California trip day 3: Oceanside Beach and Legoland Hotel

Wednesday morning, we headed to Oceanside Beach. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the sand and in the water. They enjoyed collecting shells and rocks. (And sometimes they called rocks "shells," like when Matthew came up to U and U said, "Looks like you found some rocks," to which Matthew replied, "No, but I found some shells" and then proceeded to show a bunch of rocks to U.)

Sarah loved being in the water and would walk right into the waves.

Megan definitely got the sandiest at the beginning of the day, alternating between sitting in the water and laying on the sand. However, then the kids got the idea to move the black, sparkly sand that was on the beach into the water so they could turn the water black and sparkly. So they'd get wet and then roll/lay in the sand before running back to the water. They also took cups of the sand and dumped them in the water. I know it sounds crazy, but their goal really was to get the water sparkly black. It didn't work out so well, though, as the water stayed more or less the same color.

Sandy Matthew.

U and Matthew built a sand castle and a sand village with a fountain. They lived in peace until Bacraw came and destroyed the village and castle. Bacraw has a really big blue head, an orange body and big legs and feet (approximately as far as Matthew can reach).

Matthew and U with the finished castle.

U wanted to make sure we could see the detail on the gates leading into the castle.

Castle (with a feather flag) with village and fountain in front.

Matthew enjoyed climbing in the castle.

Gathering sand.

Megan and Matthew also enjoyed playing at the nice playground that was at the beach.

We ate lunch at Ruby's Diner on the pier. It's pretty cool to be over the ocean with nothing ahead of you but blue water!

My yummy turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich.

We then travelled to our next hotel, which was the Legoland Hotel. We hadn't told the kids about it and, as you can see, they were really excited when we arrived. 

When Sarah woke up and discovered we were at the Legoland Hotel, she got pretty excited. (She also wanted to know why we hadn't told her. It's called a surprise for a reason :) ) She happily helped U take most of our luggage in and then came back and reported on all the cool things about the hotel. Like the elevator that has a disco dance party every time the door closed (when else are you glad to be on the top floor?) and the huge dragon watching over the hotel.

When Megan woke up, she was still tired and wasn't too keen on paying attention to the hotel. Matthew, on the other hand, looked out the car window, saw that the hotel was made of Legos and was like, of course we are at the Legoland hotel--we are going to Legoland! (He's been super excited about going to Legoland and all week was talking about going, even though we didn't go to the park until Thursday. So I guess the hotel fit in well with his plans.)

U and the kids went swimming in the pool for a bit. U and the younger two built a boat for the kids to play in. It was a big hit with all the kids in the pool and got used by many of them.

Then we explored the hotel. There are lots of areas where you can build with Legos. Everyone enjoyed that, although U and Matthew may have liked it the most. There are plenty of LEGO decorations, from the huge dragon out front to the picture frames on the walls.  Even the employee name tags are made of LEGO.

Sarah built a lot and even made a haunted pumpkin mansion for the building competition. 

She wanted to make sure we had a picture with all the Lego people.

There was no adult competition but U created a goblin bust and a skeleton for fun.

There was a castle and pirate ship play area that the kids enjoyed playing in/around.  Apparently the only pictures I got were the ones of them in jail.

One of the huge minifigures that is outside the hotel.

There was a treasure hunt for the kids where they found the answers to different clues around the hotel and then entered the key in the treasure box in our room. The kids were excited to each get a mini figure! Thursday evening, there were three mixel sets in the treasure box (there wasn't another treasure hunt, though).

In the evening, there was a pirate and a knight who led the kids through various activities including teaching them how to sword fight. Around 8, they had a pajama party where they had them lay down and then led them through a bunch of different stretching exercises. They told them a bedtime story, which probably got the kids more energized as it was a really silly story with lots of audience participation. The tale was based on the Three Little Pigs, except it was about three zombies who built their homes out of kittens, surfboards and Legos, and a duck monster named Bob (Sarah named him) who tried to destroy their homes (using kittens, unicorns, chickens, hammers and dynamite).

Matthew laying down as part of the pajama party.

Favorite things:

Matthew - the funny LEGO show and being at the LEGOland hotel

Megan - the beach and driving to LEGOland hotel (again, comments during that last experience may differ)

Sarah - eating lunch at Ruby's diner

Me - watching everyone at the beach and playing in the hotel

U - building a sandcastle and a LEGO boat and other LEGO creations