In March of 2009 we received news that our family would be moving from Fort Meade, Maryland to Fairbanks, Alaska. We were extremely excited for our new assignment, considering we were trying to be stationed in Alaska since 2002. One day in the near future I will write about how God truly worked in our life's during that time. We truly saw His hand in everything that had occurred from the time we found out to our arrival in Alaska (believe me we saw Him before & now but really saw His work during the move).
Once we decided that we were driving to Alaska, I instantly thought about what things I could plan for the kids to do in the car. So from the time we found out in March I started preparing. Most of the items I was able to pick up from yard sales, or clearance sections at stores. This is just the list of items for the car I had gotten for the two blessings to keep them occupied:
*about five coloring books each (used only for the trip & they chose the books)
*crayons (and also some extra just in case)
*15-18 movies that I purchased on clearance (the blessings could only watch them on the trip, no viewing of movies until the day we left Maryland)
*about 50 books for my daughter (all from yard sales and yes she read about 30 of those books)
*leapsters
*DS game systems
*laptops (learning laptops for children)
*toy cars for son
*toy dinosaurs for son
*paper to color on
*cd player for daughter
*an adventure book for things & places we visited or saw
*blanket (the blessings had more fun hiding in their blankets then anything else, I believe boredom may have been setting in ;)
For some reason typing out my list does not seem like a lot but trust me IT was A LOT!!! Once I purchased the items I would put them in a "special" bag designated for our trip. The kids had a lot of fun choosing items, and because they could only use it for our trip they were more eager for the LOOOOONG trip.
Before we left Maryland we decided to take a whole month to get to Alaska, so we were not in any hurry, so we took our time driving. We did stop at all the Welcome Centers in each state, and drove about ten hours a day, depending on where we were heading. The movies really helped keep their attention for about two hours, and then they were ready to color, or their DS games or whatever else they had.
Stay on the lookout for our "Trip Across The Nation and Then Some"
As a relatively new Army wife, I can't wait to read about the rest of your move! I have to say that the driving cross-country with two small children is THE thing that worries me the most about PCSing... I'm all about the adventure of living new places and making new friends, but the drive!??! Oh, my goodness!
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