Legoland

Legoland with Grandma - and a beach as well, what more could two little kids want! We flew into San Diego and picked grandma up from the airport in the morning. It took us a little while to find a small beach with sand the kids could actually play at, but they had a pretty good time. Water was still way too cold to go in. Turns out there's a beach right near Legoland, so maybe we'll head there next time.

We're still hearing Ian talk about Legoland. Every time a helicopter goes by... I think that was his favorite ride. Just sort of chair on a stick, but you can spin it around and make it go up and down. All I can say is, it's a good thing it wasn't that busy, because there were lines for several of the rides as it was.

 The airplanes were also a big hit. Dad's hanging on to Ian, because the first time 'round on this ride, Ian nearly went flying out the side. Bit of centripetal force in action.

Isabella's favorite ride was driving the cars. She was very good at it, not running into anything. When she goes back she wants to ride the bigger cars - she wasn't quite big enough this time around.

We rode all of the roller coasters (well, not Bill or Ian), even the big scary one. We skipped the spin and upchuck at the end of a car welding machine robot arm. The playgrounds there turned out to be a big hit, too. Slides, things to hide and climb around in... I think if the kids were much older they wouldn't last more than a day, but as it was, we got two full days out of it without any problem. My favorite ride was the shoot the things from the car, sort of an Indiana Jones theme. Bill's favorite thing was the Lego sets, particularly the Star Wars theme. It is truly impressive to see such big things made out such teeny tiny legos (including a VW car!).

Ian made it through the day without a nap, just barely. He threw up on the car seat (chocolate milk on top of a full breakfast is a Bad Idea) which led to a hose off in the hotel and a trip to the laundromat. They got a bit fussy at dinner time, but we survived with no one throwing us out of the restaurant. Isabella and grandma actually went *swimming* in the hotel pool, cold as it was.

They each got to pick out a toy. Isabella picked out a princess dress, of course. To go with the princess makeup. She got her picture taken with the princess (twice) but to be honest, she didn't seem all that interested in it. More interested in the dress and the face paint. She also "won" a stuffed chameleon at the "fishing" game (another thing she wants to go back and do). The nice man let her go an extra couple of times...

Another favorite was the fire trucks (pump the truck to the house, put out the fire, pump it back). Bit of a handicap having two small kids, but they seemed to think it was fun. We saw the end of one show, but I'm not sure the kids were all that much into that one, either.

One thing I really liked was a couple of rides had a kid's play area - so the kids could go play while the adults stood in line. Excellent idea.