I previously had a blog but it seemed like too much work. I would type knowing that no one read it but I still put too much effort into what I was trying to share. I want this time to be different. I want to share our life even if no one else reads it. Some day maybe someone will come across it and find something entertaining or helpful. You're welcome! :)
In all honestly, I don't expect anyone to care about what I have to say but it doesn't mean I don't want to offer stories to share anyway.
My first story will be about my day... my brother, his wife, two young children and a few teenagers are road tripping to Disneyland this week. It's about 15 hours straight through but with that many people, probably at least 20! My brother is amazing and is training to become a firefighter right now and they don't have a lot of money. Ideally I'd love to be able to take care of him until he is able to get a full time job but that's not the case. I was talking with my sister about ways to help without costing a bunch of money and decided a box of road trip friendly food would be an excellent gift. We spent the day shopping at 4 different stores (I knew we could have gotten it all at Fred Meyer but my sister wanted to check out Cash & Carry, Walgreens and the Dollar Store as well). Shopping is exhausting for me so by the time we finally had all of our ingredients, snacks and crafts I was ready to be done with the day. But of course it was time to assemble. This is what we deemed road trip friendly:
***Chocolate chip cookies - our mom's rendition of the Tollhouse recipe, it's delicious! And perfectly chewy as to avoid crumbs.
***Rice Krispie Treats
***Cereal trail mix. This was quite the production. It contains Rice Chex, Cinnamon Oatmeal Squares, Granola, MnMs, Peanuts and Mini Marshmallows. My sister had to go back to the store for more ingredients because the initial cereal-to-other-goodies ratio was off. Now it's a perfect mix!
***Jerky. Teriyaki and Brown Sugar & Honey flavors. I'm jealous!
***Pringles. Chips aren't that healthy but pringles are perfect road trip food. They store easily, won't smash and aren't greasy! And the containers are perfect for using for small bits of trash afterwards!
***Carrots and Celery
***Peanut butter and squeeze strawberry jelly. They'll have to buy fresh bread but that's ok.
***A case of bottled water and little packets of sorted mixes to flavor water. Like lemonade, fruit punch, berry something. I don't see the problem with plain water but my sister insisted on this touch.
We put everything into small individual sized snack baggies for optimum usage. I'm pretty confident they will love it!
We also made little craft kits for the kids. My niece is 5 and my nephew is almost 2. We got floaties for the pool (Cars and Spongebob for him, Princess for her), crayons, coloring books, and other crafty things that seemed age appropriate and not too annoying in the car! The idea came from a road trip we went on as kids. There were 4 of us and our mom was brave enough to load us into a small car and take us to San Francisco. We had our own containers with crayons, activity books and game boy games to keep ourselves entertained in the car. It was apparently effective enough that my sister and I both remembered and insisted on doing it for our niece and nephew. :)
Tomorrow my brother and his kids are coming over for their "surprise". I can't wait!
See, I warned you that my life isn't that entertaining but you read anyway didn't you?! :)
Until next time, good night!
May 22, 2010
