Family Vacation Road Trip Part 1: The Drive East

Call us crazy, but we hit the road for a very long drive out East to Virginia Beach for this year's family beach trip. 

The drive actually went very well considering we had a 5 month old and a 3 year old in the car with us!  We enjoyed a few moments of complete silence with both sleeping (although that was rare). 

Our nice, spacious, comfortable car was one of the best parts of the drive. There were MANY moments where I was thankful for the comfortable car.

Day 1: 819 Miles. 11 hours 40 minutes drive time. Home to Florissant, Missouri  (north St. Louis). Total travel day including stops was just under 14 hours. We wanted to make it all the way to St Louis so our second day of driving could be under 6 hours. Both kids did great this day and we were making some pretty good 3 hour stretches! 

Fun notes from our first drive day: It only took 20 minutes in the car before Bryce said, "Are we to the beach yet?" Also, our 3 year old became a big kid and even renamed his lovey from the cute little kid name of "ed-time bear" to a very well pronounced mature name of "Night Time Bear". I was still a little sad about that one many miles later.

Yay! We made it to St. Louis!!! (this photo was taken on the drive back because we made it into St. Louis around 11 pm. We weren't thinking of taking pictures at that point!) 

Lesson learned from day 1: put myself in a 3 year old mind set when talking about/planning trips like this. Instead of talking so much about our "beach trip", "leaving today for the beach", the "long drive to the beach.",  I probably should have articulated more that we wouldn't actually arrive at the beach the day we left. When we said we were leaving for the beach that Wednesday morning, WE knew it would take us 4 days before we were actually at the beach, but Bryce really thought we would be there THAT day! Bad Mommy failed to put together some fun crafty pinterest tracker idea to let him know that we were going to a hotel first, then the lodge, then grandma and grandpa's, and THEN the beach. Of course at 11 pm when we arrived in St Louis, after being on the road ALL day, he wasn't in the mood to even try to understand this. Tears. Then the "But I want to go to the beach!" turned to, "I WANT TO GO HOME!" Unfortunately, that wasn't the only time we heard that phrase on this trip. We did talk him through it, he ended up liking the hotel room with his own bed, and he understood the trip better after that first night. 

Day 2: 367 miles.  5 hours 32 minutes drive time. Florissant, MO to Mason, Ohio. Destination: the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio for some FUN!

 

This day was much more challenging than the first, even though it was the shortest of the 4 days it took to get to the beach. The biggest meltdown trigger for Bryce is lack of good sleep. When he doesn't get enough sleep, watch out. Gee, I wonder who he gets that from... Because we arrived so late that first night, we were a bit overtired, cranky and defiant for the drive, BUT we made it to the lodge with plenty of time for the pool.

Somebody is a bit antsy!!!

The Lodge was awesome! There was so much to do. We will make a trip back someday when the boys are older, and when we have more time for them to be able to enjoy it more!

Bryce even got to sleep in a wolf den!! So neat! Best of all,
he slept GREAT! We were all in bed by 7pm that night.

Day 3: 454 miles. 7 hours 26 minutes drive time. Mason, OH to Purcellville, Virginia (Grandma and Grandpa's House!)

After a good night's sleep, day 3 was great again. My only complaint is that Baby showed us these 3 days that even in the car, he'll only nap 30 minutes at a time. We were told that the baby would be super easy because he'd probably sleep for longer periods of time being rocked in the car. Not our baby! He really did well. It just took a bit more effort keeping him happy than expected.

I packed 3 small bins of activities and pinterest ideas for my 3 year old. I only had to break into 1 of the bins, using only a couple of the planned activities. He was EASY! Although our 5 month old still did well, he wasn't nearly as easy!

Seriously, who knew we would need to pack more toys and distractions for our 5 month old than for our 3 year old?!?!

 I forgot how beautiful the drive out east is! It was nice to see these roads that I recognized telling us we were close to Grandma and Grandpa's house!



WE MADE IT TO GRANDMA AND GRANDPA'S HOUSE!!

Stats of the first 3 days from home to Grandma and Grandpa's house:
Total Miles: 1640
Total Time: 24 hours 38 minutes drive time (not including stops).
Meltdown Moments: Only about 2 small ones from Bryce.....and maybe also a couple from Mommy. 

And no, we are still not to the beach yet....