We live in Texas and we drive to northern Utah to visit family about once a year. We went last November with all 5 kids, but none of them were toddlers or crawling. We do have a portable DVD player for the car now, and it is wonderful, but we didn't always have that. If you will be driving back to visit family much, you might consider such a thing a good investment.

We used to live in California and drive to Utah (much shorter, but if there is anything uglier to drive through than the northern Nevada desert, I don't know what it is) without any kind of media entertainment. Anyway, if you decide to drive, one thing you might try for your 2 year old is a little walkman type tape player. You can get one at Target for $5 and if you don't have tapes, record some CD's onto tapes. My kids love having their own music to listen to and we save them exclusively for long trips.

Where in Utah are you? I grew up in Logan and went to college at the U--where I met my DH. I miss the mountains and my family, but I have really gotten used to not having any snow! Winter never was my favorite time of year.

Lauralyn