Thursday, February 19, 2015

LEGOLAND

I'm not overly sure what to say about Legoland.  We were incredibly excited.  Maybe too excited?  All the experiences we had heard about were amazing...so why did we feel so let down?  It's hard to say; maybe our expectations were super high and the heat wore us down.

That being said, we had fun.  The Legoland Hotel was pretty great, especially for the boys.  It was truly designed with children in mind.  Right down to the toilet seats and the doors having child level spy holes.  A whoopie cushion built into the carpet of one of the hallways...secret dance party in the elevator.  The hotel was great.  

Legoland itself was mediocre.  Maybe we've been tainted by our Disney experiences in terms of rides but we were left wanting more.  I truly thought they would capitalize on the new Lego Movie (afterall that's what ultimately drove us to go to Legoland and I'm sure we aren't alone in that) in terms of a ride or special merchandise found only there.  Nothing.  Anything you could find there we could find here at home, with exception to the character greeting experience.  Even their 'make your own lego man' stations were lackluster.  Little in terms of variety for sure.  On the upside, it truly is cool that everything is built from legos...and our boys love their legos and duplos, so that was amazing.  But visually seeing that only takes you so far.  The rides were comparable to Galaxyland and the waterpark (which was so hyped up) was about as exciting as the World Waterpark.  Maybe it was us maybe it was the heat, but we wanted MORE!  Did the boys have fun?  Sure.  But a 2 and a 4 year old aren't that hard to please.


They did have this lego building station that was in the middle of the line up for one of the rides, which was great in concept, but dirty and in the direct sunlight so the boys could only last so long there.  The heat truly was a contender in our experience I'm sure.


 Jackson really enjoyed getting his (very expensive) license and driving his car around in a circle.  Sawyer also enjoying getting his (equally expensive) license, but was let down to find out he couldn't even drive a dang car because he was 2.  He had to be 3.

 He was, however, big enough to go on the helicopters!


The double stroller was a nice perk...

 This medieval ride was cute for Jackson, but it was another Sawyer didn't make the cut for!

 Considering it's one of Trev's favorite shows, we couldn't pass up mining for gold...

 This play area was a lot of fun for both boys, probably one of the favorites actually!


This was a fun little ride/activity.  You had to race a firetruck and spray out a fire and race back.


 Probably one of the perks was Moose meeting Wild Style.  He almost knocked her over he hugged her so hard...Whoops!


 This was Day One of Three of our Legoland Adventure.  The other two days will follow!  

You know how sometimes after a few months you think 'hey, that wasn't so bad, I wish we could go back and do that again'...I actually don't have that feeling writing this post!  I think Legoland is probably awesome if you live in the area and you can go there whenever you want to kill a day; kindof how Galaxyland is for us.  To plan a trip solely around Legoland would be a waste.  Thankfully most of our trip was planned to stay at Mom and Dads and enjoy the pool.  And this is entirely based on our experience and opinion!  So really, it's worth nothing!

Another note that was annoying is we bought a cool set of lego that can be synced with your ipad so it can be interactive on a smart device and you can physically play with the legos.  We drove all the way back to Mom and Dad's to find out it wasn't compatible with Canadian devices.   Ask me how mad I was.  LIVID.  One main suvenier from Legoland and it doesn't even work!?  It didn't state those facts anywhere on the box nor do the staff question where you're from or tell you the limitations.  Brutal.  Needless to say, we shipped it back.

First Things First

When you show up to the desert and it's HOT - really there's only one thing to do - okay maybe two - embrace the air conditioning and get your butts in the pool!  Wait, I'm lying, there's three things - hit up Target, embrace the air conditioning, and get your butts in the pool hahahahahha!


 Once they knew the pool was on the table, the air conditioning lost it's touch!



 We bought those water squirters on clearance at Target on our way to the house and they were one of the biggest hits of the pool!  Sawyer was thrilled as he learned to work it.  He was hilarious...he thinks it's great fun when you're the one on the receiving end.  He even thought if he was squirting you while saying 'Sossy Papa' for example (aka 'Sorry Papa') than it made it okay!  BUT - if you even thought about squirting him...let's just say it almost wasn't worth it.  Dad tried to try it while saying 'Sossy Sawyer' but it didn't seem to help.  The water belts were amazing.  The boys use something very similar at their swimming lessons.  They are essentially aquacize belts.  Trev ordered them from Amazon and had them shipped to the house.  Best. Thing. Ever.  Way better than water wings (for our kids!).  It allowed them complete freedom and ability to swim without being held.  It was amazing to see Sawyer's progress in the swimming department (and bravery in the water department) throughout this trip.  When we returned home, his teacher at swimming couldn't believe he was the same kid!

I think, regardless of how many amazing things we get to do when we are down here, the pool truly is their favorite part of the trip.  It's a constant in every day activity down there.  And I don't blame them, I grew up with a pool growing up and I was a fish.  Visiting this trip is just making me more excited that we are going down again at the end of April!