San Diego Vacation, Day 4

We weren't expected at Tia Kiki's until the early afternoon so Jim took us to the Cabrillo National Park. James really enjoyed exploring. I really enjoyed seeing the ocean and seeing the smiles on my boys' faces.

Family selfie!

 

I wasn't appropriately dressed for exploring sand cliffs and tide pools so I relaxed at the top of the hill while the boys climbed down with the crowd to see the tide pools. (I have seen a thousand tide pools in my childhood. I do regret not seeing James' face as he explored though.)

 

 

 

The boys are waving.

 

 

Jimmy should have been a model (:

 

 

 

 

 

Later at Tia Kiki's...

Our San Diego family came to see us. Grandpa Frank, Grandma Julie, Jamie (my stepsister), Carrie (stepsister), her husband Vern and their son Cameron, my Grandma Rachel and Grandpa Frank, and of course Tia Kiki and Tio Berto hosted. There was a great BBQ and plenty to eat!

I didn't take pictures throughout the day (I kinda forgot) but I did snap a few at our goodbyes.

James and Great-Grandma Rachel.

 

James and Great-Grandpa Frank

 

 

Me, Grandma Rachel, and James. (I look like a giant!)

 

James and Grandpa Frank

 

Tia Kiki and James

 

Sorry I didn't capture more!

We had a great time with our familia. I loved that Grandma Rachel only spoke Spanish to James and he understood much of it. He was super well-mannered. Tio Berto kept him busy enough with a cool Lego program on his computer, but I know he really enjoyed the time spent with his family. He has learned that family is the most important thing- better than toys, video games, anything!

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San Diego Vacation Day 3- LegoLand, Part 2

So again, James has been to a MiniLand three times now and this time he acted like it was his first, amazing time. Hey, we loved it! I loved that he was enthused and truly excited to see each set-up.

Each area was an exclamation and "Dad! You need to see this!" It was lovely.

 

 

See? Enthused.

 

Santa Convention.

 

James in Lego Las Vegas.

 

James took these pictures of his Mom and Dad by the Las Vegas Paris.

 

 

And then we found another walkway with many more Lego sculptures. See if you can recognize each historical/pop culture figure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

James found a friend. (He is very inappropriately dressed for the California weather. 70 degrees is warm to us, but...)

 

And another Snow area. It was still drizzly off and on, so I don't think James even considered going into the snow.

 

But we enjoyed all of the Winter/Holiday set-ups! I love this picture of James. And how fitting that the Mexican sculptures are behind him :)

 

 

We waited in a short line to take a picture with the Lego dude. The Lego dude grabbed James and started to dance with him. James humored him, and just smiled. (My kid is not a dancer.)

 

 

We went into a few shops and displays in the Holiday area. I spied this Mario guy and told James we should try and build it at home. He's forgotten about it since. I thought Sneaky would build it one night, but he must have run out of time (or energy)!

 

 

I wish Jim would build this for me...

 

When we went back to the street area, it was snowing!

James was not fooled. Right away he said, "This is soap!"

 

We waited in another line to get our turn with the reindeer and then Christmas tree and Santa displays.

 

I took a picture of the family in front of us at the Santa sleigh, and they in turn took our picture. I should have given my camera to the parent and not the kid. I think the kid just snapped a picture to be done, not really looking at us. But we got it!

 

Our Lego adventure was nearly over. We walked out of the park and then realized that we hadn't been inside the new Lego hotel. Jim considered having us stay there for one night, but the prices were ridiculously high. For a hotel room? No thanks. But the lobby was a Lego adventure! Lots of interactive things for kids. Or places for parents to dump their kids for free fun (ie babysitting).

James helped to build a Lego post.

 

And we just happened to see the Lego Santa! Not the best background, but we snagged a picture. Again, helping a family in front of us and then they reciprocated.

 

This certainly put us in the Christmas spirit!

Oh and in case you were worried, YES James walked away with yet another Lego set for a souvenir. It was probably the highlight of his day!

 

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San Diego Vacation, Day 3- Legoland Part 1

Yes, two parts for Legoland. We are Lego geeks. I took a lot of pictures and we had many adventures.

The day was miserably rainy for the first hour. But look at this cute picture! I realized later that I should have posed James under the other side of the rainbow (:

 

Luckily, we were conveniently forced to upgrade our tickets to include the adjoining Sea Life Aquarium (it was a better deal, overall). We spent the first hour of the park opening in the indoor aquarium. It turned out to be a pretty cool place. I didn't take many pictures because of the poor lighting.

 

Back to Lego business!

 

 

Jim read about this next display and was pretty excited to see it. A life sized model of a Star Wars X-wing fighter!

 

 

 

It was pretty huge!

 

We were on a Lego boat cruise when we spied the Eiffel Tower. James took my picture.

 

James showed no fear when we saw this next roller coaster ride. I stood in line too but at the last second chickened out. My reasoning? Two people per car. Threes a crowd!

That would be Jim and James in that car, all the way on the top. I swear I held my breath the entire time until I saw them safely on the ground.

 

 

And they're safe! Did James enjoy it? Ummm...it wasn't his favorite thing ever but he was brave (:

 

James insisted on taking this picture of us next to the spider. Jim hates spiders. He is a good sport though.

 

James "won" this stuffed monkey at one of the carnival games. I say "won" loosely. We paid $9 for the 3 of us to play a skee-ball kind of competition. James won against us. Yeah, he won. (There are many lessons of competition and losing gracefully to still be had. This was a special day so yes, James won. Look at that smile!)

 

 

James always loves this play area. He never remembers it though. I believe it is his third time in this area, between the San Diego and Orlando locations.

This place terrified me when he was littler. You set your child loose and then lose them in the maze of slides, tunnels, and rope courses? Ugh. But now that he's older I relaxed a little. I just stood in the single-exit area and just waited for him to finish.

On the way to MiniLand we saw these Lego Star Wars sculptures. I loved them! I took a picture of each of them to show James later.

Darth Maul.

R2-D2

Chewbacca

Han Solo

Luke Skywalker

An Ewok

Princess Leia (with buns!)

Darth Vader

Boba Fett

Master Yoda

A Clone Trooper

Anakin Skywalker

 

MiniLand is up next! I divided this day into two parts, so stay tuned!

 

 

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