Carlsbad California - Annie's Slot Canyon

 After Legoland, the rest of our stay in Carlsbad was at the Carlsbad Inn Beach Resort, right in the heart of Carlsbad.

It was a great spot, right on the beach with access to the bike path and walking distance to everything!

Heather did a little internet searching and found an amazing hike right there in Carlsbad. We headed to Annie's Canyon. We parked in a neighborhood and then made our way to the trail head.

The walk to the trail head and on the trail, we spied lots of cactus!

Little different than walking around our neighborhood!

We walked the trail for a little while and then got to the slot canyon, it was awesome!

Then the slot started to form

and the walls got a little closer together

then we made some twists and turns...

and then came to the ladder!

Up we climbed to the top!

What a fun hike!

It was worth the short drive and hike to experience this slot canyon right in the middle of town, at least it seemed that way to me!

Legoland California - Day 2

 Staying on site gave us an hour early access to the park! 

quick pic of the entrance and in we go!

We took advantage and headed to the Nijago ride, which ususally has a long line

Then it up more rides!

And got a pic with this cool bunny

We found some knights by the Lego Castle

Then we tested our driving skills at the Lego Raceway

Everyone got the Lego Driver's License!

...feeling the need for speed

Let's drive!

Then we headed over to Lego Movie World

and found these characters!

Tested the butterflies in our stomach's with Unikitty's Disco Drop

This is a fun ride, the kids rode it multiple times (I rode it just once!)

The we walked through a lifesize set of the Lego Movie

and Everything was Awesome!

the lifesize Lego plant was my favorite

B found a Lego Unicorn

and Wild Style

The boys found Benny

and a velocoraptor

We then took the Lego Safari

and saw a ton of Lego animals

T found some zebras

The kids got eaten by a lion!

all of them

eaten

and I found a buddy to fish with!

All in all, it was an epic trip to Legoland. It was worth it to stay onsite (for one night) just to see the hotels and get early access to the park! The other hotel was Legoland Castle hotel...it looked pretty fun too!

We are big fans of Lego and continue to be, this park was a great experience and one my kids will talk about for many years to come!

Legoland California - day 1

 For Christmas this year we gave the kids a trip to Carlsbad, California....what's in Carlsbad you ask...LEGOLAND!!!! We packed up our bags and jumped on a plane for sunny California and left behind the snowy tundra of Iowa in February!

Pumped and ready!

We landed in CA and got our rental car and our first stops was....In-N-Out, of course

We are excited about Legoland...but we also have our priorities in the right order!

and of course, we ate outside!

...then it was onto LEGOLAND

We stayed at one of the LegoLand hotels one night (this gaves us early access to our second day at the theme park!) We headed to the hotel and was greeted by the bell hop!

and giant "Mini-Figs"

We got checked in, dropped our bags and headed to the park! First stop "Miniland USA"

This has a ton of replica's of cities around the US, built to scale with Lego's!

T found this cool music venue, of course with a rockin drummer on the kit!

New York City was being invaded...

by Lego Dinosaurs!

Las Vegas!

We tested our own building skills and tried to float some boats down the test river!

Next was an actual boat tour around Miniland...the Effiel Tower

New York City!

...and Mount Rushmore!

And this drumming octopus!

We stopped at the space station to meet some astronauts...

and build some rockets!

Last stop for day 1 was Lego Ninjago World

Really look Lego sculptures

and of course, Master Wu

We then headed to the Legoland Hotel to find our room and check out more cool Lego stuff! They had this huge wall of MiniFigs by the front desk

Each room was Lego themed, ours was treasure hunters in Egypt

The restaurant even has a skyline built from Lego

That's a wrap on day one, the perks of staying at the Lego Hotel is that we got early access to the park the next morning...pick that up on Legoland California - day 2 post!