Yes, we do seem to go to Legoland quite often. Our kids love it there and with the beach just a short ways from the hotel...how can you complain!!!! And it is such a quick trip with Yuma (Matt has a building there, so it makes it nice to drive three hours, stay the night in Yuma and then a quick three more hours to Carlsbad) being a half way point.
When we went last June, in the back of our minds we thought....this may be our last time to go to Legoland....However, after the Horse Jousting Ride incident
(click here for that one). I knew
we would have to come back! And come back we did!!! We decided to go last minute over the labor-day weekend. We bought our tickets on line a few days before we left and started trying our luck at priceline.com to get a nice cheap hotel.
We needed one for three days, so we didn't want to risk getting a crapy one. We kind of ran into a problem when we suddenly realized how expensive and booked up everything was for that weekend. I knew it would be busy, but expensive didn't cross my mind. I suddenly started wishing that we would have taken advantage of the
resorts here in Phoenix. There are some pretty good deals to be had....scince no one wants to come in the middle of summer. Then, we could have gone to Legoland in the fall. But alas we already had our tickets. As we drove from Yuma to Carlsbad we still did not have our hotel arranged. We gave our last go at priceline.....and we were denied for our cheapness. I was on the brink of one of my come-apart
moments...Well, lets be honest, Ok I completely came-apart and was freaking out that we didn't have a place to stay.....everything was booking up and so expensive. Matt was like just chill, we will get a place.
We decided to use our Hilton Honor Rewards, but we only had enough for two nights, so we would have to book a third separately. SOOO.... we booked Saturday and Sunday, but Friday (which was the present day) had no openings. Matt of course was still calm as can be...don't worry he said, they always have a cancellation."
ME : Ya!
On Labor Day Weekend???? I was stressing. But sure enough, I called at 5:50 pm and they had just had a cancellation. Sweet!!! We had our three nights booked!!!! Sure that one night we DID have to pay for cost us as much as three nights total would have cost us on a normal non holiday weekend, but I didn't care anymore. I was just super glad we had a place to go, since we would be arriving in 20 minutes.
And of course Matt had to throw in there....See, I told you not to worry, I have these things all under control. :) We decided to stop off at the beach, before going into our hotel. The sun was just about to set as we searched for a parking spot. We didn't make it to the water in time for the sunset, but we did get to see the sunset, beautiful!!!
The next morning we woke up ready to hit Legoland. We had so much fun!!!
The kids are old enough and tall enough and brave enough to do everything. And to my surprise and happiness, it was not very crowded at all. Of course we had to do the horse jousting one for Elena
and lets face the facts here....for me. If we never go to Legoland again, I can live in peace and happiness knowing Elena got to do the horse jousting and I have some pretty darn cute pictures to prove it. There was this one ride we had never been on. It was Pirate Reef and you get soaked.
Two problems were.....I had white shorts on and Cody didn't
want to get wet until he had his swim suite on (which was at the hotel). So we were just going to force Cody on and I would deal with my pants being see-through....then the sensible me came out and I decided to stay with Cody. Matt and Elena went on the ride without us. I was bummed, because I love those kinds of rides and I think after the fact, Cody was kind of bummed when he saw how much fun it was. Matt and Elena loved it and came off completely drenched from head to toe and than some!!! But the next day
we came back when we had our swim stuff and rode and re-rode this ride over and over again!!!! Going to the Legoland water park was something we had never done before. It was a blast and the water was really warm....I wasn't expecting that! We also got to meet a few of the Lego
Friends. Elena was ecstatic, so much that it made her feel shy and she didn't want to go up and dance with them. Cody was secretly really excited about the Lego Friends too. Matt on the other hand... he said he wanted to rip his arm off and beat himself with it. I thought the show was cute!!! One funny thing....there were some weird airplane markings in the sky....Matt and some other guy were stopped in their tracks trying to figure out what the airplanes were doing. They were both looking
up at it trying to figure it out when all the sudden Matt says....I think it says...GEICO. I died
laughing, for some reason I found that ridiculously funny. We brought this tiny stroller with us, mostly so we could keep our stuff in it, but Elena managed to cram herself into it several times and enjoyed the rest it gave her from walking. We usually don't buy the pictures from the roller coasters, but we decided to buy this one. I love this because it really shows this new phase of life we have entered....the non baby phase.
Riding the Dragon Roller coaster and pulling off heart hands and a cool calm look during a wild roller coaster ride... I LOVE IT!!!! We also took them up on the option of having the picture turned into a LEGO.
How cool is that?!!!! And of course no Legoland trip is complete without the family picture with the lego Mom and lego baby. I still think we look good as a family of five....But that may never happen, and you know what? I am ok with that, because we ROCK'IT as a family of FOUR!!!!!
am so behind it is not even funny. Oh well, baby steps...just taking one thing at a time and today, you get my post on The Piano Guys. Jon Schmidt is a name that has been known around our house for many many years. But just in the past year or so The Piano Guys have 
completely taken over!!! If you have not seen their You Tube Movies, it is a must....go Google the Piano Guys or click here for one of my favorites. The other day, I caught Cody being creative during his piano practicing time. He was trying to pull a Jon Schmidt. I think he was a little disappointed to see it was not as easy as Jon makes it look to play upside down. 
I posted this picture on Face Book with the caption of Jon Schmidt in training. Any ways, thanks to a couple of my friends knowing Jon personally, he made a comment to Cody. How cool is that of him!!!! What a great person for my kids to look up to and admire. Any ways we went to his concert here in AZ on the 21st and had a blast!!!!! It was amazing and super fun!!! 
I was a little bummed at our seats. I thought we were on the front row of the balcony, when really there was no balcony. It was just the very back section of the auditorium and you stepped up one step to get to your seat. Had I known that, I would have chosen our seats closer up, and not on the "balcony" but it turned out ok. It did give
the kids a little more room to move around and were were by this brick wall so that Elena could run her fingers down the
lines of the bricks....bonus!!!! The kids did great!!!! I had to remind Elena a couple of times not to hum to the music, and she fell asleep before it was over, but they both really enjoyed it. 
The line was WAY long to get a picture with Jon and it was already 10:00pm, so we opted for this ...boot leg one (ya that is Jon way in the back ground posing for a picture with some stranger.) Along the lines of concert going, I took the kids to the Messiah Sing-In. Matt and I wanted to go so bad and our friend was the Soprano Soloist, so that made it even more exciting to go. But Matt was out of town, and I didn't really want to get a babysitter for the kids, so I took them with. 
They were very good, but I will let
these pictures speek for how much they enjoyed it. But since then, I have caught them on several occasions singing parts of the Hallelujah Chorus and recognizing it when it would play. So I am so glad that it work out to take them. It really was a wonderful night for me.
