LEGOLAND!!! (part 1)

On Monday, August 17, we woke up to a favorable (no rain) weather report, so we decided to go to LEGOLAND!! This was, by far, the thing the boys were most anticipating about our trip. The drive was a little more than an hour, and the boys were ready to go when we arrived!

We ran into Emmet and Wyldstyle as soon as we arrived. These huge figures are made entirely of Legos!  Seeing all these intricate statues was one of the best parts of Legoland, if you took the time to stop and look at them.

Can you tell the boys are excited?

Our first ride was Ford Driving School, complete with a life sized car made of. . . you guessed it. . . Legos.

Eli was a very serious driver. No parents allowed on this ride. Yea!

We enjoyed steering the boat at Lego Boating school!

 An almost-life sized Lego elephant.

Micah sitting on a Lego camel:

 My 3 men with a huge Darth Vader:

In the middle of the park, they have a huge area with tons of Lego figures. Here's NYC, and some random people for scale:

One of my favorite cities:

Unfortunately, it was SO. HOT. that we kind of rushed through this part and didn't take time to appreciate all the detail. One of the things we learned is that Iowa humidity is NOTHING compared to Florida humidity. Especially in August. With no shade. On hot concrete.

More Legoland to come. . .

Winter and Hope

On Sunday, Aug 16, we made the beautiful drive to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium!

AKA: The home of Winter and Hope from the Dolphin Tale movies!!

We just watched these movies before our trip, and the boys were VERY excited to see these dolphins. Overall, the building is not that spectacular. You can tell that it was not built with tourists in mind; it is very much a functioning marine animal rescue center that has done its best to cater to the tourists coming to see Winter and Hope. These dolphins aren't trained to perform, but they do make some semi-scheduled appearances during the day. Regardless, the boys really, really enjoyed seeing the dolphins. Winter (the one without the tail) was not very active; she just kind of kept to herself in her own pen. Hope (pictured below) was quite a bit more active.

There was also an area where you could pet (debarbed) stingrays! The boys wouldn't touch them, but Kedron and I both did. It kind of felt like petting a slimy hard boiled egg.

 They have another building nearby that displays props from the movie - included in your admission. This is the houseboat featured in the movie!

 Probably the most exciting dolphin was Nicholas - he played "Mandy" in Dolphin Tale 2 (the dolphin they released back in the ocean). In real life, he came to the Marine Aquarium with his mother, who later died, taking away his natural source of nutrition. He was an injured baby dolphin at the time and remains here because he is incapable of fending for himself in the ocean. He is, however, a great jumper! 

After several hours at the Aquarium, we headed to the famous Clearwater Beach, with Pier 60.

One of my goals was to watch a sunset from Pier 60, which, unfortunately, didn't happen. This beach was PACKED. Parking was very difficult to find (and very expensive when you did), and when the black storm clouds rolled in when it was time to plug the meter, we decided to cut our losses and move along. We did enjoy our time there, and the boys continue to love the ocean!

One of the famous area restaurants is Frenchy's Salt Water Cafe; famous for their grouper. I had a Grouper Reuben. It was. . . well, just OK, but I always enjoy trying new foods so I was happy I tried it! Here we are with the restaurant's mascot?? Not sure what this thing is, actually. . .

At this point in our trip, it has rained (downpoured) every afternoon into the evening, so I'm getting a little concerned and hoping for better weather. We really do want a good day for Legoland. . .

MOSI - Museum of Science & Industry

On Saturday, Aug 15, we headed to MOSI - the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa. It was very cool - possibly my favorite destination of our trip. We started out the day on their ropes course.  The boys were much braver than I thought they would be! Eli tried more challenging obstacles, but would sometimes get stuck halfway through and need a little help. It was TALL!

Micah stuck to ones he felt comfortable with, but moved through the obstacles very quickly with a smile on his face.

 Good thing you can't see the sweat marks on my back underneath the harness. . . it was SO hot at 9am! We only lasted an hour before heading to indoor things.

Ked decided to 'relax' on a bed of nails. I tried it too, and it is every bit as comfortable as it looks.

Eli. Oh, Eli. He got hooked on this probability dice game thing, where you pushed the big white button in the middle to roll the 2 big dice in the cylinder. Then you recorded the number of the dice by pushing the other buttons on the board. We noticed that every number had been rolled EXCEPT a 12. Well, Eli wanted to be the first of the day to roll that 12! So, he rolled. And rolled. And when his arm got tired, he made me roll. And roll.

A half hour later. . .

They also had a natural disaster area that simulated earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. Here are Ked and Eli inside a tornado simulator.

And. . . no trip to a science center is complete without some good old fashioned block play!

Next up: Clearwater Marine Aquarium!

Florida Trip!

Hi there, remember me? It's been. . . a while. Actually, if my Mom would just break down and join Facebook, I would probably delete this blog altogether. ..

A month ago, we went to Florida! On Friday, August 14, we left hot and humid Iowa for even hotter and humider (more humid?) Florida! No, our timing was not ideal, but we got such a good deal on plane tickets that we could not resist spending the last week of our summer in the Sunshine State. We flew into St Petersburg for our Clearwater/St Pete/Tampa area vacation.

First stop - the ocean! We headed to Indian Rocks beach, where we found it to be beautiful and HOT! In fact, the water was as warm as a hot bath. . . not all that refreshing but we didn't mind!

Eli loved playing in the sand.

Micah loved the waves!

Here was a common sight during our trip - storm clouds. They rolled in pretty much every afternoon and sometimes it rained a lot, and sometimes not as much.

Much, much more to come!

Fun in KC!

We surprised the boys with an overnight trip to Kansas City!  First stop:  Science City!  This place is really cool, and the pictures don't totally do it justice.

Eli at the big water table:

The boys at the mini playground:

Cool treehouse: 

My fave:  the sand table that changed as you built the piles taller or shorter:

We then headed back to the hotel, for, well, this:

The next day, we headed to the Legoland Discovery Center!  Can you guess which movie this lego scene depicts?

Here's another hint:

 Micah made a vehicle and raced it down the many ramps:

Legos EVERYWHERE. . . (and showing off his missing tooth. ..)

We had tons of fun!!