So Cal trip!

We recently took our first proper vacation since moving to California. Since we had planned to take Forest to Disney/LEGOland/Universal in Japan while we were living in Thailand, and that of course got canceled due to Covid, we promised him we'd hit up those destinations in Cali once Covid cleared up a bit. California dropped restrictions on June 15 and we left for Carlsbad/San Diego on June 20. The drive took us about 7 hours total with stops. Our good friends met us down there and we did the major attractions together.

Traditionally Juliet is not a fan of the car and we can't count on car naps so I was nervous to take on a lengthy road trip. She would do ok for about 40 minutes after each stop, but then would start to get fussy. We had a basket full of tried and true toddler entertainment (water wow books, magic marker coloring pads, fidget toys, puffy stickers, poke-a-dot books, etc) most of which she thought were nice projectiles to throw at her brother or just a fun thing to completely destroy. 

Juliet is also not a snacker, so this strategy doesn't work for placating her either. 

Honestly, this has been one of her more challenging traits. She hates to sit still and she thrives with interaction- so being strapped in rear-facing with independent activities is just not gonna fly for 7 hours. After spending about $100 on various car entertainment options, the biggest hit ended up being the happy meal toy from Wendy's that she got for lunch. That kept her entertained for a good 45 minutes! It was like an interlocking lego type animal thing. We tried to find a good Wendy's to stop at on the way home when she was really having a hard time but no luck, and the McDonald's toy did not cut the mustard. She fortunately did nap on the way down, which I was really grateful for because our resort room wasn't ready until 6 pm (check in was 4 pm). 

Other then that hiccup, we loved our resort, Marbrisa and would definitley recommend it to anyone going to LEGOLAND California. It had great spacious family style rooms (separate bedroom(s) and living room) with a full kitchen, wonderful pool and recreation facilities, and was walkable to LEGOLAND with it's own private back entrance. 

trail behind our resort that lead to the back entrance for LEGOland.

resort pool with waterslide and various other games and amenities

Forest loved the water slide and ping pong tables. We grilled out one night at the community grills and made smores at the community fire pits. Our two days spent at LEGOLAND were also super convenient as I could take Juliet back to the room easily for a good nap and then take her back to the park afterward. 

As you can imagine, Forest looooved LEGOLAND. He has been dying to go since he became obsessed with LEGO around age 4. That obsession has only deepened with age and it was fun to see his excitement and joy seeing all of the LEGO creations come to life. He also loves thrill rides so enjoyed the coasters as well. 

I mostly hung with Juliet and even though she loves thrill rides too, she was unfortunately too small or young for many of the rides the big kids wanted to go on. This lead to a lot of whining. 

Unfortunately, she's also at the tough age where she has zero patience or understanding of why you have to wait your turn in line, so that involved more tantrums and wallowing on the ground. I ended up just taking her on rides without a big wait, so we did the Fairytale Brook ride and carousel several times in a row while the big kids chose rides with longer lines or height/age restrictions. 

LEGOLAND also had some great playgrounds and displays where she could get out of the stroller and play and explore so we did a lot of that too. 

my covid baby- favorite Legoland attractions were the self serve hand sanitizer stations

I sure hope that Cargo ship doesn't sink...

On the second day, after riding a few more rides in the morning, we headed to the waterpark inside LEGOland. They have bigger slides for the big kids and a smaller splashpad with small water slides for the younger ones in the DUPLO waterpark. Well when we showed up to get our tickets the DUPLO area was unexpectedly closed so I decided to skip it for myself and Juliet and just Jon and Forest along with our travel buddies did the waterpark. Juliet and I napped and then went with Forest and our friends for just a few more park rides while Jonathan went back to the room for his own nap. 

We also hit up the world famous San Diego Zoo while we were in the San Diego area. It really is such an amazing park and the animals were all showing off (unfortunately my computer is having technical difficulties and won't upload any of the cool videos). 

Juliet really enjoyed herself. Unfortunately, we couldn't walk back and forth to the zoo so she had to push through nap time there. She will not nap in a stroller, only in a baby carrier, and only while the person carrying her stays moving. So I was charged with walking up and down steep San Diego hills with a 31 lb toddler strapped to my body. Luckily it was a cool day! But dang- it was a workout. When she woke up I texted Jonathan to see where the rest of the group was and they were just chilling with refreshments at the beer garden. Ha! Dad vacation vs Mom vacation, am I right? 

I took the kids to see some more animals while the men polished off their drinks. We hit the gift shop for an obligatory stuffie souvenir (Kangaroo for Forest and Tiger for Juliet) before heading home for early bedtimes.

We had one down day while in Carlsbad. We spent the morning at the resort visiting the playground and pool (where Forest made some new friends which always makes pool time easier for us!)  and then Jon and F met up with our friends at Encinadas Beach while Juliet napped in our room. 

This is part of the problem with the big age gap- we are always going in different directions, and since sleep schedules are a priority in our household, this means I often get left behind on adventures. But I get lots of reading time in! 

After Carlsbad we headed to Anaheim for a day at Disneyland. The plan was to book a resort close enough to walk like we had at LEGOLAND, but my heart sank as I realized I'd booked the wrong Residence Inn which was .7 miles farther away (1.2 miles from the entrance) so not as convenient for a midday nap for Juliet. We decided the plan would be for Jonathan (who isn't Disney crazy) to take her home for a nap at 1 and then come meet us for dinner at Downtown Disney and we'd all leave together. With a general gameplay in mind we decided to park in the parking garage and then realized the walk from the freaking parking garage was almost as far!! It was .8 miles and we paid $25 for it. So crazy! Normally they have shuttles from the parking garage, but COVID.... 

Disneyland was supposed to open at 9 so we got to the entrance at 8:30 and the rides were already running! We were stressed the waits would be long and zoomed to Galaxy's Edge to ride the Millennium Falcon, but it wasn't too bad! A 15 minute wait vs a 2 hour wait when we went at Disneyworld, plus a rider swap so Forest got to ride twice in a row. We had a boarding group entry for Rise of the Resistance later that day, which we hoped would be pre-nap time and pre Noon so that we'd be able to try for a boarding pass for the new Webslingers ride at California Adventure (you couldn't have a boarding pass for both at once and our park hopper passes wouldn't allow us to switch parks until 1 pm). 

After riding Millennium Falcon twice, we did the rider swap again for Thunder Mountain railroad and I walked right onto Winnie the Pooh with Juliet while I waited on Forest and Jonathan to finish. We swapped riding with Forest and Juliet since we really didn't want to wait longer than 15 minutes for a ride with little J. I ended up inadvertently taking her on Dumbo which was a 25 minute wait. I was not prepared! But I sang my way through the Sesame Street and Cocomelon catalogs to keep her happy and distracted and fed her an uncrustables sandwich when that started to fail. We also heavily relied on lollipops on our Disney day which was a big sticky hit! I mentioned that Juliet doesn't like snacks. The only convenient foods she will eat on the go are whole apples (DO NOT slice them- you've been warned) and uncrustable pinwheel sandwiches which I can only find at Target. 

By the last day of our vacation we were down to one apple and one uncrushable pack. Ha! French fries are another love language of hers so we did make sure to pick those up when available as something to keep her happily contented in the stroller. But lollipops were a surprise hit that got us through some rough patches of waiting.  

Our time for Rise of the Resistance was creeping up around 11 so everyone went to check out one more ride before heading back towards galaxy's Edge. We were perfectly situated to use our passes before noon which would give us a chance at Webslingers AND give Jonathan a chance to ride before having to leave for J's nap. Unfortunately, the ride closed down for like an hour which rendered both of those things impossible. We decided to have Juliet nap at the park if possible. 

After 30 minutes of rocking and swaying and walking a 30+ pound toddler in an Ergo carrier she finally fell asleep right as I was giving up all hope. It also coincided with our 45 minute window to board Rise of the Resistance. We were able to get F a rider swap pass to ride with me once they were finished but I still had a time stamp on when we could do this by. Normally Juliet sleeps 40ish minutes on the go but this nap was still going strong when our rider swap window was expiring. We just went up to the workers and explained and they said to come back whenever she was awake and no longer attached to me. Phew! 

I found a little scrap of shade tucked away at Galaxy's Edge where I let J nap. Soon a I was joined by 2 other families with napping toddlers. Ha! They all appreciated my white noise app on my phone and one of the dad's was walking around with a spray fan to help cool off the baby wearing moms. It was actually a nice little moment on human connection after the long covid slog of the past 1.5 years.  

We decided to head to Pirates since the line was 25 minutes long and figured she'd certainly be awake by then. Wrong! She was still snoozing hard when we got on the ride but she woke up just as we were plummeting down a river and suddenly were surrounded by pirates. I can only image what she thought was going on upon waking! 

After Pirates we switched off and I took Forest to Rise of the resistance and then Star Tours before meeting the rest of our group at California Adventure park to close out the day. 

The big kids rode the Guardians of the Galaxy ride (Forest's fave of the trip) while the little kids headed to Little Mermaid and then we all met up for ice cream. By that point the Perry Family was ready to grab some dinner and call it a night, but our friends stayed to cash in on shorter wait times as closing time neared. I was proud of Jonathan and Juliet hanging on until 6 pm! 

The next morning, Jonathan said his usual 'I'm never going to Disney again.' but at least he didn't say 'I'm NEVER going to Disney again.' Of course, the never become more emphatic as Juliet cried and whined the entire way home and didn't sleep a wink. Zero fun. But with air travel being even more of a nightmare right now, and being strict about 2 year olds wearing masks the entire time, I think we will be sticking to road trips for the foreseeable future. So either she miraculously becomes cool with the car... or we all miraculously become chill with hearing a baby cry for hours on end... or we all just suffer through it...or we all just stay home until she's 5!