San Diego - Day 1 - Flight and Mission Bay

Well, as I've already mentioned, my sister moved out to California last month. It was a move without a lot of notice, and because we have the twins coming soon which precludes me from travel without an escort (no airlines let you have two lap infants), we decided to make a last minute trip out there before it becomes unsafe for me to fly. While the trip was exhausting (I'm tired all the time and travel with two toddlers 1 & 3 years old is extra tiring), it was completely worth it. We decided to make sure the girls got to bed at decent hours every night and had the opportunity to nap every day and boy did that make the entire trip MUCH better. Eleanor, who occasionally chooses not to nap had to be woken up from her naps almost every single day and still went right back to sleep at night.

Monday morning we got up early and headed to the airport. This was actually our first flight as a family of four...Chris has flown a ton for work and a friend trip last year and I took both the girls on a trip last summer, but the four of us hadn't gone together anywhere on a plane. Thankfully my mom was flying with us which made the trip a whole lot easier on me! Jane was attached at the hip to "Gamma" all week.

The girls got ring pops from a friend for their flight and Eleanor wanted us all to take a picture pretending to be asleep with our "pacis."

Eleanor sat quietly and watched movies the entire flight, and Jane watched for approximately 10 minutes and then was completely done.

On the second leg of our trip, Jane took a nap on Grandma in multiple positions for the entire flight. It was great because she was well rested once we actually landed in San Diego.

Once we got off, we had to take a bus to pick up a rental car. Eleanor kept her hands up in the air the whole way saying it was like a roller coaster, hah!

We drove straight to Eric and Lauren's apartment where we got to find out for the first time just what an awesome hostess Lauren is! We had never been to her place to stay ever since she has always lived so close to my mom's house, but were incredibly impressed! She had prepped dinners for us for the entire week, had her fridge stocked with snacks, fruit, hummus, and had even made me and Eleanor a birthday cake! On top of that, she had been yard saleing/thrifting for a month to find stuff to make our lives easier, like a high chair, swimmies for Jane, toys and books for the girls, a pack and play, and even a kite for the girls! It was incredible. We also love their apartment with floor to ceiling windows, a balcony, and tons of space.

We decided to head out to their local beach area - on Mission Bay, which is right around the corner from their apartment - they ride their bikes there. It was good to be outside after being cooped up on a plane all morning. Not only was this the best swimming of the entire week (save their apartment's pool) because it was bay water and therefore nowhere near as cold as the Pacific, but it also had arguably the most amazing playground we have ever been to. It was huge, built on sand, and the girls absolutely loved it.

It had a really unique swing designed for a baby and an older kid that Eleanor and Jane especially loved. They could swing together looking at each other and I thought they would never get off!

We finally pried them off the swing to head down to the water for a bit and it was gorgeous. I'm just in awe of how close they live to the water! We watched boaters, jet skiers, and kite surfers maneuver around the pay while we played at the edge of the water and in the sand.

From there we headed back to Lauren's apartment for dinner and a quick game of cards before heading to bed since we were all so exhausted from the travel and time change.