Legoland Deutschland - Park Time

Once we finally made it through Miniland, it was time to hit the rest of the park.  They had a bunch of Lego busts of famous soccer players, but since we're not big into soccer, we didn't really go around and have a look.  Brady did like the bear with the soccer ball though ;)

I love this pic and was really glad that Brady played along long enough to get a good shot.

Brady is quickly catching on to the fact that he's always having his picture taken.  He went right up behind the lion, climbed the steps, stuck his head through, and said, "Cheese!"

We can't pass a playground, without Brady pointing and screaming, "Play! Play!" We decided to let him out of the stroller for a bit.

They had a mini train in the play area and of course Brady wanted to ride.

Regaling Mommy with his, "Choo Choo!"

Waving bye bye to Daddy.

Next up was the safari ride!

Unlike Disney, where Brady could ride pretty much everything but the three coasters, Legoland had a lot more height restrictions.  Fortunately, Brady is just at 90 centimeters, so that opened up a whole bunch of rides that he could go on when accompanied by an adult.  Unfortunately, the first ride we came to with a 90 cm height limit, turned out to be a little more than we bargained for.  You can see me and Brady just to the right behind the bear in the picture above.  It turned out that this ride went in fast circles, with bumps all around.  I knew from experiences in my childhood banging my head on rides, to put my arm behind Brady's head.  He did really great going round and round and then the ride stopped.  We both thought it was done, but instead it started to go backwards!  That's when Brady started to get a little upset.  He started calling for his daddy and we were both a little dizzy when it ended.

We survived the ride and Brady was really good about getting off rides all day, waving bye bye, as seen above.

Brady was tall enough to ride on this jousting ride alone.  As you can see, there isn't room for a second person.  Andy was nervous since we couldn't see him between the start and finish, but I knew he'd do great and he did!

This was another ride where Brady just made the height cut and it was a little more nerve wracking that the others.  He kept seeing these cars above us on a track, so we decided to try it.  As you can see the seat belt isn't very snug and the railing on the car is way at his toes.  I kept a hand on him the whole time to make sure he didn't fall out.

The view from the observation tower.  Andy immediately noticed the amount of trees, that you don't really see in amusement parks back at home.  Goes to show how environmentally friendly they are.

Brady getting ready for his first swinging pirate ship ride.  We stayed towards the middle so that we didn't go up too high.

I love the Lego man taking a shower in the waterfall.

Next stop, the Lego factory!

They gave every kid a special Lego brick at the factory and it's a great keepsake that I can put in Brady's memory box.

Lego people from years past.  Both Andy and I recognized several from our childhood (you can click on the picture to view it larger).

Brady watching the machine stamp the Lego bricks.

Hanging with the rest of the crew ;)

"My what big teeth you have!"

Last real ride of the day for Brady.

A mid-flight shot.

Our final pass through Miniland.  Brady wanted to walk most of the day and was very good about staying with us.  He's getting big so fast!

The final stop : the water playground!  Brady loves water and like usual, we didn't have a bathing suit or swim diaper with us.  We did have extra clothes in case of an accident (nothing ever happens when we have extra clothes, so it's our new insurance plan), so we decided to use the shirt he'd been wearing all day as a towel and let him loose in his diaper.

We always seem to have problems with big kids over here (the parents aren't very watchful), but it's hard because we don't speak their language and can't tell them to be nice around a kid way younger than them.

Brady loved the Lego puppy.  He's seen here petting its head.

We can't go anywhere without hitting up the souvenir shops.  I saw these Crocs and fell in love, but they were 35 Euros ($43.50), when I normally only spend $30 at home.  I did look online and found similar ones for $35, so maybe next summer, I'll get them for Brady.  We did walk out with a nice Legoland Deutschland T-shirt for Brady.  The store also had all the box sets of Duplos and Legos and there were so many that I wish I could have gotten him, but the question is always the same, "How would we get that home."  I felt really bad when he spent the whole time in the store rifling through a bin of 5 Euro Lego car sets.  When we got home, he started searching through the shopping bag, saying, "Car?"  I think he figured that since he really liked it, we would have gotten it for him.

Brady did really good at the park and had zero meltdowns.  We were surprised since we arrived at 11AM and left at 5PM (he usually goes down for a nap around 1PM).  He did take a nice nap for 45 minutes on the ride home and was ready to play again.  He and Andy decided to get out the Duplos and build a garage for his many cars.

We had a really great time, and as always, it's more exciting to watch Brady's reaction.  We're already planning on going to the Legoland in Florida (in addition to Disney World and a Disney cruise) during Brady's 6th birthday week, which happens to be the mid-winter break at the school district we're looking at for buying a house.  The Legoland in Florida is the largest in the world, so we can't wait!  Andy always jokes that we spend every vacation talking about the next one, but I just get so excited that I can't help it.