Our first trip as a family of four

Now that's it's been a good six weeks since I posted, I thought now might be a good time to come back to the blog. I'm not sure if all my brainpower is being used up between work and kids or what, but I haven't been able to get a post done lately. I'm sort of procrastinating on a work project, which is honestly when I do my best work in all other areas of life. Scheduling for Sunday school? Making travel arrangements? Planning for other social events? All generally completed very well when I likely should have been working on something else.

Checking out the airplanes before takeoff

Enough about that though...on to the fun stuff. Travel is my happy place. I'm sure this comes as no surprise to those of you who read on a regular basis, but I love everything about it- planning for it, going there, exploring new places, seeing things that we've never seen before (and might not see again), soaking up a different place- all good things. I'm happy to say that I think our family is finally starting to fall back into a regular travel rhythm. And our first stop as a family of four, by ourselves, was San Diego a couple of weeks ago.

Early morning beach trip

H and K have traveled other places before, but our other trips have been with our extended families. This trip was just for us. BK kept asking what we were going to do while we were there, to which I often replied, "whatever the four of us want to do." That's it. And that's exactly what we did.

Coronado- all in purple

San Diego treated us well. We went for a long weekend, flew out on a Thursday and came back on Monday, so we had three full days there. We rented an Air BnB in Ocean Beach and had a great time. The house was perfect for our family and we got way more than I bargained for- the sun room was a playroom and the house had a small backyard with lots of kid toys available for our little people who always need stuff to do. It was five-ish block from the ocean, which was convenient when our kids got up at 5:30am (7:30 Texas time) and we were able to head to the beach as soon as it got light outside. The Air BnB option is so good for our family right now, as we have way more space to work with, can grocery shop for some easy breakfast and kid food, and have separate bedrooms so we're not forced to go to bed at 7:30 when K and H call it a night.

H's favorite- the elephants

So what did we do? Friday we visited the San Diego Zoo. It is as amazing as everyone talks about and is expansive. To give you an idea, there are double-decker buses that drive around inside the zoo giving tours. We saw animals that I had never heard of before, and I think you can get closer to the animals than most US zoos typically offer. We didn't take the bus, but we did cover lots of ground. The kids' favorite part of the zoo? The pooping zebra. Seriously. They thought that was the funniest thing they had seen and just laughed and laughed about it the entire trip. To be fair, H also liked the elephants and giraffes, which were pretty incredible. Highly recommend if you're there.

The famous, and favorite, pooping zebra

After the zoo we needed H to take a little snooze, so we headed up to Escondido to visit the Stone Brewery. They have a great restaurant and beer garden where we enjoyed a late lunch and could let the kids have some space to run. I was also really happy they had wine and not just beer! H was a little grumpy after being woken up from his nap, but eventually made a partial recovery. We then headed back to the house, and because we hadn't done enough walking, took the kids on a wagon ride down to the store, then called it a night at some point.

Trying to cooperate?

The next day was more relaxed. We headed to Coronado to explore, about 20 minutes from where we were staying. Coronado is a great little area with lots of little shops and restaurants and is very walkable. We went there to essentially just hang out. The highlight for the kids was finding a playground we stopped at so they could play for a while- good for them and ultimately makes our lives easier too. We went to Hotel Del Coronado for a late lunch, then headed back home to watch the TCU game before going out to eat that night.

Hotel Del Coronado

One funny thing about our visit was that we all wore purple that day- obviously. I didn't even think anything about it, because at home no one would even give a second thought about a family being dressed in purple, but we got so many comments about how cute we all were matching in our purple. The matching thing did not even cross my mind. But now I know, not always the case in every place we visit.

The trials and tribulations of trying to get two kids to look at you

Our last full day in San Diego we conquered LegoLand. And when I say conquered, I mean it- we spent SIX HOURS there with a two and four year old! I was excited for us, as it was our first amusement park experience as a family. I was a little worried that K and H wouldn't be old enough to like it, but they really seemed to. There were rides they could ride without us, more Legos than you can imagine, awesome playscapes to explore, themed areas of the park and much more. It is expensive- we tried to make the most of the $350 entry for the four of us (H was free, for the record). 

K's first driving- was super excited that H wasn't big enough

K's first roller coaster with BK

On our final night we took the kids in the wagon down to OB Noodle House, a local institution. I will say, if you want a more sanitized/insulated version of San Diego, Ocean Beach might not be the place for us. We really liked it- the neighborhood had so much to offer and was so easy to get around, and was really accessible to everything we did. We had some friends warn us that we would probably see an eclectic mix of people, including people experiencing homelessness. For me, not that big of a deal...they are just other people who also happen to be in the area. But for others, you may not like it as much.

K and BK at OB Noodle House

This trip was exactly what we needed as a family- to get away and do random stuff that sounded fun to us. The kids were awesome on the flights, which is probably what prompted BK and I to decide we should do something like this every quarter. Not sure where our next visit will be, but there are plenty of places to explore. Like the good planners we are, we kind of mapped an idea of the year out- our ideal situation- but we'll see what happens.

BK in his most natural state

In less than two weeks, BK and I are off to start the celebrations for his 40th birthday! We'e headed to Napa by ourselves and then to Pebble Beach to meet some friends. Good times are ahead!