Traveling With Preschoolers

When we took our mini-vacation last week, I was concerned about potty breaks. Twelve hours of driving and four four-year-olds who are all potty trained... it could have been a disaster. I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
On our drive to our destination, we drove overnight. We didn't take our first potty break until roughly five hours into the trip. Believe it or not, we only made one more potty stop during the remaining seven hours. I think it's mainly because breakfast consisted of a Pop Tart in the car and a few sips of juice. The drive home was done during the day. I highly recommend keeping an atlas in your car. It was nice to be able to look at the atlas and know where the next rest area was. All the rest areas we stopped at were surprisingly clean, too.
Two years ago, we drove two days to visit my family in Ohio. Before the trip we splurged on a two-screen portable DVD player, so we could put one screen in the middle row and one in the third row of our Suburban. This thing has quickly paid for itself. It was great to have on our recent trip. We watched The Sound of Music, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Princess and the Frog, Mary Poppins and various Nick Jr. shows. Sure, my girls were restless during much of the 12 hour drive home, but having shows on to keep them entertained definitely helped.
I'm glad this trip was such a success... it makes me willing to embark on another journey in the future.