California and Legoland: Day 1

For the long President's Day weekend, we headed out to California to meet the Adams and go to LEGOland.  The kids didn't know that we picked up annual passes, so we look forward to visiting again this year.  We stayed in the LEGOland Hotel and the Adams were staying in the Castle Hotel.  We got in late on Friday so we didn't get to explore until the next day.  The new hotel looks pretty nice and it is well decorated with castle LEGO builds.

Saturday was our big full day in the park to spend with the Adams.  They also brought their cousin Georgia along and Sarah enjoyed having a teenage girl to hang out with.

Megan hangs out with a female knight in the hallway of the Castle Hotel.

Matthew really wanted to pull the sword out so that he could be the king.

Since we were up early, we were able to get some nice pictures of the family in front of the gates.  A very nice gentleman saw that we didn't have a wide angle lens and used his to get the full area.

Another shot of us at the gates.

With the annual pass we also got the photo pass so we get all of our pictures from the rides.  Me, Cheryl-Lynn and Lizzie all look pretty excited to be on the ride.  Sarah? Not so much.

Sarah and Megan are praying they survive while U and Matthew enjoy the ride.

Next we rode on the Fairy Tale Brook with the younger kids.  We divided up by gender.  Matthew and Benjamin had to ham things up.

The girls were much more sedate.

The Aquazone Waverunners are always a hit.  Our group filled the first ride of the day completely plus most of the second (there are 6 boats and we used 10). We found out that the explosions of water are actually controlled by the spectators.  Here is Sarah zooming by.

Matthew is intent on catching Sarah.

Here you can see Kiley behind Luke running between buttons to try to get people wet.

Andrew was very intent on his driving.

Benjamin was excited to ride by himself.

Here is Georgia.  When U said hi to her, she said "How do you know my name?"  It didn't seem to help when he explained that he was her first cousin-in-law, once removed.

Megan is ready to go!

Cheryl-Lynn and Lizzie were a great team.

U got his shoes soaked.

Even wearing her rain jacket didn't keep Me dry.

Here you can see Me trying to catch U.

Next we went to the Technic Coaster.  U and the random stranger next to him seem a lot more sure than Matthew and Me.

Megan was excited to ride with Cheryl-Lynn and the older girls.

Cheryl-Lynn was excited to ride Dragon.  She even got a seat to herself.

Megan was a little nervous on the first ride but quickly started enjoying it.

Me and Matthew having fun.

Georgia and Sarah sitting placidly through the ride.

Megan appears to be melting here.

Matthew gets a kiss from Me.

Matthew and Megan were very excited to ride at the very back of the ride together.

U and Me were happy to get the chance to sit together too!

When we checked into the hotel, they asked if anyone was having a birthday.  We told them it was Grandma O's birthday so they got her a birthday badge. We took some pictures of it for her.

There was a shark that almost ate her birthday badge.

Getting ready to go on the LEGO City Deep Sea Adventure.

Matthew and a deep sea diver waiting in line.

Glowing LEGO crystals.

The LEGO Driving School is always a big hit.  Here we see that the kids passed their tests.  Go Megan!

Matthew looks like he is wearing a yarmukle here.

Andrew also qualified.

Matthew took his driving very seriously and stayed on the right, following all the safety procedures and traffic signs.

Megan was more of a joyrider.

It is a lot of fun to hang out with cousins.

They ended up riding the cars several times in a row while we ate some lunch.

U and Matthew fought a fire in Lego City.

Success!

Me and Megan went up in a coastguard helicopter in Sky Patrol.

Look at them fly!

We went on Kid Power Tower where you pull on rope to raise yourself to the top of the tower. From below, you mostly see feet.

Kiley and Liz getting ready to go up.

Megan and Me

Matthew and U

Megan made her way up to the top of this house.

So then everyone had to climb up there.  On our way out of the area, we saw the "Don't climb on the houses" sign.  Oops!

Benjamin giving Matthew a piggyback ride.

Megan was excited to drive by herself on Skipper School.

Andrew decided to chauffeur his mom around the lake.

U and Me had a nice boat ride around the lake.

A giant Zane figure outside the ninja building area with Grandma's birthday badge.  U and Matthew wanted to stop and build there.

U built a boat.

Matthew made a steamboat.

In line for the Ninjago ride.

No, they don't black out our eyes to hide our identities.  We have 3-D glasses on.

Benjamin doing fire elemental spinjitzu with Kai.

At this point, the Adams, Georgia and Sarah left. Sarah went to a stake dance with Georgia and Luke and spent the night at her house. 

The back of the Adams' van was quite cozy!

The other four of us continued enjoying Legoland for a few more hours. The park started to get less busy and so in this time we explored the LEGO Movie 2 set and we rode Dragon, Lego City Deep Sea Adventure, Skipper School, Driving School, Fairy Tale Brook and Coastersaurus.

They had the basement and bedroom sets for the LEGO Movie 2.  It was fun to see Apocolypseberg and the Sis-star system up close and personal.  U in particular really enjoyed it and went back to see it on his own later.

Battle Kitty!

Spaceship-Spaceship-SPACESHIP!

All these different builds of Queen Whate'va Iwannabe were fun to see.

Pictures from the sister's room.

Back to Dragon for another ride.  This time Me and Matthew got the back seat.

U had a long day and was apparently tired.

We went back to the Deep Sea Adventure.

Megan made a friend!

It is, of course, very important to practice your night driving skills as well.

We were glad to see the cars had lights on them.

For the last ride of the night, we went back to Coastersaurus.  They closed the line right after we got in it.  It just so happened that when we got up, there were too many of us to on the ride so we were going to get the whole roller coaster to ourselves!  We spaced ourselves out so that we would have one person per car.  Here are Megan and Me.

U and Matthew waiting in the back.

When they saw how empty it was, the workers let some of the people who had just gotten off get back on the ride so you'll see some extra folks in these pictures.  Then we were off.  Usually, you get to ride the coaster around twice but since it was the last ride of the night they did a little extra for us.  In fact, we went around 15 times!  Each time we would come into the station, everyone would yell, "One more time!" Since they take a picture of each car each time, we got 60 pictures from that ride.  Here are a few for your enjoyment.

Megan rode in the very front.

Me was in the car behind Megan and rode with her hands up the entire time.

U thought this was great!

Matthew rode in the very back.

Megan kept yelling "Freedom!" as she raced around the entire track.

Matthew kept screaming that this was the best day of his entire life.

Apparently U got a little tired again.

Power naps are amazing!

Back at the hotel, Megan and Matthew were lucky enough to run into Lloyd before he went off to save Ninjago City from Lord Garmadon.

Favorite quote of the day? While we were riding Fairy Tale Brook, the giant says, "Fe Fi Fo Fum" and says how he's going to grind bones to make flour. Megan said, "That is disgusting! You don't use bone shreds for flour."