CALIFORNIA 2018 - San Diego and James Gets Married

It is ironic that I am writing about our 2018 California trip as we just returned from another trip to California in 2019. Some day I will somewhat catch up! This California trip was to attend a wedding for Jason’s cousin, James Banks. Since we would be driving all that way, we decided to make a family vacation out of it. We went a few days early to visit the beach and Legoland. For a short video of the highlights of the trip, click here.

We left Sunday, July 15th at 7:00am. The boys did really well. The drive included car bingo, car bucks, movies, snacks, the Wii, a progress city banner, and many small activities and gifts. Jonah did awesome sleeping most of the time. He was six weeks old. That was a lesson to us for the future: if we can manage a road trip when a baby is six weeks old, that is the time to take them because of their sleeping. We stopped in Mesquite for lunch at McDonald's. The only real frustration of the drive was an hour delay of traffic in Primm. The audio book of choice for the drive was The Indifferent Stars Above (fascinating, tragic, horrifying)...so good!

enjoying a little World Cup on the drive

keeping an eye on the surf board while eating lunch

traffic in Primm

We arrived in Oceanside at our Best Western Plus around 6:00pm and checked in. Everyone was very excited. We had dinner near the pier at Zigzap Pizza. That night the excitement turned into hyper-ness for the boys, and Jason and I questioned whether or not we should ever take the boys on a vacation again!

On Monday, we left early for the beach near Oceanside Pier. Jason did some surfing to the left and the boys played in the water to the right. It was the perfect beach for them! They loved it! It was shallow water for a good distance, so it was safe to play in. They built sandcastles and played in the waves. Charlie was especially brave and loved jumping over the small waves. He would get so into it that he would eventually coast down the beach a little ways so we would have to keep a close eye on him so he didn't get lost. We brought our new half tent umbrella and that worked perfectly to give us some shade and to keep Jonah cool while he napped in his car seat. He did awesome sleeping most of the time that we were at the beach. We were at the beach from about 9:30am until 3:00pm. We also did some body boarding. Charlie loved it, but Colson didn’t love it as much. The water was super warm, warmer than Jason ever remembered California beaches being. Basically Hawaii-warm. Once you got swimming in it you weren’t cold at all. We brought lots of snacks and a cooler.

After the beach, we went back to the hotel, showered off, and then went for dinner at the pier. The boys wanted noodles so we found an Italian place to eat.

Our hotel room had two queen beds and they provided a pack and play for us. The boys shared a bed and we all would go to bed late while watching shows and movies on the TV. Jonah usually slept the first half of the night in the car seat, he would usually fall asleep in the car as were getting back from our activities. Then he would grunt so loud during the night! We were shocked he didn’t wake the boys up because it was very loud and irritating. He spent the second half of the night in bed with us as I would nurse him laying down.

Tuesday was  Legoland Day! Thanks to Amy Tuttle, we were able to get one hopper adult pass and get a child free because of a coupon she found randomly on her pretzel bag! We were excited about that. The hotel had a really good continental breakfast, which was one of the main criteria of our hotel search, that and the swimming pool and being near the beach.

After having breakfast, we arrived at Legoland around 9:30am. The weather could not have been more perfect that day! The morning started off a little misty. It was overcast the entire day with the morning having a little bit of wetness in the air that kept us cool. Throughout the day it was in the 70s; we were never sweating or felt too hot. Legoland was a blast and we were super impressed with the beauty of the grounds and the quality of the attractions. The food was also great. The boys loved it there and it truly did cater well to their ages. Charlie’s favorite ride was the driving school. We got him to go on a couple of roller coasters, but he quickly learned that he hated the fast roller coasters and never wanted to do them again. When I took them on his second roller coaster he screamed the entire time and yelled, “You lied!”  We made it work by taking advantage of the Parent Swap. The boys got to do several of the rides twice in a row because of it so it was to our advantage. We didn’t end up doing the water park because we didn’t even see or do everything in the regular park. But we did walk through it to take a look and it looked really fun and awesome. Honestly, it was probably a little bit on the cold side to do the water stuff. We opted not to do any of the water rides in the regular park because at that point we might have felt a little cold. In the water park there was this awesome luge ride that made a gigantic splash that looked pretty awesome and tempting.

(this was before their Star Wars Lego love began...but they still had a love for Darth Vader and Stormtroopers)

Jonah did an awesome job just riding and sleeping in the car seat and stroller. We only had to take him out a few times. We stayed at Legoland until past closing. It closed at 8:00pm and we probably left at 9:00pm, staying later than most people as the parking lot seemed rather empty when we left. We had a ball and would definitely recommend Legoland to those with children ranging in age from 3 to 11.

On Wednesday morning, we played in the hotel pool for a short time before checking out of the hotel at 11:00am to head to LA. We stopped in San Clemente (the town his grandparents used to live in) and had a picnic lunch overlooking the beach and the pier before surprising the Tuttle kids, who were driving down to Temecula to be with Robby‘s family while Amy and Robby attended the wedding with us. We visited and walked to the pier with them.

Then we made our way to Toluca Lake to stay with Alli, Duke, and Capri. It was significantly hotter in LA, in the 90s.  It was a long drive as we hit traffic. We even had to resort to having Colson pee in a bottle. After getting to Alli’s, we had dinner. Alli picked up some Indian takeout and we ate it with homemade rice. Charlie, Colson, Duke, and Capri shared a room and it worked really well. Jason and I were in another room with Jonah.

meeting Jonah

dressing up Jonah

On Thursday, we went to Travel Town to see the trains and met up with Uncle Steven and Spencer there. Jason pranked Steven by wearing a fake sleeve tattoo that Alli had. Jason had a great time seeing his reaction as Steven noticed it but played it cool. After revealing that it was fake Steven said he figured of all of the Gruber children, Jason would probably be the most likely. Jason thought that was quite funny. Uncle Steven treated us to a train ride and also a penny stamp for the kids (as well as a bracelet or a necklace for them to put their penny stamps in).

Spencer's had a cute conductor hat that Colson borrowed

back to Alli's for lunch

Later that day, we went to George and Nancy‘s hotel to surprise them at their pool. We had a fun time swimming there. After swimming and surprising George, Nancy, and Karl at the pool, we went back to Toluca Lake and walked to a yummy and healthy Mexican restaurant called Sharkeys.

On Friday morning, Jason, George, and Karl helped Alli fix a few things around her house. Amy and Robby arrived after leaving the kids behind with Robby‘s family in Temecula. We went to Point Dume Beach with everyone and had a ball. April and Max had spent the day in Disneyland so we didn’t see them until Saturday morning. On the way home from the beach, we picked up Jack-in-the-Box.

more Jonah lovin'

On Saturday morning, we all got Porto’s and then met up with Alan for lunch at Bob’s. He visited with us at Alli’s afterwards as well. Then it was time to get ready for the wedding. Alli’s babysitter came to be with Duke, Capri, Charlie, and Colson. This was an adults-only wedding. However, we had special permission to bring Jonah since he was a newborn.

The wedding was at the Houdini Estate and was absolutely gorgeous! It was very unique compared to any wedding that we had been to before. The ceremony was beautiful, entertaining, and educational. After the ceremony, there were cheese and fruit appetizers, as well as drinks. Then the bride and groom danced. For dinner they had food trucks with pizza and Mexican food. You could go up to the food trucks and order whatever and however much you wanted. It was wonderful! Then it was the balloon send-off and carnival games and dancing. It was quite the party! It was so fun and so beautiful. We were there until about 10:30pm.

it was very hot in the sun as we waited for the bride and groom

On the way home, we stopped at Salt and Straw to sample some ice cream and buy a few pints. When we got home, the kids were already in bed and we watched Person of Interest while we ate our ice cream.

The next morning we packed up and left around 9:00am. The boys did great on the drive home, Jonah slept most of the time again and the boys watched movie after movie. It was great! We hit an hour and 20 minutes of traffic due to a rolled over trailer 25 miles outside of Baker. We had lunch in Baker and got Jack-in-the-Box. We stopped for dinner in Cedar City and got Little Caesars that we ate at the park while I nursed Jonah. We made it home late and we were exhausted, but we had a wonderful trip and we were impressed with how well the boys did! It was encouraging and inspiring to make future trips. Jonah was at a perfect age for traveling where he was mostly sleeping and didn’t need a lot of interaction. Basically he just needed help sleeping, eating, and changing his diapers. (He was however, very tricky and needy at Alli’s house, needing to be held for a long while to be put down for naps.) The van also made a huge difference, giving us more space and providing the DVD system that saved us on such a long drive. We loved the memories we made on this trip!

their small gift for the drive home