A New Year and Day 1 Photos - On The Road

I had hoped to start off the new year with a few photos as I plan on doing 366 days of photos but I have some how misplaced my camera so until I find it there will be no photos.  I really should make a resolution to be more organized. 
While 2011 was a busy travel year for my family (most of which I never got around to blogging about - sewing diapers took up too much of my time), 2012 looks like it will be almost as busy.  Especially with my husbands work travel being much more significant too.

We started 2012 off with a small road trip from Edmonton (where we were watching the World Jr Hockey tournament) to GP.  I will be spending the next week here and praying it won't be too cold before I take the boys back to Virginia.

I'll add photos of the boys from our road trip when I find my camera but despite a packed car (two kids, my parents, brother, and myself all in the truck) it was an uneventful 4 and a half hour drive.  I am so thankful that my boys travel well.

I really hope to keep working on this blog and not let it slide as I usually do but I have just started my own Diaper Shop so we'll see if I can handle both as well as being a stay at home mom.  Wish me luck and I hope you all have a wonderful new year.

Edit:
Found my Camera
Day 1 Photos: On the Road

 Tavish kept entertained by playing games on the iPad.  While I'd never buy one for him, having an iPad loaded with kids game will keep most kids entertained on long road trips.

Keeping a 1 year old entertained is a bit more challenging (I really don't want him playing with an iPad yet and I don't trust him with it anyway) but he did find Tavish's headphones amusing for a bit even though they weren't connected to anything.

Best S'mores EVER

On our first camping trip of the season we managed to bring everything we needed BUT chocolate for our s'mores.  I could not believe this, how can you have s'mores without the chocolate?  The answer: Oreos.
We always pack Oreos with us when we camp and it turns out they make better S'mores than the traditional graham cracker, chocolate, marshmallow treat.  It was the BEST S'MORE EVER (especially when Mint Oreos are used).

How to make an Oreo S'more:

Step One: Open bag of Oreos and remove an oreo from bag

Step Two: Twist off top of Oreo and place on plate or side of chair for later

Step Three: Open marshmallow bag and put marshmallow on stick

Step Four: Roast marshmallow to perfection

Step Five: Put roasted marshmallow on one side of oreo then place other side on top of marshmallow to make sandwich

Step Six: Enjoy best S'more ever made

 Lesson in Marshmallow Safety

 Time to Roast

 Looks yummy.  Do I get one?

 Expert Roaster (Orange line is our fire safety DO NOT cross line), worked great.

 First Bite

 It sure is good

 Jumbo marshmallow roasted to perfection

 Okay maybe Jumbo marshmallows were not such a good idea

 Callen's Turn (NO I did not let him eat this, I'm sure he would have though)

 Callen's Turn to Roast (NO I did not let him put this in the fire, he was much to far away)

Oreo S'mores are good

Prince William Forest Park Camping

Our first camping trip of the season was over Easter weekend (yes I am terribly behind in my blogging) and we headed to Prince William Forest Park.  We had a bit of an adventure getting there as traffic was terrible and the clouds were getting pretty dark.  We did have a bit of rain and had our first meal in our tent trailer but the rest of the weekend was quite nice despite a wet forecast.

This was our first camping trip of the season and our first camping trip as a family of four and what amazes me most is how well of a packing job we did (considering how disorganized I've been).  We only missed a few things (one being chocolate for smores but I'll get into that in another post).

Callen's first camping trip was super smooth with no major sleeping issues.  He did get up a few time in the middle of the night but he was in our bed so it was easy to calm him back down or feed him if needed.  Camping with a baby in a camper is really easy.  Hopefully we'll have lots of trips this summer.

 Supper Inside

 Yum (Callen's 3rd day of solid food)

 Chilling outside

 Best Camping Chair Ever (KirstiG)

Pepper anyone?

Philly Here We Come

My husband and I decided that we needed to get away for a few days and I've been telling him that I would really like to go to Philadelphia. Philadelphia has some great museums there I'd love to see, so off to Philly we went. Philly is a 3 hour drive from where we live and this would be our first road trip with Callen.  Callen is pretty good in the car most of the time and when he does get upset it's nothing that a soother and my terrible singing can't fix (I don't know why my terrible singing calms my boys down in the car when they are mad but it really does work).  However, 3 hours in a car is a long time and Callen was only 3 days into his new head gear so I was a bit worried.  Tavish on the other hand is no rookie at road trips and while we had not been on one for awhile I know he travels well.

As our travel plans evolved we decided to do a Saturday-Monday road trip instead of our traditional Friday-Sunday plans.  This worked out great for us because Tavish was sick on Friday and this also meant we could leave early Saturday morning and not have to worry about any rush hour traffic.  We left around six and with only one stop for breakfast and pee break we arrived at our destination at 9:30.  Here are a few of my tips for an easy road trip without a DVD player (I'm not against these but I only plan on using ours for an extreme emergency)

Toddler and Older

•  snacks - pack all of your kids favorite snacks and keep them close by.  You don't want your snacks packed in a hard to reach spot.  Also you want easy to clean snacks, I'm a fan of raisins, fruit leather, granola bars, and animal crackers.  I try not to get anything messy or sticky.
• toys and books - pack lots of different toys and books and have them either accessible to you or your child.  Again you don't want to be digging around for new toys when they get bored of what they have. 
• have a special road trip toy or game - something that you only use when on long road trip.  We have a tag/tag jr. (review to come later) which Tavish can use when he's in the car for more than an hour.  This way it's a special treat and won't get bored of it after 5 minutes
• bring great music - have a variety of music that  you and your kids both like.  To me there is nothing worse than having to listen to the same terrible CD over and over again
• books on tape or pod casts - these are great for older children and even adults.  Listening to a good story/book can make a trip go by much faster.  My husband and I are huge fans of the Vinyl Cafe pod cast and it's kid friendly too
• tell stories - my 3 year old love stories and he love ones that I tell.  I tell my own version of choose your own story and he love it.  I really need to record one as they get pretty silly.

Babies - Traveling with your baby can be really easy or really tricky depending on the age of your baby and their temperament.  I have a very easy baby when it comes to traveling so my tips may or may not work for you 

• start off happy - make sure all the immediate needs are met: food, clean diaper, comfortable.  I try to make sure that I top up any feeding and have a fresh diaper before I start, this way I know if my baby is crying it's not because he needs a basic need met.
• entertainment - babies usually like something to look at besides the back of the car seat.  Mirrors work great as it allows you to look at your baby and they can also be entertained by themselves.  I also put in a few soft toys to keep him entertained
• be prepared - be prepared for anything and have extra's of everything.  Make sure you have a second or third soother on hand and with easy access if you need one.  Bring extra clothes, diapers, and wipes just in case you need a change of clothes.  
• plastic bags - bring some, you never know if you'll have a blow out that requires a clean up
• stop when you need to - you'll need to stop more often with a baby then you would on your own so plan for these stops
• sing - when you can't stop and your baby is cranky just sing.  I don't think it matters how terrible or good your voice is, the sound of your voice can be soothing or at least it makes you feel like your doing something until you can pull over.

Keeping these things in mind we had an easy trip to Philly and we were ready to being sight seeing.  First stop was the Please Touch Museum...