or 8 year old using even the car design cup.

 

2. Toss-and-Go Containers. I love these Take and Toss containers because they are cheap and easy to replace. Sure they hold things like snacks, but they also come in handy for the rock collection my 3-year old adamantly refuses to leave at the park. Put them all in a container and then I’m not finding rocks rolling around my car three months after I think I’ve thrown them out. They are also pretty great for splitting things up into serving sizes. Because do you really want to hand your 5 -year old the entire bag of beef jerky? Mine would down that in 20 minutes, without a second thought. And he sits in the 3rd row of our minivan so handing him a new piece every three minutes isn’t really convenient (or terribly safe).  I can fill up a take and toss container, pass it back once and when it’s gone he knows his snack time is over.  I actually keep one of these in my diaper bag for the spill-proof valves from the bottles above.

There are lots of options when it comes to the Take and Toss line: sippy cups, sippy cups with handles, cups with straws, bowls, small containers, even silverware or a combo set with a little bit of everything.  I’ve seen most of this line at my local Wal-Mart and that’s often where I get mine.  Amazon prices change and they aren’t always the cheapest, so you might want to check there if the doorstep delivery isn’t super important to you.

3. Garbage catcher. Whether you use a fancy bucket or can or recycle an old plastic grocery sack, the purpose is the same.  When we travel I usually try to take a plastic container (like you’d store cereal in) and scented trashcan liners to put inside it.  I have had to change more than one dirty diaper on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere and no one wants to smell that until you can find a trash to dump it in.  Inside the container is for my comfort, the scented trash bags help protect the container so I’m not assaulted with the diaper stench long after it’s been discarded.  It seems to work fairly well.  Check out your local Dollar Tree for the container (or a similar one that will work) and the trash bags.  Some times they have them there and you can’t beat $2. The downside is that the bags are usually pretty thin.  Inside the container, they do okay; but, I wouldn’t use them alone as they are super easy to poke holes in.  And if the plastic container isn’t very thick, it can get weathered and crack or break easily.  We have the Snapware container below and my only complaint about it is that the back is a weird shape and it doesn’t hold a lot of big pieces of garbage because of it. Look for one that has a wide flip-top opening, like the container pictured below, and you won’t have to take the entire lid off every time you throw something out.

 

4. Wet bags.  Without fail, it seems like every road trip has someone leaking out of a diaper, having an accident, spilling their entire cup of water or juice or – my personal fave – milk, or just generally creating a gigantic mess that requires immediate clean up.  And they always seem to be wet and sticky messes.  We didn’t do a whole lot of traveling with kids before wet bags were added to our list of items to take.  You can collect plastic grocery sacks and use those, if you want.  I really like this Skip Hop bag.  Not only is it perfect for those unexpected car-tastrophies, it’s fantastic to take to the beach or lake or pool too.  It’s designed for cloth diapers and holds 9-10 of those, according to the listing. Or speaking from experience, it’ll hold around two t-shirts, a pair of shorts, a pair of pants, a pair of undies and a small lightweight blanket.  Or three little boy swim suits and a momma swimsuit.  The mesh pocket on the front is just perfect for three lightweight sets of clothing.  We’re talking like knit pants and t-shirts, just to help give you an idea on that pocket’s capacity.

5. Pen and a pad of paper.  This serves multiple purposes.  It’s where I keep the list of things we forgot to pack and need to get at the store.  It helps entertain the children while we wait for… well, anything really.  When I’m getting the address of the friends we’re staying with over the phone and I need to write it down, it goes in my little book.  I’ve used it to leave a note on a cousin’s windshield when we separated during an outing and unexpectedly needed to leave, but couldn’t get a hold of them to let them know.  I’ve even used it to collect blog post ideas.  It’s just a handy thing to have.  My kids love the multicolor pens.  If it wasn’t such a big hit with them, I’d probably just carry a single color pen; but, during the last ten minutes of a grocery store shopping trip, I’ll use just about anything to get us out of that store without a major meltdown.  I like a spiral bound book because it’s easy to rip out shopping lists (6 colors available!).

 

6. First Aid Kit.  You might have one of these in your car, but do you really know what’s in it?  Is it really stocked and ready to go?  You can buy a kit already assembled or put your own together.  You might also want to consider when and where you will be traveling.  We tend to use a lot of band-aids and first aid ointment, so I try to pack extras of those.  I’ve often used them and forgotten to replace them and that makes an unfortunate situation a bit more miserable.  Before a road trip, it’s important to check that out and make sure you really are prepared for the unspeakable.  Easy access is also something to consider when you’re packing this into the car.

 

7. Extra blanket.  This is just an extra blanket we have around the house.  We usually leave it in the back of the car routinely and we use it all the time.  Kids ran through the sprinklers at Grandma’s and you’ve got no extra clothes?  You have groceries you need to keep cold?  Extra insulation for a cooler?  Forgot the picnic or beach blanket?  If your cargo area is open, like in our minivan, you may want to use it to cover some of your luggage.  You should always take valuables with you when you leave your vehicle.  I’m thinking more along the lines of keeping things out of hours and hours of direct sunlight.  A cotton blanket is great for wrapping up kids or using it as a picnic or beach blanket.  Our blanket, though, is similar to the wool one.  It works really well for insulating a cooler or other groceries and keeping the sun from baking our belongings.  It also makes a nice changing pad for unexpected parking lot diaper changes.

 

8. Non-perishable snacks.  Granola bars, nuts, jerky, crackers, applesauce, fruit cups and other things you can keep in the glove box.  Once you get to where you’re going, you’re probably not going to stay put.  My trip diaper bag is not my typical diaper bag.  There aren’t usually any snacks in my trip diaper bag.  I have forgotten to pack snacks, thinking they were already in the bag and taken off for the day with no food for my kids.  My kids have serious hungry anger management issues.  No snacks is no good.  They may also come in handy if you end up in a survival situation.  Of course, you should trade these out once or twice a year and replace them when they get used.  Ideally, your snacks won’t have anything in them that would melt or freeze in the extreme temperatures that cars can be left in, but if you need some chocolate drizzled on your oats and grains, I totally get it.

 

9. Wet wipes.  Not just for diaper changes.  We go through a lot of wet wipes when we travel.  It’s just easy and convenient.  Hand washes, face washes, cleaning up messes, wiping off public tables, snack spill clean-ups, feet washes before bed, cleaning up a bloody nose at the store.  I’ve used wipes for every single one of those purposes.  With three young kids, I pretty much always have a wet wipe within a few hundred feet.  I carry two bags in the diaper bag, a small pack in my purse and keep one in the car.  No less than three times, I have used wipes from each of those locations at least once in the time span of a 5-hour outing.  Fool me once… Now I just take them and figure better safe than sorry.  Life’s messy… especially when you’re traveling with kids.  There are even antibacterial wipes for a little extra clean.

 

10. Sewing Kit.  Nothing fancy, just something to stitch the crotch of your 5-year old’s pants back together when they rip at the playground.  A needle and thread would cut it.  If you plan to only use it in an emergency, it doesn’t even matter what color thread.  You can get kits assembled with just about anything you could ever need for minor clothing repair or put together your own.  You don’t have to be a great seamstress (seamster…? I really have no idea what the masculine form of that word would be…).  It doesn’t need to look nice, but if you have a mishap while hiking, you’ll be glad you can patch it up a bit.  It’s also a good thing to have in an emergency situation, in case you have to sew a tent from your clothing or even something more drastic than that.

11. Basic medicines.  Obviously, you’ll pack any medications you take routinely.  But it never fails, I leave the other medications at home and my kids will get sick.  While I don’t pack up the entire medicine cabinet, I do try to take my go-to medications with us when we travel.  What you pack for this will depend entirely on what you reach for when you have sick kiddos (or sweetie or even when you’re feeling a little under the weather).  My bag contains fever reducers, teething pain relievers, allergy medication, and migraine relief.  I actually have a cosmetic bag packed with our meds and it pretty much stays that way all the time.  It’s one less thing to put together in busy trip preparation and, if I can’t find the medicine when we’re home and the baby is screaming at 3am because he’s cutting 4 more teeth, I have my backup stash.

I have tried a couple different methods and, honestly, can’t decide which I like better.  Both have pros and cons.  I’ve tried the hanging cosmetic bag and it’s great because every thing is all in one place and it’s easy to keep track of.  I know exactly where all the medications are at all times.  I’ve also tried smaller cosmetic bags that I can transfer from bag to bag easily.  This is really nice to keep a small bag of children’s medicines in the diaper bag or the glove box, especially if someone is already sick (or teething!) before we even leave.  It’s easy to get to and administer any medications if I need to.

In any case, I definitely like the transparent or semi-transparent bags that make it easy to locate what I’m looking for without opening a bunch of bags.  And make sure you have the correct cups, syringes, droppers to measure and dispense the right dosage for each medication.  It can be inconvenient to pack them all, but it will be so much better than an accidental over-dosage.  Always medicate responsibly.

 

12. Battery charger pack.  Whether you are a children’s screen time advocate on road trips or not, a portable battery pack that can charge your mobile devices on the go is definitely something worth traveling with.  We actually have two of these Anker portable packs.  Mr Napping got one a few months ago for his travels with work and I borrowed it last month when I went to my cousin’s wedding.  It was super handy to be able to plug my phone in and just drop the charger and my phone in my purse.  If you’ll be using your mobile device for directions, this is definitely something to consider.  I decided to get my own so that it could pose double duty and be a back up charger in an emergency, should we find ourselves in that kind of situation.

The only time I have ever had to call 911 was to report a car accident around 10pm on a snowy night, somewhere out in the middle of the desert.  The car in the accident had spun, flipped and gone off the road.  There were no lights around.  We were the only other ones out there.  If we hadn’t seen the car flip off the road, I don’t know how long they would’ve had to wait for help.  We used our headlights to light up the accident so my husband could see and check on the car’s occupants.  We waited about 30 minutes for emergency vehicles to arrive.  Our car battery died and the EMT’s had to jump start our car so we could continue on our way.  Because it was so dark and we were between road signs and mile markers, I couldn’t pinpoint our location to the emergency dispatcher when I made the call.  They tracked our location via GPS on my phone.  That would have been a terrible situation for my cell phone to run out of battery.

Do you have any must-haves when you travel?  Share your travel tips in the comments!  Travel safe!

Everyone has a favorite cookie.  OREOs are undeniably one of my favorites.  They remind me of late nights sitting up, watching TV with my dad, sneaking a cookie or two when I was supposed to be in bed.  Or trips to my grandparent’s small engine repair shop and raiding their cookies hidden in the drawer.  OREOs remind me of my childhood.  Now, you can get an OREO two pack and take the delicious cookie sandwiches with you!  I’m very excited to be able to share one of my favorite childhood memories with my kids this summer.

Picture this: a great morning at the lake is starting to turn ugly when your little one starts to get hot, tired and hungry.  Or maybe you’re out running some errands and it’s taking longer than you anticipated.  Everyone knows it’s never a good idea to go grocery shopping when you’re hungry.  Or how about when the summer road trip you have planned to grandma’s for the 4th of July is going well until about 2 hours in and the kids are tired of the seat belts.  What are you going to do?  You can only say “Just a little longer” so many times before a meltdown ensues.  And, yes, the associate at the checkout will wonder if you need a bag of chips, cookies and those chocolate bars or if the new display at her register is working on you.  We’ve all been there.

This is where the genius of OREO two packs will come to your rescue.  Whether you need your little one to hang on just a little longer, you need to talk yourself out of the Family Size bag of cookies or you need a distraction to get you a little further down the road before you have to stop again, pull out an OREO two pack and I can almost promise that your problems will fade for a few chocolaty good moments.  Who can throw a fit with a cookie in their mouth?  I know it’s possible, I have three boys.  But, cookies are usually a pretty good deterrent, or incentive, too.  Sometimes a cookie or two is worth saving yourself a tantrum (or an extra five pounds).  OREO two packs are the perfect size for the diaper bag, your purse or the picnic basket.  Keep a pack or two in the car door for meltdown emergencies.  I have been loving these for after-school snacks.  Two OREO two packs, two string cheeses and an apple have become our go-to snack for all four of us!

 

I love the size of the OREO two packs.  It’s just right to satisfy my sweet tooth.  It’s only 100 calories.  They don’t take up much room and they definitely don’t add much weight (at least not to the diaper bag… my waistline might say something different, but at 100 calories I can indulge once in a while and still keep my bikini tankini-body.  They come in boxes of 18 packs, which means they are great for group events – BBQs, sporting events and family reunions.  You can find them at local grocery stores.  And, if Nutter Butters are more your thing, they have two packs of those too!

Maybe you’ll make some memories with your own kids and an OREO two pack.

 

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

I have always loved to travel.  My dad’s job has him travel a lot and I have been lucky enough to accompany him on some of his trips.  I’ve gotten to see a lot of the western US that most people don’t even know exist because of traveling with him, and now, Mr. Napping.  I am definitely a believer that the journey is half the trip, not just the destination.  We’ve had a lot of fun getting places.

We don’t have a whole lot of travel planned for this summer, yet; but, Mr Napping has some work along the west coast and I intend to do my best to tag along for those trips, possibly even sans kids.  Woot!  We didn’t get to take a honeymoon after we got married.  We intended to wait a year and then go, but those plans fell through when Mr. Napping lost his job and we found out we were expecting.  We put it off until about two years later, with a trip to San Diego – right in the middle of an interstate move.  I would love to go back there again, when I don’t have to feel guilty that I should be packing boxes instead of on the beach with my husband.

Unfortunately, the more kids we have and the older they get, it gets harder to travel.  Mr. Napping and I made more than one spontaneous trip to his sisters’ for the occasional long weekend back before we had little rugrats.  But, now we have longer prep times, impatient attention spans, and missing school to consider when we travel.  And, of course, the cost increases the more bodies we bring along.

But Discover can help a little with the cost.  Have you priced airline tickets recently?  My parents have a timeshare in Hawaii and want to bring the whole family along when they go in October.  Airfare alone is out of our family vacation budget, but the Discover it Miles® card can help cut your costs on airfare!  There’s no annual fee, no foreign transaction fees and your miles never expire.  You earn 1.5 miles for every dollar spent and, at the end of your first year, they will double the miles you’ve earned with no spending cap!  There are lots of other great features to the Discover it Miles card.  Hop on over to Discover’s site and check them all out.

We try to shuffle our bills through a reward-earning credit card and then pay the card off each month. I love that you can get a little back on stuff you buy anyway.  It makes forking over $40 for diapers a little easier when I can console myself that it just got me 40 miles closer to a fun vacation.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FitToPlay #CollectiveBias

I love to travel.  When I was a freshman in college, I was still living at home with my parents and three younger siblings.  It wasn’t a situation I loved, but it had it’s perks.  Like a trip with my dad to Catalina Island during my Winter Break and TWO Spring Break trips (one with my dad up the coast of California during my college Spring Break and another family trip during my siblings school district wide Spring Break to Disneyland).  Oh, yeah and not having to pay rent and utilities and stuff too.  After we got married, Mr. Napping and I traveled when we had the chance.  We took more than one spontaneous weekend trip to visit his sisters a few hours away.  But then we had kids…… and traveling got so much harder!  When Big J was about four months old, we went from southern Idaho to the middle of Arizona for Thanksgiving.  The trip down, Mr. Napping drove ALL night and only about the last 30 minutes were full of “get-me-out-of-this-car-seat” hysterics.  On our way back home, we split the trip into two days, stopping at a hotel overnight.  By the time we hit Salt Lake City on the second day, we were all at our wit’s end… and still three hours from home.  It was the longest three hours of my life to that point.  It was also our first real dose of traveling with kids.  It is definitely an art.

Even with the added stresses that bringing our kids along on trips can create, I’m not about to give up traveling.  Luckily, I’ve discovered a few ways to make it more manageable.  It takes more preparation and planning beforehand, but it makes the actual trip much more enjoyable and less stressful.  Here are five tricks I’ve learned over the past five and a half years to make traveling with kids more enjoyable.

5 TIPS FOR STAYING FIT TO PLAY WHILE
TRAVELING WITH KIDS

 

1.  Be prepared for your needs.  In the chaos of packing the kids, don’t forget about yourself!  You have everything you could possibly need for the kids, but you forgot that everyone’s favorite aunt is due to visit you while you’ll be on vacation!  Don’t let pesky, old Flo ruin your trip!  I have always had a troublesome period, with long and heavy flow times.  I’ve been anemic, weak and always cold because of blood loss.  (Here’s a little T.M.I. for you… I had less blood loss after childbirth than I’ve had during regular, monthly periods.  YIKES, right?!)  Because of this, I have tried a lot of feminine hygiene products.  A LOT.  After getting my period under control with my doctor I was able to choose feminine products because I liked them, not because of their capacity capabilities.  I was introduced to a whole new side of feminine hygiene products – the comfort side.

Cue commercial: NEW! Playtex® Sport® now available in Pads, Liners and Combo Packs at Walmart! Now Sport Level Protection™ pads, liners and combo packs with Flexfit™ design to twist and turn with your body. Don’t let your period get in the way. PlayOn!  In all seriousness though, the new Playtex® Sport® Combo Packs come with Tampons and either Pads or Liners, offering two kinds of Sport Level Protection™ to keep you comfortable and dry no matter what the activity.  Whether you are chasing the kids at the beach or hiking that killer trail with a munchkin or two on your back, this little box has you covered.  And, trust me, knowing you will have what you need when you need it is worth it’s weight in gold.  There is nothing like worrying about if your girly products are going to hold up or missing out because you feel stuck on the sidelines while everyone else is running around on the beach.

And, if you do forget about Aunt Flo’s impending visit or she drops in unannounced (the nerve of some people…), never fear, you can get the versatile Playtex® Sport® Combo Packs at Wal-Mart, which can be found almost everywhere and where the everyday low prices won’t put a dent in your vacation budget.  Find them in health and beauty, near the feminine hygiene products.

2.  Make getting there part of the vacation.  I’m still working on this one with Mr. Napping.  It seems to be a common belief (especially among the men I know, is it a guy thing?) that a vacation consists of three separate parts: the getting there, the actual vacation, and the getting home.  While some trips do have those three distinct parts, say a cruise for instance, not all vacations have to.  Probably around five years ago, I very distinctly remember stopping at Cathedral Gorge State Park in southeastern Nevada on our way… somewhere.  I can’t remember where we were coming from or where we were headed to, but I do remember stopping there and taking a little hike to some caves and doing some exploring.

Sure, it put us getting to our destination later than we would’ve gotten there had we not stopped.  But we would’ve missed out on that fun and the memory it created.  Not to mention, Big J went right to sleep after we got back in the car and slept a good portion of the way to the hotel we stopped at that night.  It was worth the stop.  Take the time to plan some stops at places you actually want to see, because rest stops are all pretty much the same and you can only stop at McDonald’s so many times.  Make your stops fun and meaningful.  Getting to your destination will be more fun, less stressful and your vacation starts the moment you leave your house, rather than when you get to “the vacation” portion of your trip.  And there will be less fighting because everyone will get a little break from sitting right next to each other every so often.

3.  Be spontaneous.  Wait, didn’t I just say make plans?!  What’s the deal, right?  Well, truth be told, you should do both.  Check out what there is to do before you leave and decide on a few things you would like to see or do.  But, you might get to your destination and realize that you didn’t know about the amazing restaurant with a live seal acrobatics show or that the museum you thought you’d love is actually much less hands-on than you thought.  Who wants to spend the day telling the kids to “be quiet” and to “stop touching that!”  It’s okay to scrap your plans and make new ones.  Stop at that ice cream shop across from your hotel.  Check out the little dive on the pier.  Take that hike to that waterfall.
Even better, talk to the locals once you get there.  My husband doesn’t have a shy bone in his body and talks to everyone.  EVERYONE.  I, on the other hand, hate asking store employees for help.  However, we have (okay, he has) gotten some great suggestions from local residents on the best places in town, whether it’s a restaurant, little-known attraction or even the best beach spots.

4.  Listen to the kids!  If there are things on your list that you absolutely must do while you’re on vacation, do those first.  Then, if three days in, the kids (or husband) need a down day to just relax, you can do that without feeling like you’re missing out on something you really wanted to see or do.  Let the kids pick an activity or two, even if it’s taking a (nap on the) train or just playing at the park they saw yesterday.

Don’t feel like your entire trip needs to be planned out.  Vacations should be relaxing and a time to recharge.  If you start to feel like you need a vacation from your vacation, slow down!  I know what it’s like to want to get all these things in before you have to leave again, but you’ll be so much happier and have more fun if you’re not dragging along tired and whiny kids.  And they’ll make the kind of memories you really want them to have.

5. Don’t mess with your routine too much.  Yes, you want to have adventures, explore, see and do all kinds of things in your new and temporary surroundings.  But, there are some things you just shouldn’t mess with.  For us, a big part of this is food.  My husband and boys have really fast metabolisms (the little punks) and they eat all.  The.  Time.  Did you read about the fight Mr Napping and I had in the mall when his hungry monster came out to play that I wrote about earlier this week?  Everyone is much happier when they are not hungry.  Big J, Baby N and I all get grouchy when we’re tired, so allowing for adequate sleep helps us stay happy.  We have learned to take snacks on all-day outings and to get to bed at a decent time the night before a day where naps might not happen.  Skipping naps or even haphazard naps for a day or maybe two is fine; but, after that, my kids need a little bit more of their routine.  Just do the best you can and realize when you’ve been beaten.  Take a break and come back later.

I like to be in control.  Over the past few years though, I have learned that you can’t control everything, especially on vacation.  Life is rough if you spend all your time trying to make sure everything is perfect.  Plans fall through, kids have bad days, and things some time don’t turn out like you hoped they would.  Having kids has made me relax and learn to enjoy the moments I am living in now, because it won’t be long until they are gone forever. Our family vacations are numbered and, unfortunately, the count on that is always going down.  I don’t want to miss my kids growing up or lose out on an adventure because everything isn’t perfect.  Whether it’s that time of the month, the kids are tired and hungry or we’ve been in the car for WAAAAAAY too long, I try to remember that these times are fleeting and to make the most of them while they are here!  So, road trip and vacation season, bring it on.  I’m ready for you.  And I can’t wait!

Do you have any tips for staying ready for play while traveling with kids?