We know some pretty awesome people. And one of these awesome people hooked us up with free Legoland tickets. She had received them through work and knew she’d never use them, so she passed them along to Stevie (and me), lucky ducks!

Now, if you are new to the blog, you may not already know that Stevie and theme parks (and zoos and beaches and museums and fun things in general) do not go hand in hand. Definitely takes after his father on that one. So I really wasn’t sure this would work out at all. Legoland is about twice the distance as Disney, so even getting there could present a challenge. 

But one morning, I woke up with a wild hare – as I so often do – and decided, as long as the traffic was good, we were going goshdarnit!

The drive down was good until about 30 minutes out from Carlsbad, Stevie was no longer interested in going. He wanted to go home and definitely didn’t want to go on rides. I told him if we turned around now, it would take us 2 more hours to get home and we’d be stuck in the car. And he was like ok, sounds good. 

Obviously, no. We were going. So I told him we’d be eating lunch though! That got his attention. And he didn’t let that shit go for the next hour and a half while we finished the drive, parked, got inside, found a place that had what he wanted, and a cheeseburger was shoved halfway down his throat. THEN he wanted to go home again. 

I forced him on a few (really, really lame) rides, which he cried on because it was dark and scary (uh, no). We met up with some family friends who happened to be there the same day and that was so nice. Good for Stevie because friends (!!) and a good distraction for me because all that whining. 

The kids had a great time at the playground, and Stevie tolerated a carousel and a little train, but I was still determined to get him on a real ride before the park closed – at five o’ clock pm (?!???)

So we said goodbye to everyone and on the way out, I found a little bitty roller coaster. This was it! This was the ride. Last chance. Last ditch effort of the day. It would either be fun or a disaster or hilarious. Worthwhile any way you look at it. Stevie wanted no part of it, but with my slick negotiation skills (AKA Cheetos) I got him to give it a whirl. 

Oh he cried and cried the first 3 little dips and then all of a sudden realized how much fun it was. When I realized he was finally giggling instead of crying, it made my life. He wanted to go again, so we ran as fast as our legs would carry us to the end of the line… But it was already closed. Still the perfect end to a mediocre day! He was high on life after that! Had fun running to the car and rolling around in some grass. Like an excited puppy. 

Now just to get him to remember how fun it was for next time, so we can enjoy the whole day and not just the last 2 minutes.

What a turkey.