Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

Living on the Road by the Numbers

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I know you might want to have some more details about our trip across the United States.  We love to talk about it, so there might be quite a few posts about it!  While we were driving and on the road, my husband had the idea for this post.  We kept some tally marks on interesting things that we did or happened to us.  One of my favorite facts is how many times our boys peed in a bottle in the van.  🙂

I hope you enjoy this post with tid-bits of our trip as much as I do!

Facts from our road trip:

  • Travelers: 5

  • Days on the road: 25
  • Miles driven: 5,904
This is the path of our travels!
My job, as the passenger, can be heavily described as “toy retriever” to keep the kiddos happy.
He is so cute!!
  • Hours in van: 95 (**this is not including time at each destination driving to different activities, etc.)
Overall our lil 19 month old babe did FANTASTIC!
  • Galloons of gas: 289.80
  • Quarts of oil: 10
The driving time was so gorgeous! It was one of my favorite parts of the trip! I loved seeing the different landscapes.
  • States: 13
  • Hotels: 9
We got two double beds at our hotel stops. The boys LOVED sharing one, and Reagan was in her pack and play.
There were quite a few meals where we got food to go & took it back to the hotel.
  • Number of bags packed: 19
This is just a small sampling of our luggage pile.
  • Number of bags to still UNPACK: 4
  • Pictures taken: 793
  • Family members/friends seen: 34
Poor Grammy Pammy can’t have a cute picture with her grandkids while everyone is looking at the camera at the same time. 🙂
Our “family -best friends” in California have some of the cutest kids. Our kids alternate ages, so they are really close in age and were raised together most of their lives! So special to spend time with them in their new home!
  • Superheroes seen: 27
In Hollywood, people dress up as Superheros and you can give them a “tip” to have your picture taken with them!
One of our favorite “guys”!!
  • National landmarks: 3
I had never been to the Grand Canyon! I was giddy and soooo excited to be here!
  • Oceans: 2
Having my daughter and sweet niece experiencing the ocean for the first time together was such a gift!
Caleb has no fear of the ocean! He LOVES the waves and even did a jet ski ride!
Reagan and her BFF, Kendall, are two of the prettiest girls I know!
  • Crabs caught: 37
We had a cooler filled with these guys after our beach night walks. Yes, I screamed every time one ran across in front of me. After the fun of rounding them up the boys would walk back down to the beach and let them all go.
  • Starbucks stops: 13
  • Times the boys’ LeapPad’ batteries needed changed: 10
These little “i-pads” were worth every dollar spent for our trip. They were AMAZING in the van!
  • Stomach viruses: 1
Caleb woke up throwing up one day in California. Praise the Lord no one else got sick. I think he drank too much salt water the day before. He is a beast at “body surfing”, but it did change our plans with our dear friends on our last day there. 🙁
One plus to having a car seat that needed cleaning was discovering an awesome laundromat to explore and spend a lil time in. For someone who might actually like laundry (crazy I know!), this place was gorgeous!  Did you notice Caleb’s throw up bucket!?  Nothing like a multipurpose pink sand bucket!
  • Stops without a sweet tea to be found that was not fountain or canned: 14
  • Tweets breaking my social media silence: 11
  • Ways to get Reagan asleep in the van: 1
Reagan would only fall asleep in the van if music was playing and playing loudly!
  • Pools swam in: 9
  • Broken bumpers: 1
  • Zip ties required to hold a broken bumper together: 3
Turns out Waco, TX has some pretty steep curbs and driveways. Oops!
  • Horse rides: 5
My sis, Olivia, and her husband have horses in Arkansas. We got to stay with them for almost a week. It was a BLAST! The boys loooovvvveeeddd the barn and land!
She could barely wait for her turn to get a horse ride!!
My boys would move to the country in a heart beat!!
  • Immigration checks: 3 (Odd, right!? Even though we never crossed the border, driving close to Mexico had checkpoints.)
  • Van vacuumed:  1
In the top picture that might be a spilt/dried chocolate milkshake from an In-N-Out in California. It is getting cleaned tomorrow! Yes!!!
  • Target runs: 6
These girls are the cutest Target shoppers!
  • Drives in the rain: 4
  • My longest drive stretch at one time: 3 hours
  • Pees in a cup or bottle in van: 19
  • Times I went for a run: 2
  • Theme parks: 2
We went to a water park with friends in TX, and it was so fun!
We went to Disneyland’s California Adventure in Anaheim, California. It was awesome! Where else do you see live Lightening Mcqueen and Mater driving around!?!
This rocket ride was one of our favorites! Reagan even got to go on it!
  • Blog posts written: 0
My only “to do” was to enjoy my family, and I did!! Isn’t it crazy that we are home all together and I miss them?? I’m still with them all day/everyday but so distracted by life and house up keep.
  • Memories and laughs together: millions

Thank you so much for reading this post!!  I have some more posts coming with the “how to’s” of traveling with kids and how we made this insane trip possible.  This is not our first BIG trip on the road, so we have learned a few tricks along the way.  Please feel free to ask any questions about our trip or how we did something.  I will respond!

Comments

  1. Liz says

    I LOVE your trip! Oh my gosh, what a wonderful thing to be able to do. We did a similar trip when I was 11 starting in South Florida but after CA we went up to Michigan and then back down. Your trip brings back those memories. My favorite shot was you and the kids on the rocket. The smiles of you and your one son behind you are just so totally “in the moment”. I was smiling ear to ear just looking at it. I will be back looking for the continuing story!
    Liz

    Reply

    • ericadeuel says

      Liz, Thank you SO much for your sweet message!! I love that picture too. I can’t stop looking at our trip pictures! That’s so amazing you had such a trip! We have family in Ohio, so I hope we can do another big trip more up north too! The story will continue…thank you so much for reading!!

      Reply

    • ericadeuel says

      Thank you Larissa!! I have a whole list saved in my phone…just gotta find the time to write it now! That post will happen though!!

      Reply

  4. Baylee M says

    What a great post, Erica! Such awesome memories your kids will have of that trip! Glad you’re back in the social media world again – your blog is great!

    Reply

  5. Jenn says

    Awesome post, thank you!! We are taking our first road trip from MN to CA, with our 3 children, under the age of 6, next year and I’m so excited and can’t wait to share great memories with my family.

    Thank you again!!

    Reply

    • ericadeuel says

      Amazing Jenn! I know you will build memories for a lifetime! Have so much fun! I know that drive will be beautiful! XO, Erica

      Reply

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