Be Prepared!

Time to make lists. Lists of what to bring, what to buy, and what needs to get done before we can leave town. We've been traveling with the ladies since they were 3 months old.... at first by car, then by plane, and now back to road trips since they're no longer fly free.

Thankfully, the lists of what to bring are much smaller than they once were when we needed portable cribs, high chairs, bottles, and other baby devices.

I was remembering the other day what it took for us to make a nearly two week journey from Atlanta to Martha's Vineyard when the girls were almost nine months old. I think my preparation started at least a month in advance if not more. You would have thought we were traveling to the most remote parts of the earth considering the amount of supplies I laid in and trucked with us.


Sydney & Leah waiting patiently for the ferry to MV


Our trip involved the 13 hour drive (that includes stops) from Atlanta to D.C., a two day layover for their naming ceremony and then the drive up to the Cape to take the ferry over to the island. We hung out on MV for a week then reversed the trip with an overnite in Connecticut and another night in D.C. Basically four full days of driving over two weeks.


That's our red car waiting to board the ferry


I somehow managed to calculate two weeks worth of diapers, forumla, wipes as well as bottled baby food and snacks. For our road trip days I had individual zip lock bags packed for each of their meals containing disposable bibs, spoons, jars of food, etc. so we could reach in and grab "Breakfast Day One."

I mean, GOD FORBID we had to individually take out a jar of food and a spoon out of the car!

And the bottles, oh, the bottles. I pre-packed a days worth of bottles already filled with water so all we had to do was mix.

Hint for bottle feeders: Cracker Barrel makes a great feeding stop with the rocking chairs on the front porch!

I had pack n' plays in place both in DC at Diane's house (borrowed) and on the Vineyard (rented).

Everything is relative of course-- our friends Pat & Susanne did their big drive to Chicago recently with TRIPLETS. And heck, they have the mini van with built in refrigerated console!

All things considered it was worth the preparation-- the 1200 mile trip was relatively painless and I look back on it now and realize we had it EASY. Having two squirmy, partially potty trained toddlers on the road now is much harder.

But I'll still go ahead and pack all the snacks, toys and other necessary items to get us through our drive and week at the beach-- better safe than sorry!


The Family, August 2004 in Menemsha, MV