Legoland!

We had a fantastic trip to Legoland last week. I had so much fun planning the vacation over the last few months and it was everything we all dreamed of! More information is in the picture captions.

The kids worked very hard on their school work all summer to earn a trip to Legoland. They earned "lego bricks" on their chart by doing worksheets, reading, chores, etc. Towards the end of the summer we were traveling so much that they just earned big "megabucks" for doing homework and chores the whole week, but by the middle of September or so they had filled up their chart and earned the trip!

We splurged a little and stayed in the Legoland Hotel. We booked it far enough ahead of time that it wasn't too unreasonable in the off season, especially with everything it included. The Legoland Hotel has three different themed rooms--Pirate, Adventure, and Castle, and the kids of course chose the Pirate rooms. It had two separate rooms--one with a  queen bed for the adults (and a pack and play for baby McKay) and then another room with pirate ship bunk beds and a tv with the Lego channel showing lego movies all day long. 

Even the bathroom was lego themed. All the things on the walls were lego models.

The pirate ship room. There was also a trundle bed under the bottom bed for  Max.  One of the best things about the room was the treasure chest! Everyday the maid left a puzzle that, once solved, gave you the combination for a treasure chest where the kids would find lego sets and chocolate coins. 

Another great thing was the hotel lobby! The park closed at 5 everyday, but the lobby had a couple of "lego pits" where kids could build, and playgrounds built like a pirate ship and castle. Every evening at 6 PM they had entertainment for the kids--skits, building contests, games, etc. It was a great chance for the parents to sit and relax while the kids continued the fun. The hotel also had an amazing buffet breakfast with everything you could think of. The kids each had their favorite foods--Mason ate his weight in sausage and fruit smoothies, Myles ate plateful after plateful of pineapple, and Max was amazed that we let them have ice cream for breakfast!

A few views of the Legoland Hotel. It really was a highlight of our stay.

One of the big lego pits.

We rode every ride in the park at least once and the kids loved every minute. No one ever cried or had a tantrum. I am always amazed when we travel how well-behaved our kids are! I guess when there is no homework they have nothing to complain about!

Mason and Myles were best buddies.

Everyone got to drive their own cars. Mason and Myles did the older kid cars at least 5 or 6 times. 

A pretty cool dude.

Myles was a very conscientious driver.

They had a window into the lego building shop, and the kids could not believe that people got PAID to build lego creations! They all decided to work very hard and go to college so that they could have an awesome job too. 

Mason was tall enough to be the "chaperone" for Myles for most of the rides. 

Even McKay had a great time. There was a "Duplo Center" where all the legos and toys were just his size and he thought he was king of the world. 

Just a few pics. 

One night we went to the beach at sunset and the kids ran in and out of the surf, getting completely drenched. Even McKay fought to be put down on the sand and when we finally relented he crawled straight towards the waves. 

There were a few rides that McKay could ride with his family and this was the best. I put him down next to Myles and he reached over and held his hand the entire time. Little McKay just lives to be a big boy like his brothers. 

Mason charged me $5 to take this picture because it was "embarrassing". But he needed the money to have enough to buy a lego set that he wanted so I went for it. He is quite the ladies' man.

There was this lego witch in the hotel lobby one night and it spent about 5 minutes playing peek-a-boo with McKay. I've never heard him laugh so hard, and you could even hear the actor in the suit chuckling.

Mason was so sweet and so grateful the entire trip. He pulled me and Marshall aside separately and told us in a very sweet and serious way that he really appreciated us taking them on the trip, he knew it cost a lot of money and was a lot of work, but that he really appreciated it." He has such a tender heart. 

Anywhere there was water, Max headed right to it. There were lots of places like this where you could shoot water guns.  The third day we went to the Legoland water park (no pictures) and all the kids thought it was the best place on earth. I overheard Mason whispering to Myles "I think Heaven is a lot like the legoland watermark. Maybe a bit better."

Mason and Myles were driving the cars and I had Max and McKay. All of a sudden Max saw Emmett from The Lego Movie and ran over and gave him a big hug. He insisted I take a picture so that he could show it to his brothers and say "JEALOUS?"

We found a shaded area with these big foam blocks that was a perfect place to let McKay get down and play. By the end of the trip he had mastered stacking the blocks on top of each other.

This was our final picture on our way out of the park. It was absolutely exhausting but so worth it. I love spending time together as a family and watching Marshall be an awesome father to these little guys. The kids basked in his attention and it was a great break from our everyday hustle and bustle. I can't wait to do it again!