Florida 2014: Legoland

 

Legoland!!  We loved our day at Legoland.  It is a really nice park with lots of thought and detail put into the entire theme park.  All four kids are pretty big Lego fans and we all saw The Lego Movie this summer so that made it all even more exciting for us.  But this day was sizzling.  I see clouds in the pictures but the sun was shining on us all.day.long.  We made the best of it, lasting at the park from 9-6.  We hit the water ride a couple times and the cooling center many times throughout the day.  Overall, even with the heat, a big thumbs up for this park.  It is worth the forty-five minute drive from Orlando and the admission is pretty reasonable.  My dad found coupons for buy one adult, get the child in for free so that made it a great deal for us!

 

Grady's favorite part of the day was meeting Buddy.

 

Layla loved meeting the Lego and Friends girls!

 

Silly during the Lego breakfast.

 

Ryan enjoyed the pins they handed out at breakfast.  1st visit and birthday boy!

 

Chima!!

 

The food was just okay at breakfast but the extras were really fun.  It was held in the former Cypress Gardens in the park and we met all the characters, there were Legos to build with, minifigures for each child, Lego salt and pepper shakers to take home and a fast pass for a ride.  If they could just beef up this meal (think Disney style!) it would be worth the price tag.

 

Singing happy birthday to Ryan!

 

Ride time.  The target age is 2-12.  The kids were really at a great age for the park.

 

The Chima water ride.  Fun ride and essential for when you need to cool down on a hot Florida day!

 

Soaked!

 

Cooling center!

 

Mini City was very neat.  Grady LOVED this section.  It was different structures from around the world made out of Legos.  My one wish, a tiny bit of shade or a splash pad to douse yourself. 

 

So cute.  Loved all the detail on everything throughout the entire park.

 

Can you tell we were a bit hot?  Ha!!

 

Layla loves her Lego and Friends!

Such a fun day!  And the park took us from Lego fans to Lego maniacs in this house.  

Our dining room is pretty much a building factory now!

Florida 2014: Roadtrip

We recently returned home from the Sunshine State.  We spent a week in Florida with my sister and her family.   We all decided to drive and it went really smoothly.  The kids were great in the car and they actually slept!  Layla and Grady are not big car sleepers so we were shocked when Grady napped consistently in the car and both kids fell asleep at night.  Ryan and Layla are ready for another road trip.  Grady and I may need a few weeks to get on the road again. Layla did ask me when we would start flying places again.  I told her maybe when I head back to work!

 

6 A.M. departure.  This was a very early jump for our crew.

 

First stop was a visit with Superman.

 

 

After the visit with Superman, our stops on the way to Florida included gas stations and parks.  

We packed a cooler with food and drinks.  It was nice to get out and stretch our legs a bit!

 

  

  

We consumed a lot of sandwiches on this trip.  Maybe one too many.  Ha!  

My sister liked to refer to them as soggies!

 

I even drove for a bit! 

 

Another key to happy road trippers?  Snackeez!  They hold a drink and snack in one container.  These were a gift from my parents to the four oldest grandkids for the big trip.  We used them just about everyday on this vacation.

We drove a long way on our first travel day.  Much longer than we had expected.  The kids were sleeping and Ryan was feeling good so we trekked on to meet up with my sister and her family at a hotel in southern Georgia.

2AM in Georgia!!  The kids were very excited to see Cassie!  They did go back to sleep, but I am pretty sure Ryan and I were asleep first.  They were doing a lot of giggling about the hotel being stinky.  I would agree that it was a little bit on the icky side (notice I had already removed the comforters from the bed)!

We only had three hours the second travel day to get to our destination of Orlando.  So the next day we quickly made it into FLORIDA!!!  I love the Florida Welcome Center.

 

We all enjoyed some Florida orange juice.

        

Tried out some face cut-out signs.  We were a bit giddy!

 

 Our way home went just as smoothly but included a lot more fast food.  Everyone was pretty exhausted from our week in Florida so the car was pretty sleepy on the way home.  

On the way home, we stayed the night in Paducah, KY so we explored the town before leaving for home. 

 

A favorite sign from our drive through Atlanta, Georgia! 

And that was our road trip!  Mostly.  Include in a lot of potty stops and silly texting 

with my sister's car and you have our road trip!  

There are many pictures from our days at Lego Land, 

the Magic Kingdom and Cocoa Beach still to come!