Some of my favorite memories as a kid were our family vacations, road trips in the car with my siblings playing "Eye Spy", flights with my sister to California getting our first "wings." Orion and I have had some pretty fun vacations together, now that we're parents I look forward to planning and taking Ava and our future children on vacations and creating memories as a family.
Now that we live in the West, I'm looking forward to trips and vacations to California and Nevada and other really cool locations that the West Coast boasts! Showing Ava and Orion where I grew up in California is for sure on the list of things to do someday.
We're taking our first family vacation in a couple days, a little mini road trip (3 and a half hours), spending a little quality time together!
For me, since I'm the planner of the Worley House a lot goes into picking a vacation spot that just getting out the map and picking a location. Like most of you I'm sure, time, when, where, budget, things to do, and travel all go into the decision making process of where to plan on going for your vacations & family vacations.
For us, budget is the #1 thing we consider. It allows us to determine pretty much right away where we're going to go, where we're going to stay, flying or by car, taking in how much we want to spend. We haven't been on a BIG vacation since our honeymoon, everything else has been very local or just a crossing of a state border.
#2 we generally like to go places where there's tons of stuff to do, and by stuff I mean free stuff. Sights to see, places to walk or shop, stuff that we can do cheap, free or in an affordable way. For us vacations aren't really about spending a lot of money on doing extra things they are about doing things together. This helps cut our costs a lot too since we're spending money on things already like food & lodging.
And, now that we have a baby to consider everything really has to be family friendly or stuff that we can do, or places that we can go with a baby in mind. Ava is a really good traveler, she did great flying back to Iowa this past summer, and she's gone 1 and a half hours in the car already. So we're not to worried about the trip and how she'll travel. When we traveled to Iowa there was a lot that we didn't bring because I wanted to keep it as low key as possible since I'd be traveling alone with her. We brought just enough diapers to get us through the plane ride and bought the rest once I got there. Had my Mom get us a car seat so I didn't have to bring mine, already had a stroller there so I didn't need to bring that... you get the idea.
This time though we have to bring everything for her. And when I say bring everything I really don't know what that means besides the obvious clothing, diapers and pac n play since I haven't even started packing for her yet.
So you may be asking yourself, why is she rambling on and on? This brings me to the point of this post....
What are some of your best traveling with a baby in a car for 3.5 hours tips?
What are your tips for vacations with a baby or kids?
C'mon help a girl out and dish out all your best travel tips and family vacation tips! Here's what to keep in mind:
- she's 7 months old.
- we're taking a road trip, a short 3.5 hours.
- we're staying in a hotel.
Yup, I think that's it! While I wait for your tips and tricks from all you seasoned parents I leave you with two adorable videos of Ava to help get you in the spirit!
Mucho thanks in advance!
