Legoland!!

One of the main reasons we headed to Southern California was to check out Legoland. Our itinerary was set to be among the first to roll in on an overcast Monday morning. We were probably the 10th car in line, and we took our first photo op while we waited for them to open the gates. These and many other statues around the park were constructed completely from Legos! The kids were so excited!!

Note to future self: getting there early was worth it! We still had some time to kill (and dance!) between parking/buying tickets and the park gates opening. And it was so fun to share this first major fun park outing with extended family!

Finally, once we were in, we headed toward the back of the park through Miniland, which is where they've reconstructed famous buildings and cities. The level of detail is really pretty remarkable.

Because our kids haven't been to most of those cities, though, they got way more out of the Star Wars reconstructions. There were lots of scenes from every movie, even the new ones. The Millennium Falcon...

Hoth...

 Rey's speeder and star destroyer...

and of course, the Death Star.  Pew, pew, pew...

The kids were getting pretty good at posing with the various figures.

Our next stop was Castle Hill where knights and dragons roamed free.

There we discovered an awesome tree-fort playground. I think we could have stayed here for hours, but that's not why we came to Legoland. After a while, it was on to the rides!

There was a tame knight's tournament ride on the rails that both enjoyed, although Hadley was near tears when she and Owen got separated by a horse or two.

Then Hadley was game for the Dragon rollercoaster, but Owen took a little convincing.

She also wanted to ride the jousting ride, which spun riders around in all directions, though its movement and speed was automatically limited by her size. (Owen wanted no part of that ride. I think maybe he takes after his mama's motion sickness.) Those are H's pink shoes sticking out from the seat next to Dad.

One brilliant thing the park had was play areas for the too-littles adjacent to the ride lines. Cousin Addie enjoyed people watching and assembling the jumbo Lego bricks.

By then, we had worked up quite an appetite for a pricey BBQ lunch, complete with banana pudding!

Now what?

The sun came out, so the kids were ready to get wet. Pirate Shores offered some boat rides that fit the bill. One where the spectators could hose you down with water cannons made Hadley cry. Then there was this ride where the kids got stuck and held up the whole ride, until the employee in red waded in to redirect them. Haha! Maybe boats are not our thing.

By this time, the lines had gotten much longer, so it was also a good time for post-lunch family naps. At least a nice family let O&H tag-along on their front-of-the-line pass! Otherwise the nap would have been much longer.

There was a brief exhibit demonstrating how Legos are designed and made, which was an interesting change of pace.

We took in a couple of shows, including one from Hadley's favorite Lego Friends in Heartlake City. (This area had lots of Lego flowers and pastel offerings.)

We also came across a self-powered ride, requiring you to pull yourself up hand-over-hand. This one featured a H-Dad vs. O-Dan race to the top.

Along with the playground, one of the biggest hits of the day was this dig-for-dinos area, which was basically a big sand box. I love paying a premium for playgrounds and sandboxes! But, seriously, I do appreciate that they are still into the simple things. The last stop of the day was the aquarium, but I didn't get any pictures there.

Suffice it to say, we loved our day at Legoland!