San Diego with Small Kids

What a week we had in San Diego for our first family-of-5 vacation!

Going into this trip, Matt and I had low expectations for the flight over and the back-to-back park days that we had planned. We knew it was going to be a full trip, and knew that it might be a lot on our 3, 2, and almost-1 year olds, but knew that the fun we would have and the memories we would make would be totally worth it.

And worth it it was!

If there is one piece of advice I could give to parents of young kids thinking about traveling as a family, it would be to just DO IT!

Sure there's a lot of planning, and nap times and routines may not be exactly what they are at home, but the bonding you experience and the memories you make are so, so worth a few days of thrown-off diet and routine.

Our kids had a BLAST and so did we!

We've taken long-ish trips to three places in the last three years with our kids: Turks & Caicos, Maine, and now this trip, and every time we get home, we start talking right away about where we want to go next. 

Traveling with small kids is work, but it is FUN! And each time we've taken them on long flights and car rides, we are always amazed by how well they do. Kids are so much more flexible and resilient to change than us adults are. ;)

We packed in a trip to Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, and Seaworld during our week, and left the last day open to explore La Jolla with no set plans.

Each day this week, I'll recap one day from our trip. If you have any questions about how we planned out our days, or handled various parts of the travel with our kids, I am happy to answer them. Just comment below this post or shoot me an email. :)

{notesftn@gmail.com}

Day 1- Travel Day

The Clampetts Nelsens are off to San Diego! Mimi (Matt's mom) dropped us off at the airport which was a HUGE help! And she snapped this pic. :) Thanks, Mimi!

First flight for this little bit!

A little bright and blurry, but here we are!

If you followed our stories on Instagram, you saw that part of our flight where ALL 3 of our kids fell asleep, and Matt and I about died from shock and silent laughter. 

Y'all, I literally leaned over the back seat and sang three songs to Ryan and Natalie while rubbing their heads and they passed out. What?! And then Matt passed me my book to read. Definitely not what we planned for. 😂

(And side note, I highly recommend this book!)

Way to crush your first flight, sweet girl!

Taking the bus to the rental car place

The thing I love about toddlers is that they do what adults want to do.

We made it! The Pantai Inn was incredible! We are so glad we stayed here. The service was great, the breakfast each morning was delicious, the views were incredible, and the location was ideal for walking around La Jolla (and also only 25 minutes from Seaworld and the zoo). If you plan a trip to San Diego, look no further and just book a room here.

I love little people. Especially ours. ;)

Once we set our bags in our rooms, we walked right down to the water to explore. We wanted to jump straight to West Coast time, and we knew being outside exploring was the best way to get all of us to make it up past our East Coast bedtimes.

The kids loved the trees and all of the birds. It really felt like another world compared to what we see in Roswell, GA!

The sea lions camp out on this rock beach that was just minutes from our room. The kids had a blast walking on the rocks and being up close to them.

I mean these trees are definitely not what we're used to at home.

We made it all the way to 6:30 West Coast time (9:30 our time), and then crashed for the night.

Our first full day, we would head to Disneyland in Anaheim! I'll share all about that day tomorrow. See you then!