Legoland

When we planned this trip on Disney.com we saw that the tickets to the park were cheaper if you bought them in a bulk package and one of those packages, the city package did three days at the Disney parks (where you could trade parks), a day at Legoland and a day at Sea World.  We are big Lego Fans in this house.  When the holidays come around I like to joke with Dr. J that I wish we had Lego stock, but seriously...I wish we had Lego stock.  I think at least half our Christmas budget went to Lego's this year, so it definitely made sense that we'd want to stop here.  Lego Land was one of our shorter days.  There hours weren't very late but considering we had to drive all the way down to Carlsbad California, and hour and a half away it was probably a blessing.  Lego Land was an interesting place.  Like I mentioned before my kids love Legos and my husband loves Legos so some of our favorite parts were just looking at the things built out of Legos.  They have a whole area with famous Landmarks, cities, and stories.  There are a bunch of Star Wars themed scenes, the White House, the Eiffel Tower, the Las Vegas Strip, New York, etc.  We loved looking at those.  The kids also really enjoyed putting together their own Lego guys.  It was probably my favorite souvenir of the whole trip.  I think you can build three for 9.99 but on the Legoland app their was a coupon for buy one get one free so they got to built six for 9.99 (definitely worth downloading).  We spent quit a bit of time searching through heads, bodies, and accessories.  The rides were only so, so though and here is where we get to my main problem with Legoland.  My 12 year old (who is the biggest Lego fan in our home) was almost to big and too old for most of the things here, but meanwhile my four year old was still too little to go on a lot of rides by herself (there were some, but there were a lot she needed someone bigger to go with her and some she was just plain to short to get on at all).  The perfect age for Legoland is probably 6-9.  Our kid spread made it so that there was a lot of time when one kid or another was being left out.  I'm definitely glad we got to go and if I was in the area again I'd certainly thing it was worth going to but I'd never make a trip just to go there.  Which is great to keep in mind.    

This was probably my favorite ride the kids went on.  You could press a button at the watching area to make a water cannon shoot your loved ones on the ride.  Good times had by the person on the ride and the watchers :)

G was barely short enough to get on this ride but Cheetah wanted her company.  What Cheetah wanted more was to go on this roller coaster with her dad but she was too short.  G was interested so she came with us to wait.

This city scenes were incredible.  There was so much to look at.  Whoever puts them together definitely has a sense of humor.  The people are placed in super funny ways often.  It almost felt like being in Where's Waldo book...in fact now that I think about it I'm pretty sure I saw a Waldo.

No surprise here my kids loved these giant star wars figures.  

The girls just hanging out.  

Captain E and Luke.  

The kids gave the baby over to the dark side here.

This was a pigtail braid day for me.  Even baby dumpling got to go on a ride.  

Universal Studios

I think baby boy was less then a week old when Dr. J turned to me in bed one night and said, "So what are we going to do from Fall Break.  Fall Break, those random nine days off your kids get in October.  J had gotten the nine days off and he wanted to do something.  So five days after I had a baby we booked a trip to Disneyland.  It was nuts.  Who does that?  We do that.  So with a six week old baby we headed to California.  Originally our trip was going to be three days at Disney, one day at Legoland, and one day at Sea World (look I felt a little guilty about that one but J really wanted to go and so we went).  It was part of our city pass.  Honestly that felt like a lot but then one of our kids asked if we were going to go to Harry Potter Land.  We hadn't really planned on it, but since we were going to be in California we figured, "What the heck."  Here is the thing though about "What the heck" and Universal Studios and a family of six plus a baby, what the heck cost well over 600 bucks, but we still went and the kids loved it. 

Cheetah was able to get on a lot of the rides but there were a couple that she wasn't.  The nice thing about Universal is there is still stuff to do if you can't ride the rides.  We watched a Pets in the Movies show, think Owls from the Harry Potter movies, old Air Buds, and a bunch of animals running all over the stage, including a chicken.  We also hung out at Super Silly Fun Land.  With the other kids we watched Universal Animal Actors and the Special Effects Show.  She did get to go on Flight of the Hippogriff, Shrek, Despicable Me, Minion Mayhem, and Jurassic Park the ride, which SHE LOVED!  The kids were all going to go on Transformers as well but the ride broke down and after standing in line for 45 minutes they decided to ditch it.  J tried to get the older kids to ride The Mummy with him but the only kids we have who could finish that movie was too short to get on it so we skipped it.  The older kids also really enjoyed Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  While waiting for them to finish that ride Cheetah, Baby Boy and I bought Pumpkin Juice and Butter Beer.  We also watched the Triwizard Spirit Rally.  The kids had a good time at Olivanders and the candy shop although their dad balked at $50 wizarding wands.  We went back and forth on this five or six times with Captain E.  E wanted one really bad but J told him that if he picked it that would be the one souvenir we would pay for.  He wanted it, then he didn't.  Finally he decided he didn't want it but it was an all day debate.  We did buy them each a Chocolate Frog and some Everything Beans.   

In the end we had a good time but I still go back and forth on weather it was worth it or not.  The hours the park is open in October and honestly most of the winter months are not that late.  We ended up having to leave while it was still light out and we didn't have time to eat at the Three Broom Sticks.  Also as fun as Harry Potter Land is Harry Potter Land should be it's own park.  I'm not kidding at all.  Just imagine it.  You could have a Hotel that was set up like the school.  There could be rooms in the dungeon, rooms by the kitchen, rooms up in a tower.  There would be an eating area where they projected the sky on the ceiling.  You could have a water ride where you ride a canoe across a lake, with a lake monster, and rain.  You could have a Whomping Willow Ride, a flying Car ride, a ride Quiditch Ride.  I mean every book has a ton of shows you could do or rides you could make!

Come join me in Harry Potter Land.  Check out my cute date for the park. 

 

Hanging out in the Candy Land.  I waited until the end of the day to buy my chocolate frogs because I didn't want them to melt but apparently I was not the only one with this idea.  

Cheetah and I hanging out at the Pet Show.  Baby boy sleep through most of it.

Hanging out with our chocolate frogs.

I can't be the only one who loves this unicorn from Despicable Me.  I want to own a huge one but I also didn't want to haul that around for a week.  I did let Cheetah play a carnival ride to get this tiny one.

Oh my gosh, look at that six week hair and belly button!  Dr. J worked up until the day we left and he was beat.  He tried to catch his zzz's when he could. 

Baby Blues - The First Month

The first month of Baby Boy's life just rushed by and to be honest I spent most of it in a sleep deprived haze.  It took our guy probably two weeks to really start packing on the pounds and those first three visits I had at the doctor to check his weight were so stressful.  This was my first time having baby blues.  I don't know how I'd never had it before I haven't but this time it hit me like a train.  I was crying all the time.  Things that made me sad I cried, things that made me happy I cried, things that were just there I cried.  I went to the doctor to have his weight checked and I cried.  The doctor turned to Dr. J and said, "Is she ok?  Is she going to be ok?"  "I think so," he said.  To be honest it wasn't reassuring.  I actually went online to read about baby blues.  I saw that anything past 10 days after birth is considered postpartum depression and I started counting down.  I tried not to talk about his birth at all because every time I did I started to cry and I didn't want to tinge my happy memories with sadness.  I tried to sleep, the kids went back to school, and Dr. J went back to work and then like the sun coming out on a foggy day the sadness and frustration started to wane.  It seriously was about ten day before I could give a real smile again, before I could talk to my other children without yelling, and before I could see a commercial about kids online and not cry.  I was so relieved but I also felt so sad that 10-15% of woman suffer from postpartum depression.  If by chance you are one of those woman please, please, reach out and seek help.  Talk to a doctor, a partner, a family member.  Those feelings are real and you are no less of a person because you are experiencing them.  I have a couple of messenger friends who live far away who I always contact when I needed to feel a little grounded.  Those girls were my rock as I counted down.  It made me realize that when your doctor is asking those mental wellness questions in that post baby checkup that they aren't just boxes that need to be checked, for some they are a true lifeline. 

My OB gave me this onsie and I love it!  I did not love having a c-section but I loved her.  She was the best.

Hamilton

I have negative feelings about our soon to be president and if you are excited about him feel free to call me up and we can argue about it ad nauseum, so honestly what is the point.  Personally I think there is a 50% chance he will end up being impeached.  I see you Mike Pence just bidding your time quietly.  I do have three things to say though.  One, get your kids into coding and robots.  I don't care what the president has half the country convinced of, automation is the future and nothing is going to stop it.  So make sure sure you and your kids are ready for it.  Don't believe me, just look at how that "triumphant" Carrier Deal went down.  Two, "fake news" is not news you don't agree with.  Fake news is actually just straight up fake news.  News is suppose to be a presentation of facts. We've seen a blurring of this as we've gone more to online news presentations and blogs to receive our news.  The most innocent presentation of this is opinion pieces read as news.  Newspapers have always had opinion pieces but now they can be found on the same page as the actual news as opposed to in their own section where they are in a paper form of a newspaper.  They are usually marked as an opinion piece but I don't think people take the time to think about the fact that if you can hear the authors voice it is opinion  and should be read with a grain of salt.  The worst are stories that are just plain made up.  Because of twitter and facebook these stories can get a lot of traction.  Just because a piece says what you believe to be true, doesn't mean it is.  Check sources.  And Third, the point of this entire blog is Hamilton is so far from being "overrated" it is not funny.  You have to seriously question the judgement of anyone who who say that...sure that is just my opinion but if you want to take it as fact I'm okay with that ;)

I've been obsessed with Hamilton since last spring.  Some of my friends kept talking about it.  Andrew, Nancy and Bridget and I'm talking about you.  Good grief it got so annoying.  Why does everything have to be Hamilton, Hamilton, Hamilton.  They were constantly making Hamilton references, posting videos, or talking about how their kids were obsessed.  I've loved musical theater since I was a kid.  I think I watched Gigi 100 times the year I was 9.  It wasn't appropriate. I asked my mom why she let me watch it.  She told me I loved all things musical and she couldn't stop me.  So it isn't surprising I caved and finally put Hamilton on my Pandora.  The first song that came up dropped an F bomb.  I turned it off real quick because the kids were running around.  Andrew told me there was edited version.  I was like, great but I still just didn't get it.  Then I sat down and listened to the song Burn.  IT WAS GORGEOUS!  Seriously it was the female songs that lead me into this musical.  After Burn I listened to Helpless which lead me to my first Hamilton Facebook reference.  Then I listened to Satisfied and It's Quiet Uptown, That Would Be Enough, and Take a Break.  After I became obsessed with those songs I bought the edited CD's.  I started listening to the music while I did my lawn chores.  I fell in love with Leslie Odom's voice next.  "Talk Less, Smile More."  Aaron Burr, Sir, Wait for It, Washington on Your Side, Your Obedient Servant, The World Was Wide Enough...oh his voice is so good.  "I hear wailing in the streets, somebody tells me you'd better hide. I see Angelica and Eliza were both at his side when he died.  Death doesn't discriminate..."  Guys this musical is so good.  I often wake up with the words of one song or another going through my head, "I'm not throwing away my shot..."  I wonder what used to be in my head before Hamilton.  I must dream Hamilton.  I wish I could have seen it in New York before the original cast left but since I couldn't I'm extremely excited that my mother in law promised to get me tickets for when it comes to Utah.  It seriously will make my year.  If you like musicals, or music, or history it is definitely worth checking out.  You can listen hear for free or buy the cleaner version here. It takes a little bit of creative license but you can read all about Hamilton here if you want to know what was changed.