Our First Family Road Trip

Growing up, my family wasn't big into traveling. My parents loved to travel apart from us kids (rude, I know), and we often preferred spending a week-long family vacation at a lake cabin, just two hours from home. As I got older, I really started to love and prioritize all aspects of travel: the planning, the journey, the trip itself. Travel is just a part of life for Ben and me, which I love. However, in our refusal to stop things we love just because we have little kids, we are learning to adapt trips to accommodate our favorite little adventurer.

When planning our wedding a few years ago, we picked May 28 for a few reasons. First, my mom died on the 28th of December, so I thought that was a way I could remain connected to her. Next, I really didn't want to spend my entire summer vacation planning a wedding. Lastly, we thought Memorial Day weekend would be perfect for future anniversary trips. So, for this year's trip, we decided to go back to our COVID honeymoon spot, Broken Bow, OK, with our one-year-old in tow.

The thing about Broken Bow, a place we picked to honeymoon for the stunning, remote cabins, is the nearest airport is three hours away. One has to be in the right mindset to fly with a toddler and THEN drive 3 hours. We opted to drive the whole 15 hours from North Dakota instead.

After looking at a map, we thought we'd break things up by stopping in Omaha, NE on the way down and Kansas City, MO on the way home. Looking back, I wish we would've had more time in both of these cities. With 8-9 hour travel days ahead of us, we pretty much had one meal, slept, got coffee and hit the road. We opted to stay at a hotel in downtown Omaha and paid extra for a more suite-style room in order to guarantee a good night's sleep for the whole family. In Kansas City, we stayed in an adorable airbnb and prioritized eating at Torchy's Tacos, a yummy franchise started in Austin, TX, where we first discovered it a few years ago.

Another intentional decision in our planning was packing a cooler full of sandwiches. My friend Nicole did this on a trip we took to Wisconsin YEARS ago, and it is such a game-changer. It eliminates trying to find somewhere quick, tasty, and healthy-ish when passing through. When it was around lunch time, we'd watch for state parks, campgrounds, playgrounds, etc. and pull over to eat. It really made the trip delightful, getting some outdoor time and allowing all of us time to wiggle.

Our car time was pretty low-key. We mostly listened to music, and Ben and I listened to 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam (although I think he tuned a lot of it out ☺). Quinn's favorite car toy was a little plastic shovel. She was at such a great age for a trip like this because she wasn't crawling or walking yet and didn't feel too stifled in the car. She took pretty decent naps and handled the car well.

Having been to Broken Bow before, we knew that planning some meals at the cabin, especially after driving for eight hours, would be helpful. We packed a frozen meal to thaw on the way and bake once arriving. Once again, it was great to be able to nourish our bodies with something familiar and made us feel good.

The only plans we had for the few days we were in Broken Bow were to relax at the cabin, go to Beaver's Bend State Park, have a bonfire, and do a little shopping. I love trips with low expectations and minimal plans, because they make me feel so spontaneous and allow us to do what we are actually in the mood for. Next time, I think we'll try to go later in the summer, so we can do more water activities at Beaver's Bend, but I think it was perfect for Quinn's current age.

Let's also take a moment to note that traveling with a small child is magical. This child is giddy with the light that turns on in the car door, so we didn't need to travel a thousand miles to make memories with her. However, I know she's learning all about adaptability and seeking adventure in the process. As her parents, we're learning all about adaptability and seeking adventure too, but we're also memory-making, being reminded of our familial unit without kids at the focus, and pushing ourselves outside our comfort zones. With just a couple trips on our itinerary for this fall, I'm already beginning to dream up where we'll go next.

-J