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!"

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.

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.)

It's been a long spring break with hardly anyone in town to visit, and SNOW keeping us from playgrounds almost every day. We went swimming, went to a museum, went to the gym every day, but mostly laid low. Today we are doing some Easter craft, grandparents are stopping by between travels, and then a trip to the library. I'm very much looking forward to tonight: it will mark the end of the break and I have a sitter lined up so Ben and I can see Ready Player One at the Alamo. We go about twice a month and it still feels special every time. Man, I love my kids, but get me away from them!! ;-)

I got some great new cooking gadgets for my birthday and have been having fun trying them out! Ben got me an instant pot that we have been trying out in all sorts of ways. I made our Irish dinner of corned beef using it:

And last night I made butter chicken, a real Indian dish! It looks almost exactly like takeout! The kids even tried a bite, but they just mostly ate bread. I also made the basmati rice in the instant pot.

In my quest for a good waffle iron, I got new plates for this griddle. Turned out some delicious buttermilk waffles.

No gadget cut required for this: Sam and I made chocolate covered strawberries today-by his request!

March has brought on another round of germ passing.  Sam has had a cough and stuffy nose off and on since February.  Jack joined in the sore throat game for a week.  Sam got worse, including a night where he woke up crying 5 times for nightmares, pain, or throwing up.  Then I caught whatever it was, with aches and chills and stuffy sinuses, making me miss the musical and my church lesson.  I'm really upset I had to miss the musical.  Today I thought we were all finally on the mend, when I got a call that Jack had vomited at school and needed to be picked up.  He's still working through whatever new bug this is, and I'm filled with dread for the rest of us.