Happy 2012! It doesn’t really feel like New Year’s day since the Rose Parade/Rose Bowl isn’t until tomorrow. We’ve had a nice couple of days eating and enjoying our last few days of vacation. Last night we carried on our tradition of all sleeping on the sofa in our family room. We’ll see if we all fit next year!

Wrapping up Legoland, the kids enjoyed the rides and shows. Some of the lines were pretty long, but there were stations set up where the kids could play with Legos while a parent waits in line.

Looking forward to more adventures in the new year!

I received the Lego Holiday Toy Shop set for my birthday. It is quite small, but it took me a better part of a day to put it together.

Therefore, I cannot imagine putting together elaborate sculptures such as these:

I had read online that Legoland is not overly strict with its no outside food policy. It turned out to be true, as I did not see anyone’s bags being checked. I made sandwiches for lunch and brought some snacks/drinks/water.

For our afternoon treat we had Granny’s Apple Fries ($4.95). When we ate all of the apples, n was licking the whipped cream by itself.

For dinner we had pizza from Ristorante Brickolini.

These pizzas were pricey ($10.95 each) but were freshly baked, and pretty good for amusement park fare.

A highlight of the park is Miniland, which is centrally located. Some of the displays are temporary. They were in the process of building a Mardi Gras themed display. Right now there is a Star Wars display.

The detail is incredible!

We got a kick out of the Las Vegas display since we were just there. k recognized our hotel:

There’s the hotel D wishes he could stay at:

New York, NY

We took a sunset cruise of Miniland, as well.

If you look closely, there are Lego workers using a q-tip to clean George Washington’s earwax! So gross/funny.

Yesterday we went to Legoland for the first time. We were able to buy 2 day passes for cheap through D’s co-worker Betsy, who is also a reader of our blog–(thank you!!)

It was quite a day, as we stayed from opening to closing. I knew it would be crowded this week, but I wanted to go during the holiday festivities. One tip I would share is to not go to Legoland until your youngest child is at least 34 inches tall. I think there are only two rides that a sub-34 incher can go on! And, the Legoland employees are trained to be quite strict, so don’t think you’ll be sneaking anyone on. Luckily, n is over 34 inches, so we were able to go on a number of rides as a family.

The park is clearly targeted towards young kids, which eliminated the annoying teenagers you find at other amusement parks. I thought it was nice how they have several family bathrooms throughout the park, as well as low toilets/sinks for the kids.

Cal/Texas fans were out in full effect in anticipation of the Holiday Bowl. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much Cal gear in Southern California outside of a football stadium. (Side note: too bad we lost, but at least now D isn’t upset with me for not letting him buy tickets to see the game!)

I took a lot of pictures, so this post will be limited to the Christmas/snow theme.

Lego Santa

Lego Santa II

There was a small snow play area where you could throw snow balls at targets and sled down a short hill.

Some parents came prepared with gloves, hats, and snowsuits. I bet they were wondering…what kind of parents would let their kid go in the snow with a t-shirt and shorts?

Oh yes, that would be us. (Not that we didn’t try to get n to put on pants and a sweatshirt. He adamantly refused, and it just wasn’t a battle worth fighting.) During the day, it was actually quite warm, but once the sun went down, it became quite chilly. At night, we physically forced n to wear his pants, which he was NOT happy about. Oh n, we hope this stage passes soon.

This morning we took D’s brother to Corona Del Mar and Crystal Cove to do a little sight-seeing. The weather was nice, almost a bit too warm, not that we’re complaining (OK, I guess the kids were complaining).

It is fun to look at all of the unique homes around Corona Del Mar.

Can you imagine living in a place where this is the view from your backyard??

We were planning to eat lunch at Diamond Jamboree, but the kids ran out of steam, so we ended up at the Shake Shack.