Month: April 2018

We came. We saw. It was epic. I wore my infinity stone gauntlet and ate a Hulk burger and clapped with joy when Thor lit up the screen with his sparkles. A good movie with good friends. Commence countdown to May 2019.

The last leg of our San Diego adventure was with the Waterhouse family in a house on the beach!  The boys were enchanted by this foreign terrain.  Sam went over the sea-wall and planted himself there in the sand.  I had to coax him farther onto the beach.  He was satisfied right there on the edge of the largest sandbox he had ever seen!

Ben and I ambled up the street to order dinner for the rest of the inbound Waterhouse flights.  We found this charming Greek restaurant.  The owner was so happy to make a big “surprise platter” for us and asked for a picture together for himself “because I make this like I make for my family!”

Passed out within minutes of tucking into bed.  Two days of Legoland and sunset on a beach will do that to a kid.

Cousins quickly bonded over Mario Kart.

Amanda and I chuckled at the navy stripes club.  Not pictured – the other men were all wearing plaid!

Front: Susan, Me, Amanda, Lexi, Jack.  Middle: Will, Sam, Sadie, Rosina, Sylvie.  Back: Nathalie, Ben, Andy, Ed, Larry, George.

We had a wonderful time catching up with my family over good food.  My folks and Rosina and the Evans all made a delicious barbecue spread for us.  Poor Andy got sick at the end of the visit, but before then my boys had a riot goofing with their uncle.  Jack and Lexi discovered a partially dug pit that they diligently expanded.

I heard nothing for the next three days except “I wish we lived at the Beach House, I wish we were back at the Beach House, I’m going to buy a house on the beach, etc etc.”

The boys were up bright and early each day for Legoland.  They seemed to be stuck on Colorado time, waking around 6:30 when the park doesn’t open until 9:30.  The hotel provides a buffet breakfast that met most of their requests (no whole strawberries?  Quelle horreur!).

We used our early access as hotel guests both days to sneak onto rides before others.  Day 1 was cold and rainy for a few hours, so some rides were shut down.  I worried that the kids would be dour about the weather, but I think I did the most grumbling.  In fact, the boys had a total of ONE minor tantrum from Sam on the second day.  It was more of a disagreement than a tantrum.  The boys were awesome.

Both days were low attendance – we walked straight onto almost every ride, hardly ever waiting more than a couple minutes to load.  We rode our favorites twice in a row; it doesn’t get any better than that!

Tons of pictures here, mostly out of order.

These rocks sing “We Will Rock You!”

FOCUS

Sam brings his steely looks for a photo op

Second consecutive run on the dragon coaster

Jack tried to trade some minifigs and Michael refused several because they were too cool to give away.  He tried to give Jack an education on collecting.  Jack just wanted a new one.

Ninjago x3 or 4, I forget.

Many rides can’t have pictures on them. Here we are getting seated for the Kid Power Towers.

I’m on a boat!

This ride has five levels to customize your ride.  Sam REALLY wanted to do this ride on “medium” and go upside down.  They had to give him a padded vest (“armor”) to fit in the seats and only let him go on the lowest setting – fairly slow and no upside-down.  He wants to come back bigger so we can go on a crazier setting.

Not a bad picture by Jack!

Saying good-bye to the ride than opened and closed both days for us, the Coastersaurus.

In the aquarium I spotted a gold button on an employee and Jack retrieved it.  We had seen Wanted posters around the park for them.  Apparently there are only a couple of them out each day and if you get one you can turn it in for a free admission ticket or keep it as a souvenir.  Since we are not local he decided to keep it.  Apparently they go for good money on eBay, but Jack doesn’t want to sell.

The Masons are at Legoland! After a problem-free flight we arrived in sunny San Diego. We popped in on my grandparents for an unexpected visit when we realized we were so on-time that it was too early to check into the hotel.

Legoland hotel is absolutely living up to expectations. We’ve never been to a hotel so fully immersive and designed for kids. I think they are in heaven.

Ben told me this story:

Sam: Dad, are you smarter than Mom or is Mom smarter than you?

Ben: I don’t know. I think we’re both pretty smart.

Sam: Well. I think mom is smarter. I think Mom is the smartest in the family. I am the fartest in the family.

(If you haven’t had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with Sam lately, he is, indeed, very gassy, and gets a lot of ribbing for it.)