Happy Kids Vacation

Disneyland

Happy Kid 1 — Fri, 07 May 2010 02:06:48 +0000

I had a very good time in Disney Land.Me and my family were able to make some good memories,and had a great time.It has lots of rides,and it lets us children have a fun time,and the parents have a blast to!If your planning a dream vacation,this is the perfect place to go.

Thanksgiving Road Trip

Happy Traveler — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:30:05 +0000

Let the Holiday Season begin! Remember last year’s Thanksgiving road trip? Was it not as enjoyable as it could have been? Let’s try to make this year better–okay?

Here are 4 suggestions for a better Thanksgiving road trip with kids.
1. Have a story telling contest.
2. Listen to a book on CD.
3. Have a most-thankful contest.
4. Guess who?

Kids on Vacation: Take ‘em or Leave ‘em

Happy Navigator — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:11:07 +0000

When I told my friend we were bringing our one year old son on our upcoming
Oregon vacation she said to me “If you bring the kids, it’s called a ‘trip.’ If you go without the kids THEN it’s called a ‘vacation.’” Point taken. Bringing kids on vacation can be a hassle. There’s nothing like caravaning down a six lane freeway in a place you’ve never been, trying to keep up with the driver ahead of you and having your son announce “I need to go to the bathroom—BAD.” The subway systems are not constructed with families with strollers in mind. Making a week’s worth of diapers and wet wipes fit in a suitcase is a daunting task. Surely even the hard core road trip loving parents get a little annoyed when they hear their child whine “Are we there yet?” for the 23^rd time. These are all compelling reasons to find a sitter (no matter what the cost) and have a “real vacation” without the kids.

Yet we have had so many memorable family outings—when I imagine the experiences without my kids, it seems almost sad. Building a sandcastle at the beach is just not as fun without my kids around. I don’t sing in the car when it’s just me and my husband. When my kids are with me, I have an excuse to slow my pace and notice things. My children give me an outlet to channel my excitement through. When we’re taking off in an airplane I like having my children there so I can say, “This is it, here we go! Look out the window—see the houses? They’re so small and the cars look like toys! Can you believe we’re actually flying through a cloud?!” There’s something special about experiencing those first time moments with a child. It makes them feel new fresh and exciting all over again.

Children remind us to find joy and excitement in the little things. When we took our kids on a trip to New York, we spent the fist day sight seeing. We saw the Statue of Liberty and went to a Yankees game. We rode on a train and the subway all in the same day. We did a lot of walking. We were all exhausted when we got back to the hotel. The place had a jetted tub that none of the adults thought was sanitary enough to use. Ignoring the sign that warned against doing so, I added bubble bath and turned on the jets. My boys laughed with delight. The tub quickly became half full of water and the other half bubbles. My boys couldn’t stop laughing as they made bubble hats, and bubble beards in front of the huge bathroom mirror. They slipped and slided until they were clean, happy and ready for bed. Their happiness soothed my frazzled nerves and reminded me that we were on this vacation to relax and have fun together.

My husband and I do not take our children on every trip we go on. We’ve had many experiences when we’ve been thankful NOT to have the children with us. But I wouldn’t trade our family vacation memories for a romantic two week stay in
Hawaii without the kids…okay, that’s going a little far. But the fact is bringing kids along on a vacation is guaranteed to make your trip more eventful—and usually in a good way.

The Best Books to Read to your kids on a Road Trip

Happy Traveler — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:40:37 +0000

A road trip with kids can be fun. Once you have played the alphabet game, and “I Spy,” and are just headed out of town, you wonder what you will do to keep the kids entertained.

One thing that helps make happy kids (and a happy road trip) is reading to my kids. We have three boys all under 10 years old. I love to read chapter books to them. There are some books that I have read myself, and I thought, “man, my kids would love this,” but then they were not the best when I tried to read them out loud.

So, here is a fun-to-read-on-a-road-trip book list that I will be adding to (and hope that you will too).

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo
Soup by Robert Newton Peck
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

To Plan Your Vacation…You Need a Vacation Calendar

Happy Traveler — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:50:35 +0000

The best place to find a calendar online is calendar.com. You can print out blank calendars and fill in your trip details.

Yankee Baseball

Happy Traveler — Sun, 21 May 2006 03:35:22 +0000

Since New York night life and kids don’t go together, we decided that taking our kids to a Yankee game was a great option. I was surprised to find that we could get $12 tickets (in the bleachers, but still great seats). We were able to see some great plays by Hideki Matsui in the outfield, and Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez in the infield. Of course, I missed a few great plays taking kids to the bathroom!

The best part about the bleachers at Yankee Stadium is that they are alcohol-free and family friendly. We ended up sitting by some teenage boys. I was nervous at first, but they ended up sharing shelled peanuts with my kids. We had a great time at the baseball game.

The most difficult part for me was having a stroller for our youngest. Hauling it up the stairs of Yankee Stadium wasn’t all that easy. We may have been better off using a pack.

One of the best parts was riding the subway to the Bronx. We got to listen to the locals talk about the team.

You can purchase tickets on the Yankees’ website. The Yankees have a kid’s website, but it’s pretty lame.

Small Bladder in New York City

Happy Traveler — Mon, 08 May 2006 15:57:39 +0000

One of our kids has a small bladder. This added some excitement to our trip to New York City. We had to find a bathroom at the airport, on the plane (not difficult), on the train (we had to walk from car to car, which was a little scary with a five-year-old), on the subway (no luck!), at Yankee Stadium (four times!), before we boarded the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, and dozens of other times while we were walking through the city.

We should have done a better job at giving ourselves time to get from place to place. Sometimes it took us an extra 10-15 minutes or more to find a bathroom (or to wait in line when we finally found one). On the days that we knew we would be on the subway a lot, we had him wear a Pull-Up (which didn’t go over well).