And, finally…we walked out the door of the hotel and right over to Legoland.
Here are the two youngers, very excited...
and Jonathan, also excited. When he saw this picture later, though, he was really unhappy about this face. He said it was hard to look into the sun.
Here's the family picture that the roaming photographer took of us right before we entered the park.
And, of course, here are lots of pictures of us enjoying rides. Believe it or not, I'm not including all the pictures!
Here are four of us enjoying the tower ride. One thing I like about Legoland is that it is designed to make sure that parents and kids are making memories together. On this ride, a big person and a little person have to work together to make the pulley work. Benjamin didn't like this ride, so Jonathan kept him pretty low on the tower. Grace like being up high, as you can see.
Part of the park was decorated for Christmas, complete with snow.
Grace loved this little Lego girl.
We loved the tubing! And since the park was so empty, we could get to the bottom of the hill and then walk right back up the ramp to slide down again. We did that a lot, although Jonathan only went down once.
Jonathan's favorite part of Legoland was Miniland. I let him use our little camera to take lots of pictures. He would have been perfectly content to stay there for much longer!
Jen, I bet Delia would enjoy this picture. :)
More rides!
Grace wants me to write that she enjoyed this ride.
As you can see, some of the rides are going to be too small for Jonathan soon. I think that around twelve years old might be the top age for enjoying this park to its fullest. And we did enjoy it to its fullest.
More of Miniland!
Benjamin and I went on this Technic ride, which is a lot like Disneyland's teacups. I tolerated it because he really wanted to do this while Jeff and Grace...
rode the Technic coaster. Jonathan and I rode this when he was four, believe it or not, and he used to like roller coasters, believe it or not. He has no tolerance for them now. Grace and Jeff, though, had a great time. It's really a mild coaster, despite the way this picture looks. It's certainly no Giant Dipper!
The fire fighter show that we watched a few years ago was just the same, but with a holiday twist this time. All the kids enjoyed it, and the younger kids were cackling with laughter.
Grace is always up for mugging with celebrities…or the cast of the show.
Back in the Christmas-themed section of the park, as evening approached, there were a few entertainers who chatted with the kids.
But, we didn't want to miss a new attraction : the Lego Movie Set. And, the kids got to pose with Emmett. This was maybe my one regret of the day: the Legoland photographer got a great shot of the kids, and since they were watching the photographer, my shots were just OK. When we went to preview the shots and the end of the day, they couldn't find our pictures. So, we missed out on that. As regrets go, I realize that's a tiny one. So, here they are with Emmett.
This was a highlight for Jeff and me: The Lego Movie Set. The kids enjoyed it, too, especially Jonathan, but Jeff and I LOVED it.
Again, the room was almost empty, so we were able to have a nice chat with the gal working security in the room containing the basement set. None of the Legos in there are Krageled, so she has to make sure nobody makes off with any pieces. Most of them are behind glass. She has caught some dads trying to steal Lego Batman and trying to carve their names in the plastic drawers with a pocketknife. Seriously. Also, she helped Grace find all seven Unikitty figures (Graces' favorite character) and listened to Benjamin's many stories.
By the way, there is also lots of fun to be had under the hand dryers in the bathroom. Yes, Jeff brought the camera into the bathroom!
We had to do some more tubing!
At 5 p.m., which is also when the park closed, we enjoyed the Duplo tree lighting. That will give you an idea of how big the tree was if you imagine it made out of Duplos rather than Legos.
We were getting tired by this point. Part of that was my fault: I didn't bring socks for the kids. I figured that Keens would be fine without socks in this nice weather. However, I didn't think about blisters. Grace had one, and no Band-Aids could be found without walking to the medical station at the park entrance. We slowly made our way there, since the park was closing anyway.
Benjamin had to make one more friend...
And, here we are "after." Time to walk a few yards to the hotel and enjoy dinner!
