Legoland is Awesome!

I’ve been to Legoland, California, with my two kids twice now.   The first time they were 7 and 5 years old and absolute lego fanatics.  The second time they were 14 and 12, and still built on a regular basis.  There are a lot of choices we have to make as parents and when to travel to the biggies (like Disneyland) is one.  Here’s a run down of my pros and cons for each age range.

Younger Good Stuff:

• The general age of kids there is in the 2-8 range.
• There are playgrounds situated around the park, with only one smallish entrance, so parents can let the kids run free and sit and relax for a minute.
• There is a water splash area, with one of those huge buckets that dumps water everywhere. It is very shallow so little ones can play with out needing to be able to swim.
• There are strollers for rent.
• There is a free form area, where kids can play with legos.
• The food available for sale is very kid friendly, who doesn’t love pizza?

Younger Not So Good Stuff:

• Let’s see, how to say this?  One has to put a lot of energy into keeping the kids close.  Especially if they are the curious wandering type.
• The roller coaster rides were too big and scary for my kids.  They would not go on any of them.
• Too big to do in one day with little ones.  We did it in two days.
• Had to restrain the kiddos from running all over Miniland and playing with the legos there.  Miniland is totally cool and I could see why they wanted to touch it.
• Kids did not recognize what some of the lego sculptures were.
• Little kids have a shorter attention span for just walking around looking at things.
• A few years later, the boys remember exactly nothing about their trip.

So we planned another trip.

 

Older Good Stuff:

• They could wander around all on their own.
• The kids were able to identify the context of most of the lego scuptures and had seen Star Wars so that section was amazing.
• Kids really liked the lego scuptures, could also read the specs for the big ones on their own.  And cared to know!   Exactly how many bricks are in that Vadar?
• They were into all the rides, over and over.  And over.
• We spent an entire day at the water park, sliding and swimming in the wave pool.  This just felt fun instead of exhausting.  I could have a festive beverage.
• One could do the entire park in one day.  I don’t recommend this.  We took three days, with one being at the water park.
• We stayed at the Legoland hotel for the first two nights and the boys really liked it.  Again, I had the freedom, as a parent, to let the boys navigate the hotel on their own.
• Older kids stay up later and swimming at night in California was a favorite of all three of us.
• Kiddos entertained themselves with legos and games they brought.
• They remember it all.

Older Not So Good Stuff:

• Being teen aged boys, feeding them was more expensive.  But that is true where ever one is with teens!
• There were not a lot of families with teens there.  Tho my kids were not bothered by this at all.
• And… that’s all I can think of.

Sun in the eyes!

Driving to Colorado v2009

Driving to Colorado

(I wrote this years ago and am now back into it and am going to post some old trips.)

We drove 10 hours today.  Well, that is, I drove the 10 hours, the boys sat in the back and watched Star Wars Episodes 1 to 3 and played and drew and endured the drive.  It went pretty fast considering how long that really is.

Tips on how I did it.  First and foremost for parental sanity:  never, ever answer the question “how much longer?” or “are we there yet?”  Answering just leads to more asking of the same question at more and more frequent intervals.  Just say that it’s a really long way and to use your imagination to find something to do to pass the time.  If they insist on asking, I start with a very big time answer, like “2 days!”  and the increase it every time they ask.  I know, I’m like that.  But one’s sanity is worth it.

You don’t need to bring toys.  But paper, pens and a movie player are essential.

Oh, and lots, I mean tons of food. Especially if your kids are two growing boys.

Pick a hotel with a pool.  It gets out lots of energy swimming and splashing around.  Most hotel chains have pools, but I like Best Western and Quality Inns.  They have big rooms, pools that are indoors, hot tubs for the parents to relax in, and usually included breakfasts.

For the driver, the views were really very nice.  There were two wrecks, including one car that was upside down and impaled on the concrete guard rail.  It gave me the chills to see it.   Idaho is pretty empty.  Why do people live there?  [Editors note:  reading this paragraph made me laugh out loud.  The views are nice and what I list out is a car wreck!  *laugh*]

Day two of driving was long and arduous.  We drove across the bottom of Wyoming, which is straight, flat and has nothing to look at.  At least the driving is easy.  There are occasional rest stops called “Little America” and these are great places, having it all:  hotels, gas, groceries, souvenirs, playground, ice cream, trees.  Good places to stretch the legs.  Some point along the way, the car DVD player broke.  It either over-heated or possibly one of the boys touched in side it.  Either way, no more movies.  So there were many hours of drawing, playing with the two Star Wars figurines I give them as a surprise on the first day.  They did not pack any toys at all, so the two figures were well-timed.  Both boys took a nap for a while, with out my prompting.

Bringing a lot of food is useful on long car rides.  I brought “Lunchables,” carrot sticks, chopped up apples, lots of water, cheese sticks, beef jerky, things yummy, healthy and easy to pass around a car.  We also had bags of chips, which make a big mess in the car, but are good to snack on.

It took us a solid 10 hours to drive from Twin Falls, Idaho to Denver, Colorado.  The boys were just starting to get  cranky, but really, it was me that lost patience.  Driving that long was physically tiring and it took me a couple of days to recuperate.

We arrived finally in Lafayette, a little town north-west of Denver.  It is an easy free-way ride to Denver and an easier country drive towards Boulder and the mountains.

The Last RV Trip June 2012

We had finally decided to sell the RV.  But before sending it off to new adventures with a new owner, we needed one last camping trip to say goodbye to the Thunder Slug and RVland.

There are an incredible number of RV campgrounds in the greater Seattle area, little wooded oases tucked into every inter-city nook.  So we choose one at random, the Blue Sky RV Park in Issaquah. I wanted something easy, no boards to lay down over muddy ground, no obstacles to avoid hitting (see RVland rule# 1:  watch out for awnings), Amenities (with a capital A).

The drive was short, the check-in easy and the minute we arrived it started to pour.  Not the slow grey drizzle that is so common to Seattle, but a full on monsoon-style downpour.  The three of us sat in the loft of the Thunder Slug watching it rain, marveling at how we could see absolutely nothing through the sheets of water and hoping that it would let up enough so that we could go outside and hook up the electricity/water etc.  Luckily, we brought board games and snacks galore (I learned from previous trips that no amount of food is too much) and sat around enjoying not camping in a tent in the rain.

When it finally stopped raining, we went out to explore the small campground.  We discovered a bear in a tree,                                             a duck,

 

and through meticulous and thorough statistical analysis that the majority of the other RVs were from Montana.

We spent as much time in the RV, climbing on the RV and generally luxuriating in having a small moving house, as we good to give it a proper goodbye.  The next day we drove home and brought in our sleeping bags for the last time.

Lessons I learned:

-Kids like being in an RV no matter the circumstances.  Despite no activities, no people to visit and no actual destination, they still totally enjoyed this trip.

-Always pack for rain.  This is western Washington.

The break

It’s been a long time since I last wrote.  Big life changes n all.  Now it’s time to get back to it.  We’ve been traveling both within the States and overseas and having a ton of fun.  I am going to try to back-blog a little.  Time to share our adventures once again!

Camping with Boys

Last week we did a little tent camping trip to Dash Point State Park.  E was out of town, so I took the boys and their friend T, who had never slept in a tent before.  T was along for the RV in the Mud Camping Mess-up and was so glad that we weren’t taking the RV!

 I’ve forgotten to mention up to this point, that we’ve been traveling with an extra family member, Paddy, our large black lab puppy.  He is also really excited about camping, so excited that we had to keep him on leash so he wouldn’t dash off into the woods chasing wildlife.  We packed as little as possible for a camping trip, but still had to squish Paddy into this back corner of the car.

 I taught the boys how to set up the tent, but it’s still hard for such short people to really be effective.  I also showed T how to chop wood, at which is was quite skilled.

After getting the camp set up we went on a quest to find the creek.  It was a beautiful little stream, surrounded by lush bushes and tons of song birds.  We found a nice spot to access the creek and they boys played in the water.  We found natural clay.  We also discovered that Paddy is crazy about water.  He jumps in, bites at it, splashes and spins around like a whirling dervish, sending water flying everywhere.  We were all soaked by the end of this adventure.

 

We did all the typical tent camping things:  made a big fire, roasted hot dogs on sticks, made smores, lit the lantern (T had never seen one before and just wanted to see it, despite the fact that we didn’t need it at all).  The boys even tried to tell ghost stories, but I stopped them.  I have too much experience with freaked out kids in the middle of the night, cause suddenly those ghost stories aren’t funny any more.

The next day, we roasted more hot dogs, cleaned up the camp, and hiked down the creek to the beach.  The boys made sand cities, then destroyed them.  Paddy treated the sand about the same way as he treated the creek, sending splashes of sand everywhere.  My camera ran out of batteries so I didn’t get any pictures of their play.  But here’s one of me trying to take a picture of myself hula-hooping.  That will do in a pinch.  See the hoop?  It’s black.

Tips for Parents: 

1.  Pack more food than you think is humanly possible to eat.  The boys ate every scrap of edible that I’d brought and were still “starving!”   You’d think I’d stop being surprised by this. 

2.  For a one-night trip like this, extra clothes for the kids are totally un-necessary.  They hardly noticed that they were wet, cold, dirty.  Whatever.  There are sticks!  And rocks to throw!  And fire! 

3.  I forgot the bug spray.  Bad move.  Bring the spray.  That way when you return the kids that aren’t yours to their parents, they aren’t covered in itchy red welts.

Little stuff we did in Ashland

Tuesday

Things of note today: 

Three-hula-circus on the porch.  Performance later.

Paddy (my lab) chased the chickens.  He had a great time.  One is still missing.  Oh, we found it.  Must have been really good at hiding.

Yummy home-made chili for dinner.

I found out it’s possible to order a chicken from McDonalds.  RVLandMikkyD’s that is.

Wednesday

We all drove into Ashland to see my niece perform in a little play.  She was the narrator and did a great job, not missing any of her lines.  Both my nieces are homeschooled but they take some elective classes at a neat little alternative school called Willow Wind.  I wish Tacoma had such a thing, run through the public school system, but that rant is for another place and time.  Then the boys and I then went to Senor Sams for a big burrito.  Hamster on steroids size.  C was actually full after his, this time.

More mud, swamp, bog.

Monday

We “battened down the hatches” first thing in the morning, which is my-speak for making sure nothing will go flying while driving.  We tried to just drive out, but, as I mentioned before, we were in another bog, sunk down a foot or so.  Our tries were witnessed and quickly a group of young men with big toys and strong rope showed up to pull us out.  We tried to just pull the ThunderSlug out, but the winning solution was a v10 truck pulling us, roped to another v10 truck, pulling the first one! 

 So lets recap this weekend:  interrupted sleep Friday night, drive with 3 excited boys for two hours, get stuck chassy-deep in mud, blood and pain, ER, I’m sole caretaker of the 3 excited boys and one sick husband for the rest of the event, more mud and more trucks.  Woot!

 After that, we had a completely relaxed and uneventful (thank heavens!) drive to Ashland to visit my brother, his daughters and my mum and dad.   The worst that happened was that I got “are we there yet-ed” several times.

It continues…

Sunday

The next morning, E awoke to some sort of stomach flu that lasted two days.  I had a good time with the boys, showing them where the good boffer-sword fights were, and introducing them to archery.  T was pretty good at it and practiced for a couple hours, managing to shoot a bulls-eye or two.  I went and bought new arrows to suit my more powerful bow and practiced a few rounds.  Feels awesome to be able to shoot such a fast shot. 

 RVLand Rule #4:  Carry along 4 big wooden planks in the RV at all times.  (see rule #3 for why)

Using up all the bad Karma

Saturday

RVLand Rule #3:  Never drive over wet ground.  Bogs, marshes, mud pits.  Don’t think you’ll make it over.  You won’t. 

Check out this comedy of errors:   This last weekend we drove down to St. Helens, Oregon, to attend an SCA event (Society for Creative Anachronism).  The weather forecast was for rain, but it was actually a very nice day.  We drove in the early afternoon but still arrived just as the gate was closing. There was no one to show us where to park such a large vehicle, so I just started to drive around looking for a spot large enough.  The parking lot was very full and as I pulled through it I hit a nice deep patch of mud.  We sank.  Fast. 

 I immediately donned some Medieval garb and went searching for a crew of strong men to push us out.  Well, 7 strong Norsemen, two pickup trucks and two hours later, we were dug in deeper than we started.  Erik had only just arrived as he mis-read the directions and went to Portland instead of turning off at Longview.  Finally, I called AAA and they sent out a truck, due to arrive in an hour.  So, we started to settle in to have dinner when A started streaming.  As a parent, one knows the difference between a “I’m having too much fun and must make lots of noise” scream and an “oh crap, I’m in pain and I don’t know why, but I need help” scream.  This being the latter, I assessed the situation, saw the half open can of soup on the table and figured A had cut himself.  I grabbed him and carried him to the bathroom, ran his hand under the tap, and saw the large V-shaped gash on his index finger.  (OK!  An up-side down V, as A vehemently told me at the ER.)  After administering some first aid, I located E, who was outside talking with the tow-truck driver, told him I thought A needed some urgent care and took off.

 Unfortunately, I managed to leave with the keys to the Thunder Slug in my purse.  Luckily, I stopped at the gate to find a medically trained person to double-check my assessment, so E was able to run down the road and get the keys.

 E and the tow-driver managed to get the RV out of the mud pit with out too much craziness and I spent the night at the ER in Portland (cause that was the closest one, people in St. Helens be aware of this!)   A ended up just getting butterfly stitches, much to his relief.  E parked the RV in an actual RV spot, with electrical and water hook up, but lots of mud.  In which we sank.  Again.  E ended up getting blitzed after seeing the UglyMug and I got a little bit of fun late that night.

 

Beltania

The day after the wedding, Alicia, Tim, their kids, me, Erik and our kids all headed up into the hills east-ish of Colorado Springs for the Beltania Festival. This was a music fest combined with a very traditional pagan Beltaine ceremony and Maypole dance.  It was a huge maypole dance, with about 120 people all dancing simultaneously with long ribbons.    There were bands playing all day and night, hula classes, crafts, vendors, drumming classes and more.

Dancing the Maypole

 

We, of course, drove the ThunderSlug, which made the journey a little slower, but still a nice and easy drive.

We ended up in a beautiful park, about 7000 feet above sea level, which none of us paid much attention to until the next day when the sun burns began to show.

We camped with a bunch of A’s friends, who are all great and have kids of their own so there was lots to keep the boys entertained.

One of my favorite activities was the sweat lodge.  I’ve wanted to do a ritual-based sweat for years now and got my chance.  About 15 women and girls sat inside a lodge made of willow poles and blankets, chanting, singing and quietly sweating ourselves to a lovely peaceful place.  I’m secretly plotting how to build a little lodge in the back of our yard. 

Here’s the campsite:

Tips for Parents:  When packing for groups the include more than one teen boy, pack at least double the amount you thought was reasonable.