There and Back Again: Part four - Carlsbad Cavern and White Sands

We decided to make the drive home in three days instead of the crazy two that we did on the way to Galveston.

First stop along the way, Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico.  I remember going here as a child but really can only remember how freaked out I was about going down in the cavern...haha.  Thankfully none of our kids seemed concerned and we were able to see this amazing place.  We enjoyed how cool it was and were in awe of the enormous size of the part of the cavern that we toured.  I'm thinking that the early explorers were out of their minds for climbing down on little wire ladders!
The lighting was tough and the pictures don't do it justice but here are a few pics.

After resting up, we set out for the last day of our journey and the one that would take us to home sweet home.  Before hitting the road, we made a quick trip north to visit White Sands.  The contrast of the cool, white sand to the rugged, blistering desert was fascinating.  We took a sled and let the kids go down the doons, roll  in the sand, and tried desperately to leave it all there.  However careful we were to dust off, I was finding sand in shoes and pockets for a week after the trip.

Here are the pictures of or time at White Sands.

And that completes our journey.  We had fun, but, are content to be home and back to our daily routines.

There and Back Again: Part two - Danbury Lodge

After enjoying Galveston for two days, we packed up and headed to a retreat center that is owned by my parent's church.  We spent the next five days relaxing, napping, fishing, swimming, making smores, going to an aquarium, and catching up on laundry.  

Because I tend to focus on organization, I want even our vacations to have an element of organization to them.  Otherwise, it's ridiculously crazy.  Packing for this crew of nine with multiple stops all over the state of Texas and beyond was not easy.  Here is a post to my vacation packing solutions.  Because we were making so many stops, I used laundry baskets to hold the daily bags instead of suitcases.  This way, I could grab the pajama bag and one or two day's bags when we were going into a hotel and not have to unload the entire van.  This worked like a charm:)

Another organizational element was meal planning.  We were going to have five different households represented and would need to find a way to share the load with cooking and cleaning up.  So, we decided to let each family fend for themselves for breakfasts and lunches (except one morning when my cousin prepared a wonderful crockpot breakfast burrito recipe that we have already repeated at home after the trip) .  Then, we divided the evening meals among us.  We had tons of left overs and were able to a smorgasbord the last night.  


Here are a few pictures of our time at the Danbury Lodge. 

 Timmy and his cousin, Heston.

 Look at that beautiful, green grass behind him.  Ahhhh.

After a week or so the laundry was really piling up so I was allowed to use the laundry facility at the lodge.  This laundry room had the capability of nine loads of laundry all going at once and it had a large folding area.  I took a picture so that Peter can build one of these for me on day:)

One morning the kids were treated to feeding the fish that were recently stocked in one of the ponds on the property. 

We ventured out one morning to an aquarium in a nearby town.  This place is also a hatchery that takes part of replenishing ocean life in the Gulf of Mexico.  So, the kids were able to hear about how they are working to protect specific species in The Gulf of Mexico.

We took the kids on the tour and here are the happy "after tour" faces.  Hehe.  In their defense, it was humid, hot, humid, and well past lunch time.  Did I mention humid?  Living in Arizona for over a decade, I had forgotten the relentless torture of humidity.

Then another day, we were able to spend a morning fishing in the ponds.  I don't think that my kids have fished before but they caught on quickly...no pun intended:)  Everyone enjoyed this so much, we decided to start fishing in the "catch and release" lakes behind our house.

 Timmy didn't last long at the fish pond.

As hot and humid as it was, we still had to do one bonfire and make smores.  This was Timmy's first smores.  Can you see the sugar rush in those eyes?

  

This place was beyond beautiful with all of the green grass, ponds, and places to relax.  I really cherish the memories we made here with family.

And, yes, Nathan is passing me up.  How can that be?

Next on the agenda, Dallas/Forth Worth.  Stay tuned for those adventures:)

There and Back Again: Part one - Galveston

In late May, we took a trip to Texas to celebrate my little brother's graduation from medical school and to reconnect and fellowship with my family.  It was such an amazing time for our family.  And, like every good homeschool mom (insert sarcasm), I turned it into a two week long field trip.  We learned so much during these two weeks and were able to drive through the states that two of the kids are currently researching for their year end reports.  

We started by making the drive to Galveston in just two days.  I do not suggest this for those with littes.  We spent about 12 hours total traveling each day (about 9 hours of road time).  But, we made it for graduation and then enjoyed Galveston for a day before moving on to the next destination.  Here are a few pictures of our time in Galveston.

We didn't actually go to this amusement park but thought it was so unique and made such a great picture.  I believe this pier held the hotel where my parents honeymooned.  After Hurricane Ike it was rebuilt as an amusement park.


This was Timmy's first real beach experience so I spent much of my time getting pictures of how he enjoyed his day at the beach.

He pretty much kept to the sand and shade as he wasn't a big fan of the crazy seaweed season or the rushing waves.

Here are some of the other kids enjoying the rare treat of a beach day.

After the beach, we cleaned up (as much as anyone ever does in Galveston) and headed to The Strand to enjoy more of what this island has to offer.  Here are a few more pictures of the rest of our Galveston day. 

We met up with aunts, uncles, and cousins.  This was the first time that all nine cousins were together.   

Stay tuned for more posts on this trip:)

Tips for Traveling Unplugged

If you have been following my blog for long, you know that we allow our kids to play video games, watch movies, etc.  But, I also feel that it can be a huge waste of time and doesn't usually cultivate deeper relationships. So, while we do allow it in our home, we carefully monitor and limit how much time the kids are wasting playing.  :)

Usually, when we are traveling, we take along a portable dvd player for the meltdown phase.  But, on our most recent trip we really wanted the focus to be spending time together and strengthening relationships.  Children learn how to entertain themselves and become creative after going through a stage...yes, it is just a stage...of boredom.  So, we decided to leave the dvd player (and all electronic devises except our phones) behind.  Scary, I know.  But, personally, I enjoyed this trip so much more since I wasn't having to compete with electronic devices for the attention of my family members.

So, here is how we intentionally helped our kids work through the bored stages and learn to appropriately entertain themselves.

*Map the Route.  We took a few minutes before starting out to show the kids a map and the route that we would take to drive from Phoenix to Anaheim.  We pointed out key cities along the way and then talked about them as we were passing through.  We brought the kids attention to the mile markers and the border crossing from Arizona to California.  This is the best kind of geography lesson! 

* Memory Book or Journal - I created a spiral notebook for the four older kids with a picture of a car the the words "road trip" on the front.  This functioned as a memory book/journal.  As we drove, they could draw pictures of what they saw and then write summaries of the days to remember later.  They could tape receipts, tickets, maps, etc into the book as well.

* Travel Games - Because we are studying US geography this year, I decided to get a US map window cling for the kids' viewing pleasure...haha.  And, gave each of the older four kids a state license plate game.  This was basically a page printed from the internet with all 50 states' license plates.  They would watch plates of vehicles around us and X out the ones that they found.  They they could find that state on the window cling and see how far that vehicle had traveled to be in Arizona or California.  It was fun to see how many they could find. 

* Art - Art in the car?  That really sounds like a disaster.  Yeah.  It was.  But it was super entertaining and we knew that our van was going to need a good deep cleaning after the trip anyway:)  Our kids love to draw.  So, we picked up some sketch books, pencils, pens, markers, crayons, etc. at the Dollar Store for each kid.  We also found a few 3D dot-to-dot books with cool glasses and spiral art projects that could easily be done in the car.

*Audio Books - We used our phones to stream a free version of Peter Pan during parts of the drive.  I have to admit that I had never read this book before and Peter and I both found it to be a delightful tale.  And, it kept the kids anticipation high for the ultimate Anaheim destination:)

* We would usually have snacks available for the kids but didn't find the need for that until the trip home when everyone was tired and the littles were just a bit more squirmy.  I did have some tootsie pops available for the meltdown and they came in handy for the two year old.

 (My son took one of those call-your-name-and-snap-a-picture shots.)

Here is a list of unplugged ways to entertain kids on the road that I put together when planning this trip.  I'll probably refer to this list on our next trip:)

audio books, books, view masters, crochet, knit, magnadoodle, etch-a-sketch, needlework, drawing, story telling (place your kids' names into familiar fairy tales), singing, word searches, bring hats and put on a seat play, naps (my personal favorite!), puppets, snacks, review math facts, read aloud, post it notes for sticking all over the car, make cheerio necklaces (messy but entertaining), play different license plate games (ABC, finding 50 states, etc), play slug bug, wiki stix, quiet books, paperclip creations, marshmallow and toothpick creations (definitely not for the preschool travelers), have the older kids calculate gas mileage, felt books, origami, magnetic games, journals, bring a few favorite toys from home, stickers, rubber band fights, lacing cards, picture taking, kaleidoscope, review memory work, and just talk about whatever the kids want to talk about:)

Here is a great website for making travel fun that could be easily adjusted to fit a family trip.  I used the license plate game from this blog.



Click here to see my other posts on travel ideas.



How do you entertain your kids on the road?