We met Cynthia and her girls when Annabeth and Julia were three and we loved having them here in town. I do not know what I would have done during my pregnancy with Owen without Cynthia she kept me going by entertaining Annabeth and bringing us food. They are military and left in April 2017 to their new post out west. We have missed them dearly and have not had a change to get out to see them. About six months ago, Cynthia said they would be visiting her parents in Michigan this summer and did we want to visit them there! Yes!!!!
The kids and I have two "little" road trips that we make about every six weeks (one two-hour trip and one three-hour trip) to visit family. Mark often doesn't come along due to work so I have a great system for each trip. The kids know just where we will stop and we even have a certain playlist from our in-car CD collection for each trip.
This past weekend, the kids and I headed out just the three of us since Mark wasn't able to get away from work. In our car we do not eat, drink anything but water, or having any kind of tv/dvd player/tablet/phones playing games, etc. Many friends have said, "Well, our family HAS to have those things as we take long road trips a few times a year." Well...we do too but we live without them.
Here is what our travel days looked like screen-free with just Mama:
Travel Day to Michigan:
We left home at 7:50 AM (10 min ahead of schedule!) We drove a full three hours before we had a stop. During that time we listened to two new CDs we borrowed from the library (Bible Songs and Silly Songs) We stopped at a rest stop just inside Michigan for a potty break, picture with the Michigan sign, and lunch packed from home (sandwiches and yogurt) I also gave the kids about 10 minutes just to run around under the shade trees. We traveled the rest of the way listening to Kaya an American Girl books one and two on CD. We borrowed this set from the library and the kids loved it! Annabeth also did two art project books while listening. Owen happily just looked out the window. We arrived at our destination with everyone happy and ready for a snack.
Since Annabeth finished both of her big art books on the drive up, I did stop while getting picnic food and grabbed her a fresh art book and a magnadoodle for Owen - $8 for both and worth every single penny as they both played with them for at least 4 hours of the trip home!
Travel Day Home:
This day did not go as planned at all. I had looked for Michigan things see on the drive up (it was Owen's first trip and Annabeth hadn't been since she was a baby) and I found a great looking lake and state park so my plan had been to picnic and play there before we drove home. We woke up to a rainstorm that lasted all morning. We left later than planned around 10:45 and it was still pouring when we got to the turn-off for the lake. I drove on and we stopped in Marshall, MI for lunch. I had seen many huge billboards for a Cops and Donuts place which I thought might have something fun to take home to Mark but we couldn't find it. So, we had $1 pizza slices and water at Marco's Italian. Then we walked down to a park with a neat, HUGE Marshall sign so I could make the kids picture. We bought each kid one souvenir - Owen loved a magnet and Annabeth loved some fun erasers ($5 for both) We also found Owen's ornament for Christmas (each year we get the kids an ornament from a big event or travel place) As we walked around downtown, I tried to hurry the kids a bit as a I could see a storm coming from the west. We ended up caught in a HUGE downpour and decided to make the best of it and to just dance in the rain. We were soaked and ended up changing clothes in the car at a gas station. We drove on south and listened to the third book in the Kaya series. We were then traveling during dinner time and stopped about 90 minutes from home to run and have a snack (we finished some fruit and crackers from our packed bag) at a rest stop. This helped them get wiggles out and meant that we avoided rush hour traffic getting into Indianapolis. We played at the rest stop about thirty minutes and then headed on home, entertained by Piggie and Gerald's "We are in a Play!" CD.
We had a wonderful visit with friends and I LOVE that my kids can happily enjoy car travel without having to watch movies or play video games. They loved looking for certain license plates or colors of cars. They enjoyed seeing the giant Nestle bunny and the trucks on the grass at Ft Wayne's autoplex. They loved seeing a dragon roller coaster on its truck. They loved singing together and talking about Kaya together. They shared books and toys. Most of all, we were together, just the three of us enjoying life and exploring together!
With my little explorers in Marshall, MI
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