Our 2013 Summer Trip begins

Last Wednesday afternoon we headed out for our long drive to Waynesboro, VA. This was the first stop of many on our 5 week summer trip.  We planned a two day drive with a stopover in Jackson, Mississippi.  The kids are so used to being in the car for long drives that I don't stress about the journey too much.  

To prepare for 21+ hours in the car, I bought everyone a new book or two.  I got some Shrek Mad Libs and we did not even get to them.  I also surprised them with two new movies.  Movies are a total life saver in the car as are the DS's, iPad, and iPhones.  How I traveled without all those luxuries is a mystery to me!!  I also need to mention that Legos are a huge hit this summer in the car!

Off we go with bikes and all.  Our second day was July 4th which is a horrible day to be stuck in the car.  We missed all the fun celebrations of the day so I planned two things to make our day a little more festive.  First, we all (except me who packed incorrectly) all dressed the part.  Don't they all look very patriotic and cute!

The second thing I planned was ice cream for dinner.  I had healthy snacks and lunch packed for us to have.  Ice cream for dinner seemed like the best way to celebrate Independence Day and our drive.  This was also something on our Summer Bucket list.  The kids were super excited when we stopped at a Dairy Queen for dinner.  They know we don't eat the food there....just the ice cream.  We actually tried to find hometown kind of ice cream parlor, but we did not have any luck.  

So after almost 22 hours of driving through 7 states we arrived at Meemaw's house just after 9pm on July 4th.  We were lucky enough to see some fireworks in the distance, but that did not matter much anymore.  We had arrived safely and our fun weekend with cousins in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley was about to begin!