Legoland 2023 - Driving to California

I have been SO excited for this year's family vacation, I've been dying to do another official family vacation since our last flop. So I definitely had to plan this one to a location none of us have ever been to: LEGOLAND! 

We HAD to make a countdown
Their "Ls" are for Legoland

I knew driving would possibly be hard with 4 young kids, but with movies, snacks, and a few planned stops it would be manageable. However, I did go into this trip knowing I needed to be patient and expect meltdowns and just get through them as calmly as possible.

This week I got our itineraries typed up and printed, got our snacks from the store, got all packed up last night (my favorite part of every trip is packing for it), so once we ate breakfast this morning we were all ready to go. Everyone was really excited, the kids kept talking as if Legoland was only a little ways away. We had to tell them we wouldn't get there until bed time so don't expect to actually see it today (they still didn't understand).

Luckily, our drive was actually pretty smooth! We had to make a couple extra bathroom stops than I had planned, but we still stopped at the stops I had planned for the big stops (a meal and some stretching). Our first one was Cracker Barrel in St. George. This was a good stop because we got good food, saw cute trinkets (I love their little store) AND we had some older ladies saying the kids were so well behaved and some older men saying they were cute...I love compliments my family gets when we go out (especially from strangers...it feels more sincere for some reason).

The funny thing is every time we stopped Lucy would ask if we were finally at Legoland yet. Then when we'd start driving again she'd ask if we were going home now. We would tell her "we haven't even made it to Legoland, why would we go home?" She's so silly.

For our dinner and stretching stop I knew we'd be stopping in Barstow, I just didn't know where. So as we were getting closer I was looking at places and found this cute little McDonald's in a train car (yes, IN the train car). Larry doesn't really like McD's, but I told him there were other things nearby and at least it was cheap and we knew the kids would actually eat it. When we stopped it ended up being cuter than I realized. It was a whole tourist trap with shopping, food, and some places to stop to take pictures. The food at McD's was iffy, at best, BUT luckily they kids meals came in buckets and that was nice because I realized we brought costumes to do Brick or Treat, but we didn't bring anything to actually collect the candy in. The kids had SO much fun running up and down the train car (since we were the only ones in it), but they also kept asking when it was going to start moving haha. We had to explain it wasn't a working one, just one that sat still so we could eat in it.

The girls loved the creepy clown

There were moments on our drive that were a tad difficult. Pierce would get REALLY sick of just sitting and kept wanting my attention or for me to grab things that I couldn't reach. He'd fuss a lot when I couldn't understand him or I'd just tell him to nap (boy he only takes SMALL car naps, apparently). He was only slightly entertained with the movies playing. He always wanted more snacks and I'd have to tell him no (we only packed so many for each way). So that got hard, but eventually it started to get later so they all  fell asleep (except Lucy, of course, that girl probably sleeps the least of all of them)  and Larry and I had a chance to chit chat more. We got to the hotel VERY late and it is super dark. So when we woke the kids up and they couldn't see anything we had to explain they'd see it in the morning. Even though they were all totally asleep when we pulled up, they definitely perked up seeing the inside of the hotel. I'll admit it's SO much fun. There's lot of lego areas to just build whatever you want and our room has so many models in it they were getting excited trying to find them. They also loved that there was a TV in their sleeping area and that they got to have a bunk bed WITH a trundle bed (even though they have that same set up at home). 

Trying to figure out where we were going to put Pierce was a trick. I figured he'd be in the living area so that he was away from everyone, but the problem is our room was U shaped so the bathroom was right as you walked in, then you went down a hallway to the living area, and then up again to where Larry and I would sleep and the girl's area was just off our bed area. So if the girls get up to go to the bathroom at night, they'll for sure wake him up. We maneuvered the couch and stuff so he'd be a bit blocked off, but I'm not sure how well it'll work (especially since once we put him down he cried for a good few minutes before finally settling down). I was hoping to have time to read once we put the kids down before we slept, but we're all so tired I'll plan for that the other nights. For now, I'm just so excited to see how the rest of the trip goes. Wish us luck...I'm going to bed now :)