Saturday

I've probably mentioned here before that Legos weren't really a thing in my house growing up. I knew what they were, but we didn't have any. So when I first heard about Legoland when it opened, I figured I must be missing something.

Big things built out of Legos sounded...neat. I guess. And I was told there were rides. I like rides. What I didn't know until we planned to go is that the park is very deliberately geared towards kids aged 3-12. So it turned out there really wasn't much more to it than I'd originally thought.

The boys liked it and I enjoyed spending the day with family in such a beautiful spot. It was a little strange to me, though. All of the Lego structures are just sitting outside, exposed, incurring visible sun and water damage. Some of the displays were covered in spider webs. This doesn't take away from the remarkable things the engineers have done, but it does put one in mind of decay and mortality, which are not things people are looking to dwell on when they visit an amusement park.

The Macks came prepared for the weather. Almost as though they are familiar with sun.

We, on the other hand, had to borrow some sunglasses for Willem.

Our kids were thrilled to see this larger-than-life creation from the Hero Factory line. (These replaced the discontinued Bionicles and are very similar. Have I lost you?) I originally thought the Bionicle products were too specific to be anything but a rip-off, but they actually can be combined in lots of ways to make interesting critters. Willem is really "into" them, as he would say lately.

Separated at birth.

There is something so right about this.

They were so impressed that this was a LEGO Darth Vader.

Walking around this section of Miniland was Nels's favorite part of the day, and it made him all itchy to get building. Fortunately I remembered that I had signed him up for a six-week after-school Lego robotics class (he had been begging to take it) and had neglected to tell him. So I took the opportunity to break the happy news, and he was beside himself.

Oh, hey! There's the love of my life. And fils.

The 2-for-1 coupons we used to get into the park required purchasing the ticket that also includes the aquarium. This turned out to be a very good thing. Little cousin Heidi was finally released from her stroller and went about delightedly addressing the aquarium's occupants, which were the first thing all day to be right at her eye level: "FISH! FISH! HI, FISH!"

Shaun's family likes to tease me about the legacy of theatricality I have imparted to our boys. HOWEVER. Note below that cousin Henry is seriously holding his own in the drama department. Might I suggest that their common grandfather is a more likely source for the "ham" gene?

Thanks to the aquarium's Lost City of Atlantis theme, Nels spent the rest of our trip relentlessly grilling me about Atlantis. I've heard of it. And I think there is at least some debate as to whether or not it may have really existed. And that's about it for me. Armed with Google and my iPhone, I still didn't come up with anything very satisfactory.

Hammerhead sharks are aliens, right?

We spent the final 20 minutes before the park closed letting the boys shop for a souvenir. After much careful deliberation, Willem settled on a small stuffed octopus and Nels picked out a Ninjago figure. They left content and exhausted. Another big day of vacation in the can.