Travel Tips, Tricks, and Time Tickers

I did my first solo-trip with the kids to Cape Cod, which from my area is about a three and a half hour drive. I did a TON of research and asked polls on my Instagram to figure out the must-have items to make travel easier and the dos and don'ts. I took what you all recommended and used most of it and have weeded out what works and doesn’t work (at least for my three and almost two year old).

SPOILER ALERT: the three year old rocked the entire trip and the two year old was a human nightmare. The difference between the two was actually insane from start to finish. She was cranky in the car, hated anything given to her, made a mess, didn’t sleep at the house we rented, refused most meals we ate out, and just struggled overall with the change in routine. He slept, he ate, he was comfortable, and he had no problem with any of the trip! The difference a year can make!

TIP NUMBER ONE

SNACKS. I kid you not, we would not have survived this trip without new and fun snacks for the kids to eat and munch on in the car and the place we were staying. I loaded up with dried fruits, trail mixes with fun candies in it, bars, easy-to-go treats to eat. I found these 100% fruit juices with the characters on top that the kids LOVED. They had so much fun picking which character bottle they’d get and there’s no sugar so it wasn’t like they were going crazy in the car.

Another big win was trail mix. I found some with m&ms and candied pineapple, and another things I know the kids love. It took them a while to get through to the candy so it was a good busy treat to search through the cup to find the goodies, while also eating healthy pieces like fruit and nuts.

​My last snack win was protein bars and fruit leather bars. These were super easy to toss back in the car and let them munch on. I found some with a chocolate covered bars and those were great because it wasn’t messy when they broke pieces off or chewed them. Total win!

TIME TICKER

iPad. The three year old watched a million and one episodes of Paw Patrol, Stinky and Dirty, and Trash Truck. I kid you not, he would’ve been completely content with just having shows to watch and he didn’t complain a single second (except 15 minutes away from the house when he had to pee).

He doesn’t play games yet or anything so we didn’t even attempt some of the app recommendations or those things.
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HOWEVER, the almost-two-year-old couldn’t care less about the iPad. She checked in with it a few times but she doesn’t really watch anything yet and didn’t care or wasn’t distracted by the shows at all. So…I don’t love that for her. 

TRICKY TRICKS!

Gummy bears are a gift from God. I swear, I got a huge bag of gummy bears thinking of using them for car snacks and those little babies came in handy the whole trip long. We actually were going to a wedding and as we were getting to the church, I put a handful in my bag and each time one of the kids started to talk or whine or get bored in the church, I’d give them a couple and boom—happy kids!
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I’m telling you, gummy bears were a life saver the entire time. 

THEY EACH HAVE A MOUTHFUL IN THIS PIC haha!

BIGGEST FAIL

I bought a few of the dry erase marker sets with random pages that they could do in the car, and two of the disappearing ink books for the kids to do…neither gave a shit. Actually, it back fired because Layla decided that her legs needed to be orange so she used the dry erase to color all up her arms and legs and I had to wash her the second we got in.

I was terrified that it would dye her skin for the wedding!
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Markers and the coloring pages and books were just too above the kids. They didn’t care even though I had pages that they liked and had asked for before leaving. It was just not the right time or space for markers and art. Total fail and total backfire. 

I will add that they did like to do these in the downtime of the morning and nights outside at the table. So, while it was a car fail, it was a decent time killer during the morning primarily. Not too bad to keep the kids busy constructively. 

BEST BUY OF THE TRIP

The lap desks that I got both kids were definitely a must have item. They weren’t even that expensive but it was just one more thing to get for an already expensive trip. But they were solid. The clip right around the car seat and really don’t move. I was nervous that they’d keep slipping off the kids laps but they didn’t! They hold and sit evenly and easily unclip for pit stops.

I loved the designs on them and at one point, they kids go these dino trucks I found on amazon and they were racing them up and down the desks. It was really cute for all of two seconds.

These were a must buy and I loved having them. We have a trip coming up and I’m excited to put them to use again. Super well made, fit nicely on both kids laps even though they’re different sizes and easy to pop on and off.

 Overall takeaways from a long car ride with two toddlers: unique and novel snacks are a must have, an iPad is great for older kids but useless for younger, and get a lap desk because they’re awesome for holding snacks and toys without constantly reaching back to pick them up and potentially crash the car! I’m so bad at reaching back L