Ah hem...

Sonja's Practical Guide

to Traveling Across the Country

With Five Children and

One Pregnant Sister.

(and what an incredible sister she is.)

1. When planning a road trip, we find the following formula to be most effective: equal parts of practicality and spontaneity sprinkled heavily with an adventurous spirit.

2. When traveling with young children, keep your expectations low. They are kids for crying out loud. Really, you must expect the unexpected and I suspect that if you expect the exceptional, you'd be subject to abject disappointment. (As a side note, it's also important to remember, that kids, even older kids, don't need a whole lot to be impressed. Mostly, they are looking forward to spending time with you, even if they don't say it in so many words.)

3. Lay out all the clothes for the trip. Then put about 1/3 of them back in the drawers.

4. If you have a space saver on the top of your van, make sure all the latches are down so that you don't end up seeing helmets and jackets flying out behind you on the freeway outside of Denver. (We're speaking from experience.)

5. DVD players are helpful. Especially when they are not broken. (Again, from experience)

6. Lollipops are your frazzled nerves best friend. Hand them back to crying children and watch as they magically stop crying for about 15 minutes, or until the lollipop is gone. (This is especially helpful if they are not use to having such niceties at home.)

7.Chocolate-Peppermint patties are for when you start crying.

8. When traveling with a heavily loaded vehicle and very pregnant sister, it's best not to take really sharp turns. (Don't worry, nothing bad happened.)

9. Despite all the latest technology (ie. affor-mentioned DVD players, Nintendo DS and such--that we love), there is still a place for audio books and just plain ol' looking out the window.

10. Time is relative. For example, it goes by quickly when you are having a lively conversation with a dear sister and very, very slowly when you are in desperate need of a restroom and the next rest stop is 20 miles away. (When will someone invent the transforming booster seat-potty chair?)

11. Which is why I wouldn't recommend bringing a lot of juice.

12. A sense of humor is absolutely necessary! Just smile and put on your happy face. Don't take it off until you get there. This almost always assures that everyone will make it there in one piece.

13. When you stop to get gas at night in Nebraska, close the doors. Not only because of the gas fumes, but also because of the 50 million bugs that see your goldfish-cracker-crumb-heaven-of-a-van and want to get in.

14. Finally, always keep the end in mind. "Just think how much fun you'll have when we get there." or "Just think how nice it will be to be back home." This will help you to win the inner-argument inside your head that will inevitably arise after 2 days of driving all day with one day still ahead of you. "What the heck am I doing?" your head will say. To which you will reply, "Just think how much fun...."

This is, of course, assuming that you have any control over your head at all after 3000 miles, 5 states, so many bags of granola bars, fruit snacks, and lollipops, questionable bathrooms at the gas station, don't even get me started on gas, multiple threats to turn the van around, and probably not enough sleep. Now you know why my eye is twitching when I smile and say "happy face, happy face."

Hey, our trip up to Wisconsin from Utah wasn't so bad. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was fun. I love being with my sister and her sweet son. We love being at Mummu and Pappa's. We miss Jeremy terribly.

We'll write more later! Cheers from the land of so much cheese!