We recently took a long road trip. It was the trip we tried to take at Christmas but we got stuck in the airport terminal due to bad weather (see this post and this post).

Nevertheless, whether by airplane or by car, making a long trip with the toddlers is brutal. Not just the traveling itself, but the preparations to travel.

To navigate long distances with the toddlers requires considerable advance planning and packing. The packing actually begins several days before we depart.

And, it’s not as simple as packing a suitcase for each of the toddlers and myself.

There are certain other essentials that have to be included for the trip: snacks, Goggy, Nite/Nite, Barney stuffed toy, doggie stuffed toy, video games, DVDs, electronic games, chargers for electronic games, shoes (a different pair for each outfit), kid’s medicines, lotions, ointments, toothbrushes, tissues, kids shampoo and soap.

And then you still forget something…pillows. I forgot their pillows. I wanted them to sleep much of the trip and I forgot their pillows!

So, it was a long trip to our destination, my brother’s house, almost 500 miles away. Ten-and-a-half hours!

That was not all driving time. For the distance, it is actually about an eight hour drive. But, we had to make several stops along the way to give the toddlers (and Poppy) a break from sitting in the car.

The road trip going was relatively uneventful except for Kaleb spilling his drink before we barely got out of the driveway and a state trooper pulling up behind us while we were pulled off on the shoulder of the highway letting Kaleb relieve himself because he couldn’t wait until we got to a restroom.

The highlight of the trip for the toddlers was jumping on the trampoline. My brother has a trampoline at his house and Kaleb and Kenzie loved to jump on it under the supervision of their older cousins. (Even Poppy got on and jumped with them, but no pictures of that event will be published on this blog!)

The toddlers jumped on the trampoline so much that they were exhausted. I mean they jumped until they were physically drained of energy and ready for a nap or to go to bed early.

Hmmm….

Maybe this could be useful for the long road trip back home. Wouldn’t it be nice if they slept for most of the trip going back?

So before we left on our return trip, I got the toddlers out on the trampoline for about an hour.

And it worked…

The toddlers slept almost all the way home and I was able to shave an hour-and-a-half off the return trip. We had only one stop along the way and that was for a bathroom break!

I will definitely be purchasing a trampoline for our house in the near future for the toddlers to jump on!