In the fast lane with the 5 T's

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!

Its vacation day 1, we weren't suppose to be on vacation yet, but I got my way and we left early! I had been wanting to visit Orlando for a couple days and see some sights so instead of flying out Friday night mom changed our flight to Thursday morning. I didn't realize the flight was Thursday morning (I thought Thursday night) but I found something else I wanted to do!

The kids saw the 4th of July signs at the airport and wanted their picture taken. Our flight was suppose to leave at 7:20, which meant we had to be at the airport early! Right before we were to board, they announced that the plane had some issues with the landing gear and they were going to check it out and try to fix it. Unfortunately, they weren't able to do that and I got a phone call saying our flight was CANCELLED! WHAT, are you kidding me!

Of course, I am sitting right there at the airport. When I go to the desk they tell me and many others they are working to find us new flights, just to be patient. They start calling passengers to the counter to get their new flight information (there are two flights leaving within the hour). People keep getting called and I am just waiting. Finally, it looks like they are done and I start to wonder what is going on. I go to the counter and ask about us. It seems they misplaced our passes to the next flight which is loaded and ready to go. They tell us they will call down to the gate and have them hold the plane but we have to go NOW! Did I mention we are at gate C 29 and we have to go to C4? I have never had to do the airport sprint before and don't want to again!

We made it! I told the kids on the way their that they may have to sit by themselves because the seats would be full and we would have to take what we got, but its amazing when you start throwing kids in between adults how fast they are willing to move! Our non-stop flight turned into a layover in Panama City. We did eventually land in Orlando only about two hours behind and our luggage made it also!

After our airport fun it was off to the Nickelodeon hotel. As many times as we have been to Orlando and passed this hotel I have wanted to stay and check it out. It has two water playgrounds for the kids and many other fun activities for the kids.

This was funny and I didn't even notice, it was Thomas who pointed it out...but our room number was 1155...which also happens to be our house number!

I got a themed room and chose the Jimmy Neutron room. The rooms were nice, they were basically two bedrooms one a kid suite the other an adult room.

Water playground one, the Oasis pool. This pool had one play structure with one big slide and two smaller ones.

Water playground two, the Lagoon pool. Had a massive play structure with lots of slides! The kids loved it.

One of the extras you can get is slimed. I didn't pay for that extra, but everyday they do a massive sliming for free. We did this. Here it comes...(the kids didn't want to but I made them!)

If you look closely you can see the green droplets on the kids.

I made dinner reservations for a character dinner with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! They were great, interactive and fun.

We also enjoyed a show of Double Dare Live. I used to watch that game show all the time and so wanted to be on it! After that the kids wanted to head back to the pool and Tyler played some putt putt! We enjoyed our time at the hotel and are really looking forward to our day tomorrow.