Day 3: Welcome to California!

Sailing the seas with huge smiles

Day 3: Medford, OR to San Jose, CA | Total Time: 8 hours | Total Distance: 400 miles

Welcome to California….we only have 7 more hours until Grandma’s house.

Today’s 8 hour leg of our trip is our 2nd longest travel day on this trip. Keeping our kids occupied and engaged is no easy task but we’ve done our best and, so far, it works well. We’ve done the following to keep them entertained while in the car:

Ethan’s Activity Binder: As we mentioned in our post yesterday, Laura put together a great binder full of coloring, dot to dot, puzzles and other activities
AudiobooksA: We’ve brought along a number of children’s audiobooks. These include Winnie The Pooh, Clifford, Officer Buckel and Gloria, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and more. Ethan is a big fan of these.
Books: We have a lot of books for the kids to enjoy. Generally, they read/look at the books on their own but we do read to them in the car on occasion. Honestly, it kind of makes of sick to turn around from the front seat and read.
Music: Lots of favorites for us and the kids. We all get a choice in music. When one album is over the next person chooses. Autumn always chooses Caspar Babypants. Always.
Toys: Both kids packed their own backpacks. Ethan brought a number of trucks, airplanes, action figures, and more. Autumn chose a couple baby dolls and accessories for the dolls.
Frequent Stops: Autumn is already in potty training so we need to stop often. We’ve stuck to this schedule to ensure the kids get adequate stretching time and frequent potty breaks.

With all of these tools at our disposable, as well as sleeping in the car, the road trips are great. We did break for an early lunch at In-N-Out Burger in Redding. This stop has always been a favorite of ours when passing through over the years.

We arrived at my Mom’s house around 4pm. The kids were super excited to see their Grandma Lynda. Immediately they wanted to swim but we told them they had to wait until after we saw their cousins. Instead, Ethan ran upstairs to the attic where my childhood toys are stored. He looked the G.I. Joe and Star Wars (my brother Mike’s) toys in their boxes. We chose the box of legos to occupy his time. Their cousins, Uncle Mike and Aunt Olivia stopped by for an hour. After not seeing each other for 1.5 years they easily got use to each other and were running all over the house. My borther Mark joined us for a bit too.

After dinner outside, the kids were in the pool in no time. They enjoyed an evening swim which included rides on the pirate raft and rope swinging into the pool. They will be back in the pool tomorrow when their cousins are back.

It’s nice to arrive at my childhood home. I say childhood but I lived here well into my 20’s. There are lots of good memories that I look forward to my children creating their own in the same house. Tomorrow, we go nowhere but here.