First off, I made sure we had snacks (and plenty of them) to eat in the car. Whenever we travel, I hit the Winco bulk section before we go. I buy several different kinds of trail mixes, nuts, dried fruits and yogurt covered pretzels. I then mix the whole lot together at home in my big Tupperware bowl and divide the mixture into small zip snack bags. This is a special treat for the kids (which has gotten more expensive with more kids to feed), but it's traditional for Macduff family road trips.
We also packed picnic lunches on the days we had long drives. So instead of stopping at a restaurant where the kids would have had to be relatively quiet and still (which they had already been doing in the van), we stopped at parks along the way. The kids all got to run around and yell to their heart's content. Plus, it was easier on the budget.
We listened to audio books during the long hours of driving. I had purchased a few good ones at the homeschool conference this past spring (I got a deal for buying them as a bundle) and had tucked them away knowing that they would be perfect for our trip. The books are true historical accounts read by Victoria Botkin.
We listened to A Bride Goes West on the way down to the mountains. We all were completely captivated by this story, so much so that I didn't even have to pull out any of the little dollar store prizes I had gotten to ward off the dull drums and not one "Are we there yet?" or "How much longer?" was uttered. This book is what kept the kids from a complete meltdown when we found out the restaurant at which we were to have our Saturday dinner was without electricity and couldn't feed us. We had to travel another half an hour down the road before we could get to another restaurant. We were near the end of listening to A Bride Goes West when we traveled this extra stretch of road, so the time went by quickly.
We listened to An English Family in the American Wilderness on the way back home. We all really liked this book as well and I for one am glad I'm not a pioneer. In addition, our family is almost done listening to The Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney and we're looking forward to listening to Abigail Adams: Her Letters.
As I mentioned, I did pack a few dollar store toys for the trip. The morning that all the big people climbed Macduff Peak, I was able to pull out sidewalk chalk, bubbles and balls to help entertain the little ones and pass the time back at the base camp while we we watied for the rest of our party to return.
The other ways we tried to keep kids calm and preserve our own sanity during our vacation was by sticking as closely to our normal routine as possible. We made sure everyone got fed at our normal meal times (with a couple of exceptions), we tried to get everyone to bed at their normal bedtimes and we continued to observe quiet time (at least for the littles).
The Macduff t-shirts that Matt's parents had given everyone on the first leg of our trip came in really handy on the second leg of our vacation. I made everyone wear their shirt (Mom and Dad included) to the aquarium. I knew it would be crowded there and that it would be easier to keep track of everyone if we were all in the same "uniform." The t-shirts made my job of repeatedly counting to seven much more manageable.
The result of all the advanced planning before we left on vacation was that the chaos of a week away from home was minimized and we were able to actually enjoy our vacation.
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