Legoland!

On the 26th we woke up at the crack of dawn, hopped in a couple cars and drove to Legoland!

Here is the crew, gathered for a brilliant picture before the craziness began! See this image larger.

First a quick stop by the potty… Nina gives me a nice peek-a-boo from the stroller! See this image larger.

I told Ian just before this picture that he doesn’t have to squint his eyes and hurt his cheeks for every smile, and he gave me this one. I like it! See this image larger.

The first thing was saw was a poinsettia thingy that was talking to people and posing for pictures… weird! See this image larger.

Artoo Deeto, it is you!

If you could put little brown cloaks on the kids, you’d have a great Jawa scene here! See this image larger.

A medieval themed spin-around-until-you-throw-up ride was our first stop. I snapped this shot of Uncle Ben and Cousin Connor. See this image larger.

See? Book made completely out of Legos. I think they shellack the bejeezus out of it once it gets put together, is my guess.

Patiently waiting for Mommy and Ian to go by…

There they are! See this image larger.

Hi guys!

Nina went off on her own adventure with Mommy, while Ian and Daddy went on a roller coaster. I don’t have a pic of Ian and I, but I did get a video that I’ll post later.

Little girl had a blast here! See this image larger.

This turned out to be her major fun-center, she made the most of it! See this image larger.

Who is in that one, Nina?

Look at her go! See this image larger.

We eventually got them out on bail.

I could have left my big clunky camera back in the Villages (like I accidentally did my license!!!) but we would have missed smiles like this! See this image larger.

And shots like this! See this image larger.

I love this shot of Kaylee, she’s got a little attitude, that one! See this image larger.

And any sacrifice we have to make to drive down to Florida is worth it when we get this little smile. See this image larger.

And here was the reason Nina didn’t get to do join in necessarily every bit of the fun. She was involved in a lot of it, just not all of it.

Here she and Mommy crawl around in a ball gymnasium! See this image larger.

She’s almost escaped!

Ian is standing next to a kid on a ball canon… adults and kids down on the ground floor get pelted with spongy balls shots from the canons… that smoke-stack thing on the right is belching out a shower of them, right as this image was taken. The kid on the canon spotted that I had a sense of humor as I mimed an injury upon walking in… I was immediately his favorite target. 🙂

Our two little treasures!

Thank you Legoland, for making a parent’s worst nightmare into a photographic moment!

Ian poses with fireman Joe… It is very odd how Legoland works. Sometimes things are completely made out of Legos, like the fireman here… and sometimes not, like the firetruck. When they did make stuff out of Legos, it was cool, as you shall see…

Nina prepares to run over some Lego people, without remorse! See this image larger.

She’s standing on the pedal, look out! See this image larger.

Upset by the paparazzi’s lack of respect for our family vacation, Nina prepares to punch out a cameraman. See this image larger.

Ian earned his Legoland Driver’s License, which entitles him to drive ANY car that is in this particular Legoland ride. See this image larger.

Ian, Cousins Connor and Kaylee pose next to fireman… uh… Wayne Newton? I made that up.

It was Ian and I vs three other trucks. We came in 2nd… and I had to pump both sides of the handles… and the first place team had a family of four. And it was close. It was weight vs effort, and we nearly won, lol. See this image larger.

My little princess snuggles in for a good nap. See this image larger.

I can’t thank Grandma Barb enough for being on baby duty! Thank you! See this image larger.

This was an interesting ride where you pulled a rope to make your seat go up in the air… See this image larger.

…and then glide back down to the ground.

Ian loved it and wanted to go again, immediately!

This time he went with Mommy! See this image larger.

One of the many Lego sculptures around the park.

Aunt Mel and Cousin Kaylee pedal their way through an air-ride! See this image larger.

The sun started to go down on our lovely day, but we still had some sights to see… See this image larger.

There was an area of the park where Lego reproductions of famous locales were on display. Here, Ian gives a big grin in front of the NASA exhibit. That kid is such a rocket-jockey… makes me wish he could grow up in an era when the space program wasn’t seemingly on the decline. See this image larger.

Times square!

A pirate adventure!

Sunken ship adventure!

A two-story merry-go-round. Hi Nina!

Hi guys!

I had to stop and pose with Artoo on our way out… that little droid and I have been through a lot together. See this image larger.

I guess they’re “planking.” If you don’t know what that is, google it. There, you just got a little dumber! 😉

After a long, tiring day, we went to a restaurant, which was a wonderful place. The owner even ushered us temporarily to the outside seating so that we could see the spectacular end-of-day Lego firework show. Finally, we piled into the vehicle, the kids all started up their various iPads and tablets, and we drove back to the Villages. Thank you Grampa Ray and Grandma Barb for a wonderful day that I know we’ll never forget! See this image larger.