Make the Most of your Move | PCS Time Take 2 | My Hot Mess

We made this trip before. We went across the country - from the east coast to the southwest.

Saying goodbye to our home.

This time, we are going from the southwest to the east coast.

But this time -- with the children.

Yes. You heard that right. The first time we went across country we were blessed to have gone alone - minus the two dogs and cat that tagged along. But the boys (only had two children back then) were with their grandparents.

Hotel Life

My husband and I were able to travel and enjoy each other in the peace (except for the meowing and whining) while we visited adult stops along the way.

This time - not so lucky. Not that we didn't have the choice, but we figured we hadn't had a real family vacation in a while and decided to make the PCS move our vacation. Mostly to take the kids to Universal Studios to enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The boys are ALL about some HP.

The husband and I didn't want to make the same stops we did on the way to Texas so we had to look at the map and figure out some fun family friendly stops while ensuring we stayed within 7-9 hours of driving a day AND make it to North Carolina in our allotted time.

Headed out.

What we came up with was -  Houston, Pensacola, Orlando and then Fayetteville (home).

Why those places? Well, Houston because my eldest is a Texans fan and we thought visiting the football stadium would be awesome. Pensacola ... well, we thought we'd get to see the beach, but really it was a nice place to stop for the night because going all the way to Orlando would have been a horrible LONG drive. And Orlando, because of course, Universal Studios.

The longest of the drives was going to be El Paso to Houston. 10 Hours (without stopping) - why is Texas so BIG?! LOL I had the little girl, two dogs and the eldest to help me out with the littlest. Dad had the middle boy. Mostly to keep the boys from arguing with each other. Save both of our sanities for the multi-day trip!

We almost didn't get to do the Texans' stadium because when I emailed to ask how we went about getting tickets or reservations, they replied the next day stating they were sold out. I was completely bummed and emailed them back explaining our situation and you know what? They were amazing. They squeezed all five of us into the tour and the eldest (and the middle) enjoyed themselves thoroughly. I cannot thank them enough for letting us join in even though they were full.

How do you travel with animals you ask? VERY CAREFULLY. And it requires planning - which we are NOT good at. LOL We had to ensure every hotel we went to allowed dogs. We stayed at Marriott all throughout the trip as we wanted to grab points, use points, and well - the military gives us a per diem, we were going to use that per diem.

Every where we ate had to be fast food or a place where we could keep an eye out on the dogs. We either popped the back window for them or kept the car running while we ate. Though the latter was difficult because cars are smart now and won't let you lock the car doors with the key fob. We had to keep someone in the car, lock with the door locks and then climb out the back window (which would obviously have to remain unlocked) so that we could give the impression that the car was locked ... when really, anyone could have stolen our car with the dogs inside.

In Pensecola, we decided not to go to the beach so that we could get to Orlando a day earlier and actually enjoy Fourth of July at the park instead of on the road. We did stop at a pretty awesome Outdoor World (in which the dogs were allowed inside because Bass Pro Shops is pet friendly). The kids enjoyed the fish, ducks and other sights inside the store. It also gave us a chance to stretch our legs AND feel like we saw SOMETHING in Pensacola!

 We left in the morning to head to Orlando - still a 7-8 hour trip. Did I mention that the boys didn't know a damn thing about where we were going? All they knew was that we were headed to Fayetteville to live in our new home. They had no clue about Orlando.

 We decided to surprise them just outside the Orlando area - at a rest area. Yes, my middle child was NOT happy about "just getting shirts" in his box. LOL until big brother finally let him in on the surprise (since middle can't read ... LOL). My little girl was just excited to be out of the car seat! haha!

Four days at Universal and we had a blast. We enjoyed the Jurassic World area and even got to watch baby raptors get hatched and NAME ONE!

Yes, we were nerds and matched our outfits for our trips. Only mom and dad and the baby (who was forced) met Blue, the raptors. Our middle child wanted to see her so bad but chickened out last minute.

Of course, we spent the majority of our time in the Harry Potter world. We did get a small break in the fact that we got a special needs pass for our eldest (who's autistic) in which if the line was longer than 30 minutes, we just got to get a mark to return in one hour. So that helped us out big time with riding the newer rides and seeing more of the park.

 We also really enjoyed our oldest being 12 and sort of a sissy. We (as in my husband and I) thoroughly enjoyed the family member waiting/child swap area! We got to take turns on rides that the littles couldn't go on, leave the littles with the eldest when he didn't want to go on a roller coaster and get to ride multiple times since the kids all didn't want or couldn't ride. It was amazing.

Only bad thing? The afternoon showers. Florida has afternoon showers in the summer ... like every damn day. I totally forgot about this and didn't bring the ponchos. It wasn't that big of a deal, until it was the last day where it POURED and we got SOAKED. Tensions were on high and we tried to still have fun. The littlest had a blast in the water ... she didn't mind at all.

We made it to Fayetteville for my birthday ... in which we were awoken by the fire alarm. So much for sleeping in for my 35th birthday!

Needless to say though, we had a blast on our trip across the country. My biggest tip to y'all PCSing is to most definitely make the most our of your forced move and vacation. Each military member is given a set time allotment to move, so many days (depending on length/distance), given so much money to live in hotels and to EAT.

Take that and make the most of it!