TRAVEL TIPS FOR BIG FAMILIES:
(if you found this through a search engine- its probably not what your looking for)

these are defiantly in order of how they made a 7 hour drive much more pleasant.

1. get rid of one of your kids. i'm suggesting one that starts a lot of the fights. (we didn't actually get rid of brynly- she just rode w/ grandpa and grandma. it worked out well b/c she likes dogs and gma has a dog, trake hates them, so it didn't really look like we tried to get rid of her.
2. go to www.legalsounds .com and there is a ad for $1.99 movie downloads. go to that site and download a bunch of movies for your ipod. see we haven't yet put aside $500 for that flip down dvd player so the kids were using the portable ones. the problem is.....they can still hear each other and argue over who holds it or what movie they watch! BUT this trip, we put the movies on the ipod. Grace had sleeping beatuy and trake had star wars. then they both had horton hears a who....we didn't hear much at all.
3. mcdonalds sucks. you think i'd learn this after all these years. we still stop at that nasty mcdonalds in blythe. the kids snack the whole drive time they are not hungry for mcdonalds, they just want the toy!!!!!! keep driving the playground smells like urine- its not worth the $15 on happy meals.
4. I'm sure you all know to drive when they are tired. that'll take care of the baby.

not once did eric say- if you don't be quiet i'm turning this car around . (we usually hear this a few times)

say what? this should be a time for family bonding??? HA. i'm going to be on vacation with them for a week...were all good on the family bonding.