It all started back in December when we gifted the kids a trip to LEGOland for Christmas. Since we were already planning on heading down for my husband’s bike race, the Belgium Waffle Ride (yes, it’s actually called that, and yes, there are waffles), we thought—why not make it a full family vacation? It was the perfect opportunity to extend our time and turn the trip into a week-long adventure. Honestly, we don’t usually take big vacations like this. Typically, it’s trips to visit family or camping excursions. This was actually our first big family vacation, and the first time I had ever booked an Airbnb. I guess we did fly the kids to Colorado twice, and then drove once with a 3 week old….and have had some other very epic trips and camping adventures but this felt different.
Since we couldn’t possibly go to LEGOland without extending the invite to our neighbors and both sets of parents, everyone said yes! My dad and I had been itching to go to Disneyland, but I’ve been waiting for our youngest to get a little older before taking the plunge into that big-ticket adventure. So, LEGOland it was—and it turned out to be a hit!
Now, back to Day 1. And oh, what a day it was.
We woke up at 2:30 AM to the sound of our youngest crying. If you have a toddler, you know the drill—sleep regression. It’s like a recurring phase that seems to hit every other month. Lately, he’s been really noticing that he doesn’t share his room and wants to be near someone. So, I’ve been thinking of having him share with our middle child for a while, but we’ll see how that goes. The 2:30 wakeup call was, well, expected because we were already planning on waking up at 3 AM anyway. Yup, we were loading up the van and getting ready to hit the road by 4 AM. Spoiler alert: we left at 4:25—close enough!
Unfortunately, the kids didn’t fall back asleep, but they were absolute troopers for the entire 10-hour drive. Yes, 10 hours. We made four stops, but only one of them was a real break (we mostly just stopped for gas and bathroom breaks). Door to door, it was 12 hours of straight travel. What did we learn from this? There is no good time to drive through LA. Although once we did this drive on New Year’s Day , left at 2am – pre kids- and we had the whole freeway to ourselves. Traffic between LA and Oceanside was a nightmare, and that added another hour to our trip. But despite the bumps along the way—two accidents (cars not kids), one kid throwing up, and a couple of coffee stops (for me)—we made it in one piece.
The kids were amazing. I drove the whole distance (as I often do), and my husband was the snack master, TV show adjuster, and bathroom break runner. Seriously, that job is no joke. But props to him for keeping everything running smoothly. And he only fell asleep once!
So why did we drive straight through in one day instead of splitting it up? There were a couple of reasons: First, we wanted to see if we could do it. And second, it was easier to wake up at the crack of dawn and push through rather than leave after work on Thursday, camp overnight, and then start all over the next day. It actually worked out way better than expected. The kids were fantastic. Even the little one only had two meltdowns, which I was able to distract with endless talk about trucks and palm trees. How I didn’t lose my voice by the end of that drive, I’ll never know!
Finally, we arrived at our Airbnb. And let me tell you, it was everything we hoped for and more. The backyard was a dream for the kids—huge, safe, and full of fun. It was the perfect setup for unwinding after the long drive. We were ready to crash, but also eager to dive into our vacation!
Stay tuned for Day 2—our first full day in Oceanside!
Run Teach Bike 