One More Thing About My Birthday

Well, it happened…I turned 40.  I have to note one thing that four of my friends did for my birthday that was very memorable.  They all live far away, and they collaborated (schemed?) to send me packages in a "This is Your Life" theme, and then I was to open the packages all together.  (I did.)  Each friend took a decade and sent me gifts and notes that went with that decade of my life.  I was totally blown away by the thought that went into this.  (Yes, Jeff took this picture of me opening my packages, and I'm obviously not dressed up for a picture.)  I laughed out loud quite a bit, and I shed a few tears, too.  I am so blessed to have such thoughtful friends who would do this for me, and take the trouble to do it from far away!

A Stop for Me on the Way Home

It was really important to Jeff that we stop and do something for me on the way home from Legoland.  I was perfectly happy with going to Legoland, but I suggested we stop someplace on the coast on the way home.  Jeff found a place where we had never been, and an Embassy Suites with a great view (and, of course, enough room for all of us to sleep, with a bedroom with a door, and a free breakfast.)

I think I mentioned that there had been a storm.  I had thought I might sit on the beach and watch the kids play in the sand.  But, it was windy and chilly, so we didn't do any sitting.  The waves and the view were beautiful!  The Embassy Suites, we decided, probably used to be some sort of resort, so we got to enjoy its heated pool and giant hot tub.  (Well, of course, I didn't get in the pool - I was too cold - but I did enjoy the hot tub!)  The swim turned out to be a highlight of our time there.

Grace wrote this message to me for the day after my birthday.

We rented a surrey and pedaled it to a park, which the kids really enjoyed.

The surrey was fun, but the kids were pretty done by this point…

 and then we drove home.  As you can see, it was a successful trip!  It's a very rare occasion that they sleep in the car, especially all at the same time.  I'm so thankful we got to celebrate our birthdays together.

Oh, and I almost forgot:  One last picture from Jeff's phone.

Pictures from Jeff's phone, and Post-Legoland Pictures

On this, our last Legoland post, I wanted to include some of the pictures from Jeff's phone.

Now this one, of a terrified Benjamin, needs a little explanation.  When we first walked into the park with our early entrance provided by our hotel stay, we walked onto the dinosaur roller coaster.  Benjamin said that he LOVED it!  (Grace did fine, and Jonathan did not love it.)  So, later in the day, when Jeff took him on the dragon roller coaster, we thought he'd love it.  Obviously, that was not the case.  (But Grace rode with me, and she did so well!  We had a lot of fun on that one.)

Here we are, back to pictures from the camera.  After our time in the park, which included a late afternoon snack, the big kids just wanted to build.  Our treasure box in the hotel room had been replenished.  Also, we had some sweet family and friends who had sent money for the kids to choose a little something at the BIG Lego store in the park.  Benjamin chose a Juniors fire station set, Jonathan chose a Technic set, and Grace chose Lego Friends sheets for her bed and a tiny animal set.

Oh, and I didn't take many pictures just for pictures' sake in our room, but I did capture this guy on our bathroom wall...

and these guys on the shower curtain.  Each time I looked in the mirror, which was facing the shower, I kept having to look again because it felt like there were little people behind me.

I think I mentioned earlier that Benjamin and Jeff swam the first night, but I was wrong.  These wet-hair pictures of Benjamin reminded me that we wanted to get the kids in bed at a reasonable time the first night so that they could fully enjoy their time at the amusement park.  After our day at Legoland, we weren't quite as concerned about sleep.  Jeff and Benjamin had a quick swim, the big kids built, and then the younger kids got into their pajamas for our dinner and pajama party.  We could have left the complex for dinner elsewhere, but there was something wonderful about walking from our room to dinner to the evening entertainment.  In pajamas.  Barefoot.

Did I mention that there was a whoopee cushion in the floor next to the elevator?  We had to try it out each time we passed by.

There are nooks and crannies everywhere for the kids to enjoy.  In the bathrooms, the mirrors talk to you, but I didn't take pictures in the bathroom!

And, I think I mentioned that the restaurant has Legos for the kids to play with while they wait.

Jonathan, true to his nature, thought the Skyline Cafe should have Lego letters labeling it, so he made some and put them on display.

Another great think about the Legoland Hotel:  The people who work there actually like kids.  They take time to listen to, and chat with, the kids.  Let's face it, not everybody everywhere enjoys kids.  (As soon as we left the Lego complex and went to a regular store, we remembered that.  The employees there did not think children were quite so charming.)  Here, Princess Peppermint, who seemed to be just roaming around before the pajama party, had a long conversation with Grace and posed for a picture.  Grace wrote a letter to her as soon as we got home.

And, here is the location of all the kids' events, the castle/pirate ship thingy for building, not climbing.  Those blue bench cushions that you see in the foreground are part of a Lego moat full of bricks for spontaneous building.  Tonight's entertainment was a pajama party.  The party kicked off with a long tongue twister lesson.  The host and hostess taught the kids a series of tongue twisters, and then the kids would get up and try to say them at the microphone.  They managed to do it with lots of laughter but without the kids feeling embarrassed when they (inevitably) goofed up.

And then they moved on to the limbo.  Not my favorite thing, but our little kids loved it.  And nobody had to quit when they fell or had incorrect technique…all the kids were included as much as they wanted to be.

 Soon enough, we all got tired and went to bed.  What an amazing day!

The next morning was my 40th birthday.  It was fun to wake up in the Legoland Hotel for my first day of my forties.  I have to mention, though, that it was a soggy, rainy day.  There was a big rainstorm that the whole area seemed to be freaking out about, and it hit Legoland that morning.  Now I love rain, and we need it desperately, but I sure felt for all those families who had been planning to go to Legoland that day.  Legoland is almost all outdoors, and the day would have been completely spoiled.  We were so thankful to have enjoyed perfect weather the day before.(I suspect the Hotel people had lots of things planned for the kids in the event of a rainy day.  And I should also mention that Jonathan keeps telling people how he liked the hotel BETTER than the amusement park.  So, I'm sure the day was not a total loss for those families.)

Anyway, we had a wonderful breakfast, and Jeff somehow found a candle and lighter at the breafast buffet, so he sang "Happy Birthday" to me and I made my wish over a chocolate muffin.  I wouldn't have wanted to share my birthday morning with anyone else!

Checkout at the hotel was at 11 a.m.  It was interesting to see…lots of other families had the same idea we did:  We waited until 11 to leave and spent as much time there as we possibly could.  There was a mass exodus at checkout time.  The kids were really sad to leave.  It was such an ideal experience.  Here's one last picture of the youngers with Lego Santa.  Yeah, there's really somebody in that suit.

So, what did we do for the rest of that rainy day, my 40th birthday?  We slowly made our way to a different spot on the coast, to spend a night near the beach, just for me.  Here's a picture we took at lunchtime.  We stopped where we could see the ocean and eat our leftovers from the hotel restaurant in the car, because it was raining.  It was probably my favorite car picnic.  And we had enough leftovers for everybody.

 

We made it to our coastal destination right at the end of sunset.  I'll post about our time there next time.

There is one more thing I want to tell a little about, because one of the reasons for this trip was to make turning ten a big deal for Jonathan.  Celebrating Benjamin's birthday and skipping birthday parties and gifts were perks, too, as were a few other things.  And I mentioned how Jonathan got a bit teary when he found out we were going.

The night before our trip, when Jeff and I were still keeping the big secret, we asked Jonathan what he'd like for dinner on his birthday.  Usually, we let our kids choose their birthday dinners.  We figured he'd request macaroni and cheese, but instead, he asked for chicken pot pie.  So, on his birthday - the driving day - we decided to stop and have a very special lunch at Marie Callender's, where we knew we could order chicken pot pie.  (Jonathan and I split it and still couldn't finish it.)  We asked him if he'd like that for lunch, and he didn't want to choose.  He didn't want to ask for, or receive anything - he was so grateful to go to Legoland.  And, he was like that during the whole trip - grateful, and not wanting to be demanding.  While we were at the restaurant, the manager came to our table, and (I am not making this up) gave each of our kids giant cookies wrapped up in bags and bows because our table was well-behaved.  We were shocked, of course, and mentioned that this was a perfect surprise because of Jonathan's birthday.  THEN, because it was his birthday, he asked our server to give us whatever pie we wanted.  We ordered a piece of cream cheese pie in honor of my dad.  Sharing that between the five of us was the perfect amount of dessert, and we saved the cookies for later on the trip. Two things about that lunch stood out to me, though :  that it only took a cookie from the manager to make our restaurant experience special and memorable, and what a thankful heart Jonathan had.

And now, rather than reread and edit, I am going to publish this post in all of its imperfection!

Aaaand…at Legoland

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!