San Diego, Here We Come!

We're gearing up for a fun 5 day trip to San Diego this week, and we cannot wait!

This is our third time going to San Diego (see our recap post listing here, so it feels pretty comfortable for us. We'll be re-visiting some of our favorite places while there, since this is the first time we're going as parents...and we're bringing all 3 of our boys with us.

The last time we went was in 2010, before any of them were even a twinkling in our eyes, so to say this is going to likely be a DRASTICALLY different trip is a major understatement. Still, we're very excited!

The big boys are excited to fly in an airplane again, as it has been two years since they've flown. Cashel remembers our trip to Key Largo, but Kendrick does not, so this will be the first flight he actually remembers, as well as Ryan's FIRST flight!

Accommodations

While we've been pleased with our previous accommodations while in San Diego, this time around, we want to actually enjoy the trip even with kids in tow, so we booked a rental condo off vrbo.com, and we can't wait! Here are some pics of this gorgeous condo:

Planned Activities

If there's one thing we've learned from years of planning vacations with kids in tow, it's to be extremely flexible. On our 5 day trip (4 full days), we have only 2 major activities planned: The San Diego Zoo and Sea World. We'd also like to take the kids out to
Coronado for a picnic on Silver Strand Beach, check out Seaport Village, and visit Point Loma as those were favorites from previous trips, but we can squeeze those times into the other days as we get around to them, and if we don't make it there, then so be it. I've also heard great things about La Jolla, so we may check that out as well, keeping in mind that we only have 4 days, and we'll be traveling with 3 kids ages 5 and under, so we'll probably have to save some of that for another trip.

Planned Eating

Staying in the condo with little kids, the vast majority of our meals will be eating in or picnics. We learned that pizza or sandwiches at the park are GREAT with kiddos, but, of course, we want to eat out while on vacation too, and we've also learned some tricks to go along with that. We'll probably eat out one meal a day, and we've definitely got Phil's BBQ on the list, as it is just to DIE for bbq. Beyond that, we don't really have anything specific planned. Being pregnant this time around, I've also learned that I'm not always going to be hungry for what I have planned, so we have to sorta play it by ear.

Another GREAT trick for eating out while on vacation with kids is to just get takeout and eat it either at the park or at the condo. It's just not worth the hassle most of the time, especially when you're in a big city and end up having to wait to be seated. Another great option is a buffet, where they can try different things but don't have to wait for their food. Trying to eat out all the time with our kids in tow was the only downside to our trip to Key Largo back in 2015, but to say it was a "downside" underplays the part where it practically RUINED our vacation. It was awful, and it's just not something I want to repeat all the time. So...we get condos or rental homes and find places to eat that aren't inside busy restaurants with lots of noise and lots of other patrons to distract the kids (and places for them to run off and get lost or, you know, knock peoples' food off their tables. Don't ask.)


Stay tuned! I hope I'll be able to get a trip recap out within the year haha

Florida Day 1: Calm and Storms (February 8)

It's shortly before 7am here (shortly before 6am at home), and last night marks the first night that I haven't been worried about Kendrick on this vacation. He had a slight cough before we left, usually only when drinking and if I forgot to run the humidifier at night. Since arriving here, it has been constant at night and just unbearable. Yesterday we found a personal humidifier at Walgreens that has saved the day! Kendrick was still coughing occasionally, but it wasn't every half hour like the previous two nights. Hallelujah!

So I sit here feeling rested, with a cup of coffee while the condo is quiet and there are no little feet pitter pattering needing milk or diapers changed or anything else of me. It's calm. It's peaceful. The palm trees are swaying after a night of high winds and rain. I am sitting here near this lamp just journaling memories :)


Sunday was such a restful day, even if we didn't sleep all that fantastic the night before. We just hung out pretty much the whole day. The boys are in LOVE with the tiny little balcony here. They want to be out there first thing in the morning and the last thing at night.



We took the boys to the park in the complex...in shorts and t-shirts(!!). They LOVED it!

We pushed them in the swings for probably half an hour, which was just unheard of back home - even when the weather was nice. We had breakfast before and lunch after at the condo, and then worked on naps before too long.

After naps, we had to run to Kmart to pick up swim diapers and a few other things, then we went down to the pool and swam for an hour. The boys were BOTH just so blissful (although you couldn't tell from Kendrick's expression here).

We drive by this every time we head into town, and it is just gorgeous! I am just a tinge sad that we won't be chartering a boat this time around for some fishing and fun on the water, but it sounds kinda like a nightmare taking two little boys into the middle of nowhere on the ocean for a couple hours without the shore in sight. I keep reminding myself that one day it will be less chaotic and it's just for this short season in life that we are limited.

After the pool, and a non-nap for Cashel, we (being the crazy parents that we are) took two toddlers out for pizza! Upper Crust came highly recommended, so we had to try it out. And it was really very good! The boys? Yeah, they were not. I'm still fairly shocked that they didn't ruin anything with as squirelly and naughty as they were. I promise they didn't look so sweet and innocent, but there was just no way I was going to be able to take pictures, as it took all of Mark and I's strength to just keep the boys in their seats when they were writhing and screaming bloody murder. Eating out HAS to be the worst part of vacation when you have two toddlers.



We had promised the boys we would stop for ice cream on the way home, but they passed out as we were pulling out of the parking lot. Mark and I stopped anyway, and oh my goodness was this delicious! We got the special of the day and took home a half pint to share.

With the boys passed out and sleeping by 7pm, we cozied up in our pjs and watched a couple episodes of Scandal on Netflix before heading to bed for what will go down in history as "The Night of No Sleep". Kendrick was up at 12:30 and was coughing pretty much every half hour from then until 6am when I just gave up. Miraculously, he stopped coughing once we got up and was just running around making his cute little whispering sounds in awe of everything. Cashel was also very restless for Mark, since he hadn't even had a bite of pizza for supper (toddlers...ugh!) and was surprisingly starving and needed to eat and drink milk from 2-4am.