Summer Vacation

Hubby blogged about our trip here (with lots of pictures).

I just wanted to add a few things I learned (or re-learned) about road tripping with kids:

1--let the dog sit in front with the kids. They entertain each other.
2--let the baby have root bear. He loves it
3--root beer will stain the sippy cup.
4--one skittle at a time can help keep a tired baby happy when you need to drive for just one more hour...
5--from Skagway, AK to anywhere is a really really really long drive.

If you'd like to see our route, it was something like this (if you scroll down you can see it in map form...yes, that's correct where you see over 100 hours of driving, and about 6000 miles. If you count in all the little side trips, we drove well over 6000 miles). I should mention that there are also two days of ferries on either end of this trip. Pelican to Juneau is a 6 hour ferry, and Juneau to Skagway (the next day) is about 4 more hours.

By the numbers:
1 green mini van
2 parents
2 kids
1 dog
6 weeks
6000 miles driven (not counting miles in ferries!)
104 + hours in the car (that's such an underestimate!)
2 countries
9 states/provinces (Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta)
4 border crossings (those stress me out every time)
5 ferries (we split up at one point and some family members were on one ferry and some on another)
4 National Parks/Monuments
13 relatives families visited (I have no idea how many actual people that is!)
1 very massive yard sale
1 baptism

1 family who had a great summer, but is happy to be home.