LEGOLAND, California: California Vacation Day 3

We left Oxnard at 7:00am for a road trip down to San Diego. The freeways of Southern California always remind me of the one thing we don't miss from the Golden State: traffic! Still, our ride wasn't too terrible. The  traffic was worst through Hollywood (we took the 101 to the 134 to the 5, for those who are interested). We made it to Lego Land by 10:45am, which wasn't too shabby!

The kids were really excited. My parents were just behind us, having stopped at Denny's for breakfast. They had paid for our admission,and the kids got in free (thanks to a Burger King promotion - the coupons were on the inside of the paper crowns they give out).

We walked into the park and enjoyed a little dinosaur fountain. Matt told Nolan, "Look, Nolan.EVERYTHING here is made out of Legos. EVERYTHING! Even the water park!" Nolan looked at Matt and said, "But wouldn't that hurt your feet?"

We didn't have long before the kids would need to eat lunch, so we headed over to the Duplo playground. The kids both loved the houses, slides, mock jail, and Duplos in bins. Matt, especially, is a Lego nut. He spent most of the time on the playground building, and Nolan ran around and played.

The boys wanted to ride the sky cruiser after this (a pedal-car on an aerial track), but the line was over two hours long. Instead, we settled for the Kid Power Tower, a ride where you pull yourself up and the chair (slowly) falls back down to the ground. Nolan and Dennis rode first. I rode with Matt after they were through - the wait for this ride was 45 minutes, as they only had one tower operating out of three. The boys loved the ride, though, so the wait was worth it.

We went to get lunch after playing on the playground. My parents found us while we were waiting in line - thank goodness I was wearing a polka-dot shirt! Nolan loved sneaking up on Grandma and pretending to scare her.

After lunch, the boys wanted to head to get their driver's licenses. Lego Land has two driving courses for children - a "Jr." course for those who are 3-5 years old, and a regular driver course for those in the 6-12 age range. There is no track, and the kids really like driving the cars independently.

After riding the cars, the kids wanted to ride the helicopters. These ride vehicles went up high into the air and the kids could turn the helicopter in circles or make them go up and down. Both kids really enjoyed this ride - Grandma rode with Nolan and Dennis rode with Matt.

After the helicopter ride, the kids saw a fire truck ride they wanted to do. This one was really cool, and you had to work together to make the fire truck (or police car) move forward. There are four cars on each side of the ride, and everyone races to see who can put out the fire (or catch the bank robbers) first. My mom and I rode with the boys - Matt and Grandma worked the pumper to move the fire truck, I pushed the joystick forward, and Nolan pretended to drive.

The kids were loving Lego Land. This park is really designed for those under 12, however, and is NOT Disneyland. This is just a reminder (or a heads-up) for those who are used to Disney quality. The mini-land area is faded and needs a renovation. Some of the rides at Lego Land do accommodate the entire family, but many of the rides are truly meant for little ones only - so the adults will be sitting on the sidelines. This isn't necessarily a bad thing (particularly for the kids, who LOVE the rides and playgrounds), but adults will pay a hefty entrance fee (around $70 each) and will be sitting on the sidelines for a decent period of time.

We headed to the motor boats next. Matt was tall enough (48") to ride by himself, so Dennis waited in line with us, then exited to take pictures. I rode with Nolan, who was intent on racing the child behind us. It was a lot of fun for the kids, and they really loved the ride.

It was decently hot, so we headed over to the Pirate Shores area of the park. We took off Nolan's hearing aids and glasses, dressed both boys in their bathing suits, and let them go nuts on the water playground. This is when we realized we had no towels, so Grandma went to buy two Lego Land towels.

Once dry, we took a look at Mini Land, the area of the park with replicas of several famous cities. Nolan liked the hills of San Francisco, and both boys loved the Star Wars mini-land area.

Following Mini Land, we walked past the Hideaways play area. This is a massive, castle themed playground with a giant slide. The kids were in love. The adults, of course, sat out and waited while they ran around inside the play structure.

The boys really wanted to do the roller coaster next, and we could all (thankfully) ride the Dragon coaster. Nolan made the height requirement,and  the coaster was perfect for the younger age-set. Not too wild, and really fun. I didn't get any pictures of the coaster, but I did get a picture of an excited Matt as we waited inside the castle.

The boys rode the jousting horses next, and Matt really enjoyed the horses. Nolan wasn't quite as impressed - he is really a fan of the thrill rides and the horses were fairly slow. Most kids would love these, however (we found out later in the vacation that Nolan likes rather extreme thrill rides - not sure where the child got his DNA from)!

The day was winding down, and we decided to check out the Egyptian themed area of the park. There was another neat playground here (with foam balls that could be shot out of cannons), and several kiddie rides. There was also a nice family ride in this area, with jeeps and laser guns that could be shot at targets for points.

One clever thing at Lego Land is the use of play centers in the queues. As the line wraps around the waiting area, a Lego play station will be stationed in the center of the lines. This allows kids to play while the adults wait in line - the kids enter the gate on one side and you just pick them up once you are on the other side of the square play area.

We headed toward the park exit, and my mom and I took the kids on the Bionicle Blasters (spinning "teacup" style of ride). Dennis gets sick from spinning rides, so he sat this one out!

It was getting close to dinner time, so we walked toward the park exit and let the boys play in the build-and-race area of the park. Each child signs in and receives a set of four wheels, then builds and races different car designs on a track.

The boys loved it,and had such a fantastic time. We left the park, getting a few snaps of our family at the exit. I was glad to get a picture of the boys with their grandparents.

We went to Islands Grill for dinner (outside the park) and headed to our hotel. The boys were fast asleep when we got to the hotel room, so we just put them into the bed and we all settled in for the night. The Residence Inn was wonderful - quiet and very homey. We were all excited for Sea World the next day!

California Vacation, Day 2: Ventura County Fair

The first full day in California dawned sunny and bright. When Dennis and I were still living in California, we would head to the Ventura County Fair every year - we loved the aquarium buildings, looking at the animals, and the rice bowls sold by one of the vendor carts.

We went with my mom and used the park-and-ride, since the fair lot was full. It was fun to walk around - Matt wanted to look at the pigs, so we watched a pig competition where the pigs tried to sniff out truffles.

After watching the pigs run around the arena, we headed to the midway. The kids were desperate to do the rides. They had a lot more rides than our local Chautauqua County Fair - some of these fair rides were very high thrill. Nolan was pleased that he made the 42" height requirement - he's nearly 41" barefoot, so his shoes made up the difference!

First up: the Superman ride. This was a cool version of the standard ride-goes-in-a-circle attraction. Nolan and Matt really got a kick out of "flying" around in circles.

Nolan wanted to ride the trucks, so he headed over to the Big Rigs with Dennis.

Matt got in line with Grandma to ride the bumper boats. These were really cute and Matt had a great time.

Both boys wanted to ride this "off-road" style truck. They had a great time bumping along the track.

At the end of the day, we had six tickets left. Fortunately, the giant slide cost three tickets per rider. Matt zoomed down first.

Nolan came down after his brother, laughing the entire way down.

We rode the bus back to the park and ride, then headed home. It was so wonderful to leave the boys with my parents while we went out to dinner on our own - followed by shoe shopping. My shoelaces had been eaten by our dog the day before we flew, so I was in desperate need of better foot ware. Dennis is training for another marathon and he had literally worn holes in his shoes - so he picked up a new pair, too.

Next up: A trip to San Diego and Lego Land California!

California Vacation 2012: Day 1

We set the alarm clock to go off at 3:00am the day we were supposed to leave. Our flight was scheduled for 7:30am, and we needed 2 hours to get to the airport and 2 hours to check in and get through security. Of course, the alarm clock decided to malfunction at the very worst time possible.

Fortunately, Dennis woke with a start at 4:30am and said, "We have to go - NOW!" We threw our toiletries into the suitcases, dressed the kids and put them in the car, and sped away toward the airport.

We made it to the airport at 6:30am, with only one hour remaining before our flight. The line for Southwest Airlines was horrendous. There might have been a bit of panicking going on. We were in the line for security by 6:45am and a nice gentleman saw our small children and directed us to the "people needing assistance" security station - which had no line. Thanks to this happy occurrence, we made our flight. Barely.

It was a hectic morning, to say the least. Oh, did I mention the dog ate the shoelaces on my only pair of shoes? Yes, yes he did. On the plus side, my shoes were much easier to remove at security!

The kids did love watching the airplanes through the windows before we boarded. Nolan couldn't wait to "blast off."

We had "B" boarding tickets and arrived at the gate as they were allowing pre-boarding (this boarding is not for families with children, but for those traveling with a disability). I was just relieved that we had a second to relax! A nice man offered to take our family picture - we don't look too shabby for the events of the rushed morning.

We flew to Chicago, which is a really short hopper flight. We only had a 45 minute layover, and since our plane was slightly late in landing, we barely made our connecting flight. They were already boarding the B-ticket passengers by the time we arrived at the gate. The flight to Los Angeles from Chicago is about 4 hours long, so I was very happy we managed to secure seats next to the kids.

I brought an entire carry-on filled with toys for the kids. Our DVD player died a week prior to the flight, so the kids played with Color-Wonder coloring books, little transformer toys, and a few other things from the Dollar Store.

The flight was blissfully smooth, and Matt even fell asleep for the last hour of the flight. Nolan was content to play with his toys, so I was actually able to read something on my Kindle. I love "real" books, but the Kindle is wonderful when traveling.

Our flight landed in Los Angeles before 11:00am. I love flying to the West Coast - despite a long day of travel, the time change really works in your favor. The airport was extremely crowded, but we hustled to get our baggage and to meet my mom.

We were so excited to get into the car and head to our first destination: Mexican food. Living in the Midwest, we are sorely deprived of good enchiladas. Lunch was at Guido's El Indio near Santa Monica - a place we discovered when we were at the John Tracy Clinic in 2010. Half an hour later we were headed up PCH to Oxnard.

The kids were full of energy so my mom and I took them to the "Pirate" playground at the Mandalay Beach Park. There was a lot of spinning, playing chase with Grandma, and having a great time. The best part of it is we were able to stop by my Aunt Kathy's house and take her to the park with us!

Grandma and Nolan

We went to bed fairly early that night, ready to have fun at the Ventura County Fair the next day!

Swimming Lessons

We really wanted the boys to learn to swim this summer. Matthew has had several years' worth of swimming lessons through our local YMCA, but the fact that they were once per week and he couldn't touch the bottom of the pool meant that he never learned to swim. In fact, he had developed an unhealthy fear of the water, and didn't like getting into pools at all.

Enter our local elementary school. Our elementary school has a fabulous swimming pool with an entry ramp that gently slopes into the water. It also has a large 3' deep section, perfect for practicing basic swimming techniques while still reaching the bottom of the pool. The director of the swim team is a mother of 8 children, and knows what she is doing - so when I learned of lessons offered at our school pool, I signed both boys up.

The boys had two weeks of lessons, and we went to the pool every morning at 9:00am. By the third day of swimming lessons, Matt went from not swimming at all to jumping off the diving board in 12 feet of water and swimming to the side of the pool by himself.

He can now swim with a basic freestyle stroke and absolutely loves the water. LOVES it. He was able to go down the water slide at a local municipal pool for the first time, all by himself!

Nolan loves the water and also made huge strides. By the end of the two weeks, he was swimming about 6 feet independently. He can fall into a pool and swim to the side, which is an extremely important skill for a young swimmer. Nolan is fearless and also jumped off the diving board (with a swim "bubble" attached as he isn't a strong enough swimmer to do this without a flotation device yet).

Swimming lessons were a big success this year - I am so happy for my two water babies!

The fearless Nolan jumps!

Matt can't get enough of the water!