Zero Hour: To Sioux Falls!

(This is part 2 of the Black Hills vacation series. If you'd like to start at the beginning, click here.)

And we’re off! The car is loaded up with 5 bikes piled on the back, the cargo carrier clinging to the top, and the kids are stocked with a mountain of activities and snacks. Being realistic, there is no way in hell our circus is driving 600 miles to the Black Hills in one day, so we’re stopping in Sioux Falls. And the hotel has fab reviews, an awesome bike path right next door, and a lavish complimentary breakfast. I admit I get downright ecstatic about a good breakfast I don’t have to cook and clean up myself.

If you’re going on a trip with young kids, I highly recommend printing out a map of your start to end journey. When you are 10 miles into the trip and your 5 year old asks, “How much further?”, rather than being shocked and dismayed at his naivety, you can just mark it on his map. In another 10 miles, when that dot of your car barely moves, he’ll actually get it, and he won’t ask again for about 75 miles.

I also fell in love with using Trip Advisor to find a good hotel, because many of the reviewers were family oriented and shared pertinent information. Priceline is fabulous for rankings and booking a hotel last minute. (We got a $150 suite for $99 using Priceline on the way home.) Just make sure you specify 2 ½ or 3 stars. If you go any lower than that, let’s just say it’s not worth the risk.

We loved the hotel we stayed in (ClubHouse Suites). Breakfast was fantastic, the room was great, easy access from the parking lot, and very clean and upscale. Great pool for the kids. But. How do I put this? In the middle of the night my husband thought he got a bug bite. He traveled for work for some time and he is well-read on the topic of bed bugs. Being well-read can sometimes be a handicap to getting a good night’s sleep. I’m not convinced that there were bedbugs in the hotel, because mosquitoes love my ankles, so would I notice a new bite? However, it’s worth your time to read up on the epidemic of bedbugs if you will be staying in a hotel. The nasty critters have been found even in 4 star hotels, and you DO NOT want to bring them home!

Back to the fun stuff…we followed the Sioux Falls Bike Trail a couple miles through the parks and stopped at an immense playground. The trail was nicely flat and suitable for our 5 year old, but he was exhausted when we were done. We ordered takeout from the Italian restaurant next door to the hotel, and it was delicious. 

We’re all tuckered out, and after a good night's sleep, we'll be ready for more travel tomorrow!

Click here to continue to part 3.

Genesis: Packing for Vacation

Stop the presses! We are taking a family vacation. I don’t have especially fond feelings about vacations with the kids, so this is big news. And it’s all setup to be a fun-filled memory-making adventure, traveling by minivan, with all four of our kids in eager attendance. And we will be making happy memories, dammit. 

Did I mention we're going to the Black Hills? It's in South Dakota. You people on the coasts just stop snickering, it's just as great a vacation as Hawaii or Cancun. Yes, it is.

Anyway, what’s the first thing a mom does after booking accommodations for such an adventure? Well, if you’re like me, you start planning and making lists. Lists of what the kids will need to keep them entertained in the car, and I mean whatever it takes to keep the little monkeys relatively quiet for 1,500 miles in a minivan. 

Then there are the lists of supplies we need to bring. Believe it or not, if band aids aren’t on my list, I’ll forget them. There are many good reasons why I’m a list-driven person. I don’t forget things, because I have a list that I started a week ago, and I’m packing everything on the list.

Do men pack in this manner? None to my knowledge. As far as I can tell, without my interference, my husband would throw his underwear and socks in a ziplock bag and be ready to go. It boggles my mind. And my methods equally boggle his. While he was watching me pack, and wondering aloud why it was taking so long, he matter-of-factly asked, “You’re bound to forget something, so why try to remember everything?” To which I smugly replied, “I’m organized and I plan ahead, so I don’t forget anything. And I’m packing things you will need.” And there it is. As soon as I uttered that pompous comment, I should have known it would come back and nip me in the ass. But you'll have to stay tuned for that nail-biter finale.

So here are my ace go-to items for keeping the kids happy for miles and miles in the car. This is important:

1. A small lap-size white board for each kid, with small markers and eraser. Found it in the dollar section at Target.
2. Here's a tip for all those markers, put them in a big ziplock bag and use a chip-clip to attach the bag to the back of the seat in front of the kid. I just wrap the top of the bag over the holy-crap handle on the back of each seat, and attach a chip-clip to the top of the bag from underneath the holy-crap handle. Works like a charm, and keeping markers in a bag is nice for a quick clean-up when a bored 3 year old starts chucking his markers all over the car. 
3. A clipboard for everyone, and a few new coloring books.
4. A set of markers for each kid. Toss them in that ziplock bag!
5. Lots of scratch paper attached to those clipboards. I like to cut the many pages of unused paper out of their old school notebooks for this purpose.
6. Snacks!! And more snacks!! But don't get anything messy that requires cleaning the car after they eat it. This is going to be a long eff-ing trip and the last thing you need is a fly infested pig sty in your car for 1,000+ miles.
7. Along the lines of snacks, you can buy big boxes of crackers, and divee out the servings in reusable plastic cups. I can't stand throwing away all the wrappers from individual servings of snacks. Unnecessary packaging is just way out of line these days.
8. Books. I even found a few cute little paperbacks in the dollar section. One was about the US presidents and was actually quite interesting and educational. Bonus!
9. Books on tape, music CDs, anything you can find at the library is great. But good heavens, don't lose library items on your trip!
10. If you have a DVD player in your car, by all means use it. But don't get one just for one trip. Those little animals - uh, I mean kids - need to learn to be civil without constant entertainment. Just like we were in the old days. We were totally civil when my little brothers and I were smashing each others fingers and rolling around the back of the station wagon. I tell ya, traveling with kids was a lot easier before all these pesky seat belt laws.

Essential travel items to remember:  bug spray, sunblock, hydrocortisone cream, band aids (some large), ice packs, and Tylenol/Advil (adult and kid dosages) are all very handy to have. And so are travel size bottles of wine. For the hotel, obviously. 

Can I get through even one post without mentioning wine? Stay tuned for more about the vacation. It's really, really helpful to learn from other's mistakes. That's what I'm here for! And you know, it kinda makes me feel better about messing up so often, if it's helping someone else out somehow.

Click here to continue to part 2.