The Most Epicist of All Road Trips 2014

2014 road trip was fantastic. We went 7,152.6 Miles.  We drove for 147:40:24 hours.

We visited 16 states in 24 days.  We hit MANY landmarks on "must see" lists.

We bonded.  We grew stronger.  We grew as a family.  We loved it.  We're doing it again.  15 days till our next adventure begins.
I wasn't sure I would be able to do it this year, as Alia moved to California in January to live with her grandparents, and opted to not come this year.
Fortunately, working at a high school this past year, I was honored to be introduced to Ms. Kayleigh! She comes very highly recommended.
I will be very excited to introduce her in a later post.
I'd love to hear suggestions/questions for this years trip!  Comment below, and subscribe :)

VanCation

In a previous post, I mentioned camping in our van.  I want to show you what I mean.  A fellow mom and blogger Mrs. Gray wrote recently about "mommin it".  This.  This right here is the epitome of mommin it.  I packed 3 of my kids, collected luggage from the 16 year old, packed myself and then fit it all in our 2008 Nissan Quest with enough space to sleep all 5 of us, comfortably.  Ready?

Step 1: Take about a weeks worth of clothing, a cooler, a swamp cooler, an air mattress, some sleeping bags, and a baby back pack, and a Wal-Mart Hammock and put them in the back of the van.  Not too hard.

Step 2:  When its time to turn in for the night, place all items except air mattress, sleeping bags and hammock to the front two seats.  See yesterdays post for the placement of the swamp cooler.

Step 3:  Put all the seats down and get the air mattress inflated.  I got one with an built in pump and plug it into our inverter so I didn't have as many pieces to loose.

Step 4:  The sleeping bag goes between the mattress and the front two seats in a nice little person sized cubby.  My 5 year old claimed this spot as her very own.  Of course I didn't manage to catch a picture of this part, but I will over the next 24 days, and I'll show you then.

Step 5:  Put up the hammock.  Not going to lie, this was a little challenging to figure out.  The length of the fabric was too long for the van.  The who thing was almost to the ground before I made some adjustments.  Two ties go out the trunk and tie to the roof rack at the very back of the van.  I could knot the front end, but for just a little extra circulation, I drug it out the moon roof and tied it to the roof rack till it was to taut that you almost think no one can get in it.  Weight pulls it down just enough.  If it rains, I'll try knotting it off where I can tie off through the sliding doors, but this works for now!

<---- here is the corner of the sleeping bag

There it is!  Basic sleeping set up is DONE!  

The kids LOVE it.  I'm sure I'll have some better pics as we travel, but you get the basic idea.  Well, bed it is, as we are leaving in 6.5 hours!  WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!