Preparations for our trip began about 10 days prior to departure.
1. Paper chain to count down days til departure. Claire enjoyed decorating each chain. On one she even managed to draw most of her extended family.
2. Activity bags. Designed to provide relief from the monotony of I-5 they were filled (thanks in part to the target dollar bins) with new books, crayons, colorbooks and stickers. I also rummaged around our craft box to pull out any car friendly craft that I had been stockpiling. The big hit was a disney themed activity board. With Conor and Kieran still being a little too young for games, these items helped Conor at least get through the drive.
3. Snack and dinner bag packed with car and rest stop friendly munchies. I especially like the freeze dried fruit from costco and the Annie’s bunny snacks for this purpose.
As the chains on our paper chain came down I began packing the suitcases. The kids I had to squeeze in when they were otherwise occupied because all they wanted to do was play with their suitcases. On Mother’s day morning we clued the kids in on our itinerary. The first stop they knew, Grandma & Grandpa’s house. The second they didn’t, Disneyland. You know, Disney, ever the savvy marketer, has created little videos and slideshows of every attraction at the park – all the better to prepare your child with. So, rather than the kids envisioning a mouse size cottage where Mickey lives, they had a small clue at what they would be experiencing. Each morning before we left that week, we would watch another couple snapshots from the Disney website.
Around our house, Claire and I have created a little story world where she and Lola and occasionally Conor go on adventures all over, to Paris, swim lessons, a train ride, the aquarium. On the morning we left during our traditional morning constitutional, Claire requested the adventure of Lola and Claire go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Together we spun a tale of all the adventure our two explorers would have on the long car trip at rest stops and gas stations, sleeping in the car, snacking in the car, playing in the car and finally waking up and arriving at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I wish I had emphasized more SLEEPING in the car, but oh well. At a couple of different challenging for Claire points on the journey I was able to remind her of how we could add this to their tale of adventure.
Unfortunately for Josh and I, when we did arrive safe and sound at 1:30 am ish in the morning, the kids were wide awake. The ride up the hill in the fog on twisty mountain roads had them raising their arms and cheering a la a rollar coaster ride. Thankfully, by 2:30 most everybody was asleep (ahem Kieran).
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