California Here We Come!!!

Legoland California had been on the wish list for a long time. I was actually surprised when I heard there was one in Florida last year and we were pleasantly surprised it was where we were already headed so that we could fit it in. As Brad and I started seeing some fairly affordable prices (you know how the computer loves to send you those ads!) we contemplated the idea of fitting in a trip before most of the world started their summer...which of course meant more affordable and less crowded!

It was a pretty short trip and we tried to keep it simple...basically Legoland and the beach. So many things we could have done there, but then it gets pricier and a bit more stressful! We wanted a chance to just enjoy this while they are this age and hope we can get back to California someday and see a few more sights.

We kept it a surprise until the day before we left and the kids were so excited. One thing I didn't expect was how excited they were just to be going to a state they had not been to before. So fun!

I still marvel when we fly now...how amazing it is to have two kids who can tote all their own stuff!

First stop after grabbing lunch, the beach of course! This was Carlsbad Beach and was my favorite of the trip. If we could do things differently we would have gone back to this one. It was chilly and rainy but we had some fun anyway.

Can we please take this home??? 

So, we decided staying at the Legoland hotel was a priority this trip. Legos combined with a medieval castle? It was the perfect fit! We wanted something special and fun and boy did we have it. It was so awesome. 

Why doesn't every hotel lobby have Legos to play with?

...and a slide?

They absolutely loved having their own little room with bunk beds!

They completed two scavenger hunts over the days so that they could open up treasure.
(New small Lego sets.)

An outdoor theater showing Lego movies.

The temps were a bit chilly for the pool but they did swim for a bit.

One of our favorites was also having a bin of Legos to play with if there was any downtime in the room.

There was a breakfast buffet included at the restaurant in the hotel.
We also ate most of our suppers here.

See the mouse detail?

Again, all restaurants should have Legos to play with while waiting!

The Lego creations never cease to amaze me.

One more feature we loved about staying at the Legoland hotel was that there were activities each night. The first night we had Knights School and the second they played Royal Games and watched as performers presented a Fairy Tale.

Legoland Park Day 1

Even the coffee cart is cute!

This ride had some fun takes on fairytales.
(Keep in mind these are all made out of Legos! So amazing!)
This was the Big Bad Wolf trying to get to the Three Pigs.

Submarine Ride

Granny Apple Fries. Amazing. Three of us couldn't wait for these after having them last year in Florida.
Lorelei doesn't do cooked fruit, so she got to have ice cream instead.

A fun boat tour taking in amazing Lego creations. The background of this pic is the New York Skyline.

The starfish playing the drums made me smile.

These boys could have built for days!

There was a huge Star Wars section.
Makin chose one episode for his movie night so now he has developed a bit of interest.

HUGE miniland.

The boys stayed and raced their cars and then headed to a Mindstorm Mars Rover Mission while we girls headed to Heartlake City and Sealife Aquarium and fit in a few other rides.

Of course, none of us are surprised this girl was more than happy to see the aquarium twice during our trip! (Legoland Sealife Aquarium)

Watching an octopus try and get some food from a container.

Makin was sooooo thrilled to be able to do this class with his dad!

Legos and robots are two of his favorite things.

Legoland Park Day 2

So this was a fun moment. We got to the lines fairly early, so we were only a few people back in our line. As they were waiting to "open the gates" they asked the Lego guy mascot (forgot his name) to choose a child to open the gates of Legoland. They told the kids to raise their hand if they wanted to and make a silly face. Makin jumped up and down with his hand up, making a silly face and kept eye contact as the mascot moved around looking and sure enough, he was chosen! We counted down before he flipped the switch. Such a fun memory!

Heartlake Stables was another fun Lego building area.

This was another one of our favorites of the trip. This is one of Makin's favorite rides, the Aquazone Wave Racers. Makin and I happened to hit it when there were not any lines, so we kept riding it over and over...probably about 10 times in a row before people finally came and got in line. The lady running the ride really liked us because we loved her ride so much. :)

We enjoyed the touch tank at the aquarium.

We made sure to go to the presentation and watch the animals being fed.
(She is in the tank feeding them but it may be hard to see...)

This fish made me smile. It looked like it was made like a rubber duck!
It was the Longhorn Cowfish.

The boys headed back for their second Mindstorm class, Adventure Bot.

Then we met back up for a few more rides.

Couldn't resist a picture of the Nebraska boy in front of Lego corn.

We learned how Legos are made as we walked through the self-guided tour. We also loved reading some fun facts along the way.

Even after two full park days and three nights of hotel fun, the kids were ready to move into the hotel permanently and make this our full-time life. But alas, we had to leave!

After checking out we made a couple quick golf-related detours, giving Brad a glimpse at Torrey Pines as well as the Ely Callaway Performance Center.

Then we headed to La Jolla Cove. This area is full of seals and sea lions. It was so fun to see them!

Makin and I walked through this small sea cave.
Lorelei opted out and stayed behind with Brad as it was a bit tricky to get through.

We loved some more up-close views of the sea lions and saw lots of crabs scurrying between the rocks.

As we walked along a bit more we still got to see some of the seals and sea lions having fun.
This spot was one of my favorite memories as we got to see one catch a wave and bodysurf!

Then we headed to Moonlight Beach. If you are familiar with California you know this was not the wisest place to go after La Jolla location-wise...but it was hard to decide on the right beaches in the right order without having been there before and I had a hard time deciding on the right beach this day.

We couldn't get over this huge palm tree!

Peanut Butter Shaved Ice...for lunch...

Our beach girl having fun.

We stayed in San Diego one night since that is where our flight was out of.

We loved the courtyard, which had a few games to play and a fire pit.

We were ready for some downtime and thrilled to have pizza delivered and eat it outside.

The next morning we left for La Jolla Shores right away.

Most of the trip the weather was fairly chilly and Lorelei was not thrilled we didn't think she should swim in the cold water. But we still had fun!

Half the fun is destroying the sandcastle you made right? :)

Loved her sand sea turtle.

Then we headed back for showers before a late checkout and heading out for our flight.

I couldn't get over the variety of plants there. This was a batch I saw near our hotel.

So beautiful!

When I asked the kids to pick their top three favorite things from our trip they said they can't.

"All of them, all of them and all of them."

Ok, I guess we can live with that. :)