Day 3 and 4: Rest day and Legoland

Tuesday was a planned "rest day" so we could swim and recover a bit.  Elliott had continued coughing a lot in the night and he told us one morning that his ears hurt and another morning that his head and ears hurt.  So we decided to find an urgent care type place to take him and see if he had an ear infection.  I found one place fairly close that sounded decent and our hotel concierge told us another place.  We drove past the place I found and decided it looked too shady.  The place our concierge had said was CHOC (childrens hospital of california) and they really only had an ER, no walk in clinic.  The valet at CHOC directed us to an urgent care only about a block away and it was brand new.  

There was no wait at the urgent care and they were extremely nice.  The doctor seemed fresh out of med school and she said Elliott had fluid in his ears.  Normally she would try to wait and watch, but she prescribed him antibiotics since we were on vacation.  We had the prescription called into the Walgreens a block from our condo.  Meanwhile Emmett and Ezra had watched TV and played with Grandma.  When we got back we had lunch and then walked over to Mark and Mikaylee's hotel.  We picked up Elliott's prescription on the way.  Jim took Elliott back to the condo after a little while to try to get him to nap (didn't pan out) and the rest of us played in the pool at the Marriott.  After swimming we went back to the condo and Jim took Elliott swimming for a while.  

Later we all went out to dinner at a new Brazilian style BBQ restaurant called Grassland Meat Market.  Our family was split on where to eat and Emmett really didn't want to go to this restaurant.  However the rest of our extended family did and we stressed the importance of spending time with family when you have the chance.  The owner, Bill, met us out front to encourage us to come in.  He told Elliott they had chocolate milk, but when we ordered our waitress said they didn't have it.  Elliott had pretty much forgotten about it and was happy to have an interesting glass to drink water out of.  Apparently Bill found out that Elliott had been denied chocolate milk and he brought a gallon of milk, chocolate syrup, and glasses to the table and helped Elliott mix his own chocolate milk.  He also offered chocolate milk to the rest of the table.  Charli and the boys entertained each other, the food was good and even Emmett was glad we went there.  After dinner we spent a little more time with Mark, Mikaylee and Charli and then said our goodbyes as they were leaving the next day.

Bill helps Elliott make chocolate milk

 On Wednesday we drove down to Legoland.  Traffic was a little heavy leaving LA, but we made good time.  We got there just before they opened and had a good parking spot. We started off on a small roller coaster that Elliott was big enough to do.  We continued around the park going on rides together and meeting characters.

This ride is human powered, you had to pull yourselves up with the rope

Emmet from the Lego movie

No hands on Captain Cranky's Challenge

Shooting water canons in the pirate ship...this ride was a little wet!

 All the parks we went to allow outside food and we made the most of it by bringing in lunch each day and lots of snacks.  I tried to keep things simple with PB&J, bagels, chicken salad, beef sticks, cheese and crackers.  After lunch at Legoland Jim took Emmett and Ezra on some rides Elliott couldn't do and I took Elliott on some other rides.  While Jim was in line he thought he heard a lady say "Emmett and Ezra."  He asked her, and sure enough her boys (who were around 4 and 2) were named Emmett and Ezra.  They both couldn't believe it.  I met her later in the day and introduced Elliott.

Enjoying bagels in the shade

Another set of brothers named Emmett and Ezra...seriously!

 We watched a live show because we remembered a fun show the last time we were there.  The show this time was a bit of a let down...the seating area was just the ground in the sun and the show was OK but not great.  After that Elliott spent some time with Grandma and the 4 of us did some bigger rides.  Then we all met up again and watched a 4D show (3D with special effects like water) and walked through Miniland.  Miniland has replicas of cities like New York, Las Vegas, New Orleans and San Francisco.  The detail is truly amazing.  There is also a pretty extensive Star Wars area which the boys loved.

Lizard sunbathing on a trolley

We ate dinner (kids got free meals with a paid adult meal after 5pm, great deal!) and then did the new to us Ninjago ride.  It was very cool in theory, but didn't work well for us and we were disappointed. We went and rode Lost Kingdom Adventure a few times in the evening. It had a pretty long line mid day but much shorter in the evening and is a favorite.  There was another ride that was new to us called Knight's Tournament.  Jim just took video so no pictures, but it looked scarier than something we would normally do.  Ezra became a bit of a thrill seeker and found out he was tall enough so we did it.  We found out it has different thrill levels and kids Ezra's size have to do level 1.  That was very tame, so Emmett got up the nerve to try it with me and we did level 2, the highest someone Emmett's size could do.  It was a little more thrilling, but the levels went all the way up to 5, and that looked intense!  Legoland closed at 8, which was perfect for us...a full day, but not too late of a night.