Travel time.

Posted on | June 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

my little traveling buddy on our way for a girls weekend.

 

In honor of our recent girl’s getaway this past week (which warrants its own post, so stay tuned.) I wanted to write about my experience with traveling with my girl.

When I look back at these past (almost) twenty months (holy crap!), we have done some serious traveling. Let me show you:

January 2010 Everly was 2 months old. Her and I flew to Arizona for a general “Meet Everly!” visit for a week.

July 2010 Everly (9mo), we took a family vacay to upstate New York to my Uncle’s cabin in BFE the middle of the woods for about 5 days? dont quote me.

August 2010 Everly (9.5 or 10 mo…foggy mom brain) we went camping with our wonderful friends, Jen and Drew. We went to Rhode Island and did some winery hopping in Ct. for a few days.

October 2010 Everly (just almost a year) we went to upstate New York (again!) this time to a hotel to accompany Jon for a work trip. Ev and I lasted 2 nights. Horrendous.

January 2011 Ev was 14ish months. We went to Colorado to visit my mom, step dad and then if that weren’t awesome enough, both my older brothers and their people (read: wife and kids) came too! ( a week)

April 2011 Ev was 18 months, we went to Arkansas for a wonderful visit with Jon’s mom and step father. A southern dream! (5 days-ish?)

May 2011, we just moved across country.

And this past week Ev, me, my sister in law, Kristy and my niece, Kaitlyn went up north to Payson, Az. for a girl’s getaway for about 4 days.

So, yeah. We’ve been places. with our kid.

Which is more than I can wrap my head around since the mere thought of packing up and going somewhere makes me start to sweat and twitch and majorly freak mah freak. Ya know what I mean?

SO. THE POINT. (you were wondering when that was gonna happen, right?)

I figured I would share a few of our tips. By no means have any or all of these trips been completely smooth, and by the end of them, I’ve been known to be in tears, so no, Im no expert. BUT! I can tell you that they have ALL, A-L-L, surpassed my expectations because, well, thats how things usually happen.

First things first: My Bag O’ Tricks. Or Things We Dont Travel Without.

1. A fan. What? Yeah, our girl has always been in a room with a fan. White noise, people. Read up. Its magical stuff. Whether we brought a small battery operated one, or our trusty Honeywell one (that thing has been literally around the world from Jon’s military days.) we pack it. Suitcase? No problem. It goes with us.

2. Pack n Play. We aren’t co-sleepers because my kid likes to PAR-TAY when we bring her in bed with us (remember that Co. trip I mentioned? Yeah.  She was up 7 STRAIGHT HOURS IN OUR BED.) (IM STILL ANGRY ABOUT IT.) ..ahem.

3. All her normal night time routine “things”. Same blankets, arsenal of binkies, soft baby doll and book, and night time stories that we use at home. This has been my latest trick. We also stick to doing everything like we would at home. Snuggle like we would for story time, books in the same order etc. It has made the seemingly strange surroundings more normal and eases her into bedtime.

4. Squeezable baby food. Whether its the ones we find at Target or just the plain squeeze applesauce, its a sure fire helper for tough moments on a plane or in a car. Also? easy clean up.

5. Laptop and favorite show.

6. A new small toy for plane rides saved JUST for the plane ride. Helps fight the “uhh, we ran out of things to make her happy” moments and she has something to focus on.

7. STICKERS. I cant tell you how many times a shiny new sheet of stickers has saved my sanity on plane rides. BUT! they are my final draw. When I know we still have a ridiculous amount of time in the air, or she just wants OUT and is whining and crying so loud that even the nice grandma sitting next to us is starting to look uneasy and the kid wants OUT OF HER SEAT but we’re about to land and we cant get out and SOMEONE PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR OF THE PLANE OR GET ME A SHOT OF TEQUILA? …Stickers. You’re welcome.

Thats about it! I mean, besides the obvious things like snacks, sippys, toys, books etc. those are my handy tools.

We’ve had some nightmarish trips with our girl, but we’ve all made it out somewhat alive. They have gotten smoother as she gets older and we plan to keep going places with her and any other kiddos that may arise. CALM DOWN. Not right now. Just looking in my photos, I realized just how much we’ve done in the past 20 months, and that makes me happy. Like, seriously. Because when I tell you that traveling with a kid makes me anxious, I mean that in the most serious way. So to look back on the good times that have been captured and phase out all the roughness that went with traveling is saying a lot.

In my opinion, Go! DO! Take the kids, expect the absolute worst, and that your kid will be the one screaming the entire 6+ hour plane ride and then when they dont? You’re already ahead of the game.

 

 

 

 

Category: The Life
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Comments

One Response to “Travel time.”

  1. sara
    June 24th, 2011 @ 3:32 am

    this picture is too cute for words! I LOVE her sunglasses! I swear she’s beginning to look like a little girl. when did that happen? glad you’re updating the blog here and there… it helps with this missing you stuff… <3

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