Carlsbad: Part 2 {Legoland}

 One of the main highlights from our trip was our day at Legoland. Petey was so excited and remembered rides from the previous year that she wanted to go on again.

She was being a stinker and wouldn't look at the camera so this was our family photo in front of the Legoland entrance.

We started off with the big boys splitting off to brave the biggest and creepiest rollercoaster at Legoland {which in comparison to most theme parks isn't very scary}.

 They loved it. As a sidenote, my sisters and I braved it a little later on in the morning and I'll never be doing that ride again. I was yelling and scared out of my mind...but I hate rollercoasters in general so...

While the boys were in line for that rollercoaster, we took the kids on some of their favorite rides from the previous year. There is one that goes up and down that Petey loves and luckily, Spidey was tall enough for this year!

Then it was time to go to the ride my kids had talked about for weeks...the "pew pew ride".

 It's an Indiana Jones themed ride and you shoot little targets throughout the ride.

 Can you tell K Bear's smile was forced? He wasn't a fan of the ride.

 Since there was practically no one at Legoland that day {which seemed weird for spring break}, we got to ride it twice in a row. Spidey was super happy. He wasn't tall enough for this ride either last year and was elated that he got to join the 'big kids' and shoot things. What more could a 3 year old boy want?

 This is what the family looked like while we went on the big slide ride. I took Spidey on it so I have no pictures of that but I did get pictures of Petey going down.

 She loved this ride and did it a couple of times.

 Another favorite ride was this horse ride. We lied a little about Petey's age last year since she was 2 months from being 4 years old. The ride requirements are 4 years old and 36 inches tall. Well, this year, the 3 year old boys were both past 36 inches tall so it's possible that we lied about their age this time. SHHH!!!

 As you can see, both of my kids loved it and this was a ride we repeated a couple of times as well.

 I got some pictures of Andrea and K Bear being silly while we were in line for the big boat ride that rocks back and forth and spins in circles.

 Petey's turn to be silly with Auntie Andrea.

 Funny thing, Spidey wasn't trying to be silly for this picture. He is just going through a funky smile phase right now.

 Here are some of the family ready for the boat ride to start. That ride is definitely a one time experience for me. I got dizzy with all of the spinning and rocking.

 Next, we got to drive these little boats through a path. It was actually kind of tricky since you're really steering and pushing on the gas. Luckily, I didn't run into any walls. :)

 This is the best picture I got of Petey during the boat ride. She said the sun was too bright that day for a picture. :)

 This is Petey's scared face, apparently. I told her to act scared because she was in the mouth of a shark.

 Waiting in line for the airplane ride...

 Here we go!

 I have to brag and say that compared to most of the kids driving these bumper cars, my kids were doing really well steering and not running into each other.

 Spidey was loving this ride that goes over the water. You can pedal but it actually doesn't affect how fast or slow your car moves.

 Hi, Will and Chris!

 Hi, Grandpa and Candace!

 Hi, Daddy and Petey!

 Hi, Jp, Andrea and K Bear!

 Uncle Chris was nice enough to take Will on this ride where you pull yourself up high and then let yourself drop back down.

 They made it to the top a couple of times.

 Next was Petey and Boss' turn.

 They made it to the top as well and Petey would giggle every time it dropped back down.

 The story time boat ride was fun. They told different stories throughout the ride from The 3 Little Pigs to Little Red Riding Hood.

 This was the first ride Ellie went on since she slept most of the morning and wasn't tall enough for most of the rides anyway.

 This was also Bug's first ride ever! Looks like he had a fun time on his boat ride with his mom and dad.

 Poor Grandma had planned to ride with Bug and his parents but found out only 2 adults were allowed per boat so she ended up on a boat by herself for that ride.

Spidey loved this car ride and would turn his wheel the correct direction every time we would turn. He is going to be a good driver someday. :)

Some of my favorite things about Legoland that weren't pictured:
- Both of my kids got to experience their first real rollercoaster. Petey was tall enough for almost every ride, including this dragon rollercoaster that was a bit scary for ME! I was worried about letting her on it, with thoughts running through my head of her falling out because she's so little, but Boss held her tight and she LOVED it!
-Spidey actually got to go on this dinosaur rollercoaster that wasn't as big as the dragon one but was still a pretty legit rollercoaster. As you could've guessed, he loved it as well. We rode that dino rollercoaster probably 10 times with the kids. I guess they take after their dad and have more of a thrill side to them. That is definitely NOT from my side of the family.
- My parents bought some tickets for the aquarium so people could choose whether they wanted to take a couple of hours there or stay in Legoland. We chose to stay but my dad took Petey to the aquarium. It was so much fun having Spidey with Boss and I. We were able to do whatever he wanted and spend time focused on him. Since he's our second child, he doesn't get that one on one time often and I loved being able to do that with him.

Legoland was a blast. It was 100 times for fun than last year. Last year, Spidey was literally tall enough for the baby rides and he would cry when he wasn't tall enough for a ride. It was miserable, Even Petey last year was barely tall enough for the little kid rides. This was definitely the perfect year for them to start enjoying it. I am so thankful my parents are willing to spend the money and effort to give my kids these special memories. Carlsbad is becoming such a fun tradition and I hope my kids grow up remembering these special things they've gotten to do. They sure are lucky kiddos.

A Family Tradition

 In 2011, we started a family tradition in Carlsbad, CA.

Spidey got to meet his favorite character and did NOT like it.

 Petey was just a cute little barely 3 yr old.

 And my poor boy had to wear his sister's dress... story is halfway down this post.

In 2012, we headed back to Carlsbad for another adventure!

Legoland was a huge part of that year...

...along with trips to the beach, which is just a block away from the condo.

I have a hard time believing that another year has passed. Can Petey really be inching toward her 5th year of life? How are my kids getting so big, so fast? And are we really preparing for a thrd adventure at the beach house?

All I can say is that I am excited. I'm excited to make new memories. I'm excited to take a break from our daily routine. I'm excited to have Boss with us for an entire week. I love family trips and am counting down til the day we get to be in Carlsbad together again...especially since I have one sister moving back from California the day before we leave and my other 'out of town' sister is coming all the way from Virginia.

Have I mentioned how much I love my family?!!

PS: I talked about how Spidey learned how to ride his bike but never posted the video! So here it is for you to enjoy! I'm so proud of him for learning how to ride so well in less than a week!

Carlsbad 2012: Part 1

Last week, my awesome parents took us on a trip to Carlsbad for spring break. Since I took 253 pictures, I'll be splitting our vacation into a couple of posts (Remember our last trip to Carlsbad in July? It took 5 posts.). Because my parents left a few days before we did, we drove my 2 younger siblings up with us. We stopped at Burger King on the way and the kids had a lot of fun. I love the biggest picture int hat collage. Spidey really loves my little sister and seems to have a connection with her. It's really sweet. I also had to laugh because halfway there, Spidey asked if he could play with Petey's Ariel barbie and because we wanted him to stay happy, I let him. Such a funny boy.
The drive there was pretty eventless. Petey got restless and asked for her favorite song Dynamite (by Taoi Cruz) so I turned it on my iPod and put it on repeat. She literally listened to it for an hour. When we got there, Grandpa pulled the kids around on this cart thing after he got all the groceries inside.
Later that day, my sister and her cute family arrived. My kids were SO excited to see K Bear. And they all had on ASU jammies for bed time. Though we didn't plan that, we did plan a couple of matching outfits that week for our kiddos...because we are weird like that. :)
The next day was Sunday and we all went to church that morning. This was our biggest "planned matching" day. :) My sister couldn't resist buying Petey a matching dress with her daughter Ellie (early birthday present for my girly, she said. :) and the boys already had these matching shirts. So cute! Petey requested a picture with her Uncle Jp, hence the bottom left picture. :)Jp and Boss played eachother in Chess a couple of times, despite both having kids coming and going from their laps. :) Isn't she adorable??? I love my Ellie girl and am so glad I have another niece to spoil. Petey loves playing with Andrea's hair since it is longer than mine and Andrea loves it too. That night, we all walked down to the beach to watch the sunset. It was beautiful! The next morning, my parents surprised us and we all went to Legoland. Petey was beyond excited to ride rides and see the fishies (we also went to the aquarium...which you'll read about in the next post.).
Can I also just say how much I love my stroller? I know, random, but I really do! It os the lightest, easiest stroller I've ever had and is tiny for a double stroller. It's a Joovy sit'n'stand, if you were wondering. :) The first ride we enjoyed was a slow boat ride that had a bunch of characters (made out of legoes) from popular stories. This ride actually scared Petey the most since there were Ogres and things that popped out of the water. The next ride we went on was a pedaling ride that went over the water. We thought all of the kids would be able to go on it but after waiting in line (The handicap line, since we had my brother and sister with us:), Spidey was turned away for being too short. That little boy screamed and was so angry he couldn't get on. It made me so sad. But Petey and I had a fun time, even though I didn't realize how tricky it would be to pedal with a boot on. The kids had a fun time seeing all of the Legos everywhere. They played on this cars for a while. Spidey was hilarious. He wanted to build with the Legos and tried SO hard to break them. Here he is kicking the girl made out of Legos. :) He tried hard but she never broke. The next ride (and first ride for Bubs) was a cute helicopter ride that we controlled ourselves with levers to go up/down and left/right. Spidey waited a while in this line and I was so nervous that he wouldn't be tall enough again. Of course, his cousin who is younger had no problem getting on but Spidey didn't quite measure up. Luckily, the guy was really nice and told me to push Spidey's chin up so he'd be tall enough and he let us on the ride. :) Can you tell my boy was excited?
While we waited for the ride to start, he held his cheeks in his hands and looked so bored. It was adorable. Spidey's favorite ride was this little train that just went around in a circle two times. We went on it a couple of times because I wasn't sure how many more rides he'd be tall enough to go on. :)They also had a huge playground. Spidey loved playing and running aroundand all the kids loved building blocks with Uncle Jp. Petey had two favorite rides. This was the first one. :) I couldn't believe she was brave enough to do this by herself but she was adamant and though we lied about her age to get her on it (she's only 2 months away from being 4!), she loved it! The horse goes up and down a bit and it goes around this track. My little brother did it as well and they both loved it. The big kids (Boss, Jp, and Wilbur-Force) went on this crazy boat ride that went back and forth and spun around. The rest of us had a fun time watching them. :)I love my silly little family. Petey had fun taking silly pictures here and Spidey was chillin' in the stroller, with his feet up. The last two rides of the day for us were these ones. Petey and I had fun shooting lasers in the Indiana Jones ride and though they hd let Spidey on another ride that had this same height limit, this guy wasn't as nice and turned my little shorty away. :( Again, melt down ensued and my Spidey was left to sit in the stroller and eat popcorn. The last ride Petey and I went on is in the above collage and it was BY FAR, her favorite. She kept begging to go on it but I thought she would freak out because it goes up high and then drops you over and over again. But I was wrong! She giggled the entire time and wanted to get right back on it. Unfortunatly, we didn't have any time but I am glad she got to do it once.

So that was the first day and a half of our trip. Stay tuned for the other parts. :)