San Diego pt 1...

We decided to head to San Diego for part of Spring Break. The Becks, Jill and Jaci decided to come too! We drove over Friday after school and got settled for our busy next few days.

We woke up early and ate, then had a couple hours to kill till Legoland opened. So we drove around Oceanside and watched the waves break from the tsunami. It was crazy how big they were. Anyway, Legoland was a fun day. Brenner was such a trooper, he didn't nap all day and was in such a good mood.  (Note to self: Lego's aren't so fun to have to look for in a hotel room on packing day). 

Click to enlarge collages.

Entry gate, first rides of the day, Braden meeting the Lego Pharaoh and Brenner's first ride.

The kids loved this 'jousting' horse ride, even though it moved so slow! They wanted to do this ride and the Dragon roller coaster over and over again.

The Duplo play area was perfect for Brenner, they had all kinds of huge blocks to build with, as well as a whole play area of parks. They also had a driving school that Jaci and B2 did. B1 did the older course and they all loved driving the Lego cars.

We waited nearly an hour for this helicopter ride (even tho the sign said 5 minutes-psh!) but they loved it.

Riding the airplanes was a blast, and getting ice cream and apple fries with cream after wasn't so bad either.

 

Miniland, which is what I think of in my head when I hear Legoland, was so cool. It is a huge display of recreations of cities -built out of, you guessed it, Lego's! They were working on a whole new are to open up later this Spring that was all Star Wars themed.  It was so cool to watch the cars move, and the parades go down the street. 

 

After a long, hard day of fun we left the park and headed back to our hotel to relax and eat. 

So here is my little declaimer on Legoland. I had heard people's opinion vary a great deal about whether they liked it or not. Here's my take. My boys are at the perfect age for it. They loved the factory tour, and being able to build their own 'guys', the amount of different sets available there was crazy. It has some good roller coasters, but mostly less active rides (like the plane and helicopter type) which was fine by my kids. We didn't sit through any shows, although I know they would have loved the Clutch Powers one. Each ride has two height requirements, a) you have to be tall enough to even go on the ride (i.e. Brenner rode like 2 things) and b) you have to be a certain height to go on it alone. I thought that was weird, but Brenner didn't mind hanging out while everyone else did stuff. We didn't go into it, but the water park looked cool.  And we didn't get passes to the Seaquarium that was attached because a) we were going to the zoo and Sea World and b) we've been to the one here in AZ and weren't so impressed. ALL IN ALL, THE BOYS LOVED IT. We will take them back again for sure sometime, before Braden ages out of it, I'm sure. And as an added bonus they had Lego's to play with the remainder of the trip in the hotel when they would have otherwise driven me crazy!

Next up, the World Famous San Diego Zoo!