San Diego

A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of vacationing in San Diego with my cousin Jennifer, her husband Chris, and their 4-year-old son Aidan. We rented a cute little condo that was only steps from Mission Beach. It was worth the extra money to be so close to the beach because when you vacation with little kids, the less you have to haul them in and out of their carseats, the better! We also knew that we wanted to eat our meals at the condo instead of taking the little heathens out to restaurants three times a day. That was a wise choice on our parts, and we each took turns cooking (except for my husband...he did the dishes instead).

The condo itself was very nice, but tiny. Jen and her family arrived about 6 hours before we did because we had to delay our trip for half a day while I tried out for some dumb game show, and when I spoke with her shortly after they got there, she said "Well, we're all going to get to know each other really well this weekend!". And boy was she right. The downstairs was basically a tiny family room with a couch too small for 4 adults to sit on (although we did anyways), a cozy kitchen, and a bathroom. The upstairs had 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. Check out this picture of the downstairs...

That's it folks! But as you can see, it opened up onto a nice little fenced off patio where we could sit outside while the kids played.

Luckily, we are all very easy-going people, so we got along quite well while we were cooped up together for 4 days! The biggest downside was the fact that there were only 3 bedrooms. Since Aidan is older and less flexible with his sleeping arrangements, he got a room to himself. Jen and Chris got one room with bunkbeds (!). Conner shared a room with Raf and I. Now, we are not used to sharing a room with little C, so needless to say, the three of us didn't get as good of sleep as we usually do. But neither did Jen and Chris because they had the luxury of being closer to the partiers next door who stayed up late every night! The only person who actually got some decent sleep was Aidan...the little punk!

The first night we got there, we arrived really late and put little C to bed right away in a playpen in our room. Raf went to bed shortly thereafter while I stayed up until 1am chatting with my cousin. When I finally decided to go to bed, I was creeping around our dark room trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake little C. I crept into the bed, carefully peeled back the covers, got underneath and breathed a sigh of relief when I realized I'd made it! Then I casually glanced over at his playpen, only to realize that he was standing there silently, just watching me! It totally freaked me out! Then I felt embarrassed...like he was laughing on the inside at what a lame-o I am! This is how the next 4 nights went as well. He would wake up every few hours, make a noise to wake us up, then we'd have to tell him to go back to sleep. One night, I woke up and desperately had to pee (I'm pregnant after all). I sat there for a few minutes debating my chances of making it to the restroom and back undetected by the little watchman. I finally decided it wouldn't be kosher to pee the bed, so I silently got out of the covers, dropped down to the floor and army-crawled to the door. I had just started to open the door when the little sucker started crying. I got up from the ground, brushed myself off, whispered for him to "bite me" and went about my business before returning.

And of course, nap-time was a disaster. He decided that he couldn't sleep in the room unless we were in there, so we were lucky to get an hour-long nap out of him, after he cried himself to sleep for an hour first.

But amazingly, he was in a GREAT mood the whole time we were there. With his red, tired eyes, he played for hours on the beach, obeyed us with a good attitude, and quite thoroughly enjoyed the trip.





This picture is a prime example of how Aidan and Conner played together for the duration of the trip...

:) Aidan took every toy Conner tried to play with and Conner gave us disgruntled looks and avoided him like the plague!

We went to Seaworld one day! Aidan really enjoyed it, Conner just kind of went with the flow, and the dads drank to get through the day (yes, they sell alcohol at Seaworld...it is like part-owned by Anheuser Busch). It was a good day. The kids went without naps and did surprisingly well.



My favorite picture from the trip...

When they first got to San Diego, Jen, Chris and Aidan went down to the beach. Jen and Chris were distracted by the beautiful scenery and it took them a minute to notice that Aidan had fallen into the ocean and was being swept away to sea. When they finally pulled him out, Jen could hardly contain her laughter enough to comfort the poor, terrified child, and Chris just took pictures instead! It was a real feat to get the kid back down by the water, but he finally made it almost to the edge one day...


The guys braved the frigid ocean and went boogie-boarding while Jen and I wrangled the kids on the beach.



I wore the ridiculous nonnie hat during every trip to the beach and she made fun of me every chance she got. We were pretty much the hottest girls on the beach. Who wouldn't want a pregnant chick wearing a Kentucky derby hat or a lady with a couple of kids hanging off of her?

Aaah, fun times! Hopefully we can make it a tradition and go back once a year.