Oh, this week. Steven and I have been looking forward to our California Adventure since I returned from LA with Amaya back in early October. He loves legos and doesn’t love most adventurous rides so we agreed that Legoland in San Diego was the ideal choice for our getaway. After what felt like a long wait the day arrived and, on Thursday morning, off we went!

Looking at this photo it feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago. The perception of time is so odd. Steven noticed it too. When we were leaving this morning we headed back to our car which had been sitting in the parking lot since we arrived on Thursday afternoon. He said, “It feels like we just got here and are walking back to the car to get something we forgot, but today is Sunday and we got here on Thursday.”

It’s not a trip to DTW without a stop to watch the fountain.

A rental car on the flip side means a car seat on the plane. It’s cumbersome but we’ve got a good routine now.

We had a relatively uneventful flight and Steven was nervous but excited to ride the rental car shuttle bus. He wanted to hold my hand and a handle bar until he decided my hand wasn’t necessary after all.

Yay!!!!

Our first stop was the San Diego Zoo which took us right past a home I lived in back in 2000. Steven agreed that it would be fun to see the house. We spent a while talking about the fact that I was an adult when I lived here but he wasn’t in my belly yet. It was pretty overwhelming to be there, all these years later, with my child. I’ve been trying to think about what it would be like, even at my age, to see somewhere my mom lived just after college. Our parents are cemented so deeply in their roles that I think I could struggle to connect to my mom’s life there just as Steven (though he’s only 5) struggled to place the me he knows now as the person in that home.

It’s the peach colored one. Perfect location in Hillcrest, walkable to to Balboa part and a quick drive to the freeways.

Zoo!!

We totally lucked out with the weather.

OMG the gorillas. It’s impossible not to anthropomorphize. We were particularly excited to see the gorililililas because they’re Daddy’s favorite.

I was so proud of Steven for going on the sky tram. It goes up high! It’s not too fast, though, so it passed his review.

Planning our post-lunch route. “We haven’t seen the chawalas either!” (Koalas)

Steven had been most excited to see the bears but ended up liking the tigers most and even left with a tiger chomper and a stuffed tiger he has since named Tiger. 🙂 Admittedly, the tiger was pretty incredible.

And off we went to Carlsbad! By now it was about 3:30pm PT and Steven had been up since 5:30am ET. I was hoping he’d nap on the 45 minute drive and it was close there for a while but there was just too much to see. We even saw a hot air balloon over the hills of Solana Beach.

LEGOLAND!! The hotel did not disappoint. There were lego bricks and a lego play pirate ship & castle right in the lobby. Steven was in heaven. I can’t even count how often he said, “This is best trip ever!”

As promised, we were on the pirate floor with a pirate room. Every detail was lego mecca including the elevators.

Our room had a treasure chest with nightly lego surprises inside. Older kids can solve a code to get the combination. (Or more patient moms of younger kids.) I just asked at the front desk. 🙂

Despite the late (east coast) hour, we headed back downstairs at 5:30pm to check out the castle and pirate ship. Steven was totally in his element running around and playing. It was really cool to watch.

There were nightly interactive shows. Steven didn’t want to participate but he loved checking it out. They also have a DJ for nightly, little kid friendly dance parties.

We finally got to bed around 7:45pm and Steven slept for a whopping 11 hours. That’s incredible for this kid. I’m normally over the moon if he sleeps a full 10 hrs at night. That’s what travel and a full day will do for you, I suppose.

Every detail is lego to the max. Breakfast and dinner at at the same buffet restaurant which I think Steven liked because he got comfortable with the routine.

A look at the main part of our room. Down the hallway was also a small alcove with bunk beds and trundle. It’s definitely set up to be family friendly, even for slightly larger families. Here, Steven was building with the legos in our room while I got ready to head to the park.

It was time! We had a picture perfect morning to head into “Legoland Amusement Park”, as Steven calls it. I was so emotional at the start of the day, getting to spend this special time together.

First stop was the car track. Steven had been specifically looking forward to this activity. He liked it, but was disappointed he couldn’t go on the track for 6- 12 year olds. I get it. He was one of the best drivers the both times out and the 3 and 4 year olds often got stuck, blocking traffic. But he had fun and earned his Lego driver’s licence.

Steven’s favorite ride was a helicopter that you could move up and down and right and left. We rode it together four times over the course of two days. He’d decide which controller I was responsible for and had very definite hopes for which helicopter he wanted each time e.g. police vs. fire. We were lucky on Friday because lines were generally short.

Fairy Tale Brook was another ride we did more than once.

He also got to drive a boat!

There were lego characters around the park and lots of photo ops. Steven was nervous at first but finally agreed to take a photo after I said I was going to by myself. He was game from that point on but always wanted me in the picture with him.

The Ninjago ride.

I tried to convince him to try Deep Sea Adventure but it’s a “real” submarine and he said the answer is no. In fact he said, “When I say ‘no” I mean no and you have to listen to me.” Fair enough, Bobes. So we took this picture and then, shortly after, left the line.

Sour Steven. He didn’t like the way I loaded him into the boat – it made him nervous – and he got very angry at me. He’s having a hard time lately with the tone he takes with me when something doesn’t go his way or he gets nervous and it involves a lot of blame directed toward me. We’re going to keep working on that together.

Hands down, Steven’s favorite part of Legoland was miniland. He loooooooooved it. I think we spent a good 2 to 3 hours there over the course of two days. He was super fascinated by the moving vehicles and loved all of the buttons to push to interact with the components.

R2D2! He also had me take a photo of Leia for Amaya and Chewbacca for Sammy.

He didn’t want to take a photo in the lion but asked to take one of me.

Driving boats!

This was pretty cool. The kids were able to build logo boats and then race them. We spent a while here. It was good to see Steven assert himself with older kids though we did have to reign in aggression towards some littler kids a few times.

We wrapped up the day around 4pm after hitting the gift shop and getting presents for the whole Cline family.

A character at the hotel buffet. I love this picture. Such natural joy.

We finished up the night with another show (“this is so funny!” and a few more lego adventures.

What a wonderful day!!

On Saturday morning Steven had some fun in the lego pit before heading into the amusement park.

It was colder and overcast but we planned for the weather and were ready to go.

Today Steven was more excited about photos because he remembered he’d get a photo pillow after the trip and wanted options to choose from. “Take a picture of me with the dinosaur for my pillow!”

We hit up Fairy Tale Brook again.

And back to miniland!

It rained pretty hard while we were back at the boat racing but it didn’t seem to phase Steven a bit. We just dried off with hand driers once the rain stopped.

More lego friends.

A highlight of the trip was a chance to see Addie and her son Nathan, who’s 7. They drove down from Orange County to spend the day with us.

Best pic. 🙂

There were a lot of rides that Steven wasn’t interested in but he was totally into the Knight’s Joust. He patiently waited for half an hour for his turn to ride the horse.

Then Steven spent a full 40 minutes waiting patiently for one last chance to ride the helicopters again!

Up in the air we go!

After meeting up with Addie and Nathan for more rides, we rounded out the day on the stationary cars and a visit to the Duplo playground.

This kid was a force at the playground. He decided he was a police officer and ran around arresting other kids. I had to remind him to keep his hands off other people unless they wanted in on the game. Fortunately he found willing participants (and I was in jail for a good 30 minutes).

After 8 hrs at the park, we headed back in for dinner and a quiet night in our room. While waiting for my to-go wine Steven put his head down on the bar and said, “Are you as sad as I am that our trip is almost over?” Yes I am, bud. <3

This morning as we were walking through the hotel with our suitcase he said, “Do you think everyone will know why my face looks sad because they see our suitcase?” Such sweetness.

Today we headed out relatively early but, with a sudden flight delay, we took the time to drive to Del Mar beach! We even drove down Via de la Valle in Solana Beach to check out the building where I used to work.

It was the perfect way to move past some of the “end of trip” blues and we left with pockets full of rocks.

Back at the airport, watching planes from the sky club.

It was a precious weekend that I’ll never forget. <3

Because a week isn’t complete without Sammy and Amaya, here’s a bit of what they were up to.

Sammy was proud that the cuts on his arm were healing and he was able to take his band-aids off.

Always doing art, often with a reference picture to be sure she’s getting it right.

Two days of cute hair!

This child. <3 Ready for tap!

Looks like Amaya is making some friends!

It appears Amaya has aged significantly since I left on Thursday.

Bedtime stories with Penni.

Sammy and Amaya had two days full of Daddy fun time. Lucky kids!! They started their morning with the My Little Pony movie – a forever favorite.

I’ll wrap up this extra long blog post with two more photos.

First, my favorite character photo.

And an image of Steven’s special Legoland photo, being delivered soon to The Land of Cheltenham.

Steven and I land shortly (and late)! Have a great week!