Ho Ho Ho in So Cal

I’m happy to report back to you all that it IS IN FACT POSSIBLE to drive 10 hours with a 2 and 4 year old without using an iPad (or any screen time for that matter).

Now, truth be told, we brought the iPad along just in case things were really dire, but I also packed a TON of activities for them – felt toys, magnetic games, books, cds and books ON cds.

Each had their own discman and headphones so there would be no arguing and Kyle and I wouldn’t have to listen to The Nutcracker for the 500th time.

Unfortunately, it was Pattycakes’ motion sickness that really limited what stuff we gave them.  The first time we weren’t sure what was to blame.  He didn’t seem to want breakfast and his best friend had a GI bug simultaneously (I was texting with my friend about it in real time and it’s like our kids were having sympathy vomit).  And then it happened twice more on the trip…sooo…unclear.  He looked (and said he) felt 100% up until the seconds before it happened.  Each time.  And once he was cleaned up he was back to his chatty ways, asking for snacks and books and whatever.  It was very confusing.  The other wild card was that each time it seemed to happen after he ate.  But he had an appetite so I wasn’t going to NOT feed him.  Especially since I wanted to give him his doses.  Those may or may not have stayed down, but he’s fine now so whatever.  Super weird.

LA traffic was as heinous as always and we had a two hour delay BUT DUH IT’S LA.  At least she finally took a nap!  She slept from 2-4:30 and woke up just as we arrived at my G-ma’s house in Newport Beach.

I haven’t seen my Aunt and Uncle and G-ma since my sister’s wedding in June, so it was awesome to hang out and catch up.  However since we were running late, we only stayed for an hour and then hit the road to go get dinner.

Native Foods!

I think this is exactly what I envisioned when I was preggo with P…taking my little hippies to a vegan restaurant and having us all order off the menu and live in happy hippie bliss.  And now it’s basically realized!  Aside from the snacks I packed for the kids on the drive (and his pancake peanut doses) I brought NO FOOD for Mr. P.  I plan on doing no cooking all vacation long, thankyouverymuch.  [Technically I could because we got a rom with a kitchen since P wasn’t as far along in OIT when we booked the hotel and I’m just used to preparing and bringing his food with us wherever we go.  BUT NO MORE!]

I got a Thai meatball dish, Kyle got a chix, seitan bacon, and avo club sandwich, and the kids got seitan tacos with sweet potato fries to share.

This bowl was HUGE.  You can’t even see the quinoa piled underneath!  The sauce was amazing and the meatballs were super flavorful and delicious.  I am so glad I branched out and didn’t order the kale macro bowl like always.

The seitan was a little too spicy for the kids, so I ate it (tough job being a mom) and they just had the rest of the tacos and fries.

That seitan bacon tho.  Mmmm.

I think I need to get back in the habit of making seitan.  It’s the best.  Note to self.  Do that.

Native Foods’ staff was SUPER allergy conscious and got out the allergy menu to double check everything for peanuts/peanut oil in all of our dishes, so that was awesome.

And then we were back on the road again!  This leg of the voyage was shorter though, and so by 8 pm we arrived in Carlsbad.

I wanted SOOO BADLY to dig into dessert right away, but first we had to unload the car, give the kids baths, and get them all tucked in.

My Aunt sent us off with some extra fudge she made (!!!) and I got a chia chocolate pudding thing at Native Foods, so we were ready to get chocolate wasted as soon as everything was squared away.

And that we did.

And since I was on high alert with all the vomiting (the last one occurred as we pulled into the hotel driveway) we stayed up extra late with this guy to make sure his dose stayed down and he felt ok.

We thought going to bed at 10:30 may result in some extra morning zzzzs for us, but, no.

They were up bright and early, per usual, ready to tackle the day before the sun was even up.

And now we are here in beautiful San Diego to do absolutely nothing but enjoy our time as a foursome in this relaxing paradise.  I”ll take pics of my eats and share them later 🙂