1 month before:
So Jay told all the kids at dinner that in order to go to Legoland and the zoo and the beach, we need to start taking walks so that we are in shape for walking around parks. And we need to work on getting along.
This is not just a carrot. I legit don't want to take my kids on vacation if they are going to fight in the car the whole way.
After dinner I asked them to clean up, and Wendy wanted to know if it will help her earn Legoland.
I said, no, we need to clean up because we made a mess.
"Please, will it?"
"Uhhhh, I guess so."
Jay showed the kids videos of Legoland and the rides and castle hotel. Wendy ran off and I found her with our Lego bins, creating fantastically colorful creations to decorate our home. She saw the way Legoland was decorated and wanted to make our space cool too.
Written after our trip:
We drove up on a Saturday and got there right at check in, but our rooms weren't ready, so we hung around the lobby with the slide and the many places to build Lego.
The kids had brought their backpacks in because we thought we'd be heading to the room and 2 of them and Theo's water bottle got left in the lobby. We were tired. Miri's back pack had dogoo, the world's most important stuffed animal in it. Jay got it back before bed. Thank goodness. The next morning we realized Theo's backpack was missing too. This took a long time to wait for.
Sunday we went to the beach, which was so pretty and fun. Miri especially loved jumping in the waves. The girls were both shivering, but denied that they needed to get out.
At one point I crouched down and put my arms around Wendy to warm her. The next wave completely knocked me over, so I didn't do that again. Wendy liked to hold my hand to help her stay upright. Miri stayed with Theo a bunch. She also made a friend, Sage, and the girls compared loose/ missing teeth and Sage gave her a homemade bracelet. Theo says he liked jumping in the waves the best.
Later that afternoon we went swimming in the hotel pool. It has giant (bigger than Duplo) rubber Lego bricks that you can build a floating raft with. A family had a really good raft built and let my kids have a turn on it. The air temperature was around 70 degrees, but the water was very warm, like a bath. The girls had to wear life vests, which Miri hated, but she put up with. There were life guards keeping close watch too.
On Monday we had our first Legoland amusement park day! The kids went on their very first roller coaster, Coastersaurus.
Here's some notes I took about the rides.
If you start with Coastersaurus, Wendy might complain other rides are too slow. Wendy loves speed.
Best rides:
Dragon Coaster
Coastersaurus
Technic Coaster-- Wendy was too short and it was scary so we didn't suggest Miri do it
Emmit's Flying adventure -- virtual reality (mixed reality) cool ride. Jay felt a bit sick the second time
Unikitty's Disco Drop -- Theo really liked this one.
Others We Liked:
Lost Kingdom Adventure -- you get to shoot at targets as you go around in a cart on a track
Bionicle Blaster (the tea cups) -- but I'm annoyed that you have to be 42 inches tall to ride this one, so Miri barely qualified and Wendy didn't and it was sad. I felt like there wasn't a reason she needed to be 42"
Deep Sea Adventure-- go on a submarine to explore underwater with both Lego and real creatures. We got our sub to ourselves and it was so fun.
Overrated:
Ninjago -- you're supposed to wave your arms to fight characters while on the ride, but a lot of them didn't work well or even at all. And even if that wasn't an issue, the pacing wasn't great. The last scene the Lego men cheer you on and you're stuck there for like 3 minutes while they repeat "good job" a whole lot. If you want an interactive shooting one, I suggest Lost Kingdom Adventure instead. You have a gun and aim at targets and our two cars of people both worked.
Build a Car -- Wendy had fun. Theo was frustrated his cars didn't roll straight down the track and got bored. Miri made me do hers. There was a kind of cool part where you scan your car and then it makes a virtual copy of it and you can race it around a track like a video game. But it was meh for us.
The next day we slept in and then went to the San Diego Zoo. This is a huge zoo!
Ummmmm, honestly it was a ton of walking and we were all pretty tired. I think the kids looked the happiest when we found a nice place to sit and they ate so many snacks. The girls even wanted lots of my almonds and craisins mix. We did ride the sky ride, which was cool. Wendy bought a giraffe headband and tail. I suspect that the fact she was wearing it is why outside the giraffes, a zoo keeper came over and told us lots about the giraffes: she gave us the names of each and pointed them out and told us how they were related and where they were from -- some were born at the zoo and others came from other zoos. And one, who wasn't as active as the others, was going to have a calf any day now! I mentioned that I thought the giraffes there had darker spots than the ones at Tucson zoo. She agreed and talked about the different types of giraffes.
We also finally got to see penguins!
Miri was excited to see the koalas.
When we went to the porcupines, a zoo keeper came to the gate and the porcupine eagerly walked to the gate. The keeper gave a command and the porcupine walked back 5 feet to a stump and sat and waited patiently. The keeper came through the gate and gave it a piece of sweet potato (I think) and another keeper brought another porcupine in the habitat, and let it off leash. We got to watch them get fed.
Wendy bought a giant giraffe puzzle as well and Theo and Miri both bought little capybara pouch things that came with lollipops.
On Wednesday we used our other Legoland tickets and rode some of our favorite rides again. The kids also rode a little train. I'm so glad. The girls have been asking to ride a train for ages. Then we went back to our rooms, ate a snack/ early lunch and got our swim suits on and went to the water park. It was good for the kids to play in a real water park and experience a wave pool and slides. But, again Wendy could only ride the smaller ones. She wasn't even allowed to go down on the raft one with the family -- Jay took her to a smaller kids' area and I rode with the other kids as well as another boy who wanted to go.
We did ride the 1 water roller coaster together and that was fun.
Wendy did a Duplo build a boat while the other 2 kids stayed in the wave pool. I was getting cold and happily stayed with her, standing in the sun. She had the best time because the pieces were GIRAFFE themed. Like the Lego car ramps, the boats didn't go well and needed a lot of help on their downhill water ride, but we made it.
After the water park we, cold, we heading back to the hotel to change and Wendy fell and her arms were in her towel and she didn't catch herself. She hit her forehead on the ground! Poor Wendy.
I carried her to the first aid building and they got her an ice pack and checked her for signs of a concussion. She was okay and they have us a second ice pack to activate later.
Then the kids asked for pop badges. Pop badges are collectible plastic badges that they hand out when kids ask. Kids can also ask, "Have you seen Mr. Gold?" and if they are lucky, get one of only 10 very rare Mr. Gold pop badges. Our kids got lots of kids of different badges. The best part for me was that the kids learned to talk to adults and identify those with name tags who worked at the resort, which is a good skill to practice.
There's a special Mr. Chicken spot it badge you can get at the other Legoland hotel. You have to look at the Legomen displayed behind the front seat and find the one in a chicken costume. Theo got it, but the worker told Miri only 1 per room. We paid for 6 nights, so we just had the kids go on different days to find the chicken. That was fun because my kids love search and finds.
While Wendy iced her head, we went back to the room and changed and ate second lunch/ snack and then headed out to the aquarium. Theo wasn't convinced he wanted to go. After the zoo the day before, I wasn't sure how they would like it.
They LOVED it. I think they may have just been overwhelmed at the zoo the day before and they were super tired the day before and the little aquarium was so much more accessible. I think it took an hour to go through. They had booklets that you could get a stamp at 9 different places, so they had a goal. A man gave them new pop badges. There were lots of starfish-- including purple ones. Wendy loves starfish. If you ever play guess the animal with her, odds are at some point she'll pick starfish as one of her secret animals (which is also tricky because they are an ocean animal, but they don't swim, I think).
We also saw tiny seahorses, with their tails hooked around long grasses. And there were several rays and some small sharks and then a touch pool. We touched anemones, starfish, and even a sea cucumber (very gently).
Then we went into the gift shop and Wendy got a mermaid with purple hair and Miri got a big stuffed seahorse with 3 baby seahorses in his pouch.
Then we played on the Ninjago playground for a bit, then the Hideaways for a long time. That was a huge playground! The kids loved it, leaving only to snack on apple fries for a bit. After that, 10 minutes before the park closed, we headed for the gift shop. Wendy dropped my hand and raced sideways.
The other kids noticed she left and went to her just in time to see her being handed the super rare Mr. Gold pop badge!
She was so excited!!
The next day we had a rest day. We enjoyed the hotel pool and slept in and watched some of the live shows. Wendy was invited up on stage to show off a trick and she showed the scorpion that Sedona taught her. The jester also let her try spinning his staff.
The kids also throughout the week enjoyed the evening dance parties, especially the girls. At one point the hosts led the kids in the YMCA song, but sang, "L-E-G-O." Only the girls didn't hear right and sang, "I love Theo!"
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| Lobby |
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| Wendy with the king |
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| Theo with the king |
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| The kids loved the breakfasts. Today, at home, I made pancakes and Miri asked where the tater tots were. She expects better things now. |
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| giant rubber Lego |
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| Making a friend |
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| So many places to build in the lobby, though this was in the other hotel. |
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| We were dressed for the beach |
the beach
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| I think this is the waterfall in the waterpark or the pool at the hotel. |
Wendy with a person with a giant giraffe backpack extension looming over her. Wendy is holding her special leaf from California.
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| The puzzle is giraffe shaped, and the carpet has the rug and wood printed on it. |
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| They've been asking to ride a train forever and now they have (again, they did at the pumpkin patch when they were 2. I have photographic evidence, but the girls tell me that it doesn't count if they don't remember it.) Now they tell me they want to ride a real train like the ones we saw on our car trip. |
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| They were warming themselves in the sun. The weather was around 70 degrees |
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| After the water park, Wendy fell while wrapped in a towel and hit her head. The ice pack didn't stop her from playing |
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| I couldn't find Wendy and the kids were like, "She's in the tank." So they all got under the tank and put their heads in so they would all be seen in the tank. |
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| The touch tank. Anemones look slippery, but their tentacles will actually grab onto your finger |
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| They got the I spy Mr. Chicken badge, with the Mr. Chicken statue |
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| this is all the kids with their wizard pop badges. they gave us wizard pop badges because we had such a hard experience with the hotel. |
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When Wendy got the Mr. Gold pop badge!!!!
It's a big deal. the give out 10 each day and we thought that all 10 must have been found until this happened. Miri was sad that wendy got the pop badge and that she didn't. |
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| Wendy with Mr. Gold next to the Mr. Gold sign. |
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| Wendy kept spinning the wheel and doing what it said: this time make a lego banana (real banana for scale) |
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| the challenge was to make a juggling pin |
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| Wendy climbed a bunch of the big welcome letters |
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| Miri with a wizard. |
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"Oh, she wants another photo?" the wizard's helper asked.
"No, the other girl was her twin. See, this one has a bandage on her head." |
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| Jay took this photo from our hotel window of us attending storytime in our pjs. |
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| Multi photos of the overall collection of unique pop badges my kids got: 25 total! |
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| They got the "My 1st Coaster" on their very first coaster ever. The bravery badge was at the first aid station |
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| Wendy also was the one who asked a bell boy in an elevator for a pop badges and got the How to Train Your Dragon holographic one. It's rare and from another country. |
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| Mr. Gold is at the top of our decoration |
What an amazing vacation! Lots of lifelong memories with pictures to prove it!! Thanks for sharing.
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