countdown

We are in countdown mode, people! We have 5, count them, 5 days until we leave for vacation. I am really excited. I have our bags almost completely packed. I have our food in a bin ready to go (or in an area of the fridge set aside for vacation goodies). I have fun travel stuff ready. I have a really long word document with details for the trip. I am super duper stoked!

I feel like a kid at Christmas. The only difference is that I am plenty exhausted so I do sleep. I have been working on preparing early for this trip. Most of the stuff we will need while there is pretty much packed. That is the easy part. The part that I have to really organize is the travel. With three busy boys we find it easier, more fun, and less expensive to drive. We really do enjoy road trips and so do our kids. Thanks to modern technology even when boredom strikes we can pull the last resort of a movie or video game.

I started my planning a few weeks ago by scheduling out activity and snack times for the trip down. While this may seem like over kill it has been super helpful in packing. I always pack too much...by a lot. This way I am able to see exactly how much food I need, what activities to bring, and feel like I know when and how they are being used. I will of course bring extra food just in case. My motto on trips is "Just keep eating". I have a bag of new fun goodies to whip out in case of shear melt downs.

So in case you were curious what our trip could look like. Here is our plan:
Driving plan
4:30am On the road. Abby driving.
    Coffee!!!!!
    Jonathan park or Mark Driscoll
8:00 Border of KY and TN  (25 mins or less)
Gas stop, potty break hand out breakfast.
    Breakfast-sandwiches, Peanut Butter balls, cereal, yogurt, banana, oj
    Travel games, school work- coloring and workbooks
10:00 Snacks in the car
    Lunch bags with cliff bar, grapes, string cheese, and fruit snacks
    Color, Tag books, car bingo, games
    DS
1:00 Atlanta (1 hour)
Stop at a park for lunch
    Chicken salad/PBJ, chips, string cheese, carrot sticks, cookies
    potty
    play football, bubbles
    Naps
    quiet work
4:00 Snack in the car
    crackers and cheese, apple
    DS, leappad, leapster
    read, color, jonathan park or kid’s music
6:00 Dinner
    Chick Fil A or Chipotle
    Movie
8:00 arrive at Hotel
    yogurt, granola
9:00 bed

Monday
6:00 Breakfast
7:00 on the road
9:00 arrive at Disney
    Check in
    PBJ, cheese stick, apple

We shall see how that goes. :)  I did buy each kid their own headphones to plug into their annoying noisy little games. That should help my sanity. I am also hoping to keep the car candy free as much as possible. I will have a bag of suckers if things get sticky (get it... sticky).

I'm sure I will post more as we continue to get ready. Did I mention I'm excited!