Little Ones Melt Down Quick When Hungry or Thirsty

It did not take me long, as a young mom, to figure out that the boys would literally melt down if they started to get thirsty or hungry. As a military family with several duty station moves, I learned early on to have drinks and snacks on hand. This ranged from formula and baby food on up to toddler and then kid foods.

I liked the quick pack cooler lunchboxes in most cases, since I always had a lot of kid gear to carry, but for longer trips, I also used the lightweight but roomier mini coolers.

When the boys were old enough to tote, I got them insulated lunchboxes which worked great as miniature coolers and gave them some responsibility and a chance to help out. Plus, they had easy access to their own juices and snacks.

Day Trips Were Cooler with Coolers

Our family has always done a lot of site seeing, so we got some mid-range sized coolers to carry along for picnics. We’d pick up a few treats now and then at attractions or stop occasionally for lunch or dinner on the road, but generally we had our drinks and sandwich makings in the car in the cooler.  

Having our food and drink on hand certainly came in handy when we were in isolated areas with few or no options for snacks and also was really nice the few times when we got in bad traffic back ups. There is nothing worse than sitting in a sea of hot cars other than being hungry and thirsty when sitting there and waiting and waiting.

Coolers for Vacations

I’m a really good cook, and the family prefers homemade over restaurant meals in almost all cases. With this in mind, we would select lodging with kitchen appliances or rent vacation homes where we could do all or part of our meals from scratch. We could also enjoy local product in various areas or fresh seafood at the beach.

I found the larger cooler with wheels and a pull handle worked best, since loaded coolers can get pretty heavy. I still favor the pull along coolers, although my boys can handle the large coolers now and do carry those in these days.

Over the years, we have had all kinds of fabulous meals on vacations and most of them homemade. We always ate healthier, had more variety, and saved a lot of money. Meals that ran $100 or more out in town might cost $20 or less made at the rental. That meant more money to do fun things on vacation like white water raft or a hot air balloon ride over the waterfalls.