We took a trip to California for our fall break this year. We started out on Wednesday as soon as the older boys got home from school around 1:30 pm. We drove down to Las Vegas and stayed the night at the Circus Circus hotel. Apparently a Wednesday night is not a very popular night because there was not a lot open when we got there just before 8pm. We did eventually find a pizza place that was open so that is where we had dinner.
The next day we left right after breakfast and headed to Joshua Tree National Park in California. We first stopped at the Oasis visitors center, where we had lunch and got our magnet and a stamp in our national parks passport.
We then drove into the park and started our afternoon at the Cholla Cactus Garden. We walked the trail which was surrounded by cactus. we had a little bit of a difficult time making sure Connor didn't touch the cactus. They look soft but there were many signs telling you not to touch them because it is painful pulling the needle out.
We then drove north a little ways and walked the Arch Rock trail. The boys had lots of fun climbing all over the rocks and boulders.
In case you are wondering, this is a Joshua Tree. They look like they have fur all over their bark and little puffs of leaves/ needles at the top. They reminded me of Truffula trees from the Lorax movie.
We did find the Arch Rock and the boys even got a picture underneath it.
Next we headed over to Jumbo Rock Trail where there was a huge boulder that looks like a skull. This was our Halloween trail. There were also lots of rocks to climb all over once again.
Evan enjoyed throwing rocks and dirt at the sign. I don't know why but he thought it was so funny.
After that we drove from Joshua Tree National Park to Carlsbad California where our hotel was located. We then had dinner and played a little bit. Then we got to bed so we would have plenty of energy for the next day.
We had a suite at this hotel so there was a couch and the older boys decided they wanted to sleep on it instead of the bed. With Evan in the pack n play, Connor got a whole bed to himself.
The next day we headed over to Legoland California. I had done some research online and read that they start opening the turnstiles at 9 AM even though the hours of the park say they open at 10 Am. So we headed over there early. We got there just before 9 and didn't even have to pay for parking. They didn't open the gates until 9:30 but they did check our tickets and give us a hand stamp so at 9:30 when they opened the gates we just walked right in. Also a plus of getting there early, we didn't have to go through the metal detectors or have someone check our bags.
Don't worry, Connor is there he is just hiding in the back of the stroller.
We saw a lot of different Lego creations through out the whole day and all over the park. This one was right in front of the Legoland Castle Hotel.
We couldn't get on any rides until 10 but we had bought the boys a ticket to build 3 custom minifigures each so we went to the mini figure market and did that first. Then when we could get on the rides, we took the Coast Cruise first, which is basically just a boat ride.
We then split up, so mom took the older boys on some bigger rides while Dad took the younger boys to find something to do. Mom, Wyatt, and Spencer first went on the Ninjago ride. Then we rock climbed and spun on some turnstile things. They we went on a Bionicle ride.
The younger boys and Dad walked around and found a lot of things to play with. Connor loved anything car related and Evan loved finding Legos to play with.
After that we met up together again. The boys got to build a race car out of Legos and race on a track to see how fast their cars were. Then they made adjustments to try and make them go faster (or in our case for them to go straight when going down the track).
Then Dad took the older three boys in to a 4D show while Mom stayed outside with Evan who was sleeping in the stroller. After that, Spencer wanted to ride a big roller coaster so Dad took him to that while the rest of us walked around the park and looked at other things.
We found the giant cars that Dad and the younger boys saw earlier. Connor didn't want to get out of them but I finally convinced him that it would be more fun to ride a car that actually moved so we did that next.
Wyatt was old enough to get to drive on the bigger race track and go faster.
Then we went back to Duplo Play Town because the older boys hadn't been there yet.
Then we went over and rode some pirate rides. The first one was a water ride. You had a water cannon that you could shoot other boats with and people standing on the sidewalk if they were close enough. We even shot Jeff a couple of times as he took our picture. The thing was there were also cannons on the sidewalk that people could shoot you back so we got really wet.
Then Dad took the older three boys on the rocking pirate ship ride while Mom watched Evan as he played in the splash pad right by the line.
Then we headed over to the Lego Movie Land. That is where the best shop is by the way, at least if you are looking for a unique keychain, which is what Jeff was trying to find.
We first rode on the Carousel.
Then while the younger boys played on the slides and jungle gym in the middle, Wyatt and Dad went and built with Legos.
Connor also found a splash pad to play in. These are all over the park. It was a pretty warm day, somewhere in the 80s so it was nice to cool off.
Then Mom took Wyatt and Spencer on the Kitty Drop ride. And finally Dad took them on Emmett's flying adventure at the very end.
We saw lots of cool Lego builds all over the park, here are a few of them.
That was the end of that day. On Saturday we spent the morning playing at a local park near our hotel.
Then after lunch, we headed to the beach, which was also very close to our hotel. We even walked to it. We had fun playing in the sand and getting wet. Jeff wins, he was the only one to get all the way in the water. The rest of us only got about half wet.
We tried to build some sand castles, however we had to distract Evan because his favorite thing to do was destroy whatever you were building.
Towards the end, Evan was hungry and wanted a snack so I gave him some crackers. He could not keep them out of the sand but it didn't seem to bother him. He just ate them anyways, sand and all.
The next day we drove home. We had a great time in the sun and hope to go back someday.
