Legoland

Our adventure started on Wednesday.  The girls got to pull off the last piece of our countdown calendar.  Each morning for two weeks, they took a piece from the paper chain and opened it to find out what the day’s activity.  They did things like rebuilding kits we have, watching the Lego Movie, making lego brownies, coloring lego pictures, doing lego math and more.  Finally, they helped me pack and as soon as L was off the bus from school, we piled into the car and began our road trip.  We drove five hours south reading books, coloring pictures, playing with Barbies and playing with their tablets.  We finally arrived at their aunt and uncle’s house, ready to run and play, despite it being past bedtime.  The girls were thrilled to see their cousins and stalled as long as possible, playing, dancing and watching cartoons.  Eventually they settled into a big cousin bed on the living room floor and we all slept for a few hours.

At 5 am the next morning, we slipped all the sleeping kids into their car seats and began the next leg of our drive.  With the girls asleep, the car was quiet and I was so tired as I followed Bryan down the freeway.  After two hours, we stopped to let everyone stretch and get a little breakfast.  It had been raining on and off and we were rewarded with the most beautiful rainbow I’d ever seen.  It was a perfect, complete arch, rich in color and with a double rainbow shadowing just above.  The girls loved it!  The girls mixed up their seats to sit with cousins and we headed out again.

Four hours later, we parked at the beach.  It was gray and very overcast but the girls were definitely ready to wiggle and so excited to see the beach.  We had a picnic lunch, bribing the girls to eat with the promise of playing in the sand.  We decided not to put the kids in swimsuits, thinking it would be too cold, but we took sand toys down to the water’s edge and turned them loose to play.  Their uncle soon started a game of drawing a line in the sand and letting the waves chase them in.  L, E and cousin A loved it, dashing back and forth from the water’s edge.  Cousins C explored and A started an ambitious sand castle.  Just as we were taking bets on who would get wet first, A came to the water’s edge to fill her bucket with water and got caught by a sneaker wave.  It took her feet from under her and spun her several times.  She came up rather shocked and upset but recovered quickly.  Moments later, the same thing happened to E, but she was much more delighted.  L and cousin A got more and more brave, chasing the waves deeper into the water, hoping to get a spin cycle themselves and soon all the kids were soaked.  But they didn’t care.  They had the time of their lives, playing in the water, chasing waves and pretending to surf.  Especially little E melted my heart as she stood dramatically, hands out, wiggling her hips as she declared she was surfing without a surfboard in the receding waves.

We reluctantly left, wrapping the kids in their dry cover ups and drove to the hotel.  Grandpa had booked rooms for us at the Legoland Resort.  Even as we drove in through the winding entry, the girls squealed in delight at the large lego figures lining the drive.  As the hotel came into view, they were beyond excited.  I left the car and luggage with the valet as we went into the hotel to check in.  The girls were so excited about the amazing lobby with bright colors and lego décor in every direction.  And in the middle of the lobby, there was a giant lego pit.  The girls played and built as Aunt Stacy and I checked into the rooms.  The kids followed us down the hall, nearly shrieking at each new discovery.  The elevators were especially thrilling.  The doors closed and it transformed into a disco with music and lights.  From then on, every time we used the elevators, the girls would countdown to begin the music and break out dancing. 

We made it to our room and again, the girls were beyond delighted.  We were in a pirate themed suite, perfectly decorated to every detail.  The girls raced around the room to check it all out and immediately dumped out the bucket of legos provided for them to play with.  We took a few minutes to get our luggage organized and then Husband, Grandpa and Auntie Lu arrived, having drove in from the airport to meet us in California.  Once the girls were done exploring and ready to go, we played in the lobby for awhile, amazed at the giant lego castle/pirate ship play area.  And eventually, we left for the evening, driving up to the Oceanside Pier to have dinner at Ruby’s.  It was Grandpa’s suggestion and was so much fun.  It was like a 50’s diner with great burgers and shakes and the kids favorite—cardboard vintage cars that they played with all weekend and even brought home after the trip.

After dinner, the girls finished their treasure hunt provided by the hotel.  The clues they found were the code to a locked treasure chest in our room.  In the chest, they found a lego figurine and gold coin for each of them!  They figurines were Halloween themed and we would later spend more time in the giftshop trying to find a few more desired favorites from the Halloween collection.  Somehow we pulled them away from their new figurines and lego cartoons for a quick shower and said good night to cousins.  Then I fell asleep immediately while Grandpa settled into his sofa bed and Husband tucked the girls into their pirate ship bunk beds.  E was so excited about her “treasure chest bed” (trundle bed) but ended up firmly attached to Daddy and slept curled up next to him. 

Very early the next morning, L woke us up very concerned about the noise she could hear coming from around the corner.  She nervously begged Daddy to help her.  So he got out of bed, they donned hats and shoes (she was still nervous, he was rather comical), they prepared themselves with flashlights and cameras and they peeked around the corner slowly.  It was grandpa snoring!  So she cuddled down into bed with us and watched lego cartoons until everyone was awake.

On Friday morning we had breakfast at the buffet downstairs.  The food was pretty good, especially for a buffet.  The omelet I had made was fantastic and the kids loved getting to pick out all of their favorites and played through breakfast. 

Truth be known, pregnancy got the best of me and I had a rough morning.  But other than that, I was fine all weekend.  There were a handful of rides I didn’t get to do but that was ok because Grandpa doesn’t do rides and A has a tendency to get sick on fast/high rides too.  We did lots of wandering, Grandpa built a cane out of legos that made his weekend much easier and A took care of keeping my water bottle full.  Love my thoughtful little girls so much.

We finished getting ready for the day and shuffled through some group inertia before we were finally at the gates and ready to go.   Being resort guests, we were given early entrance to the park where a handful of rides opened early.  We picked out our first ride and wandered to it.  We got in the line and let the kids loose in the play area so they could build legos and race them down ramps while we stood in the line watching them.  Turns out, many of the rides had waiting areas like this which made the wait much easier for the kids.  The downside was that the lines were much longer than they looked.  In fact, Husband took L on the ride to us while we waited.  A decided to brave that ride as well but didn’t enjoy it near as much.  We rode the pedal cards together and then wandered back to Heartlake City where our girls were delighted to meet the characters from Lego: Friends.  In fact, they had no lines so one of the characters Emma, spent 20 minutes with them, even riding the merry go round with them and taking them to meet two other characters.  We wandered the set of the Lego Movie, where A and L took turns with our camera and then we went to the Lego: Friends show.  It was super cheesy but the girls liked it and had a blast dancing and singing along.  Meanwhile cousins wandered away to something else.  So we did a few more rides as we caught up to them and had lunch together.  The girls especially loved the drivers training and the mini figure store.  We made it about halfway around the park and stopped at a play area.  The girls ran laps around the maze of rope climbs and slides while the adults shared the infamous Legoland Apple Fries.  We made it around to Adventure Land, where the girls were eager to show Auntie Lu the “Egypt stuff”.  We did a few last rides and then explored the Big Store where the girls made lengthy wish lists.

Back at the hotel, the girls finally got to go swimming.  Husband and I sat poolside, watching them splash around and build with the large foam legos floating around the pool.  Cousins came to join and the girls wore themselves out playing together.  After swimming, we put them in pajamas and headed downstairs for a quick dinner in the café.  While we waited for our table, we stopped in at the kids pajama party and the girls went crazy all over again.  In less than one song, they made it to the middle of the dance floor and danced like crazy people (especially A with her ninja moves).  We pulled them away to go eat dinner, including a birthday dessert for Auntie Lu and then went back to the dance party for one last song before tucking them into bed.

The girls slept in on Saturday so I finished getting everyone packed while Husband took Grandpa to pick up his rental car.  Then the girls and I went to breakfast while Husband loaded the car and soon we were back for another crazy fun day in the park.  The girls built their souvenir minifigures (L and A built witches, E built Santa) and we tried out a few more rides.  Husband took L on the “crazy arms”, by far the wildest ride of the weekend, (quote of the day from E: “if anyone needs me, I’ll be in the stroller with my mango.” ) and we had lunch with the family.  We changed into swim suits before braving a few of the “you might get wet” rides and then let the kids play in the splash pad.  Husband, Uncle Bryan and Grandpa went to a MindStorm class while Stacy and I got the kids dry, dressed and took them to the duplo play ground.  We met up at the crazy arms again to watch Husband and Auntie Lu ride it at level 5 (L did it at level 2) and did a little more wandering and riding rides.  Usually Husband and L went on the ride while A and I wandered or cuddled (or rode a less intense ride) while E went back and forth between us.

Our last stop of the day was the Big Store where the girls made a beeline to their item of choice.  We told them they could each choose a souvenir less than $30.  L picked out the Lego: Friends Juice Shop, A chose the Lego: Elves ship and E settled on the Disney Jasmine kit.  She rambled to the cashier (and to several other strangers) “I really wanted the Cinderella castle but its lots more money so I picked the Jasmine today but I really want the Cinderella castle.” 

We finished up our shopping and got everyone and everything loaded into the cars.  We stopped for dinner at Rubios.  The girls raced through their quesadillas so they could play with their new lego figurines while the adults finished.  We gave Lu a lego set as a birthday gift and gave Grandpa a lego set as a thank you gift.  Then we all said goodbye, sending Lu and Grandpa to the airport while we drove back to Bryan and Stacy’s house.  The girls were all asleep within minutes and the drive went quickly.  (at least for the girls.  And me.  Since I slept most of it while Husband drove.)  We arrived at their house at 2 or 3 am and slept for a few hours.

Sunday morning, the girls were eager to play again.  Bryan and Stacy made us delicious pancakes and we walked to a nearby park with climbing walls.  The girls climbed to the top several times and had a great time.  Then we hid under some shade while a short storm caught us by surprise.  We walked back to the house and went out to lunch at El Pollo Loco (one of my favorites that is too far away to enjoy regularly).  Then the girls spent the drive home playing again.  We arrived home for a quick dinner, showers and just enough time to build their new lego kits and add them to our growing lego city.