Surviving LegoLand: A Vacation

We had the blessing of returning to Indian Rocks Beach Florida over Dawson's fall break last week.

Day 1: Denver

Any vacation that begins this way is optimistic in my book:

Especially if you're able to convince your 3 year old to handle the luggage in the airport.

Day 2: Traveling

 And speaking of said 3 year old, I'm still exhausted from the effort I put forth in keeping him entertained on the flights. We are currently pricing private jets as a result.

 We landed in sunny Florida on Tuesday afternoon with this view from our balcony. We were in the same condo as last year but had to rent a different unit which was actually a dive. But a dive with a view. Which is how I imagine most non-hollywood famous residents are able to afford to live in California.

It was late by the time we got unpacked and bought groceries so we called it a night.

Day 3: The Beach

 Of course the following day we wasted no time and headed to the beach.

Jason let me go for a run and I took a short video of the ocean because I love that sound. Maybe you can play it on repeat and use it to help you sleep at night.

This whole day was spent at the beach.

 Evan loves to dig. He ran back and forth from the ocean to his hole in the sand to fill his hole with water. After just one trip, he says "Mommy, help me. It's teamwork." I said "Where on earth did you learn about teamwork?" "Spongebob," he said matter of factly.

We went for a walk along the beach and we spotted a bird pecking at a dead fish so we went to investigate. The fish turned out to be a shark and Dawson picked it up.

After a few seconds of holding it, Dawson said "Uh, I think the shark is alive!" And the shark started to flap it's fin. Do sharks flap fins? Wiggle? Whatever. So he threw it back into the ocean and we never saw it again. Thankfully. Because I told Dawson if I got attacked by a shark later that day I'd hold him personally responsible. And that is the true story of how Dawson rescued a shark on vacation. Which pretty much makes him a marine biologist.

All daylight hours of day 2 were spent at the beach or in the pool.

 "Over there is the Kraken"

 Day 4: LegoLand

While planning our vacation, we decided we would give LegoLand a shot this year. In order to make this happen, I spent several weeks selling as much junk treasure as I could on a garage sale FaceBook Group I'm in. This helped tremendously and we made all the money we needed in order to buy cheap tickets on the black market. Otherwise, tickets are $90 per person. I could have purchased two chrome shoe racks on Amazon for that price. Before we get to pictures, I'll share the lowdown on LegoLand, in case any of you are actually interested in going there.

1. Purchase tickets through Costco (we actually ordered them through Costco online). They are $55 a piece. Much cheaper. And with the money left over you can buy me a gift.
2. If you're able, go in the fall. We basically had the park to ourselves, and the ride wait time was less than 5 minutes on every ride. Actually, most rides had no line and we were able to get on immediately and were told we could just stay on when the ride was over if we wanted to.
3. You can bring your own food and drinks.
4. Most rides require children to be at least 36" tall. So if you have little kids, they will enjoy the park much more when they reach that height.

 Dawson loved LegoLand because he's in a huge Lego phase right now and has gone so far as to actually sort out ALL of his Megablocks and put them in a container and gave them to his brother.

 We had to find a ride for Evan quick, before we started the day with a meltdown.

 I personally am rather fond of this picture, even though the girl on the left seemed rather disgusted by sheer awesomeness.

Hands in the air Evan. Or, you can put them at a 90 degree angle like you are surrendering at gunpoint. It bothers me that the blue shoe kid didn't have his shoe tied.

 Since many rides that Dawson could ride, Evan couldn't, Jason and I would take turns and one of us would ride something with Evan while the other was with Dawson. this little safari ride had Lego lemurs. I loved them.

 We took the boys to a show: Brick Beard's Pirate something or other. Probably not the actual title. But there is skiing and people dressed up like Lego's so it was entertaining.

 Evan loved the opportunity to drive his own car.

It was serious business though when it became a race.

 Located in the center of the park is an area called "MiniLand" which has Lego sculptures.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted... except for Dawson.

 I looked exactly how I felt: A tired, sunburned, grumpy person who could be mistaken for someone who had just been run over by a truck.

On our way home, we stopped at a local favorite called Crabby Bill's where Jason ordered enough food to feed himself and a small island. You'll the see the plate of fries that belong to Evan on the left. All he eats is fries. All of you wish you could have a child so picky.

 Day 5: Dolphin Watch Tour

Each day we tried to spend as much time as we could at the beach before taking off on an adventure. If you see two boys floating in the middle of the ocean while you're out and about, let me know.

 Jason showed me this long row of clams that had washed up on shore and they were still alive!

 Evan could have spent each and every day in the pool.

 Jason had done some research and found that the best dolphin watch tour (according to Yelp reviews) was on a small tugboat called "Little Toot". 

So we went to Clearwater Beach that afternoon. May I remind you that the sand there is imported.

We actually went for a walk on Pier 60 this year which made me feel a bit Diva. Until I saw the bird poop on the guard rails.

Once it was time to head to the bay area for our tour, a nice guy offered to take our family picture.

 We spent the entire tour going all over the Gulf and never spotted one single dolphin.

 Evan got bored.

 I saw this house and told Jason we should buy it.

 And as we were on our way back to the marina, we got a call that another tour boat had found some dolphins. So our captain extended our tour and took us back out so that we could see them. Check out this awesome picture I got of one jumping! Is he jumping? because they don't have legs. So.

And THEN, I got this awesome video.

 On the way home, Jason suckered us into eating at Skyline. 

 We got our best sunset pictures on our walk on the beach later.

 I got jealous of their sunset action.

 Day 6: Tarpon Springs

We spent Saturday morning scouring the ocean for sea life and Dawson and I found hermit crabs. This haus wanted to eat me and to prove it, I got a picture of it coming out of it's shell toward my face.

 Dawson found an empty bigger shell and Jason told him to put the shell in the bucket with the hermit crab to see if he would change shells. He did and Jason got video. I'm glad he changed shells, because the nasty ghetto shell he was currently inhabiting was covered in barnacles and they make my skin crawl.

That afternoon, we met Jason's Aunt Karolyn and her husband John in a quaint little Greek town called Tarpon Springs. It's known for it's spongedocks and Greek food.

We visited a small aquarium there.

Dawson was fascinated by this remora fish that kept attaching itself to his arm

Evan was fascinated by this alligator that stared.

 I fed a stingray and I didn't die.

And Jason and Evan fed a shark

We at lunch at a quaint little Greek place called Hellas 

and then got back in time for an evening stroll on the beach.

 Day 7: John's Pass

As we neared the end of our vacation, we made one last day trip out to a small area just down the beach from us called John's Pass. 

In case you ever go there and need to know where all the stores are located, here's a directory.

It has a board walk. We walked down the board walk to a fishing area in the bay and I saw a dolphin! In the wild! But I didn't get a picture.

 It also has a shop that will put a picture of your dog on your shirt for you. I lean more toward air brushed shirts, but whatever.

 We didn't get a shirt.  Maybe next year. Instead we went back to the beach where Dawson and Jason buried Evan in the sand.

 A happy sea turtle.

Jailbreak.

 Then the boys lounged by the pool.

We spent every evening past 7:00 laying in bed watch cable in case you were wondering. I found a new to me show called Tanked, and now I'm obsessed with owning an octopus.

Day 8: Good-Bye

It was time to say good-bye to our awesome Florida vacation. 

So we did that by taking selfies on the beach.

Dawson made a sign for the sand castle he and Evan built "Welcome People of the The World to Our Sand Castle"

 Good-bye Indian Rocks Beach!

 I'm leaning more toward a vacation in Italy next year.

The Laceration *Warning!*: Some Photos Contain Blood

Yesterday while I was frantically trying to grab everything I needed before leaving the house to go visit friends, Evan was manically running around the living room.

And then it happened.

I heard a loud THUD but the thud reverberated with a hint of head on brick followed by a huge wail from Evan. I turned just in time to see Evan picking himself up from the edge of the fireplace. I ran to him and scooped him up and just let him cry while I carried him back to the kitchen, not realizing that he had a gaping flesh wound. Which is exaggerating quite a bit with creative license. I just tried soothing him enough to calm down until I noticed blood dripping down his face and onto me, and then I thought, "Oh man, what happened?".

I also thought I should take a picture of my bloodstained sweatshirt for memories sake.

My poor baby had quite a laceration.

I ran him out to the car immediately and my neighbor Mark noticed my panic and came running over to see if everything was okay. He took a look at Evan and  thought he should be fine (men!), but he went and got his wife Jaque to take a look and she and I decided I should take him to an Emergicare for my own sanity and peace of mind. 

I remained calm because Evan actually quieted down. He whimpered a tiny bit and I remembered he might have a smidge of pain so I ran inside to get him a dose of Motrin, he took it and we were on our way.

I didn't hear a peep from Evan until we got there.

Thankfully the Emergicare wasn't booming with business but it still took a lifetime of waiting in the lobby. I read a book to Evan while he sat on my lap but he was very lethargic which concerned me. 

Please take a minute to look away from the wound and gaze at my nicely manicured pinky nail. Thanks.

Then I got up with him to get a few more papers that needed signed and he puked all over me and the lobby. This got him entered in to see the doctor immediately so I gave him a high five in my mind.

The doctor asked Evan questions which he wouldn't answer, shined a light in his eyes and he continuously slumped into my lap acting very tired which concerned the nurse enough to make the decision to send us to the hospital for a CT scan. 

I cried.

A nurse came and put a butterfly bandage on his cut, gave us directions to the hospital, and what we were to do when we got there because the outpatient office was technically closed and I would have to knock and so forth.

Note to self, even if you have someone repeat directions to you 100 times in a traumatic situation, have them write.them.down.

We left and headed toward the hospital which managed to be the wrong hospital on the North end of town -a 20 minute drive out of our way. Evan slept and the doctor said not to let him sleep but make sure he was alert and able to answer questions. I managed to drive stressfully, yelling at Evan every 5 minutes and turn his favorite song up to decibels only a teenagers uses, but he still wanted to sleep.

We got to the correct hospital and got Even registered for the CT scan.

A nice lady gave the boys coloring books and temporary tattoos while I filled out the paperwork. Dawson gave me his tattoo.

After more waiting than any gaping wound toddler should have to endure, we were finally brought to the scan room where I was given instructions that I had to make sure Evan kept his head still for the pictures. This is no.small.task. I would have rather been assigned the duty of holding down a raging drugged prisoner. Which I totally think is an adequate analogy. Evan was scared of the "doughnut" as he named it immediately, but I pulled up "The Axel Show" on my phone which he watches daily and tried my hardest to keep him calm so that they could get the pictures they needed in one scan.

In the meantime many people were praying for Evan, not to mention me. The panicked prayers of a mother reach heaven much quicker than the prayers of a person seeking nice weather. Just my own opinion. I looked for that in the Bible but couldn't find a verse to back me up. 
Waiting on the results of the scan, thinking he could have a fractured skull or internal bleeding was rather excruciating and I asked if I could have an epidural. The kind nurse gave me a cup of ice water which was the next best thing. Evan and Dawson were given orange juice, and I managed to buy them each a Kit-Kat bar at a concession stand at one point. Poor Dawson hadn't eaten anything since lunch, because we were going to have dinner at our friend's house before we were rudely interrupted by a gaping flesh wound. The results of the scan came back negative. 

Evan was clear of any fractures or internal bleeding.

Thank.You.Jesus.

Really. I thanked Him nearly 1,023 times which was cut short by the barrage of information I was receiving about what we needed to do in order to get him stitches. We might have to go to a different children's hospital etc...

It turned out that we were able to stay at the hospital and go to the "Fast Track" section to get the stitches. I was so grateful because I didn't want to end up in North Dakota on my way to another location.
A few things one of the doctor's told me which other mom's might find helpful if you are ever in this situation:

1. A child is typically allowed "one free puke" after a head wound occurs. Continuous vomiting is a symptom of internal bleeding and/or a fracture.
2. Disorientation, confusion, unable to answer questions correctly and especially lethargy and falling in and out of sleep are also signs of serious head trauma and should be checked out.
3. I asked if Evan was allowed to sleep in his own bed, in his own room, because I was so concerned with the questions I was asked about seizures etc... and the doctor said once Evan was cleared based on the CT scan, he was fine to sleep without supervision. Specifically -that he wouldn't die in his sleep (which he pointed out was my real fear and he was correct). 

Evan had to have some numbing cream put on his forehead, and take some medicine to relax him enough to stay still for the stitches. He thought the new bandage he was sporting was rather awesome, and the nurse told him he was like superman. 

Everyone was consistently remarking how good he was being. He really was. He remained cheerful and like his normal self, even while receiving medicine. 
My sweet buddy. 
I also want to give a shout out to Dawson who managed to remain calm and so very helpful the entire time. He grabbed my purse and Evan's bag each time I nearly forgot them at every stop we made. He never complained even though he was exhausted and starving, AND 2 nurses told me I have such cute kids, and I reminded them to have another look at their mother. 

Finally, 5 hours after our trip to Emergicare, Evan got his stitches. I had to leave the room because I cannot endure other people's pain. I'm pretty sure that's why I decided to never be a nurse. Well, that and cleaning up after people is a full time job at home.

The cleaning of the wound and stitches only took about 15 minutes. I thought, hmm, we could have been done and at my friends house enjoying mozzarella sticks if the puking lethargy hadn't gotten in the way. The doctor and both nurses who took care of Evan for the stitches told me that they had all commented that even out of the adults who have gotten stitches, Evan was one of their best patients.

4 stitches later, we were home and in bed by midnight. 

Now I'm taxed with keeping Evan's stitches clean and clear of infection and he can get them out at our pediatrician's office in 5 days.

Whew.

In the meantime, I have gone to great lengths to further toddler proof of our home.