Lego Discovery Center

A couple months ago we had a trip planned to go to the Lego Discovery Center with Grandma, and then Edie threw up for twelve straight hours two days before we were supposed to leave, and the idea of her siblings randomly coming down with her 12-hour vomiting illness while on a 3 hour car trip or staying in a hotel was too much for me to handle.

I cancelled.

And then no one else in the family got sick (possibly for the first time ever in the history of families).

Even though the kids were a little perturbed that I cancelled their trip "for no reason!" it worked out because our reschedule happened to be the weekend of Michael's birthday and he had really been wanting a birthday trip, so all was well.

We six and Grandma and Olivia all squeezed into Grandma's van (which has one more seat than ours) so we could take only one car. I have developed the essential parenthood survival skill of selective memory when it comes to car trips, so as far as I know everyone contentedly listened to audio books, counted cows, napped, and chatted about interesting things the whole way there and back. At no point did anyone punch anyone else for being in their space, dump a large container of trail mix onto the floor out of protest, complain that the book some kids were enjoying was boring, cry about lost Lego pieces, or attempt to nurse a toddler without unbuckling her from her car seat just to make the noise coming out of her stop for 14 seconds.

Anyway, we left early, drove for the morning, and ate lunch at a dinosaur-themed restaurant. It was one of Michael's favorite parts of the whole trip! Edie recalls it by saying, "I no like the dinosaurs that were loud. But I do like them. I not like that they were loud. I put my hands over my ears, so I like them."

The kids decided on visiting the aquarium the first day and the Lego center the next day. Miss Piggy Tails loved the aquarium.

And they all loved watching the sharks swim over this viewing tunnel.

Mary's face is so perfect here. Life should amaze you!

The aquarium and the Lego center are in the same building, so we passed these Lego figures on our way in and out. I had no idea the kids would want to bond with them.

At the hotel, we rode the elevator as many times as possible (it was glass and we were on the 10th floor), and swam in the pool as late as possible. The next morning we couldn't get into the Lego center until 10, so we swam some more. 

[Side note: Apparently this does not bother the children at all, but starting the morning by putting on a swimsuit that is cold and clingy because it did not dry *at all* hanging on the shower curtain rod all night is easily in the top five worst possible ways to start your morning. Next time I'm drying mine with the hair dryer.]

I don't have a ton of pictures from the Lego center due to trying not to lose anyone, but there were a few times they were contained in one room or spot, like in front of this giant movie ad. I tried to get them all to step in together for one picture, but nope, each one had to be in the picture, alone, holding the mug. I thought about putting them all in a collage so you don't have to scroll through them, but that sounded hard.

Edie didn't get a picture, and now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it's because she was lying face down on the floor punching and screaming because she had asked to nurse and I told her after I was done taking the kids' pictures.

It turns out she might have stayed up a little late and woken up a little early in the hotel, because shortly after the floor episode we sat down in a 3D movie and about two minutes after I took this picture of her in her glasses, she was asleep in my lap.

But the rest of the kids enjoyed the movie!

Mary can rock any glasses.

Gussie thought the glasses were neat, but once the movie started he kept taking them off to keep the movie from jumping out at him.

After the short movie the kids saw this ride and wanted to go on it right away! Olivia and Gussie were both short enough that they required an adult to ride beside them, and since I was still carrying a sleeping Edie, Grandma got to ride twice.

When Edie woke up after about an hour of the big kids riding rides, racing Lego cars they built, and designing Lego quilt squares for the wall, she was in much better spirits.

This Lego church was in one of the city displays and I took a picture because I wanted to remember the windows. The stained glass is made of colorful goblets stacked up, and the kids all call these goblets "soap-sops". I have no idea where "soap-sops" came from or what it means, but they all do it, and I like it.

The exit of the Lego Discovery Center predictably dumps you into a Lego store, which just might have been the kids' favorite part. I spent quite a while trying to keep Edie from pulling every set from the shelf while Michael tried to decide what was worthy of his birthday money and Catherine and Mary tried to decide what purchase would be just right to extinguish the holes smoldering in their pockets. When we got it all sorted out, we went to lunch at a restaurant where a TRAIN DELIVERS YOUR FOOD.

Also, they give you hats. I promise, Mary looked up from admiring her new Lego set long enough to watch the train deliver our food to our table.

See that little train running around the track near the ceiling? The tray hanging from it is holding a box of food. You use a telephone at your table to call in your order, and then the train zips around and when it gets to your table, its load is dropped onto a platform and lowered down to you. I think the train restaurant barely beat out the dinosaur restaurant for best dining experience of the trip.

Right after lunch we had to hop back in the van for the drive home. Mary happened to have her American Doll carrying case with her, which turned out to be a perfect container for building her Lego set in the van without dropping any pieces. When she was done, she shared it around (the doll case, not the Legos). So there was a lot of Lego building on the way home and I think only one small Lego piece is lost forever in the floorboards of Grandma's new van. By the time we got to Grandma's house, moved all our bags and carseats back into our van, attempted to make Grandma's van look much less like our van and much more like her van again, and made it home, it was just about bed time. But that didn't stop the kids from showing Daddy every detail in their new Lego sets and staying up much too late playing with them. Thank you Grandma - Michael says it's one of his best trips ever!