That Time I Gave My Baby Doritos and an iPad

Last month we traveled to Florida and camped for a week. People I mentioned this to IRL were like “Tent camping?” Yes. “Do you drive there?” Yes. It’s a little crazy, but it was a beach vacation for a family of 5 during a peak time (spring break) and it came in at $1300. That’s more than we’ve ever spent, and an astonishing amount to spend on camping, I’ll admit. But that includes 10 days of minivan rental, 7 days of camp site fees, and all of our food, gas, camp supplies, and outings during the trip. We enjoyed outings like a daddy-daughter date; a boys’ overnight backpacking trip; a day trip to a teaching zoo; a bike parade; guys night out; and ladies night out. And as always, the beach, Bojangles, and ice cream.

Our baby absolutely loved camping! I think she took better naps in the tent than at home. She liked the beach, the swing on the playground, watching all the big kids, and just being outside. We definitely had to make more stops on the road trip and this slowed us down but overall she was pretty happy in the car. We called it one hour from our destination because she was way overtired and crying, and we would have to set up camp in the dark, and then get three kids to bed. I’m so glad we stopped. And so glad we always have Marriott points, accumulated from years of work travel, to use for free stays.

The big kids were so excited to play with their friends all day. So much that they were a little under-parented the first couple days. It was all we could do to shove sunscreen, water, and a sandwich at them in passing. Our son and his friends took up residence in the little dell next to the bathrooms, providing a convenient opportunity to check in every couple hours. They were swinging from vines, reading Bible stories, and who knows what else.

One highlight of the trip was that Neil took our son on his first overnight backpacking trip. Neil’s brother went, too. For the past 6 or so years, Neil has rounded up a group of friends to backpack with during one night of our trip. Someone dubbed this “campception”—a camping trip within a camping trip. He’s always wanted to take our son, and at the ripe age of 7, he was deemed old enough. This year, Neil calmly informed me, bear bags are now required for campers in the national forest where they were going. While I prayed that I wouldn’t lose three family members all at once, the boys seemed unfazed by the threat of bears. Neil promised to be careful and not leave Swedish fish in his pocket this year.

The only complication was that they needed a vehicle to get there. Usually we unload all the stuff from our car into our tent and I hitch rides. This year that felt completely overwhelming, considering the volume of stuff in both the car and the tent. And his brother’s wife had plans to visit a friend that night so she needed their rental car. They decided to rent a car, so she dropped them off at the rental car place using their rental. Rentception for campception!

If you’ve ever road-tripped with kids, you know that the last half hour is meltdown city, no matter how long or short of a trip. This was certainly true on our way home. We stopped half an hour from home to change her diaper at a gas station. She was completely beside herself that we put her back in the car seat. Out of desperation, I handed her a snack-size bag of Doritos, a “toy” she enjoyed one day during vacation. I kept looking back to make sure the bag was still sealed. Then all of a sudden I had a weird noise followed by crying. She’d burst the bag of nacho Doritos and, while she didn’t have any in her mouth, she had some of the powder on her chin and maybe got some on her tongue. She was covered in Doritos crumbs and wouldn’t stop crying even after I gave her water. My older daughter was watching the iPad in the seat next to her and I grabbed it and handed it to the baby in a frenzied attempt to calm her. She did settle down but would not give up the iPad. So the baby was watching TV while covered in Doritos. A proud parenting moment.

We made it home, wiped the Doritos out of the car seat, and I hit a new personal record for number of laundry loads in the two weeks that followed. And as usual we hit the ground running with more projects, which I’ll share soon in our Spring Burbstead update.

Do you have any upcoming travel planned? What are your tips and tricks (or fails) from road tripping?