LEGOLAND continued

Unleashed in ....

Hmm ... what to do first?

photo op ... 3/100

Photo op .. 4/100

Quite a few driving skills to learn yet!

Running from the cops!

More gallows!

Proof that Samara and Rhett are crazy  ... soaking wet ride on a barely warm day!

FUNNIEST picture!

Award for 2nd place - FUNNIEST picture

Note my high score  (Phil must have been sleeping)!

BEST RIDE!!

Our souvenir of LEGOLAND ... picture printed on LEGO blocks.

LEGOLAND Florida

I had grand ideas of putting all the LEGOLAND pictures on the blog tonight. But, there were soooo many I thought I'd start with these:

Keithan had my camera at one point in MINI land and probably took 50 pictures ... 1/2 of which I already took!  It is hard to describe how amazing this is to see with your own eyes ... to think that the buckets of LEGO in our basement could be built into the Vegas Strip! However, I did notice a few custom pieces, so we won't be able to replicate anything quite so grand.  

There was a replica of the space station, so course we had to wait and see the shuttle "blast off".    We loved our Legoland day - it was warmer than our day in Disney, there weren't that many people there and they have some great little roller coasters.

I will get to the action part of Legoland in the next post ...

our view on Disney World (Magic Kingdom)

Disney World Magic Kingdom was amazing.  I was impressed and I didn't think I would be!  In making plans to go, I was almost resigned that we were going there because  the kids wanted to go.  Good choice, because I enjoyed it as much as they did!

I was impressed with the cleanliness, the attention to detail and the grandeur of the place.  I understand now why they charge $100.00 to get in the gate, and then on the train or boat, and then in through another gate!  The size of the place is ... sizable.  Another bonus is with all the walking and minimal pricy food purchases, it really is a good weight loss program.  I just thought of that now!  Ha ha! I better go back quickly.

I really didn't understand what it would be like as far as the rides.  Many of the rides were more like "experiences" than fair rides.  We didn't do Space Mountain, which I've been told is the most thrilling ride there.  We had decided to all stick together and I think Grady was too short for the ride and Keithan was glad to  avoid a roller coaster in the dark, so that ride was off the list.  

We loved the interactive comedy show with Monster's University characters.  It was hilarious and it was also warm.  (It was a chilly high of 12 degrees).  The line-ups seemed long to us, but according to park staff, they were not.  The longest time we waited was about 50 minutes, and that was for the Thunder Mountain roller coaster (mining experience).  The Jungle boat tour one was the other long one, but many of them were about 25 minutes and seemed to go by quickly.  Another favorite was the Haunted House.  I'd do that one again!  Amazing effects.

When the sun went down around 5:00 we started to perish with hunger and cold!  Our $60.00 lunch of hotdogs was long gone.  We had a coffee/hot chocolate warm up and managed to stay until almost the end of the electric parade.  We were too cold and tired to stay for fireworks.  We were close to the park entrance for the parade and we made a hasty escape with the first flood of people.  No line ups to get out!!  We were back at the van in good time and cranked up the heat.  

WELCOME

Grady's favorite

The People Mover

Stroller parking ... complete with attendants!

Punny jungle tour (no typo)

Rhett might be a little dizzy!

Dancing with the Incredibles warmed us up a little

Thanks Grandma S. for souvenir money!

Heading back on the parking tram ... proof that I was there!

I enjoyed taking a few pictures!  Sorry for overload. Hope the collages helped for skimming over them.


Would I go again?  When I left, I said "no thank you, that was good enough for one lifetime".  But now, I could be easily convinced!

Stay tuned for Lego Land ... and then the cruise.
 

post holiday thoughts

It seemed as though the holiday of holidays (at least for our family, who never goes on a holiday) sneaked up on us and then BOOM it was over and we hardly knew what happened.  

However, I would be telling a little white lie if I said it was all over in the blink of an eye.  Some half hour intervals seemed like eternity.  For one, we didn't really go prepared for long flights with no entertainment.  Rough start.   Secondly, the 4 boys in this house have the exact opposite nature of Job. (Think polar opposite of the patience of Job).  As well,  3 of those boys found ANY amount of standing in line IMPOSSIBLE without scrapping with each other. Sometimes even 1 girl couldn't help but get involved in the "you did it to me first" game.  You can picture in your mind the innumerable lines dealing with airports, Disney World and the cruise.   I lost count of how many scenes were made.   I wish I had faith that it is just a phase and in a few years it will be a non issue.  At this point, my faith in that area is a little weak.  Thirdly, we packed a huge amount of activity in a short amount of time and by burning the candle at both ends we caused some fire hazards with flares of temper.   I won't give any examples.

I hope you aren't getting the wrong idea, because overall it was mostly enjoyable!  Other than different flight (NOT before 7:00 am) times I don't know what I would do differently because we really enjoyed Disney and Lego Land before the cruise.  Maybe we should have stayed another day after the cruise to take the some of the "mad rush" feeling out of the experience.  At the time of booking we thought we needed to get back for work and school!  Not sure why?!!  Sometimes the voice of reason is unreasonable.


That said, does anyone want to travel with us next time?!  We might need guidance from some experienced, calm, cool and collected travelers.  Don't all jump up at once.  You will have a few years to prepare yourself until the next round trip. 

Christmas holidays 2013

We're on the final countdown to cruise time, but before I get more excited about that I just wanted to share some holidays moments.

It was a busy few days in the cold Saskatchewan wind.  The trip down felt like minus 100 with the windchill.  The trip back wasn't much better.  But, in between there was:

FOOD

 (which someone is keeping a close eye on)

FUN

and some

GAMES

and a bundle of 

CUTENESS

another year older (almost)

This very soon to be eight year old had a birthday party tonight, and was quite horrified to find one candle still burning, aka one girlfriend!  Seriously though, his class is mostly girls and I think they all love him!  He comes home from school shuddering from the hugs and notes and words of endearment he receives!!

And guess what he wanted for a birthday present???  A FURBY Boom.  I can tell already it might not have been the wisest gift a parent could buy.  We opened it up tonight so that it is ready to play with bright and early in the morning ...

a "chilling" update

 I just heard tonight that Alberta has the coldest temps on the continent tonight ... in Manning, Alberta.  I haven't looked where that is in relation to where I am but I'm sure we are almost as cold with a temp of -34, feeling like -44 with the windchill.  Sounds like a good night to stay home with the furnace turned up! 

I should be baking up a storm, which would heat up the house, but I'm just not up for it.  I am participating in a cookie exchange tomorrow afternoon and I haven't even started  on the 9 dozen cookies I need to take!  But, on a good note, I think I have all the ingredients and with a convection oven it should take me almost no time at all in the morning!  And who doesn't like FRESH cookies???  That wasn't my plan in the beginning, but it sure sounds like a good plan at the moment!

These pictures are from a couple weeks ago when it was only minus 20 or so!  I kept driving by this spot taking the kids to and from school and I finally stopped to take a few pictures. I couldn't really  capture it in the photos, but with the sun reflecting off the massive icicles and the fog from the lake it was quite beautiful.  Almost as beautiful as a sunset on the coast of the big Island of Hawaii, just not quite as balmy :)