Christopher had been traveling a bit for work, but right after the cabinets were put in he was scheduled to go to San Diego for an audit. His company is very flexible on letting family come along. They pay for the hotel room, and they "reimbursed" him for the money the flight would have cost. So we could just put that toward gas money and drive the whole family down to join him. It was odd to go on vacation after so much chaos at home, but I think it was wonderful!
We were going to do the trip as low key as possible. We just spent thousands on cabinets, after all. But the one item that was not negotiable was Legoland. Our kids watch The Lego Movie in the car almost any time we go on a trip, and they have a three minute ad for Legoland in the trailers. Our kids had decided that Legoland was like their Mecca. The advertisement convinced them that it was the most amazing place ever.
Matching theme park shirts has become our thing, now. The kids really love the shirts, and they talk about the trip every time they pull out the shirts to wear. I just love how easily I can spot my kids in a crowd. I made stencils out of freezer paper and let the kids paint their own shirts, which was a lot of fun.
Legoland is very different from Disneyland. It wasn't as well maintained and immersive, for one thing. But we all loved how interactive it is. It is a theme park built around a toy, so the toy is EVERYWHERE. There was a place to build your own car and race it down the track.
There was another spot to build boats and race those down the little river.
The kids loved all of the rides and places to explore.
The kids were especially excited to meet Unikitty and Emmet from the movie.
I loved how the bricks were just EVERYWHERE. Big foam ones to stack, and even ones to float down the lazy river with. Tyler and Kaitlyn wanted to stay on that lazy river all day just so they could try and build towers.
The kids liked the models, too.
I love this picture. That's not how you pose with the evil Darth Vader, cutie pie.
We got a two day pass, so we went one with with Christopher, and then came back while he was working a couple of days later.
See? I was even there! Jasmine likes to take pictures, when I let her use the camera.
Tyler's favorite ride really surprised me. We were about to leave the water park when he told me he wanted to try the pirate ride. I had read about this ride online. Many parks have a log flume ride where some people get wet, and others only get sprinkled on. This ride, however, was a sold wall of water that fully drenches everyone on the entire boat. Tyler insisted, so off he went.
He was all smiles as he came around afterward, and then I watched as everyone got off . . .except Tyler. He just scooted over (there was no line for this crazy ride) so that he could go again. There was a small line the next time, so he had to get off and come back around for his third trip. Crazy kid!
Jasmine's favorite ride was these little cars.
She would have driven around that tiny track all day. She would ride around, all smiles, as she dodged through the kids that were not steering as well as her. And then when the ride stopped, she would unbuckle as fast as lightning, run to the exit to get her "driver's liscense" card, hand me the card, and run back into line as fast as she could. Usually there wasn't a line and she could just get right back on. I think I counted over a dozen turns on that ride.
On one turn, Daddy reached out to give her a high five . . .
. . . which was the only time she got stuck on the ride. (That is Kaitlyn's arm trying to reach out and help. Not the best plan.)
The bigger kid version looked pretty fun, too.
On the days we weren't in Legoland, we mostly relaxed. I took the kids to Old Town and the Mormon Batallion museum.
We goofed around in the hotel pool.
And we took the kids to the beach one evening.
We debated on skipping Sea World, but they are changing the shows even more next year. I'm not sure our kids would ever have a chance to see "Shamu" again. So we went for it.
Every time we go to Disneyland, Kaitlyn asks to ride the teacups. And I tell her no. Mom and Dad don't like getting dizzy and sick to our stomachs, thank you, and the line is always long. At Sea World, there was no line and she could go by herself.
We were going to drive until we got tired that night, but there were no rooms in Mesquite when I stopped to rest. So Christopher just kept driving, and we ended up going straight from Sea World to our house. We were back to exhausted renovations at home, but the break was really awesome.
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