When I was pregnant with Cam, we combined my 30th birthday trip to Vancouver with a babymoon of sorts. Nothing too official or stereotypical (although a part of us has wondered why we didn’t go to Hawaii……). Now baby #2 is on the way and we wanted to do a last trip before we become a family of four. So, we passed on Hawaii again (but booked tickets for our anniversary next year!) and explored a few small beach towns that dot the Southern California coast.

We left on a Friday evening and stayed at an airbnb right on the harbor in Oceanside, about a 40 minute drive north from the San Diego airport. I knew having a view of so many boats would be a hit with Cam – who doesn’t love looking out onto a patio that overseas water? But as another surprise, we rented a Jeep to trek around socal in for the weekend!

After a late arrival and not the best nights sleep (why don’t more airbnbs have good black out curtains?!) we were excited for breakfast at Piper, the restaurant in The Seabird, a resort about one mile from our airbnb. I booked us reservations at 8:30am but that was hopeful and ambitious. Cam was up at 7am. We arrived an hour before our reso and, although it was more crowded than I thought it would that early, we didn’t have trouble getting a table right away.

We found out they hosted an all you can eat brunch buffet on Saturdays, so it probably ended up being a good thing we got there early. You could pick to order from the menu a la crate instead but Mike and I both decided to go for the buffet, especially because kids under 5 ate free.

They boosted an all organic and local menu and, while everything that I tried was delicious, I’m just not a big enough breakfast eater to justify the price of a buffet… I was kind of dwelling on the fact that my light fare didn’t seem to add up to the $45 it cost (and regretting not just ordering the yogurt + granola coffee, juice, and homemade pastry option for $22) when Mike asked if the experience overall was good; and therefore worth the money. Some perspective I appreciated (but still wouldn’t do the buffet again haha!).

Next up was a jeep ride to one of our main attractions of the weekend: Legoland!

This was all of our first time visiting and despite having a 2-day pass, we still didn’t do everything there was to offer. Granted, we were moving at a much slower pace – let me tell you, being ~7 months pregnant at theme park is no joke.

I think because we were still close to the coast, the weather was on the cooler side for the majority of the day. Not ideal for the waterpark but certainly better than a heatwave. We kicked things off with a few rides. I took Cam on the slow ones while Mike indulged on anything faster.

Highlights from our first day included: a “car wash” where Cam got to drive his own car around a track (this was done multiple times); a submarine ride with a treasure hunt for Mike and Cam (while I got to just sit in the dark and relax for a beat lol); the sun finally peeking through enough to enjoy some water play (particularly fun was the pirate ship ride that had water squirters to blast bystanders (yes, they soaked me from the ride); and churros with hot melty chocolate as an afternoon treat (that I insisted we needed 2 orders of – of course we only needed 1…).

After a long day and lots of walking, we made a plan to grab pizza and eat it on the beach across the street from our airbnb. I was really looking forward to this plan, even though it was last minute and our timing was a bit tight.

Cam and I walked down to the beach with a blanket and some sand toys to wait for Mike with our pizzas. We briefly splashed around in the sea, one of my favorite things to do with Cam, before Mike arrived. I wish we made it back to our blanket, dried our feet, and enjoyed a margarita pizza sitting snug altogether. Instead we realized the sparkling waters Mike had bought weren’t twist off and he cut his hand trying to open them on some nearby rocks…

Mike needed to go back to the airbnb to clean up his hand but Cam was not ready to leave so I said I would stay there with him a bit longer. And out of nowhere, Cam threw sand in my face. Like, what!? I was done. Almost in tears, I just screamed at Cam (not my best moment) and called Mike to come back and help us get off of the beach.

I was at the end of my rope at that point and felt a flood of all the things: bad mom (impatient and yelling), bad wife (Mike had cut himself and I needed him to come save us), bad person (is a ruined beach dinner really that big of a deal in the big scheme of things? I shouldn’t be so upset). Ugh, it was a lot.

We finally made it back to the airbnb and managed to eat our cold pizza on the patio. Not what I had envisioned…

After we put Cam to bed, we swapped time down at the hot tub. Of course being pregnant, I only dipped my legs in but it was nice nonetheless to sit there with a book and decompress a bit. We went to bed shortly after, this time with towels and blankets covering the windows to make the room darker!

Coffee on vacations is always a big thing for me. I love trying new places and finding perfect little gems with great coffee and pastries (no store-bought croissants fly for us). I spend a good amount of time researching and comparing nearby cafes for our morning brews. After exploring google maps, Jet Fuel Coffee won as the chosen cafe for the next day. The coffee was good but the service was slow, with only one person working there.

After finally getting our drinks, we walked down to the beach and, better yet, discovered a playground there too! We spent the morning playing in the sand, watching surfers, and listening to the waves. Ahh, the good stuff.

Next we discovered the TOP GUN HOUSE a few blocks away. Label me nerdy but I absolutely love this behind-the-scene Hollywood kind of thing. (I’m probably one of the few people who actually watched the commentary versions of dvds when that was a thing!) Of course we stopped to snap pictures and look inside the house and google the house in the movie and just generally take in the fact that Tom Cruise walked on the same stairs (ok ok, maybe that was just me…). For Cam’s entertainment, it helped that there was a motorcycle he could “ride” out front.

I mean, all around just good family fun. 🙂

Back at Legoland for day two, Mike and Cam went on a rollercoaster while “baby sister” (what we’ve affectionately been calling the baby) and I sat on a bench and read on a book. It might not be the standard to pack a book when heading to a theme park, but being pregnant, it made the day less boring when the boys were off doing something I couldn’t.

Cam discovered a multilevel play area with ball-shooters? (not sure about that terminology) next and spent over an hour in there playing. Mike and I sat outside in the shade eating fries in amazement of how long he was entertained.

We took a break from rides to check out all of the different lego cities. Originally I thought this would be more for me and Mike and we would have to convince Cam to stay longer but he was actually enthralled by it all. We started in the replica of San Francisco and then saw Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City, and Las Vegas. It was a bit of a bummer because of all the water in the tiny cities was drained and most of the vehicles weren’t working, so we didn’t get the “full experience.” But it was really cool to see how detailed everything was and, obviously incredible it is all made from legos.

For dinner we got a bit fancy and tried Campfire, with the allure of s’mores for dessert selling it for us. I was really excited about going here because it screamed our vibe. Happily it didn’t disappoint – the cocktails/mocktails and food were all delicious. The atmosphere was cozy and Cam was entertained by his new lego motorcycle we got as a souvenir so we didn’t feel rushed to leave; ending things on a high note with the before mentioned s’mores! HOUSE MADE MARSHMALLOWS. I CAN’T.

We spent our last morning caffeinating on the patio, looking out at the harbor, before dipping in the pool. The weekend was the perfect mix of “for kids” things and indulgence. A good one to repeat again when our newest member of the family is old enough. 🙂 We can’t wait to meet you babygirl!