Ready Set Go

Floating the River! For my birthday a couple years ago it was a beautiful end of September day and we decided to have the husband take off work and take the kids on a float trip on the Current River in Southern Missouri.  Float trips can be pretty crazy on summer weekends with all the parting going on, but during the week we had the river to ourselves, except for a Bald Eagle or two flying over us!  With 4 young kids we decided to try and let the older 2 have their own kayak but bring rope to tie them to us if they wore out, and put the gear and cooler and 2 young ones in the canoe with us. Well let me tell you the kayakers did not wear out!  The river was down and they floated right over low spots, while we were like a semi truck having to get out of the canoe, and pull/push it to the next water spot.  All the time the little guys were busy dragging their arms in the water or eating some sort of snack.  They had the good life!  We did a shorter float (4 hours) and it was

Squirrel!  Or in our case, Chipmunk!   A few years ago we wanted to go escape to the Mountains to get out of 100 degree August heat, but living in Missouri where?  We looked online for place in Estes Park Colorado.  Estes Park is outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.  Problem was...we had 4 kids.  All hotels want a maximum of 5 people for fire codes.  Two rooms were just too expensive.  Solution: VRBO.com Vacation Rental By Owner. For as little as $116 a night we had a remote mountain CLEAN cabin on a creek complete with Bunk Loft with 2 beds upstairs of kids and 1 bedroom/bath for us.  Clean kitchen and best of all-only entertainment was old Kenny Rogers RECORDS on an old record player.  Yes!   So we stayed 16 miles outside of RMNP in Colorado.  Now for hiking.  How to take 4 small kids hiking?  All Handicap trails were made for us.  We were up early anyhow (hello little kids!) so we found them to ourselves from 7am until about 10am.  By then we wanted a s

Travel with 4 little kids Remember When?  A Lot of you may think-sure she goes with 4 kids, they are older-no baby in tow.  True. But here is us at Elephant Rocks State Park in southern Missouri with 4 kids ages 0-7.  At this time we rented a camper-yes you can do that-from Big Spring River campground.  We just brought sheets, food and baby items.  We explored the moving clear river, explored the area around and went back to take naps.  Perfect! That baby backpack was a hold over-we rarely took strollers, they wouldn't go on trails.  Here is the baby when your 3 year old brother is playing with side walk chalk and wants to put some on you!   Beach Trip with 4 Little Ones by ourselves This Trip to the Gulf Coast-Fort Morgan Alabama.  Just 20 miles West of Gulf Shores.  We stayed at Gulf Shores Plantation and I mean stayed.  We didn't venture in to ride go carts or eat out.  We gave each kid a shovel, pail or cup and set up a Beach Umbrella and called it goo

Road Trip!  Here we are somewhere between Jefferson City Missouri and Niagara Falls headed to Washington D.C! Driver is eating, 1 kid asleep, 2 kids on tablets and 1 looking out the window.  You heard right, 2400 Road Trip with 4 kids (all boys ages 7 years-14 years) and a camper being pulled behind us.  We have a top speed on steep hills of 45 mph folks and that makes for a LONG drive. But it was so fun as a family we can't wait to do the NorthWest and Canadian Rockies next! We survived and thrived! We had some mistakes but I am here to tell you the do's of travel with kids. 1.  Have low expectations.  It keeps everything in perspective. 2.  Planning where to drive is not necessary-I am not kidding-we thought we were going 45 miles            away and we went 2400 miles over 13 days. 3.  Lots of snacks. 4.  Know where bathrooms are.  Places like Washington D.C. cater to the elderly so we knew there would be plenty of free water fountains and bathrooms.  Places like rur