Twas The Night Before Vacation

So this will be the first time we are going on a vacation since Elizabeth was about six months old and she is currently four now. We are headed to the beach for the week with my family. We are going to leave tomorrow night around 2 am with the hopes that the kids will sleep pretty much the entire way there. My kids have never been in a car more than an hour or two so a six hour car trip should be interesting.

There are a lot of considerations when you travel with children, especially if one of them has Autism. Will they be alright on the car ride to and from? Will they sleep in a strange bed in a strange room? Will I forget to pack something important for them? I would say that the single most important worry that I have is will Elizabeth eat down there. Elizabeth is in a very picky stage, she only eats a few things. She does not have any issues with textures or anything like that as some kids with ASD do but she will only eat a handful of things and they are mostly carbs.

We will likely eat breakfast and lunch in the condo and eat dinner out. Restaurants are always interesting, typically Elizabeth does pretty well. Except when she doesn't, and when that happens a bad time is had by all. Samantha is not always a complete angel either but at least her behaviors are kind of typical 2 year old stuff and we can usually redirect her pretty easily. We usually take the iPad's with us and that seems to distract them pretty well. The other issue with restaurants is that typically we order my kids either grilled cheese or chicken tenders with fries, and they cannot eat that everyday next week. I guess we are going to have to expand on our menu choices.

There are so many things to pack and so many things to get done before we leave and naturally I have put it all off so I only have tomorrow to get it done. I am also working an 8 hour day and will have to cook some type of dinner. Wish me luck!