Legoland & Nick Hotel!

After getting zero sleep, I was counting down the seconds until I could pick up Connor on Sunday morning.  When C got in the car & I let him know we were going on vacation early & we were headed to Legoland, his little face lit up!!

He told me how he couldn't wait for me to pick him up that morning.  This trip was as much of a gift to me as it was a gift to him!

He was thrilled with everything we saw.

"Look over there!"

"Oh, over there too!"

It was so fun :)

When we discovered the Star Wars section, the trip was worth every effort and penny.  This boy was in Heaven.

(Millennium Falcon)

(Darth Vader)

(R2-D2)

(Darth Maul)

Matt & I took turns taking Connor on the rides.  Noah was a trooper, just tagging along the whole time.  Legoland was perfect for a 5 year old!  The lines were all less than 5 minutes long and Connor was tall enough to ride everything.

We even ran into Emmett & Wyld Style from the Lego Movie.

Oh, and Batman, of course!

I made the mistake of going with Connor into the race car lego building station, while Matt pushed Noah around outside.  This was a job for a boy.  I am no lego pro, by any means.  We went into this big room, where the woman hands you nothing more than 4 wheels and you have to build a race car out of legos.  Sounds easy right?!  Well, it took strategy.  Once you built your car, you got to race it against other kids on different tracks/roads.  Our first attempt was a major fail.  Mommy may have snuck a peek at the other kids' cars to find out what technique worked best & reassembled our car.  C had fun, so I guess we were successful!

This kid made himself pretty comfy.

When the rain came through, we decided to high tail it out of Legoland.  We went across the street for an early supper.  The well rested beast was ready for some food while the rest of us were ready for a nap!

We checked into the perfect hotel room that night.  It had a separate room for Noah, so the rest of us could stay up & not have to be quiet.  Traveling with a baby is not an easy task.  From the numerous bags, gear, and constant search of oh-wheres-his-burprag or where-did-I-put-the-wipes, it gets tiring.  Not to mention the litttttttttle amount of sleep we got with the little guy not thrilled to be in a pack 'n play.

The next morning, we headed to some Disney mini golf to kill time before we could check into our room at the Nickelodeon Hotel.  Once we were there, it wasn't long before we were suited up & in the pool.

Over the course of 3 days, I'm pretty sure Connor went on the water slides a thousand times!

He loved it!  

Matt & I took shifts---one would stay with Noah & one would stay with Connor, then we'd switch.  It worked out pretty well!

We set our phone alarms, so we wouldn't miss a character appearance!  Peewee was THRILLED!!

(SpongeBob)

(Sandy the Squirrel)

We also got to witness the slime drop at the water slides.  Connor couldn't wait to see it, but wasn't about to stand under it.  I don't blame him :).

The Noah Monster did great.  He just went where ever big bro wanted to go.  The excessive germ exposure from the pools/hotels/travel landed him a fever on the last day of our trip.  Sick babies are NO fun!

Poor kid is still trying to fight off the funk.

More slides!

C did great going up & doing the slides all by himself.  I was pretty surprised.  He usually wants someone to go with him.  He just kept going and going and going.  Kinda glad Matt & I got a little slide break :).

We peeled C away from the slides to get some lunch & we bumped into the one and only Dora!  C's a little too boy to admit he likes Dora now, but he adored her when he was 1-2 years old!  Noah wasn't quite sure about this big headed girl.

While I got Noah down for a nap, Matt & C met the grumpy Squidward!

After dinner, we got a great spot in line & waited for my favorite--Patrick Star!

*Connor noted that the characters were not 'real' since they were cartoon characters.  He went on to tell me they were just costumes.  I was so sad inside, thinking he was already too big for this stuff.  Once we saw the characters, he just lit up & couldn't get enough!  I felt better :)

I swapped shifts with Matt & took C to the SpongeBob 4-D movie.  We held hands the entire time.  It was one of my favorite dates. I cherish our one-on-one time.

After the longest night with a sick baby in a hotel room, we were SO ready to get home.  About 40 minutes into the trip, I had crawled into the back seat, wedged myself between a sick, screaming babe, Mr. Pretend Play, and SpongeBob, himself.  My car has never felt so small.  As much as I prayed for that time to fast forward, I had to take a picture to look back at for memory sake.  Oh what we do to create fun, happy memories for our children!

Minus the sick babe, the trip was SO worth it!  C's still talking about it & that darn SpongeBob stuffed animal goes everywhere with us.

Happy Summer!