Laura’s cousin Yvette was in San Diego at the same time we were, and we joined her and her family to celebrate her son August’s sixth birthday at Legoland on Thursday.

McKenna had been waiting for this trip for the entire week that we had been in San Diego. An added bonus for her was that at the park, she was once again able to secede from the Abbott family and join the Brogowiczs.

The rides at Legoland are perfect for young children, which meant that they were nice and slow and safe. Check out the non-stop excitement of Driver School, the 3-5 year version.

And that’s why I teach history instead of driver’s ed. Following the race, the kids went on patrol in their choppers.

We ate a quick lunch and then headed to the Pirate Cove. While I took McKenna on Splash Battle, Laura saved a place in line for McKenna to go on Pirate Reef. They ignored all of the signs that warned that they would get really wet on the ride, and – spoiler alert – they got really wet. McKenna and Laura are in the back below:

We didn’t even go to the official water park section of Legoland, but between the water rides and splash park in the pirate section, the kids managed to get soaked anyway. After they ran around the splash area for a while, we changed them and headed on to Castle Hill.

The one ride that McKenna REALLY wanted to go on was a roller coaster, and she was just barely tall enough to get on the Dragon, in the castle section of Legoland.

McKenna road the Dragon, which she loved, and then went to Hideaways, a play area in Castle Hill. Eventually, we cut back through the park, we visited Miniland, including the Star Wars section.

The unfortunate part of the trip to Legoland for me was that the entire day wasn’t spent in the Star Wars section. I only got to study the Battle on Hoth for ten minutes, and now there is a void in my soul where a more extensive study of the Hoth battle would be.

By the time we toured Miniland, it was after four and the kids were done. Being kids, they didn’t know they were too tired to go on, and McKenna refused to leave. So Laura and I called upon our excellent parenting skills and bribed her to leave with a Lego princess set.

By the time we got to the parking lot, it was about 4:30, which seemed to leave us plenty of time to get to Mark and Margo’s house for August’s party. Wrong. Apparently, half the population of Southern California drives south at 4:30 on the same interstates we were using to get to Mark and Margo’s. Laura and I compounded the mistake by making stops at Starbucks and Whole Foods, ensuring that we would run into even more traffic. And stop-and-go traffic has a similar effect on Laura as waiting on hold:

After taking about 30 minutes to go the final three miles, we made it to the party and quickly consumed some adult beverages while the kids ran around and were crazy. At 8:30, it was time for cake to give the kids that one last infusion of sugar before the crash.