3400 miles, 8 states, 4 kids and a dog

We took a cross-country road trip to upstate New York this summer. (I will do separate posts about all the fun we had out there soon)  We hadn't been out to see Chris' relatives for 4 years, when Ashten was just a baby, so we figured we should go out and visit since when our little K comes home, we won't be doing any road-trippin' for awhile!

We were pretty nervous about how it was going to go in the car with all the kids and the dog, considering none of them have driven more than 1 day in the car at a time.  But they did awesome!!  They had a plethora of electronics and books and paper at their disposable to keep them occupied and the dog just slept most of the way.  One the way there, it took 3 9-hour days to get there.  One night we stopped at Chris' sister's house in NE and then we all caravaned the rest of the way.  The next night we stopped at a hotel in OH and the kids got to swim and let out some pent-up energy.

On the way home, we made the drive in 2 days instead of 3.  We figured if we were going to be doing long days, might as well make it 2 long days instead of 3!  Plus, we were all very motivated to get back home and sleep in our own beds!!  The kids were very exhausted on the way home from all the sleep they didn't get in NY because they were too busy having fun, so they all slept more on the way home.

Besides stops for gas or bathroom breaks (and the hotel at night), we didn't stop at all.  We ate lunch in the car (well really the kids just ate non-stop all day).  The kids did so good considering what we asked of them. 13+ hours per day in the car is hard for adults, let alone kids!  They really didn't fight or whine too much until the end of the second day, when we were about 4 hours from home.  At that point even Chris and I were whining!!

Chris and I joke that God must have wanted us to get some really good, close, quality family time this summer so He put us in the car together for 5 days!  I'm hoping next summer is going to be a lot crazier and hard to get family time (because of a newly adopted child and cocooning!) and God knew we needed this this summer in preparation. Time will tell.....