Mommathon

All we were supposed to do on this day was go home, but there was one last thing we needed to do. We had a plane to catch at 10:30, but we still had to go to the beach. So we got up early, skipped breakfast and headed to La Jolla. We weren’t able to actually go down to the beach this year. Since it’s a full moon the water was too high, but it made for some really cool/big waves. We also got to see a pregnant sea lion. There was a woman there who told Colm that the sea lion would have the babies right there on the beach in about a month…Colm is determined to go back and see those babies. 🙂

We had to go back to Legoland one more time to ride a few rides we had missed the past two times and to ride a few other rides again. We got there right when it opened and went straight to the rides at the back of the park that always have long lines.

Creating his car…he ended up trading in his wheels for some new wheels when he noticed some of the kids had bigger wheels than his.

Racing their Lego cars
After we were done there we went to Navy Pier to see the U.S.S. Midway. Big does not begin to describe it.

Day three was absolutely gorgeous! In the morning we went to The New Children’s Museum. It was not exactly what I thought it was going to be, but it was very cool and I highly recommend it. All of the exhibits are actually commissioned pieces of art work, but they are also to be used by kids. Art that is cool and kid friendly…you can’t beat that.

A rock climbing wall that is also art. The design was made out of duct tape.

Clay creations

They played with this a couple of times. It was a computer program…they drew with their crayon/finger and then had to figure out how to get the ball to reach the star without letting the ball fall. It’s hard to explain, but the boys had great fun with it. Lots of problem solving was going on.

This was a huge whale that was outside. I can’t tell you how messy they got painting that darn thing. They enjoyed themselves though. (They were wearing aprons, by the way, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at their clothes.)

They rode these chariots several times. There was a track they rode them around on. It was kind of tricky getting the hang of them…Colm didn’t care though…he just went backwards until he finally figured out how to get it to go forwards. 🙂

We spent the evening at Legoland which is where we also rang in the new year with a concert and lots of fireworks.

On the second day we went to The Wild Animal Park (which was awesome!).

The Wild Animal Park is cool because you get pretty close to the animals and most of the animals have TONS of land to walk around. It seems like the zoo goes on forever, luckily they take you around on a tram for a good part of it while the guide tells you about the animals.

Colm feeding a lorikeet.

Taking a break after lunch in the children’s area.

Liam in the petting zoo area.

Since it was raining…I know-shocking…and we were done with the Wild Animal Park, we decided to head over to Lego Sea Life since we had some time.

My favorite picture from Sea Life.

We decided to go to back to San Diego this year for our Christmas vacation since we had so much fun last year and there was still so much to see and do. One thing we HAD to do though was go back to Legoland (and we did-three times!!!)

Legoland all dressed up for Christmas…the only way we’ve ever seen it.

Getting ready to watch a 4D movie.

Bionicle/Lego Creations

This was our first trip to Legoland, which also included several roller coasters and other such rides, some of which left some of us more soaked than we would have liked. 🙂

Ford County is made up of several short stories about the comings and goings of the fictional folks who live in Ford County, Mississippi. Some of the stories are more entertaining that others and quite a few of them have some pretty stereotypical southern characters. It is not my favorite book of his that I have read. A Painted House, however, is a fantastic story that you won’t be able to put down.