We started our big vacation of 2014 (hereby known as THE vacation) on Abby's birthday and drove towards California all day once the kids were out of school. (It was a half day of school.) Poor Abby had to spend the majority of her birthday in the car, so to spice it up a bit, she got to open a little birthday present at each of our stops. She got a new Shutterfly book that has pictures from when she turned 5 up to the present, some Pokemon cards, and an MP3 player. She opened other larger gifts and grandparent gifts at home before we left. We stayed in Yuma, AZ and then woke up Saturday morning and drove the last couple hours straight to Legoland. We got there right when it opened at 10am.
One of the first stops was at this photo op with the Lego Friends characters. The girls loved it. Since it was our first time at Legoland, we really were amazed at all the Lego creations.
Some of our favorite rides included the Safari Trek, The Fairy Tale Brook, the Sky Cruiser, and the driving school. The Safari Trek had tons of animals made from Legos, while the Fairy Tale Brook showed different Fairy Tale characters like Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella in Legos.
The Sky Cruiser was one of our favorite rides. It was so high up you could see everything around and you had to peddle to move along the track. This was the longest line we waited in, but it was well worth the wait. The Driving School was divided between 3-5 year olds and 6-12 year olds. Tyler and I split up so we could each take two girls to their respective sides. Taryn needed help pushing the peddle and going the right direction, so a worker was constantly running around the track helping the littlest drivers. However, our other girls did great on their own and loved driving. Aubrey was the master on her course, probably one of the oldest on her side.
The funny thing about Legoland that we had to get used to was the fact that they have multiple play areas around the park for you to stop and build Legos in. Most are near the waiting lines and the whole point is to let the kids play while the parents wait in line for the ride. We did not know this at first and were getting a little frustrated as people would "cut" us in line trying to catch up to their party. When we finally saw the signs and decided to let our kids do the same thing, it wasn't so bad and it made for a lot less grumpiness since the kids didn't have to wait impatiently to get to the front of the line. This was one waiting area where everyone waited together until the pager they gave you went off. The girls had fun building tall towers. Tessa had to find all the eye and smile bricks to make her tower. She even recruited the help of other kids and they worked together. It was pretty funny.
This boat ride was probably our least favorite, or at least Abby's least favorite. There were no tracks to guide the boats like we thought, so if you got turned around you got passed up by others or just blocked the path completely. This happened to Abby multiple times. The slow response time to the wheel and peddle also didn't help and Abby got frustrated really fast. Luckily, there was a worker in waders who would walk along the path and straighten boats out. She had to help Abby a couple of times. Besides this ride, our family was perfect for riding in pairs. Abby was tall enough to be the "adult" rider on the majority of the rides so each of the three smaller girls just took turns riding with either me, Tyler, or Abby. It really did work out great unless it was something like this ride where it was a bit too hard for Abby.
We were able to get pictures with both Emmett and WildStyle outside their Lego Movie Experience building. We all thought it was awesome to have our picture taken with them. And inside the building was the actual set from the movie in the basement with all the city made from Legos. It was so cool to see.
We liked this fountain full of instruments made from Legos. Depending on when you were standing on the right spot, each instrument would play so having everyone stand on every spot, the entire band would play together. It was so fun to hear!
The Dragon roller coaster was our favorite ride at Legoland. Even Aubrey rode it and decided it was her favorite ride of the entire trip. Tessa was too scared to try it and after finally talking her into going on a smaller roller coaster in the park, she decided she did not like roller coasters at all. Tessa rode with me on the small coaster and was crying by the end. She says she feels like she's going to fall out especially on the turns. I couldn't blame her thinking that when she has to ride with me or Tyler we usually have to share a lap bar. Her tiny body definitely has more space between her legs and the bar so that feeling of falling would definitely be real for her. But even after trying to explain the difference of having your own tight lap bar on other rides, she had already decided she would not try it again. So she and Taryn went on other rides or found other things to do while Abby and Aubrey and either Tyler or I rode the roller coasters.
The Flight Squadron ride was one of the few rides where every kid who wasn't tall enough had to be with an adult and Abby didn't count, so a worker rode with Tessa so that we could all ride together. It was pretty funny and as we got off the ride, she told us it had been her 7th time on the ride that day.
This Lost Kingdom Adventure was another favorite although with its long line we only got to ride it once. It's a laser-shooting game while going through an Arabian-like desert theme where everything's made from Legos with little targets to shoot at. We all liked that one, although Tyler had the highest score of course. The Beetle Bounce ride just takes you up and bounces you up and down for awhile. The little girls loved this even though it gives you that free-fall feeling in your stomach that bigger rides give you. I was surprised that even Tessa, and Taryn, enjoyed this one.
The Miniland USA portion of Legoland was amazing. Famous cities and buildings all made from Legos. New York's downtown complete with the Statue of Liberty in the harbor was awesome and made from over 2 million Lego bricks. They had a ton of Las Vegas hotels too which was cool. We were super excited to show the girls the Excalibur hotel because we stayed in that very hotel two nights later.
They also have an Aquarium beside the park that was included in our tickets, so we walked through it both days we were there. No photography was allowed inside, so we had to settle with a picture outside the building at this photo spot. The girls liked seeing all the fish, and really liked the touch pools, and doing the scavenger hunt that resulted in a free sticker and collector's card of one of their aquarium animals.
On our second day of Legoland, we walked through their new Legoland Hotel. It was so brightly colored and had tons of little places to build with Legos and there were so many random Lego creations throughout the Lobby and around the hotel. Even outside, instead of columns or pillars, they had huge Lego characters. Aubrey wanted a picture by every single one, but I made her pick her favorite, so the Lego Pirate it was.
They actually had random Lego creations all through the park too. One of favorites was this worker holding a toilet outside one of the restrooms - so random! Abby was helping him hold the toilet up for her picture. At the very end of our stay, after walking through the Aquarium, this Snow Princess was standing outside the elevators by a Christmas tree. So it was our final picture before leaving Legoland.
There were many more pictures taken, but I made a Shutterfly book specifically for Legoland so I didn't want to have too many repeat pictures. There were more explanations and stories here, but we had so much fun at Legoland.The cool thing was we bought a buy one day, get one free pass so we went for two days. But they were having another promotion that gives us another free day if we go back between January and March, so we may be making another trip out there in a couple more weeks. And if we do, it would have been like three days for the price of one, so we really felt like it was a great deal. It really was a lot of fun and we loved making memories and doing a real vacation with just our little family. We definitely had a great time.
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