Legoland!

 Legoland in Florida gives super discounted tickets to homeschoolers on certain days of the week.  So what better way to celebrate the end of our Fall Semester (where all three kids made the honor roll...I might add.  Ok, technically they also all came in at the bottom of their classes.  Oh, Homeschool humor)

 We drove down to Orlando the 4th Sunday of Advent after Mass.  After much deliberation, Eric and I picked an Embassy Suites Resort that could be covered by his points from various TDYs.  Turns out, it was pretty awesome.  It had a splash pad, huge pool, basketball court where Dom play a couple of pick-up games, and MarioKart on continuous play in the lobby.  Turned out, we could have saved some money and just let the kids play MarioKart in our living room as that was basically what they wanted to do the whole time.  And, of course, Manager's Special.  Which we made it to with 5 minutes to spare both evenings we were there.

 But, back to Legoland.  Legoland is not really in Orlando.  It is about 45 minutes to an hour away.  Not a big deal, as it didn't open until 10.  And as it was not a peak tourist season, we could walk on to most rides.

 The rides are all very tame.  At least compared to some at Universal.  Which was perfect for our crowd.  They also loved all of the Lego displays around.  My favorite was the entire area (I forget the official name) of various cities and scenes from movies.  Dom and Will and I spent a long time checking out the Star Wars displays.  And I know a few goals were made by a couple of master builders in our house.

 Eric and I really enjoyed our time at Legoland because it was so small and the crowds were minimal.

 Most 10-year-olds might be a little too old to enjoy the rides, but Dom was totally fine shuttling John around.

 Literally:

 There was a period of time that I took the older three to do something and Eric and his side-kick were left to their own devices.  Hence the many pictures of John next to things.

 The two favorite rides were not really rides.  There is a driving school where the kids learn some rules of the road and then are let loose in a very contained area where they could maybe get up to 5 mph...probably that is too high.  And the boating school, where you could really get into trouble, though I believe tipping would have been difficult.  My smile was completely fake.  It was a trying experience letting Molly steer our boat.  Though, after witnessing some older girls later, I should have been more patient and appreciative of her skills. (Note to self: Never get a job at an amusement park...I could not deal with the patrons who think they are hilarious, but are really just disruptive and annoying)

 Here is that area I was talking about before.  It was pretty incredible.  All Legos!  We also saw a couple of shows and some 3-D movies.  One that neither Eric nor I could figure out, but the kids seemed to like it and that is what this is all about, right?

Someone did not get the memo that this was a serious picture...

John is kind of a ham...I wonder where he gets that from?

 Oh, yeah...

 It was neat and weird to go the week before Christmas.  The rest of our family were having frigid temps and snow.  Niceville was even colder than usual.  But, we were experiencing close to 80 degree temperatures.  Maybe higher.  Listening to Christmas music in that sort of climate is just crazy.

 But, we did have a really nice relaxing time at Legoland.  We had been advised to not go to these smaller parks after Universal (after we had already been to Universal, mind you), but for us it was nice to get a break from the hectic nature of a huge amusement park.  I think we will go back before we move from Florida.  I think we kind of have to as the Ninjago Ride comes out this year!!!

Next up: Christmas or the year our family to The Night Before Christmas a little too literally