legoland!

we had a great first day at legoland today! brian's parents gave ethan this trip to legoland for his birthday in july, and we've been counting down the days ever since! even amelia could be heard over the weekend saying, "four days till wegowand!" we arrived very very late tuesday night, so we had a super slow morning and did not even attempt to get to the park before lunch. the sky looked like it could drop a storm on us any minute, so we figured the crowds would be low at legoland today. we were right! there was no waiting for any attractions that we rode, and the only time we waited all day was for the pizza buffet.
 
i hope for legoland's sake that today's light crowds were due to the weather, but we sure enjoyed how empty it was! we just hit the tip of the iceberg today... the big kids had a ball on the jousting ride-- they rode it twice in a row and were all smiles.
 
we all rode through a "safari", where the animals are made of legos. the creations were incredibly impressive, but the ride was so fast that you could not really stop and appreciate the details on the lego animals. we'll have to ride this one a few times to really see everything. i am not usually a fan of ostriches, but i loved the detail on their tails.

 
we had never seen a double-decker carousel, so of course we had to give it a spin.... a few times! caroline loved the sparkly horses!
 
pappy waited so long for us to ride the carousel that he turned into lego pappy!! nana and the kids did their best to wake him up....
 
OH! there's pappy!
 
ethan got a big kick out of trading minifigs with the ones on the workers' ("model citizens") name tags. he brought two very carefully selected minifigs from home, and they both were traded today! i have a feeling he'll be doing several more trades over the next few days.
 
miniland is definitely the crown jewel of legoland!
 
we did not see the whole display today.... it will definitely take us a few days to see it all, and then i'm sure we'll still miss some things! tomorrow, i am planning on pulling out the zoom lens to capture some of the details, but today, i just snapped away as i soaked it all in. these pictures will not do miniland justice. really, you have to be there, standing and looking at these replica cities constructed completely out of legos, to appreciate it. there are boats and jet skis zooming around the water, pirates hoisting up a donkey, and sea lions barking on a pier. ethan spent the most time watching the huge pirate ships fight the wind. i have to admit-- i did too! (below, you can see ethan trying to make the ship shoot the little boat riding by.)
     
and that is a minipeek at miniland! it's getting late, so i'm gonna pause here and get some rest for our full day tomorrow! i have my favorite pictures from today in a flickr set if your 6 year old son wants to see more. :)

my three minifigs had a fun, fun day and can't wait to go back tomorrow!