About Road Tripping with Kids

It all started last year when my husband and I decided to a do a couple leaf peeping day trips to admire the beauty of the changing seasons here in the PNW. One of the best things about living in Western Washington is that you are never far from the mountains or the sea. So much nature is available to you with not much of a drive. Last year, we never drove far enough that we couldn’t come back home that same evening. It was all day in the car with multiple stops. So this year, we took our first weekend long road trip around The Cascade Loop.

This is a popular drive and I’d never driven the entirety of it. We started in Seattle and made our way over the mountains and stayed the night just outside of Leavenworth. From there we traveled mostly North and then West where we spent the night in Burlington. Our final day we drove over Deception Pass and wound down through Whidbey and caught the ferry to head home.

The kids were completely fine and loved the adventure. My husband and I were pleasantly pleased (but maybe we just don’t give our kids enough credit). Here’s a very short list of a few things that I attribute to having a successful road trip with kids:

1. Bring a variety of snacks because kids are literally always hungry.
2. Bring some sweets. My go-to road trip candy is M&M’s and Skittles. A little bit of chocolate, a little bit of fruity. Don’t be afraid to give them candy whenever they ask. Haha! I’m serious. I just give them like 5 or 6 pieces each and they don’t usually just keep asking for more and more.
3. Be excited! If you’re not excited about the road trip then why are you going? Share the excitement with your kids. Point out the beauty outside your window and answer as many questions as you can.
4. Prepare a good music playlist. I recommend Spotify’s premium account because you can download playlists so they’re available offline for those times when you’re out of cell service.
5. Make stops. More than just rest stops. The kids and their crazy amounts of energy need to run around and stretch their legs. This means you will get from Point A to Point Z in a longer period of time so plan for that.
6. Have each kid prepare a bag of car goodies whether that’s crayons/markers/paper or easy to play games. Whatever it is, they will need a few toys to entertain themselves. We didn’t buy any special road trip activities and the kids were perfectly fine. (In all transparency, I did buy a few but then the delivery was delayed and we didn’t get it until after we were back home so I returned it all).

We hope to make a couple more long road trips in the future. Now, I’m craving some Skittles and M&M’s….

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On Being a Mom

This topic was requested.

I thought about this topic for days. How do I answer this question when I don’t feel like I’ve lost my personal identity? Motherhood has been such an unexpected joy in my life. So, I kept thinking about how to express my experience. How do I say something meaningful?

I’ve never felt lost but I wanted to explore a few reasons why maybe I never felt lost (always with the disclaimer that all people are different and what gives me balance may not give someone else balance). I did have the baby blues in a bad way after the birth of my first baby. This is going to sound incredibly shallow and lame but I remember I was so depressed that I didn’t even want to scroll Pinterest. See, Pinterest was still rather new at the time and I had previously been obsessed with pinning all the things so when I had zero interest I took note. I took note that I had lost interest in everything I once loved and that I was sinking. Don’t worry, one look at my Pinterest account and I’m sure you’ll see I eventually came out of that. That’s just postpartum and some have it way worse.

So here are some reasons why I don’t think I’ve ever felt lost (note: this list is not comprehensive but just a few highlights):

1. I have an equal parent partner (ie: my husband). This is perhaps the most important reason. He is a trustworthy, loving and caring parent. He likes to spend time with the kids. He cooks all of our meals. If I want to go do something alone, he keeps the kids. Easy as that. I could go on but having what you need in a partner is probably crucial to your mental/emotional wellbeing as a parent.
2. I still do what I want to do. In fact I might even do more because I don’t necessarily want to go places alone and it’s great to have little adventure buddies. I still find time to be creative and, again, my husband is incredibly supportive of this. Just browse my Instagram and you’ll see plenty of seemingly trivial styled photos I created.
3. I’ve created space and structure for me time – evenings. Of course, that is not perfect every night but usually I get a couple hours to unwind in whatever way I see fit whether it’s Netflix, reading, talking with the husband, collaging or whatever.

My personal identity has evolved and expanded. Motherhood is a refining fire when you learn to surrender yourself. I’ve always thought of it as a beautiful teeny, tiny picture of our human relationship with God. Surrender was a word that came to me when my second child was a baby. The word gave me peace in an otherwise negative time. Moms know, when it’s evening and you’re on the couch relaxing and the baby starts crying and you know it’s time to feed. It can be really frustrating but when I realized surrendering to the baby’s needs gave me not only a sense of duty but also relief. Relief from negative thoughts and feelings. I would also add some of those moments became some of the sweetest times with my girl. I wish I would have savored the time I had with my first the way I ended up doing with my second.

They say you have to lose yourself to find yourself. Well parenthood has given me ample opportunity to put someone else before myself. Ample opportunity to set aside my fear, my desire, my will, my pride, my happiness (but I’ll be the first to admit I save the best bites of dessert for myself). Being a parent reminds me that the world does not revolve around me. It’s not something I take lightly and it’s something I’ve deconstructed many times over the years to be able to say what is good and true and beautiful of the delicate and hard work that is marriage and motherhood.

Edited to add: I forgot a funny little story. When I first became a mom, I was embarrassed to walk outside pushing a stroller. I really can’t explain why. That’s just how I felt. And I definitely didn’t want to be one of those people that walked around with a baby carrier. Had to learn the hard way that baby carriers are HIGHLY useful. I literally crack myself thinking about that. Becoming a mom was hard. It did change my entire identity and all good change is difficult. But I didn’t feel like I lost myself – I just felt like I didn’t know who I had become and that took some time.