Legoland

On Christmas Eve, we took the three big kids to Legoland and Julia stayed with my parents.  We were pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was.  The rides are geared for kids ages 4-12, but there are a couple of good roller coasters and other fun activities.  My favorite part was Miniland.  They had built different cities out of Legos, and they paid such attention to detail.  Also, the lines were sooooo much shorter than at Disney, so we got to do a lot of things in one day.  Here are some pictures from our Legoland Adventure:

 This giant Christmas tree greeted us when we walked in:

 The space shuttle getting ready to launch:

 The White House with the First Family on the front steps and a secret service agent on the roof:

The Washington Monument:

Lincoln Memorial:

The Capitol Building:

The National Mall and part of the Smithsonian:

The World War II Memorial:

The Washington Memorial with Santa riding down:

The Jefferson Memorial:

The Iwo Jima Memorial:

San Francisco:

New York City:

A jousting ride that all the kids enjoyed:

A dinosaur made out of a ridiculous amount of Legos:

A giant Albert Einstein head:

 Lego Driving School (The kids LOVED this!):

A full-sized car made of Legos:

 Isabel's driving school:

Darth Vader: 

R2-D2

Darth Maul:

And a random donkey:

We will definitely go back next time, and we'll take Julia with us.

Christmas in Florida

We spent the week of Christmas in Florida with my parents.  We had a great time with nice weather and enjoyed swimming, Disney World, and Lego Land.  The crowds by the end of the week were pretty incredible, as in overwhelming to the point of my feeling anxious about getting separated from the kids.

Here are pictures from the afternoon when we got there and the following day at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

Afternoon in the pool:

At the Magic Kingdom-it was so foggy the first morning we had to get really close to the castle before we could see it.

 Fun on the carousel:

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights at Hollywood Studios:

An Eight Year Old, a Six Year Old, and a Four Year Old Tell the Christmas Story

Our house can be crazy, but the kids are learning something.  If you want to watch the videos of the kids telling the Christmas story, you will probably need to turn the volume all the way up.

Snow Day

 We had a couple of days of icy and snowy weather, which meant snow days for the kids.  We made the most of the 2.5 inches of snow we got Tuesday.  I apologize for the photo heavy post; I can't for the life of me figure out how to imbed albums from Google + or Picassa.  If anyone knows, please send me an email.  Enjoy the pics!

  Snowball fight: