Probably 6 years ago, Brooke and Ashley were really into LEGOLAND and we even had season passes.  I burned out big time!  It was really hard with a young kid (Lauren) that wasn't big enough to ride the rides and then the two older ones that were big enough to ride, but not big enough to take their younger sibling with them.    I realized a few weeks ago, that Fox would probably really like it (he likes, Legos, he likes rides, what's not to love?) so I suggested Robie take him .  The girls got wind of that and were appalled that I would consider taking him without them (actually, Brooke was the first one to sound surprised with a "well, I want to be an architect (like the Legos apply to that? and also said in a "I can't believe you don't know that about me?" way - her favorite new thing to say)".  Anyway, Brooke ended up choosing to go to Universal Studios with a friend and missed out anyway, but the rest of us had a good time.   Only a few of the rides have a 42" age restriction (fox is about 40") and we got him onto one, and then didn't even want to ride the other, so it worked out pretty well!   It seemed like every school in the entire universe had an ESS (extended student services - daycare..) group there today, so when we first got there it was really frustrating to get into line behind 2 big groups of ESS kids with 2 leaders trying to corrale 15 kindergartners.  Once we broke out of the same area where they all were we could enjoy our day.    I think my favorite thing was the mini Land area where they had a mini Star Wars and then the mini cities of LA, Washington D.C, New Orleans, Las Vegas and the country.  It is amazing the ability these lego artists have to create these environments, and they create them with so much intricate detail.  On the Star Wars mini environments they had these cool moving Star Wars guys that were either fighting, or singing, or moving.  Even on the back side that you could barely see, they had fully developed montages.  Honestly it was crazy!  We had taken our swimming suits to possibly visit the water park, since it had been 87 degrees the day before, but had purposely picked that day as nice but not too hot and it was perfect for everything else, but a little chilly for the waterpark!  The kids insisted on going, and Robie even had to get his suit on to escort Fox.  He didn't really plan on getting in, but the kids area was closed for a "water filtration issue" right when he got dressed, so then Robie had to take him into the lazy river.  I would have gone, but someone had to take pictures, right?

We had to stop playing to finish seeing the park - we ran through the sealife Aquarium (sort of like Birch Aquarium and definitely not worth a ton of extra money!), but it was fun for about 20 minutes :)  then back to finish off the day.  Our favorites were definitely the rides where the kids could play while the parents waited in line.  The lines move pretty slowly generally speaking, so they really need that - it's genius!

is it summer?

Robie took the day off and we went to the beach.  This doesn't happen very often, so you should be excited (I know I was!).  It is Spring Break, so lets face, it, I was going to the beach anyway, but I do feel bad sending the 1,000th picture of me hanging with the kids at the beach while he works away inside.  We went to La Jolla Shores, because he was taking the surfboard and that's kind of a place he likes to surf.  There weren't a ton of great waves, but there were a billion people!  It was just as busy as a summer day, most likely because not only is it spring break, but it was seriously almost 90 degrees today and it hardly ever gets that hot at the beach here.  We needed the umbrella!  and the water didn't even seem as frigid as usual.    We talked the teenager (that's brooke) into going with us, and she even participated in a sandcastle competition.  After googling sandcastle techniques while Brooke made fun of me, I was ready to roll.  As usual, my artistic skills were seriously lacking, but that's where Robie comes in and designs the rest of it for me.  Brooke still wins, but I was happy with the result :)

Brooke and Ashley were probably ready to leave about an hour before we left (maybe two),  so they just found the chairs and made themselves comfortable.  Fox and Lauren were happy either playing in the water (Lauren) and playing in the sand (Fox)  As part of my sandcastle googling, I realized that if you dig down far enough anywhere along the beach you will reach water, and then it just fills up and makes a big muddy mess you can use to build your sandcastle.  So the rest of the afternoon was spent digging holes, the moving on and digging another hole, then moving on.  We left a huge section of holes (which is especially funny because one of the people we were with said something like, "I wonder if they come in and fill in all these holes"  but we were seeing the tide coming in that was almost to us so I was totally laughing because the waves will probably have filled in the holes in like the first 10 minutes.

Fox was having so much fun that when we packed everything up and kept saying that it was really time to go, he finally grabbed a giant handful of really wet sand and said that he was willing to go, but only if he could take some of the wet sand with us.  Sure thing, whatever you need, buddy.