Getting Ready for Vacation

This Saturday we leave for Napa for a vacation with my side of the family. The other day Karina got her big gray backpack out, and Matthew put it on. The big pack looked so funny on him that I asked him if he was going to go on Amazing Race (we rented the first season, and he watched the final episode with us). He now frequently talks about how he is going to go on Amazing Race. Good stuff.
I've been getting advice from people lately on how we can have a successful road trip with a toddler. We have picked up some good ones. My favorite came from Ken and Sue Newcomb. When their daughters were young, they had a set-up where every so often the girls were allowed to open a package of some sort. In the package would be a book or a toy or a snack. The idea was that this broke down the journey. You know, in two hours you get to open the next package. Now, with the Newcombs the packages were supplied by the grandparents and they contained new things. I think with Matthew, though, we will just wrap some of his toys and books and let him open them up every so often. It will be just as much fun for him to open up one of his Curious George books as it would be to open up a new toy. We'll see how it goes.