Despite our late late late arrival to the hotel just a few hours earlier, we were all too excited to stay in bed the next morning! We were delighted to discover that our room had a patio that overlooked the pool and gave us a place to feel some California sunshine on our faces.
There was so much about Legoland that we loved- the resort breakfast buffet was included with our room, which made for an easy start to our morning. 'Still hungry' is pretty much the theme of Adam's life right now.
We all ate to our hearts content- and the food was actually really good! There was plenty to choose from and everyone was happy. And stuffed.
I told Jason before we left that my only goal on this trip was to enjoy family, have fun. and not come home completely exhausted. That's not always easy to do on family vacations, but it was made so much easier on this trip for two reasons- first, a quick Google search told me that my expectations of Legoland needed to stay pretty low, and I was just fine with that. There is a hefty price tag that comes with an incredibly magical Disney vacation, and you can bet your Mickey ears that I was prepared to take full advantage of said magic when we went to Disney World and again on the cruise. This time around, the price tag was much lower but the trip was just as fun. Is Legoland as magical as Disney World? No. But that's okay- different trip, different goals. In fact, we didn't even think about going to Disneyland while we were in California. All I wanted was to relax and make happy family memories and we certainly did that!
The second reason this trip was such a success was the walkabilitiy of the resort and the park- it was fabulous! Yes, it is a much, much, much smaller park than Disney World, and yes, the rides were more on par with Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America than Disney World, but it was so nice to sit on our patio and see on the Legoland app that Ninjago World was a four minute walk from our room- four minutes!
No walking clear across a sprawling resort property, no waiting in line for a bus, no missing a bus, no transferring from bus to monorail- even the closest resort is a 15 minute walk to the gate of the Magic Kingdom, but here we could get from our room to the far side of the park in 10 minutes- and we took full advantage of it. More on that in a bit. Also, that probably won't be the last of my DW/LL comparisons- both different, both good.
Overall, zen was my goal and I think I hit it!
I didn't even have a park map laid out with our route. We were chill! Even when Daddy forgot the tickets at the gate and had to run back to the room to get them, it was no problem!
We were finally here! The place the boys have read about and dreamed about for years! Legoland, here we come!
Our first stop, of course, was Ninjago Land. The ride was our favorite and we started and ended our time in the park here (kind of).
There were LEGO statues everywhere!
Ahh, we made it!
Hello Master Wu.
This is a happy face! Sunshine and warmth and I'm not complaining!
Just look at that sunshine!
After Ninjago we kind of wandered over to the next area of the park, which was opening in about 10 minutes. There was a huge crowd of people that were all, it turned out, waiting to go on the most exhilarating ride in the park- The Technic. Once they dropped the rope everyone took off running and, against our DW training, we ran with them! We had no idea what we were running toward, but it made for a hilarious memory of all of us pounding the pavement to be first in line for... something. The Technic turned out to be a single car roller coaster that wasn't really a hit for any of us- thankfully we didn't have to stand in line for very long!
Poor Noah. How did we so quickly forget how much Noah does not enjoy the unknown? And that roller coasters, in his opinion, are the worst?! Slow and predictable with this boy!
We sat on a bench and enjoyed a rest while everyone else enjoyed the LEGO version of the Teacups.
It was really warming up after that, so we headed over to the Aquazone for a water ride!
This was easily the hottest and sunniest moment of our trip. San Diego is known for it's temperate climate and our first few days were sunnier than the last.
There's a little smile from my cautious boy!
This ride was fun!
One of my favorite pictures from the trip- this is pure joy from a 10-year-old boy!
What a fun ride!
After that we kept wandering over through the park, not really knowing what any of the rides and attractions were, but we had a great time checking things out! It was really nice to know that most people said you could do the whole park in one good day, and we had two! So there really wasn't any rush to see and do all the things and plenty of time to enjoy everything!
One rule of our family winter vacations is that we must eat ice cream every day!
And the kids don't let us forget it!
No I didn't eat that triple scoop ice cream cone all by myself!
See the bowl in my hand? We split it up!
After ice cream the lines everywhere seemed really long, and we weren't up for another long line.
We headed over to MiniLand to see all of the LEGO cities,
but everyone was really slowing down at that point. It was only around 1:00 in the afternoon, but everyone was so tired from our long travel day, and we wanted to check out our room and the resort! So we stopped by to say hello to Emmett (walked right up to him!),
peaked in on the set of The LEGO Movie 2,
checked out this bushy fellow,
and then stopped into the BIG LEGO store
before heading back to our room. There was a treasure hunt to complete and treasure box in our room to open up, room decorations to discover, and a pool to enjoy!
The pool was especially memorable- we had all just dived in when Adam started frantically diving down into the water. It turns out Leah accidentally kicked his face and knocked out his loose tooth- his silver tooth! His mouth was bloody and Leah was apologizing and blind Jason was diving for the tooth and I was laughing and all around, it was a hilarious moment. About two minutes after the tooth was reclaimed from the bottom of the pool floor Noah frantically told me that he had forgotten to take off his underwear before putting his swimsuit on! I guess we were all just really excited to swimming outside in January.
We made the right choice by leaving the park early to enjoy the resort- we had plans to stay at the park until it closed the next day but we still had to check out of our room at 11, which wouldn't have left us with much time to enjoy the room if we had waited until the second day, and it was awesome! There was plenty of space for all of us, and LEGOs all over the floor made it feel just like home. Ha!
For dinner we headed back over to the buffet and enjoyed, surprisingly, one of the most delicious meals any of us have had ever! The food was so good that decided to head back the next night to enjoy it all over again, and we got to see Lloyd!
But the best part of dinner was discovering the Albanese gummy cubs! Our very favorite candy from Indiana, all the way in California! I taught the kids the fine art of filling up their pockets with gummy bears, and laughed and laughed when Adam showed us that he had slipped a Star Wars napkin from the airplane into his pocket- he is a pretty sneaky kid! We each ate our weight in gummy bears on this trip, and we've been giggling about it ever since! Also, I saw plenty of people leaving the buffet with bowls of cookies and ice cream, so I didn't feel bad about taking some gummy bears with us.
Our first day at Legoland was awesome- full of fun but not too busy, and plenty to look forward to the next day. Just look at those smiles! Emma, Adam, and Noah bunked up in the kids room,
Leah got her own space in the living room,
and Jason and I got to sleep under the awesome ninja weapons!
This trip was off to a great start!
