Vacation Day 2 - Legoland

The main reason we changed our original departure date was because I wanted to visit Legoland.  The boys, especially Tanner are really into Legos and their monthly magazine has been having a coupon for free childs ticket! 

Of course, I had to get my moneys worth so I wanted to get there when it opened.  This park didn't check bags you could bring in water or snacks which is nice for a hot/humid July day.

Being Legoland, many Lego structures abound and we had to take our pictures with many of them.  (There are lots of pictures in this post!)

Tanner had to show off his hula hoop techniques and had three going at once!

These people on stilts were fun!

The carousel was cool...it had two stories and we were first in line on the next ride which meant we got the top!

Tapanga decided she didn't want to ride the horse so I got it!

Legoland is divided into different themed areas with different attractions in each area.  After leaving the entrance, Fun Town, area we headed to Lego Kingdoms.  Here the all the kids got to ride The Dragon (picture at the end) and we were able to lock the boys in the stocks!  Thomas then took the kids on Merlins Challenge and then the kids rode the Royal Joust.

So funny...Tyler looks like he's charging at Tapanga on the Royal Joust.

One of the big attractions is a water ski show.  This waterfall scene with Lego wildlife was on the way.

Legoland was built on the site of an old park known as Cypress Gardens.  With beautiful trees and scenery.

Headed to Pirates Cove for the ski show, we had to stop and pose!

It was getting hot!!! So after the show I had to go to the waterpark and cool off!  The lazy river was cool, they had floats that you could build and design for yourself.  Everyone got into this.  Thomas made himself a Lego hat to keep the sun off and Tanner collected and stacked Lego's on the ride around the river.  All along the river were Lego characters and facts about Lego's, pretty interesting!

The waterpark also had a wave pool, but the water was HOT!  Definitely not helping with cooling down.  The kids play structure, Joker Soaker, was nice and cool.  Here the water felt great!  There were lots of slides and fun for the kids and adults to enjoy.

Tyler found himself a friend and they slid down this slide over and over again.

Tapanga was so tired!  She took a nap on the lounge chair and tried to continue it in the stroller.

After cooling down in the waterpark, we were ready to head back out and check out the rest of the rides and attractions.  Right outside the waterpark, was Lego city.  Thomas and the boys went off to Flying School.  This park is designed for kids the size of ours and so the boys were able to enjoy a roller coaster where their feet dangle.  If you look closely at this picture you can see Thomas and Tanner, Tyler is actually right behind them (a park worker rode the coaster with Tyler because an adult had to ride with him because of his height)!

Tanner is loving this!!! (I snapped the picture I second to early and missed Tyler.)

After Flying school we went to Driving School.  There were two different driving schools, one for Tapangas age group and one for the boys.  The boys actually sat through a little video about driving and hand signals, red lights, one ways, round a bouts and all kinds of road instructions.  When the boys got into their cars Tanner actually used the hand signals!  The boys course required them to stop for red lights and stay on the right side of the road.  After finishing driving school, the kids got a little Lego City license.

Next up, Boating School.  The kids actually drove little boats around a lagoon!

In the Land of Adventure we found dinosaurs and Thomas and the kids rode Coastersauraus, which they loved!

And we all rode Pharaohs Revenge where we got to shoot targets for points!

The kids enjoyed a bouncing fun time at Beetle Bounce.

 A weather system started rolling through and shut some of the rides down because of lightning in the area.  Although we lucked out and didn't get any rain, we still missed out on a few sights. 

One of the coolest areas of Legoland is Miniland, where miniture models of different areas were built for people to enjoy.  Around the land were buttons kids could push and cause different Lego's to move and change.  The kids really enjoyed the Pirates Shores, but they also liked mini Florida, Kennedy Space Center, Daytona Speedway, California, New York, D.C., and Vegas.  It is crazy to think about all this being built by Lego's!

 

 

 

 After grabbing a bite to eat, we were able to enjoy a couple more rides now that the weather system had moved through.  Thomas and Tanner rode the Lego Technic Coaster in Lego Technic land.  Thomas said he didn't like this coaster much, he really thought he was going to fall out!  Thomas doesn't scare easy!

After this we all rode Aquazone a spinning water ride.  Since it was still the week of the 4th they had a special fireworks spectacular!  This was one of the coolest fireworks displays we have ever seen!  Legoland provided special viewing glasses and if you watched the fireworks through the glasses it changed the display into falling Lego bricks!  Really cool.

We couldn't leave without buying souvenirs and one of the best was a Lego brick wall with our picture on it.  When we rode The Dragon in Lego Kingdoms we sat perfectly so that when we got off we got this picture (its printed on Lego bricks).  It has all five of us on it and everyone is having so much fun!!!  We had a very long busy day, but this picture just shows how great of a day we had!