If you follow me on Instagram , you know that we spent the last couple of weeks roadtripping; 15 days later and 3,200 miles on the car, we are back home and settling in.  Here are five of my favorite roadtrip tips and moments from the last two weeks.  For my ultimate survival guide on road trip with kids, check out my post here.

ONE

Our recent roadtrip was one of the longest I have done with kids (15 hours each way, plus loads of driving at our destination).  We drove to Jackson, WY to go to Grand Teton National Park.  Eleven years ago, Mr. H proposed to me in the winter in front of what was supposed to be a view of Grand Teton.  There were snow storms the entire week we were there, so I never got to see Grand Teton, so to celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary, we went back so I could finally see the majestic mountain.  I figured if we were going to drive all the way to Grand Teton, we might as well spend an extra week and drive the extra couple of hours to Yellowstone.  We loved Grand Teton NP for the views, the relaxed vibe and the great hiking.  We loved Yellowstone for the cool thermal features (geysers and springs) and the wildlife.

TWO

In two weeks, I did not get asked once “are we there yet?”  How did I accomplish this?  1. A lot of ipad watching and 2. Audiobooks.  When the kids were on their ipads, I entertained myself with a few new “adult” audiobooks, when we were having “no ipad/quiet time” we listened to kid focused audiobooks. If you are a member of the San Francisco Public Library you can borrow audiobooks for 21 days, free of charge, download to whatever device you have and listen to at your leisure.  We went through so many, I had to download more halfway through our trip!   Here are a couple of the kids favorites:

THREE

One of our favorite vacation activities is drinks at sunset with a nice view; add in Uno and you have a winning combination.  We have never really played Uno as a family and the kids (including 3YO Tater) got really into it on this trip.  We also taught big D Solitaire, which was great when we were tired of playing Uno for the hundredth time.

FOUR

One of my favorite parts of roadtrips is that I find them a lot less stressful than airplane trips. There is no flight to catch, you can pack as much as fits in the car, you can stop when you want, etc.  Because of this, other than accommodations, I didn’t plan a lot before we left on our trip, instead I created a pinterest board with a bunch of articles/blog posts on our destination and then referenced it the day we got there and made a short list of the things I wanted to see/do.  This is how I have largely started to plan almost all of our trips.  For me, it is less stressful, more relaxed, and allows me to be more flexible depending on the kids moods/energy levels.  How do you plan your travels?

FIVE

We didn’t get many pictures of all of us, but here is one of the four of us in Grand Teton and the three of us at the grand canyon of Yellowstone (Mr. H had to return to SF for work week 2, so just me and the boys).  Have a great weekend!

What have you been up to?  What are your best roadtrip tips?

If you want to keep up with our day-to-day adventures, visit me on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK and follow me there, where I share more regular updates on motherhood, travel, and adventures with kids.  Or if you are looking for more travel tips and inspiration, follow me on PINTEREST .

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