This winter has brought a TON of rain to California and plenty of snow! We were fortunate enough to be invited to a weekend in the winter wonderland of Dorrington with the Shanahans. Cue the craziness that comes with a cozy cabin, four kids under 4 and lots of snow...
Riley & Harper - BFF Dinner Date
Riley LOVED helping Harper. Then I exploded from cuteness.
One tool opening Wine & Beer simultaneously. #efficiency
Hailey in Snow Hear - looking very teenager-ish from my standpoint. AHH!
That 'tude thou!
Kevin Shanahan - In his finest snow shorts
Harper & Daddy ( I swear there's a Harper in that outfit)
We found one of Hailey's old snow jackets for Harper but it was 18 months. It was a bit... large on her LOL
"I CAN'T MOVE MY ARMS!"
Me, Harper, Lisa & Riley - AKA the ladies' crew
Riley & Harper - Staying put SLASH immobile in their gear
Trunk Break!
OK fine, maybe we should have gotten a smaller jacket on Harper
Auntie Lisa & Hailey sledding
#spent #emptybeers #parentsoftheyear
Napping Daddy - doesn't get cozier that this
Cabin Entertainment
Dancing kiddos
Fort Making!
Harper is REALLY into hydration
Can't beat the sledding proximity to the cabin Keurig
Here's Joe body-sledding down our little hill... Please take note of Aiden's final punch in the end to top it off HA!
Daddy & Harper
Me & Miniest Me
Hailey & Aiden were big fans of body sledding. Aiden gets extra points for style...
Just us girls
Pay extra attention to the following sequential photos.. Joe is "helping" Lisa get on the sled with Aiden
Setting up...
Whoop!
Done. HA!!!
Needless to say, it was a full body workout playing in the snow!
In a somewhat last minute decision to take advantage of the lull at work over winter break, we decided to take a road trip to Legoland where we'd ring in the new year and see what all the Lego fuss was about. We had no idea how much fun we were in for...
As Legoland Newbies, we of course did our research before going and found out that if you had any of the lego man mini-figures, you could trade them with a bunch of the vendors in the park, so we went to the local Lego store and picked up some figures to trade with, which ended up being SO much fun!
Now, I'm not gonna lie. The drive to Carlsbad was.... well not "good" considering it was 9 hours in total with stops (baby plus potty-trained child meant lots of stops) BUT the girls actually did amazingly well. Hailey had her ipad and Harper had her "fake" ipad to keep them busy for some of it.
And finally, after some pretty grueling rainy roads and LA traffic, we MADE IT!
We had heard that the Legoland Hotel was basically just as amazing as the park itself, and YEP! Confirmed. The Legoland Hotel was SOOOO much fun! From the moment you enter the lobby, there are legos to play with, a giant pirate ship to play in, and characters galore. We ended up skipping the New Years Eve fireworks show outside because there was a bit of rain, but there was PLENTY for us to keep busy with inside the hotel.
She hates it.
Walking in Legos - Fortunately with shoes on
Goofing off in fake jail
Ringing in the New Year - Mid-Atlantic timezone
On our way up to the hotel room, we discovered the elevator... or should I say DISCO-vator? It turns into a disco party box everytime you ride!
Too much fun! And just when you think you've reached the best part, you get to the hotel room itself! There are different themed rooms, and we stayed in the "Adventure Room" which was basically Legos meet Indiana Jones.
Kid's room/nook
Every last detail...
AND there's a treasure chest/safe in the room with a secret code that you have to hunt down throughout the hotel to open. Every day, there are new lego treasures to unveil!
Once we calmed down from the room excitement, we headed back down to the lobby fun area to get some refreshments and let the girls hang out.
Nightly Pirate show - kids participate - SO cute!
Cheers to the New Years!
Parenting Level: Awesome.
From there, we checked out the nightly Dance Party (every night from 6-9) which I could have stayed in all night long if I wasn't so overloaded with excitement-exhaustion. The MC was a pirate and basically every song was MY. JAM.
WHAT a blast! And that was just the first night we got there! The next morning, we headed down for the hotel buffet - which was every parent's dream. There were a million great things to eat, which for our picky eater Hailey was amazing. PLUS there were characters and a balloon-maker walkign around the place.
related much?
Ready to enter the park!
For our first ride... we chanced it and went on a roller coaster.
Hailey is skeptical, but excited
How did it go? Well...
Epic. Fail. Hailey is scarred for life and will likely never ride another roller coaster again. Oops.
From that point forward we decided to keep it a little more mellow for our sensitive sassypants...
Lego Cruise
Hailey and I started playing in one of the fun zones and noticed Daddy & Harper were missing... 3 seconds later we turned to find this...
Hailey had a blast driving the track!
Harper - Driving before walking
Two words - Apple Fries. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
And on a whim, we decided to get the girls drawn Caricatures to remember the trip. This is just about my favorite thing ever and the PERFECT memorabilia from our trip!
That night, we ended up back at the hotel for dinner, and ended up dining with a princess. Hailey was in three-year-old-girl HEAVEN!
And turns out, dining with princesses proves to be just the motivation this girl needed to actually eat food.
Omnomnomnom
... back to more dance party...
And lego making - in Jammies
Daddy headed up to the hotel room to put Harper to bed while us big girls stayed out late down in the hotel.
Pirate Show!
Morning #2 - we were back for more!
Lego Building in the Lobby
Less edible-sized Legos for Harper
Daddy-daughter Lego building
Meeting the hotel Lego Pirate
Safari Ride Time!
Gotta love the parent-swap rides!
Hates it.
Driving Miss Hailey
Daddy won her a bear
Find Dad!
Oh another great park feature? BEER. IN the park. Yesssssssssss
Cheers!
Face Painting
SO proud of her princess face!
Oh HELLO there gorgeous
Basically beaming for the rest of the day like this
Add the crown and tutu - She just peaked in life, folks.
The next ride was actually a single rider "jousting" ride, that was 4 and up. Well, our very tall 3 year old would clearly need to fudge some numbers so we trained her to say she was 4 when asked by the ride staff. Here's her practice interview in line with us (our over achiever decided 5 was an even better fib than 4)
Nailed it!
Time for a Chocolate Dipped Churro Break. Easily the best park dessert in existence.
As if the hotel and park weren't already enough, there's also an aquarium right next to the hotel and park entrance so we check that out too...
Mastering the simultaneous nose-pick and thumb-suck
kiss kiss
Find Harper!
SO COOL! Now back to the park...
Boat ride! Again!
He makes that pink backpack look GOOD
Legoland SUCCESS!!
On the third an final night Joe took Hailey down to play while I stayed upstairs with sleeping Harper. She actually entered in the Lego-making contest (with a little assistance from Dad) spelling the letter H. She got to go up on stage and show everyone her masterpiece:
AAAAND she totally ratted out Dad for making her Lego creation. BUSTED!
I think this trip may have topped our list of fun places to go. We will be counting down the days until we get back there for more fun!!! And just because I'm a Google-dork, here's a mini google movie from our trip...
