San Diego Trip - Legoland

For our final full day in San Diego, we decided to check out Legoland. My grandma lives only 15 minutes away from their California location and yet we had never been. I had heard conflicting stories about the best time to visit Legoland--some people said it was better for young kids, others said it was more for older kids. But I can now definitely say that Legoland is definitely geared toward younger children. I think the perfect age range is 6-9 years old but there was still a lot for our kids to do and I'm glad we came now and not when our kids our older. There's not a whole lot for older kids. In fact, many of the rides have height limits and older kids/adults can't ride them at all.

In addition to the main theme park, Legoloand also has an aquarium and a water park. We opted just to do the main theme park which was perfect for one day. I heard the aquarium is not that great and our kids are probably not quite old enough to enjoy the water park. However, if you decide to go, you should still consider packing swimsuits and towels. Pirate Shores, which is part of the main theme park, has several water rides and a splash pad so you can enjoy the water and cool down on hot days. I wish we had been better prepared. We rode several of the water rides and got soaked.

We started our day in Heartlake City/Duplo Village. Adelaide insisted on riding the carousel first. No matter where we go, she always wants to ride the merry-go-round. 

David then took Zara to Fun Town where they have a driving school which I knew Zara would love. (I felt bad that we had never made it to Autotopia at Disneyland and Zara seemed quite jealous of her cousins who got to drive cars.)

Meanwhile, I took Adelaide and Benjamin into the toddler Duplo Village where they got to build lots of fun things. We even rode their little train which just goes around in a circle around some Lego rabbits and carrots and corn. 

We then rode several of the rides in the Fun Town area. They have a Driving School for ages 6-13 but they also have a Junior Driving School for ages 3-5 so Adelaide was able to get into the action. 

Three to five year olds are terrible drivers. 

 Next, we wandered through Miniland USA where they've recreated many different cities and locations in Legos. It's pretty impressive. The kids (and David) also had fun building ships out of Legos and racing them in the water there as well.

They also had a special exhibit  on Star Wars so there were tons of scenes re-created from all the films.

 At this point, we decided to take a break for lunch. Unlike Disneyland, Legoland doesn't allow outside food. But they do allow entry and re-entry so we decided to leave the park for lunch. We stopped at Trader Joe's and then went to my grandma's house to eat lunch with her. Like I said, my grandma lives only 15 minutes away so it was the perfect way to rest and relax during the height of the day's heat. My brother and his family also stopped by so we got to see them as well. It was nice to get a chance to see both of them again since it was our last day in San Diego.

After our two hour lunch break, we headed back to the park to see the other parts of the park--Pirate Shores, Castle Hill, Land of Adventure, and Imagination Zone. I peeked into Ninjago World but didn't do any of the attractions there. 

Zara and I rode two of their bigger rollercoasters together--The Dragon Coaster and Technic Coaster. They were pretty basic rollercoasters, but not terribly memorable. I think I preferred the dragon one more. 

Near the end of the day, we stopped by one of their stores to build our own minifigs. We each built one to represent ourselves though it was difficult because they didn't have a lot of great options for hairstyles/hats or clothes. I still love our little minifig family, even if Zara's is a little off theme.

Minifig Family: David, Liz, Zara (?), Adelaide, and Benjamin

Overall, I enjoyed Legoland and I'm really glad we fit it into this trip. I think the kids wouldn't have enjoyed it quite as much if we had waited much longer to take them. We might do it again in a few years, but they would definitely age out of it by the time they're teenagers. It wasn't as crowded as Disneyland and they do have a lot of areas to just play with Duplos or on playgrounds which is great for the younger crowd. It isn't run as tightly or efficiently as Disneyland, but it was still an enjoyable trip, especially for those who love Legos like our family does.

Celebricktion

Last weekend, the Cobb Galleria hosted Celebricktion. Being LEGO fans, I thought we'd enjoy a visit. It was mostly vendors selling LEGO specific toys, accessories, and sets but there was several awesome structures built out of LEGOs, some free build areas, and games. They even had some people in costume including a bunch of Star Wars characters and the Ghostbusters. The girls have been totally obsessed with Star Wars lately so they were super excited to meet Darth Vader. (Adelaide especially. She really loves Darth Vader.)  

When Darth Vader realized that we had three children, he congratulated David and told him he was very prolific.

I loved the Lady Stormtrooper.

Let's just pretend Benjamin doesn't have drool running down his chin and Zara's finger isn't blurring out half the photo. This is what happens when you give your five-year-old your phone.

All my babies. Adelaide is playing peekaboo. She did not want to uncover her eyes for the camera.

We came home and David and Benjamin took a nap together. So sweet, my little men.

The End of an Era

We interrupt this string of vacation-related blog posts to bring you this special news bulletin… Or something like that….

It seems I am in the writing mood tonight, and as that happens so rarely these days, I decided it would behoove me to make this blog post. After all, I’m way behind on my Mother’s Day quota. Liz has been very kind about not nagging me to post something, though every now and then I think I could use a good nagging to help keep me focused. But that’s beside the point.

As I was saying, since I’m in the mood to write, write I shall!

As any faithful reader of this blog is sure to know, our little family has just made a drastic change of lifestyle in the hopes of making another drastic change of lifestyle in a couple of years. All these drastic changes got me to thinking about all the other drastic changes in my life that led up to the current drastic changes.

I can roughly break my life up into chunks of time: from birth up until high school, from high school until after my mission to Taiwan, and from returning from Taiwan until separation from the Navy. These are categorized much more by feeling than they are by time, but for those interested that’s 14 years, 7 years, and 9 years, respectively. Each was an era defined in my mind by my rate of growth.

As I see it, from birth to high school I changed very little. Everyday life was pretty much the same: go to school, get good grades, be bored all the time. I filled my excess time by playing with my LEGOs. Looking back, everyday seems very much the same and boredom is an overarching theme. Let’s call this era the Era of Boredom.

Let me pause for a moment. Please don’t misunderstand me. There were many great and wonderful activities taking place during this time, but these eras have little to do with how I filled my days and everything to do with how much I learned and how fast I grew during that timeframe. My eras are defined by how my potential was utilized, or underutilized, as the case may be.

From high school until returning from Taiwan, I spent a lot of time deciding who I wanted to be and what I wanted to get out of life. I started observing people, particularly couples, to see how they interacted. I decided what type of husband and father I wanted to be. I decided that I would travel so as to not live my whole life and then die in the same town. I learned that I had talents that I didn’t know I had, like the ability to learn Chinese. (This was especially important after taking four years of Spanish in high school and not remembering any of it.) I decided that people are basically good. This was my Decision Era.

The first part of the next era could almost be its own mini era, but I include it with this one because it led to all of the wonderful things that have happened to me over the last seven years. After I returned from Taiwan, I began to yearn for more personal growth. I tried college, but I couldn’t afford it after the first semester. My work was unsatisfying and I felt my potential was being wasted. My only significant work experience was in the grocery business; I wanted to be something more, but I was limited by my lack of education and experience.

My father suggested I join the Navy, which I did, and I left for basic training about six months later. (One thing I love about the military—they will hire you based on your potential, rather than based on what you’ve already done.) After basic training, I was sent to Monterey, California to learn Korean, and it was here that I met Alicia, who basically walked me through the process of getting an Associate’s degree in Korean. It was also here that I met my lovely wife, Liz, who has inspired me to become everything I’ve only ever dreamed of being. With her encouragement, I completed a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and was successfully admitted into Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management. I’ve become what Liz always wanted in a husband. (This is especially important because I really didn’t have much going for me when we met.) We also have a beautiful daughter, which has been a wonderful experience for both Liz and I as we watch her grow. My little family has been able to experience multiple cultures in the last few years as we traveled throughout Hawaii, Korea, China, Taiwan, and much of the continental United States together. So, what began as an era of no experience or education, ended up being chocked full of both and has been by far the greatest of the all three.

Now that we are settled and I am in school, I feel as though the Education and Experience Era has come to an end. Despite the fact that I am currently pursuing another degree, I feel that the growth associated with this time far outweighs that of the prior era—enough so to start anew. As with so many other things, only time will tell. I will say this much though… I am thoroughly enjoying every bit of what I’m learning and doing now. Combine that with the joys of being with my family every day, and I don’t believe I’ve ever been happier.

While I don’t know everything the future holds, I am very excited for this new season of my life and for what’s in store for me and my little family!