10 Essentials for Packing for Vacation (with Kids!)

I don’t consider myself a highly organized person. I think if you saw my house before I clean it, you’d agree. But the feedback I often get at work is how highly organized I am, how I have incredible attention to detail. That’s fair! I know it’s true!

Last year when we went to Disneyland, my husband’s mom remarked on how organized I am, especially when it came to packing for our kids. Truly, I wish I could wear that like an Olympic medal. Yes, I have a silver medal in packing for children.

I often make recommendations to my friends and family for things I’ve bought and use to make packing a little bit easier. I don’t believe in buying things willy nilly (although I’m totally guilty of falling for TikTok hype and ending up with 4,000 gadgets I don’t need) because I have enough clutter as it is.

Here are my 10 essentials for packing for my kids.

1. Day of the Week Packing Cubes

These are my absolute favorite thing to use when packing, even for short weekend trips. I lie two sets out for my kids and start just lying their clothes down on top. It helps me plan exactly what we need and keeps me organized. The visual aspect helps so much too. I previously used a set like this, which is also great, but they were a little too small for my 10-year-old’s clothes. (Perfect for babies and toddlers!)

2. A First Aid Kit

The thing about traveling with kids is that… anything can happen.

One time while on a road trip to Idaho, my son, who I think was 4 or 5 at the time, fell off a curb while at a gas station. He absolutely gashed his knee! It was bad. I only had a few band-aids in the car and they weren’t big enough. My husband had to run into the gas station, buy the extra expensive band-aids, and come back, all while my son cried in his car seat. Awful.

Ever since, I have kept a thoroughly stocked first aid kit in my car and I travel with a mini version in my purse or backpack at all times. I even took this into Disneyland, a place that is well known to help any first aid situation immediately.

3. Clear Zipper Pouches

I love these pouches for compact packing; think swimsuits, underwear, bras, you name it. They just help keep things a little tidier; everything has a place, a home, a cubby. They also make it easier to see what’s inside. Is this my toiletry bag or my swimsuits?

4. A Mini Diaper Bag

I’ve written about it before, but I love this mini diaper bag. It’s cute, it fits everything you need for being out-and-about, and if it gets trashed, it’s not like you brought your deluxe diaper bag with you. This has gone with us on road trips, to Disneyland back, to daily errands… everything. It’s a perfect little diaper bag: enough room for a pack of wipes, 2-3 diapers, hand sanitizer, a few band-aids, and diaper cream. Now that both my kids are out of diapers (what a relief), we no longer have a need for this, but it could totally work as just a hygiene kit for the car.

5. A Travel Potty

Speaking of potty training, until my kids are like 5, I don’t leave the house without a training potty. I love this one because it folds flat, so it fits underneath my seat. It comes with bags to put inside that catch everything. Easy to use, pretty sturdy, and folds small? Heaven in a potty.

6. A Travel Toilet Seat

Another potty training one, I love this fold out potty seat! Perfect for making it into gas stations, restaurants, everything… and it folds up tiny. I carry a pack of sanitizing wipes to give it a quick wipe down after use. It goes back into the carrying case and we’re on our way. Now I don’t have to try to hold my 35 pound toddler over a nasty toilet.

7. A Med Kit

Separate from the first aid kit, I like to keep a selection of individually wrapped meds in our first aid kit, car, and travel stuff. They just make me feel better, I don’t know. This selection is basic: Imodium, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, antacids, the usual suspects. Alongside your must have medications, these ones are crucial for travel — from headaches to sour stomachs. I also like to bring a few packets of kids chewable Tylenol and Motrin.

8. A Toiletry Kit

I like to take travel size items with us, because I hate spending money. This set is so cute and chic. (And full disclosure, it’s my number one seller on Benable.) The bottles are flexible, making them easier for kids to use, and it comes with a decent variety of items.

9. Compression Packing Cubes

Remember what I said about liking to pack everything as compressed as possible? These compression cubes help maximize space and they’re not overly expensive. I bought a new set for our upcoming Hawaii trip so both my husband and I could use them.

10. A Foldable Duffel Bag

If your souvenir shopping gets away from you, don’t worry about shipping. This duffel bag folds really tiny, so I always bring it on trips for anything extra we get. It can become an additional checked bag. It can become your dirty clothes bag. The uses are endless and it’s better than buying an extra bag wherever you are.

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Packing is something I always dread with kids. When my oldest was young, I remember thinking I’d nailed it when he was about a year old… only to realize, halfway through our road trip, I had forgotten the pack’n’play. You know… the thing he slept in. It’s gotten easier as my kids have gotten older, especially now that they’re to the age that if we need anything, we can simply buy it quickly. I love having a tried-and-true system and this list outlines my system: keep things organized, tidy, and tightly packed.

3 Tips for Thanksgiving Day Travel with Kids

Thanksgiving is a stressful time of year, as we have established. If you didn’t catch my post about self-care and self-kindness during the holiday season, go ahead and give yourself a break from manic Thanksgiving preparations to read this.

If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, things can get even more stressful. And if you’re traveling with kids? Forget it! It feels like you have 4 million things to do. Plus, you have to pack up what feels like half the house to take along. What if they get sick? (They will get sick. Or you’ll get sick. Fun!)

We’ve traveled for Thanksgiving before and for anyone planning their first Thanksgiving traveling, I wanted to share a few tips and tricks. Before that, however, here are a few others posts I have about travel prep and packing with kids:

• Make packing a little less stressful with these tips.

• Want to pack some masks for self-care? Here are my suggestions.

• Learn to maintain your skincare routine while traveling.

• All about Autumn road trips.

• My post about taking a toddler to Disneyland (and relevant for all travel experiences!).

• Have to work over Thanksgiving? Here are some tips.

Hopefully, you find a few gems among those previous blog posts. Now, let’s talk traveling this Thanksgiving!

1. Monitor the Weather Leading up to Thanksgiving.

If you’re traveling a long distance and might experience inclement weather, be prepared. Get your oil changed beforehand, check your tires, and have an emergency kit just in case. If you’re flying, keep a close eye on weather at any of your stops and your destination.

When I was young, it felt like there was always some huge storm at one major airport that made Thanksgiving travel way more difficult. Being prepared and aware beforehand is much easier these days, so stay mindful. If you’re driving, remember that if conditions look bad enough, it’s ok to postpone driving—or cancel.

2. Break Your Trip Up.

If possible, the number one piece of advice I always give to parents traveling with kids for the first time is to break the trip up! An example is that when Danny and I drive to Idaho now, we usually stop in Bend. It’s perfectly doable to drive to Idaho in one day; it’s 9 hours, give or take depending on how many stops we make. However, with a child, we’ve found that having a stop makes it a much more pleasant trip for us.

For Thanksgiving last year, we did this for the first time and it made a huge difference in how we felt when we got to Idaho! Plus, we got more time to be with family.

3. Find Ways to Make Your Trip Fun.

Here are a few things we do, besides splitting our trips into two parts, to make road tripping over the holidays fun:

• Get a DVD player (or holder for an iPad!) for your little ones. I know many aren’t fans of this, but let me tell you… that really saves us every time we go for a long drive.

• Stop along the way and do something fun. Whether you get lunch at a new, fun place, stop to take a few photos somewhere exciting, or just get out to walk around a Wal-Mart, breaking up the trip this way helps a lot. Plus, you can schedule convenient bathroom breaks this way.

• Pack a special snack. We also pack one of Forrest’s favorite treats (honestly, it’s usually the yogurt he eats every single day, but it’s still his favorite thing) to have midway through the second day. It gives him something exciting.

• Download a podcast you’ve been wanting to listen to. Danny and I always try to find a long form podcast to listen to for our drive; when we went to California in 2017, we listened to You Must Remember This about the Charles Manson murders and, honestly, it’s one of the most memorable parts of the trip for me. It helps pass the time so much faster!

Those might not be things you would do, but try to think of a few ways to pass the time and make the trip enjoyable for you and your children. Traveling over Thanksgiving can be really exciting, but daunting, especially if you’re a new parent. You’ve got a million things to think about, as well as family relationships to contend with. Find ways to treat yourself well, laugh with your family, and have fun.

Have tips for Thanksgiving travel? Send them my way!

Travel with Me: Rockaway Beach, Oregon

I’ve had an Oregon travel guide on my blog list for ages, but I haven’t gotten around to actually working on it. Then, I thought: maybe I should try to visit all these places before I write a guide for them. I mean, it’s been a while for some places. 

So I decided it would probably be easier to do short travel guides for now, then work my way up to a big one. 

Danny and I just got back from Rockaway Beach. Three years ago, when Forrest only 9 months old (was he ever that small? And yet, has it really been that long?), we visited Rockaway Beach with Danny’s family and had a blast. We did that again this year. I hope this becomes a tradition for a very, very long time because it’s really fun. 

1. Amenities

So you’ve decided to visit Rockaway Beach! Exciting! First things first, decide where you’ll want to stay. Rockaway Beach is itself a very small town (and a rather large beach); the town has less than 2,000 residents and is made up primarily of hotels, some shops, and condos. There is kind of a boardwalk, but the main street is also dominated by a set of train tracks. 

We usually stay in a rental home, either through VRBO or HomeAway, on all of our vacations; it’s generally just more affordable in the long run. This trip was no different.

There are AirBNBs, large condo complexes, and hotels in the area, all of which seem nice (or nice in a middle-of-the-road, you-won’t-spend-much-time-here kind of way). Everything is within walking distance to the beach, so you don’t have to worry about that if you’re staying in Rockaway itself. If you choose to stay in Garibaldi (the next town over towards Tillamook), you will have a longer drive, as Garibaldi itself is a small bay. There are also campsites nearby if camping is your thing, as well as lots of lodging options in Tillamook. Further down the coast, Lincoln City is only about an hour away, but has a ton of rental house options and more. If you decide to go north, Manzanita and Nehalem Bay are also great little towns with some shops and hotels. Manzanita in particular has a lot of condos as well as beach access.

I highly recommend looking at the VRBO options for Rockaway Beach though; there is nothing quite like being able to watch the sunset over the ocean or sit outside with your morning coffee listening to the sound of ocean. What an incredibly way to start the morning! This is the condo we stayed in and we loved it; the back patio area had a ton of seating, plus two sand areas that were perfect for Forrest to play in if we just wanted to relax and not worry about him running into the ocean every 5 minutes. We had our own private path down to the beach as well.

Even for a short trip, I’m a big fan of using rental homes, as you can save money on food and it’s not that much more expensive than a hotel—plus you ultimately save on food, as you can cook meals yourself.

2. The Beach

Being right on the beach has so many benefits. 

The Kite Festival

While we were there, there was a large kite festival happening most days. As well, kites are incredibly popular anyway. The Oregon Coast is notorious for being windy. Our condo happened to be in prime seating for this festival though; everyday, there were probably 10+ huge kites right beside our condo. We could sit on the back patio and watch them. Forrest was obsessed. 

This was probably one of the best parts of our trip is seeing those kites. When I say they were huge, I mean they were big; probably 20-30 feet long each and shaped like different animals. There were sharks, whales, cats, cartoon characters, sting rays… you name it! 

This kite festival happens every late July and early August, so I highly recommend visiting then. 

Even if you can’t make it for the festival, there are also always kite flyers out. Buying even a cheap kite on your way there will make it super fun, but if you can spring for a more expensive one, again, I say go for it. We got Forrest a small kite that he spent hours playing with; it was total worth the expense because he really enjoyed it. 

Other Things to Do

If you’re right on the beach, you can literally do anything: read, embroider, knit, or whatever; build sandcastles; go for long walks; search for starfish and sand dollars; and much more. You probably don’t need me to tell you those things.

We tried skimboarding and boogie boarding, both of which were fun for the younger people in our group. (I did not personally try them. Danny wiped out bad!) 

We had the most fun just relaxing, which is what we needed. I got a lot of writing done and Danny read. But if you’re more active, there are still tons of activities to try, even though the water is much colder up north. 

3. Places to visit

Tillamook Creamery

We love visiting Tillamook, but as a warning, it is crowded. No matter the day or time of year, it is almost always crowded. It’s often even more crowded when the weather isn’t good during the summer, as visitors flock there instead of the beach. The day we went was foggy, rainy, and overcast. Needless to say, it was crowded.

We still had fun though. We briefly checked out the factory tour, but the factory wasn’t actually operating that day so there wasn’t a lot to see. We perused the gift shop and then treated ourself to some food and ice cream. You can check out the entire menu here.

We ordered the Classic Mac n’ Cheese (“A creamy blend of Tillamook Medium & Sharp Cheddars. Topped with crushed buttery herb bread crumbs”) and a small salad (“Seasonal greens, tomato, red onion, mushrooms, house made croutons, and Tillamook Sharp Cheddar. Tossed with our creamy Tillamook Sour Cream herb dressing”). I know that ordering a salad probably doesn’t sound very fun, but I was in a mood where I needed some vegetables—and the salad was good! We got Forrest the kids grilled cheese which was massive and came with fries, like most kids meals. He really enjoyed it. The mac n’ cheese was really delicious; very cheesy without being overly goopy. We demolished it, along with the salad; the salad was actually one of my favorite things I ate and it was just their standard house salad!

After lunch, we got ice cream to share; we got a scoop of cookies n’ cream, chocolate swirl, and butter pecan. Chocolate for Forrest, cookies n’ cream for Danny, and butter pecan for me. All three were excellent; Tillamook ice cream really is some of the best in the world.

I treated myself to a Tillamook sticker for my car, as well as a brick of smoked cheddar (my favorite cheese). Forrest picked out a hat which has nothing to do with Tillamook, but it made him happy and I am a sucker.

Rockaway Beach

Most of our days we spent in Rockaway itself. There are some fun places to visit aside from the beach.

One place were were very excited to revisit was Pronto Pup, less of a restaurant and more of a food stand. I have really nostalgic memories of this from our trip three years ago; however, I felt like it wasn’t nearly as good! Pronto Pup is essentially a corn dog restaurant and I do love a good corn dog. My memory of it is being one of the best corn dogs I ever ate, but I feel like they either changed something or my memory is totally faulty. However, Forrest really enjoyed visiting Pronto Pup (including riding the big corn dog outside) and ate his entire corn dog.

In Rockaway, there is also Flamingo Jim’s, a large gift shop that is really fun to look through. Like most small, tourist towns, almost every shop sells the same stuff (little gifts and trinkets, kites, flip flops, sweatshirts, and coffee mugs). However, as much as we try not to buy stuff like that, we did have fun looking.

There are two competing ice cream shops in Rockaway: Schwieterts (which also has a location in Manzanita) and Sea Breeze, a more kitschy gift shop that also sells salt water taffy and gifts. I personally prefer Sea Breeze; you got more ice cream for cheaper, and if you got salt water taffy, the owner tried to guess the weight before you put it on the scale. (He was almost always right!) Both sell Tillamook ice cream, however, so you can’t really go wrong!

There are a few restaurants in Rockaway Beach. We only visited one: the Beach Bite/Dos Rocas, two-restaurants-in-one. One is a more classic diner with seafood options and the other is a Mexican restaurant. The menu is double-sided, so you can order whatever. We visited with Forrest and he got a quesadilla (which I only got him to try by saying it was “like a grilled cheese”, his newest obsession). I ordered the Bite Burger and Danny got the mahi mahi fish and chips. We really enjoyed everything we got, even if it was a little expensive. In a small tourist town, most of the restaurants are going to be a little pricey, but it was nice to have a break from cooking one day of our trip!

On Monday, we visited Manzanita, a town north on the coast by about 20 minutes (but really only like 7 miles from Rockaway on the beach itself). It was nice to drive through some of the smaller towns along the coast; Danny and I both love talking about architecture and homes as we drive through towns and beach houses are so gorgeous. Manzanita is a fun little town with a main street that runs directly towards the beach.

First things first, we visited Manzanita Coffee Shop for some coffee and treats. I got a plain coffee and a maple/chocolate donut to share with Danny and Forrest. Danny’s mom bought a cinnamon roll muffin that was delicious and I will absolutely try to replicate. The coffee was really good as well.

Then, we explored all the shops. There were some really fun ones. I found a dress that was covered in a periodic table print—it was, however, $80. Again, like most tourist-y shops, the prices were a little wild. However, it was fun to look. We specifically had fun in Toylandia, a toy shop where we bought Forrest a Buzz Lightyear kite (which was cute, but not the best for actually flying a kite) and a mini kite (which actually worked quite well).

We originally planned to eat lunch at the Winery at Manzanita, but all of us were still full from our treats, so we decided to wait until later. However, their food looked very good and they sold s’mores to roast over fires on the patio.

Notes

There were a few things I wanted to do that we didn’t get around to. Unfortunately, Forrest got sick on day two or three of our trip (I noticed him slowing down and being really cranky, then he was awake all night with a fever); once he started feeling better, I got sick. We headed home a day early so I could recover before diving back into work. (Confession: instead of resting, I’m writing this post the afternoon after we got home. I’m sorry, Danny.)

We wanted to visit Astoria, which is a place I’ve heard so much about, but never really went! We also wanted to take Forrest to the aquarium and never got around to it. Lincoln City has outlet shops that I always love to visit. We just never got around to it, plus hanging out with the sound of the ocean felt much better for me and my mental health at the moment. I did find myself getting cabin fever after a few days (what can I say? I’m very easily bored!)

There’s always next time, after all!