Southern California - LEGOLAND and Disney

The day after we left La Jolla, we visited LEGOLAND in Carlsbad, CA.  It was a theme parked aimed for younger kids, so it was perfect for our munchkins.

 

 

A lot of the rides were variations on the train ride where you see Lego statues among the real scenery.  Elizabeth decided she was brave enough to try a kids sized roller coaster.

 

Elizabeth still doesn't like to look right at the camera because of the flash.  But she did like the boat ride.

Vanessa took aim at some Lego frogs and crocs.

Vanessa wanted to go on the Lazy River ride where you can build with the giant Quadro blocks while on the inner tube.  Elizabeth decided to hang back with me and enjoy the shade.

Smile!

Vanessa looks more distressed here than she actually was.

They had fun and Vanessa wanted to go again!

A different type of pony ride than normally they do.

Elizabeth wasn't quite sure what direction to wave at.

But here she figured out where the camera was so she could look away.

Climbing time.

They do play nicely with one another.

Time for a little flight.

I realized in retrospect that I was focused on taking pictures of the girls instead of pictures of the Lego displays.  So I'm including some pictures I found on the internet of some of the things we saw.

Lego version of our home metro area.

Lego version of Las Vegas

Lego version of the Theed palace on Naboo from Episode I.

The next day we start the first of three days at Disneyland and California Adventure, the new Disney park across the street from Disneyland. 

First up was watching the new Star Tours ride in 3D.  I was chosen as the rebel spy on board, much to the girls delight.

They love the Dumbo like rides.

 

At lunch time we stopped to watch the Star Wars show.

I think the girls were a little worried about Darth Maul prowling behind them.

Or the stormtroopers running away after show.

Tea cup ride.  I told them I would ride if they didn't make it spin any extra.  I'm finding as I get older I don't do so well with spinning any more.

More tea cup time.

Carousel time!

Vanessa's old enough to ride by herself and not so old that's she's done with them.  In short, the perfect age for a carousel.

 

Here you can see Sarah and Elizabeth on the Dumbo ride.

The next day we got up early to head over to California Adventure.  I knew I had to get there early in order to get in line for a FastPass for the new Cars ride.  Basically this allowed me to wait in line for an hour in the morning while the girls played elsewhere to reserve a spot to ride that ride later in the day.  That turned out to be around 7:00 PM at night.

Us going for a ride on a spinning ride.  The girls love it when I wear my silly fish shirt.

Two of my other favorite ladies going for a spin.

They had set up a challenge area based on the Up movie.

They don't need much of an excuse to climb something.

 

My daredevil needs even less of an excuse to climb.  She bouldered all they way across without a single misstep.

Daredevil continues her daring ways with a tire swing/zip line.

Time for a shade break.

 

Now I didn't take this picture, but this is the new Cars ride that had a 60 minute FastPass wait or a 2 hour normal wait.  It was really cool.  The first part of the ride was a ride through the Cars story, the second was an open track race through a gorgeous desert / mountain back drop at 35 mph.  Each ride is different as you don't know whether your car will "win" vs. the other car.  For some reason, the teenagers in the car next to us took great delight in "beating" our car full of munchkins.  Ah teenagers.  That'll be a fun phase.

 

Vanessa demonstrates her sandwich making technique.

 

On our second trip to Disneyland, the girls got to meet Merida from Brave.

Elizabeth was very insistent on telling Merida a story.

 

Elizabeth actually looked at the camera this time.  The professionals at Disneyland must have a better non-scary flash or something.

Sarah tries her skill at archery.

Elizabeth gives it a go as well.  Vanessa wasn't interested.

We got to take a tour of Minnie's house and ran into the mouse herself at the end.

Someone was enjoying herself.

We found a good spot to sit and watch the parade.

They were probably most excited to see the Princess and Rapunzel tower float.

And of course Princess Tiana.

Tinkerbell said hi to them as well.

Finally we saw Ms. Mary Poppins trot on by on her race horse.

All and all, the girls were great and seemed to enjoy their almost two week trip to St. Louis and Southern California.