Last weekend, we took a family vacation to San Antonio, Texas. We only had three days, so we squeezed a lot in. My largest concern in regards to vacation, was keeping the kids entertained for a 5 hour road trip there... and back. I was trying my hardest to avoid the ultimate road trip question..."How much longer?!?" Did I mention I started worrying about this at 9 pm the night before we left. (Yes, I am obviously a procrastinator) Here was my quick solution.
I took some clothespins and glued brightly colored circles with the countdown. The cute little bug was something my son had made at bug camp the week before, so I figured it would be a cute addition. The bug signified when we arrived at our hotel destination. Some of the prizes were a new movie for our portable dvd player, a snack box, a new small toy to play with in the car, and a stop at Sonic to get ice cream.
I went to Walmart the night before the trip to stock up our pantry and buy some snacks. When I walked in the door, I saw some school supply boxes for 59 cents each. I snatched two up for snack boxes for our road trip. I used a bunch of jewelry bags so that I could have small portions and variety.
I think both boys were more excited about the snacks then the toys and the movie. Who would have guessed?!
After checking in to the hotel Friday, we went straight to Sea World for our adventure to begin. I was really trying to save money on this trip, and resist the temptations of all the little tourist shops, I knew would await us at Sea World. Here was my cheap solution.
As luck would have it, I ran across this book at a garage sale for 50 cents the month before our vacation. I found these two little "Shamu whales" at the dollar store. So for a total of $2.50, my boys received a souvenir before we even entered Sea World. When their little eyes spied treasures at Sea World, I simply reminded them of what awaited them in the car. It worked like a charm.
We had a great time at Sea World watching shows, seeing animals, and dancing in the streets with the Sesame Street friends.
Our four year old passed out to sleep the first night before our two year old. Complete success!!
It sounds like you had fun on your trip. I love all your ideas! I always take road trips with the kids, so any new tips I can get is grateful. One thing I use all the time when we are on the road is my iPad. The kids have a full entertainment system with the iPad and it keeps them occupied for hours. They can play games, watch movies, read, and watch TV through the Dish Remote Access app. A co-worker at Dish told me about this app and with the Sling Adapter hooked up to my receiver, the kids can watch live TV wherever we can get a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. The kids love to be able to watch all their favorite shows on the road.
ReplyDeleteBuying souvenirs ahead of time... genius!
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