Last summer we had planned on visiting friends of ours that had moved to Oceanside, but before we got there, they had moved to another state. Our children remembered those ideas of hanging out at the beach and visiting Legoland for the first time. There were so many things they wanted to do that would all be in CA. So months in advance (before we knew about hubby's business trip to Goddard) we started planning and reserving and paying for a long vacation to southern Cali. This was the first time we had to buy N her own round-trip seat. We did so after she didn't handle the drive to Utah so well at Christmas time!
Our flight was delayed because there were still severe thunderstorms and a tornado watch. Yes, the night before we left a tornado touched down in our city. While I finished packing upstairs, Dan put the children and the guinea pigs to sleep in the basement. This girl from the midwest kept a close eye on my windows and got pretty worried when the sky turned green. Whenever we go to that side of town my kids ask me if we are near where the tornado was. They were very sweet and had me call my parents more than once to make sure they were ok too. All tornado excitement aside, they did great on the plane and were happy to eat at In and Out Burger. Three separate people came up to Dan or I at the airport and the restaurant to tell us how well behaved our children were. I was so proud of them and happy to take them on such a wonderful vacation!
Our boy was so excited to visit Legoland for the first time. He liked telling everyone he was going there and that it was for his birthday. He wore his happy birthday button with pride and at the helicopter ride a birthday wish was part of the end instructions. We all thought that was pretty neat. Even though we had been told Legoland was great for little kids, I was pretty surprised just how small the rides were. I'm glad we came now because I don't know if we will return! We all had a lot of fun, though. The fire truck racing (Fun Town Police & Fire Academy) and the Lost Kingdom Adventure were Dan and my favorites. We were pretty amazed with the Star Wars themed models and we got some chuckles out of the cruise ride. When I asked about going to Legoland, D and M agreed the boat ride where we ended up running into each other was a lot of fun. The birthday boy was also very happy to be old enough for the big kid Driving School and spend his birthday money from Dan's parents and grandmother on Star Wars Legos. Thanks for a great day, Legoland! And thanks for being a good hotel, Carlsbad By The Sea!
The day after Legoland we spent a glorious day at Laguna beach. We rented our umbrellas and chairs and ate lunch at the pizza place next door, just like we did in 2012. This was N's first experience with the beach and she approached it with caution but was all smiles. We could have stayed even longer than we did, but we didn't want to miss D's special birthday dinner. Off to our Anaheim hotel and eating at Goofy's Kitchen. Another birthday button and singing and a special cupcake, along with plenty of Disney characters. Thanks to that place we didn't have to wait in line to see any characters while we were at Disney. Hip hip hooray! I couldn't think of a better place to have a birthday dinner.
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