How to travel with kids

This post is really for me to use to remember and for a few people who have asked me about our trip to TX. Jared can tell you that I seriously stress about travelling anywhere that requires an overnight stay. The only way for me to be calm is to be organized. For TX I had lists going for a few weeks that got condensed to these few pages the night before we left.

 These aren't easy to read unless you blow them up but basically I had a sheet for each bag we took. I got the main lists of what needed to be packed and anytime I put an item into a bag I wrote it down on the appropriate paper. I also went to the dollar store and bought a box of quart, gallon and 2 gallon zip lock bags. Those were fabulous. I was not being helpful to the environment but all the bags and a Sharpie were super helpful in organizing little things like bows, socks, etc.

Then I kept a running list of what still needed to be gotten/packed so when I went to bed the night before the trip everything on the first set of lists was crossed off (meaning it was in a bag) and there were about 5 items (Matney's pillow, medicine, etc) that were on a list to make sure they got packed as we walked out the door. It worked great. There wasn't really anything I packed we didn't use and I didn't forget anything we needed. I should totally type these for next time so that I don't have to ever think that hard again!