Dying Easter Eggs

I really don't like dying Easter eggs.  It's messy and time consuming, right up there with carving pumpkins.  I had planned on skipping it this year because we had just gotten back from California on Wednesday and I just wasn't feeling it, but Laura invited us over to dye eggs with them so I wasn't able to skip out.

We did a dozen eggs for each kid

Sadie always has a smile

Xander and Tommy

All the kids with their eggs

Paizley snagged the pink dye

Xander and Tommy

 

Christy and Jared

Random group shot

This is the food we consumed

Xander's eggs

Paizley's eggs

Legoland

Steven's dream finally came true, I relented and we visited Lego land.  Mainly it was because Xander gets the Lego magazine every month and there were coupons for a free child admission with the purchase of an adult ticket.  Speaking of the free tickets, when we left on Tuesday we made it to Orem before we realized we had forgotten them and had to turn around.  So ticked.  I had them in my purse the whole time we were at Disneyland, but managed to throw them away at some point.  I think they got mixed up with a Disneyland map or something.  Even more ticked.  Luckily Burger King was giving away free tickets so we had breakfast there the morning of Lego land and the kids were still able to get in free.

Anyone who knows Steven can guess that we literally have a picture of every single Lego in the place, I will spare everyone and only post a few. 

The sign before entering the park

Lego land's equivalent of Disney characters

Giant Giraffe

Xander and Darth Maul

Steven being defeated by Darth Maul

I'm not really sure what's happening here, Darth Vader crotch shot?

Xander and one of the Fets I think

Steven and another Fet? I don't really care about Star Wars so I don't really know

Paizley wanted her picture by Chewbaca

Paizley being fed to a shark

Paizley in the belly of the shark and Xander apparently sitting on a creepy pirate's lap

Help!

I thought this was cool, a full sized Volvo made out of Legos

What parent hasn't done this? Stupid Legos

I was mean and wouldn't let the kids open their Lego sets until we got home.  It was the first thing that happened when we walked in the door.

 

So Lego land was fun I guess, but for the price I thin I would have rather had another day at Disney.  Steven and Xander loved it and want to go back, but I think I'm probably good.

#30 - Take Paizley To The Ocean

I was super excited about this part of out trip.  After we went to the tar pits we took the kids to Huntington Beach.  Paizley had never been to the ocean and Xander hadn't been for several years.  The only point of reference they had was out trip to bear lake last year so that's what they thought it was going to be like.  We went on a Monday and it was a little chilly so the beach was pretty empty.  Steven's uncle Dave and cousin Samantha met us there and had a whole canopy tent situation going on, it was pretty nice. 

I do this every time.  I think to myself...it's too cold to get in the water...so I don't bring extra clothes and of course everyone gets wet. 

Grandpa Ross and Samantha starting the sandcastle

Steven is very proud of his hole

This beach had some of the best sea shells I'd ever seen, Paizley loved collecting them

We tried to do one of the towers without stamping it down and it crashed and burned. 

The kids were more than happy to be of service

Paizley's first trip to the beach

Steven filling the buckets

I thought this was random, a ladybug on the beach

Paizley making her own castle

Everyone hard at work

Digging a tunnel

Finished castle

Steven and Samantha

Paizley was cold on the long trek back to the canopy. The kids are both very excited for our next trip to the beach.

 

Labrea Tar Pits

Xander has always really been into dinosaurs, he says he is going to be a Paleontologist (I really have no idea how to spell that) when he grows up.  We thought it would be fun to go to the Labrea tar pits while we were in California. "Thought" is the operative word in that last sentence, I was actually pretty disappointed with it.  First off I didn't know that the animals that were caught in the tar were from the ice age, not the dinosaur age.  The museum was pretty much woolly mammoths and about a kajillion wolves.  It was still interesting but Xander was not feeling it, he was bored about thirty seconds in.  Second it cost us $9 to park and $34 for the four of us to get into the museum.  I think that is major overkill because most of the interesting things were outside and you didn't have to pay to walk around the grounds.  Overall I would say it was a bust, save your money and skip the tar pits is my official review.

We have a tradition that anywhere we go that there are animal statues Steven pretends to feed the kids to them.  Xander is almost getting too big for Steven to lift up like that.

Paizley isn't scared

How Xander measures up to a bear

This is what I was talking about with the grounds, you can walk up next to the big lakes of tar.  You can see in the left part of the picture that a big bubble had popped on the surface.  The tar almost looks like it's boiling, but it's just methane gas escaping.

There is a woolly mammoth statue caught in the tar

This was the coolest part I thought.  As we were walking around there were several spots where the tar was coming up in the middle of the grass.  Of course Grandpa Ross had to touch it.

This is an open excavation dig

We thought these trees were crazy

Steven, Paizley and a bear