I didn't know my way around the park, had no idea what places were good for eating, where the bathrooms or quiet places were, but it wasn't hard to figure it all out.
We were so sweetly greeted by this adorable wizard (lumberjack?) on our drive in. It's a pretty easy drive down the 5.
It was pretty cold when we left the house, but I had no idea it would be almost freezing when we got down to Carlsbad {this was the night it snowed in parts of Orange County}. So yeah, we were cold!
The first thing we did when we walked in was acquaint ourselves with the sights and sounds.
As recommended by fellow autism moms, I went straight to get a disability pass. It was painless, the staff was incredibly helpful, and it was easy to use.
We went to the simplest ride we could find. It was a little Jeep riding safari, where we saw safari animals made of Legos.
Even thought it went maybe 4 mph, Caleb was still nervous, but it became a favorite by the end of the day.
Lilly hung out with TJ and had a ball digging for fossils.
One of Caleb's favorite parts of the park was this fountain. The instruments pumped out water and played music when you stepped on the pads in front of them. Fountains + instruments?! Two of Caleb's favorite things!
Next we headed to this ride that was on a track way up high. The kids had seen it on YouTube and they were excited for it. You used your feet to "pedal".
I should probably mention that it was a two hour wait for this ride, but for us it was about five minutes. While we were waiting our turn in the guest assistance line, a dad asked us where he could get one of our "passes." I was dumbfounded with an answer and then just said "our son has a disability and this helps accommodate him." I always feel weird when that question comes up. How do you explain in 30 seconds that your seemingly normal child has more going on inside of him than you'd realize, and that it's taking so much strength just to not freak out at every little part of this new experience? Anyway...
Lilly is pretty funny about pictures. I asked a nice family to take our picture, and Lilly was yelling at him "Don't take my mama's phone!!" Oy, haha!
Since it was still Christmastime, we headed to a little Christmas village where they had snow to play in.
Lilly actually wanted to stay here all day. But it was FREEZING.
I asked a few employees about their favorite places to eat in the park, and they all couldn't really come up with good recommendations...so we just ate at this little place next to the snow. Caleb got a delicious hot chocolate and a huge pretzel, Lilly got a giant churro, and we had bratwursts. It was pretty delicious!
We headed for The Lego Movie Experience, which was basically a walk-thru of a scale model of the movie.
After that, we waited for Emmett...
...and my heart melted.
Lilly was actually very excited to see Emmett, but when the employee saw that I had made her a Wyldstyle hoodie, she shouted "IT'S WYLDSTYLE!!" and it scared her.
We hung out in the Duplo area until it was time to see Wyldstyle for reals.
Lilly, when she saw her. This face. It's everything.
Happy kids.
More sand time.
The kids got to build race cars and race them...
We played carnival games...
I have to point out that a Legoland employee totally photobommed this picture. I had to crop her out. Thanks, crazy girl.
Caleb had a ball going down a few big slides.
Lilly loved being in this medieval area of the park. She wanted to pretend she was Prince Phillip.
I just loved seeing her with a sword, standing in front of frilly dresses.
They had a little treehouse-Robin-Hood-ish runaround area, that Lilly loved.
Caleb went up to go down a slide, and when he got down he couldn't see us {even though we could see him}. He thought he was lost and was pretty upset about it, poor guy. Plus, there were a lot of older kids playing rough around him. We took a little break and got back to playing.
Lilly thought this Lego witch was The Scarecrow, ha!
A few more times on the safari ride, and they were ready to go home.
Did I mention it was freezing? And raining??
It was such a fun day AND we get to go back again by March.
C.M. we can't thank you enough for your sweet heart and your generosity. These are memories that will last forever; we are so blessed and so undeserving of such gifts!
Thanks for reading, friends. XOXO
Looks awesome! Who photobombs a family pic? Seriously!
ReplyDeleteSERIOUSLY. I was like "we're seriously not at Disney right now". It was as if every employee thought they worked at Golf N Stuff and it was 1987.
DeleteI love all the pictures, so much joy! We are hoping to go to the florida one for spring break. Bryce brings it up almost every day. Did you have to bring paperwork for the assisted access pass? (reading about it now)
ReplyDeleteThanks Julia! We didn't have to bring any paperwork whatsoever, they were very accommodating. I just mentioned his disability and asked what they could do to help our day.
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