I didn't share as many photos of our as I would have liked, so this will be a photo-heavy post. This first post shows three very excited young ladies with their new wands. Aly and Emily have read all of the Harry Potter books and even went to a week-long Harry Potter camp this summer. Natalie knows a little of Harry Potter from some of the movies and from her brothers, but she hasn't read any of the books yet herself. She was still excited about the idea of a "magical quest" and wanted the more expensive wand.
Of course it didn't hurt that the more expensive wand was red. This is the picture I tried to upload a couple of days ago, but couldn't. Emily's wand is the top one, with the blue dragon, and Aly's wand is the one on the bottom, the one with the red dragon. The dragons were "toppers" that screwed onto the base wand. Natalie's already came with a jewel topper, although she could have switched it out if she wanted to.
Ever since she heard about the quest activity and the wands back before we made reservations, she had already set it in her mind that she wanted the most expensive wand for her birthday. That's my daughter, with no inkling of the value of money. The other wands were actually more expensive because the toppers cost almost as much as the wands, but that was my gift to all the girls. They had so much fun with them that it was all worth it.
These photos may seem a little random, but I put them in the order I took them. This one shows the model of the resort made out of Legos. Apparently there was a Legoland Discovery Center close to the resort that we could have gotten discount tickets to if we had chosen to do that. Eric loved looking at this model. There was also a building "contest" where the kids could create something and win a prize for having the best creation. Eric and Anthony sort of participated. They basically just sat on the floor next to a tub of Legos and played with them instead of trying to win anything. In the end, everyone that participated got a fish water toy. Eric loved that too.
The arcade was a fun place for all of the kids, including Patrick. I loved seeing Patrick playing with Eric and then later Anthony on this shooting game. That gun was almost as big as Eric and he had such a hard time even lifting it. I don't think he actually aimed well enough to hit anything in the game, but he looked cute doing it. We wasted about $50 in the arcade that day, and the big boys went back on our last day and spent another $15 or so.
I wasn't there when Natalie defeated the dragon, but I took this photo during one of Aly's attempts to defeat the dragon. They had to do a combination of pressing buttons and aiming at a sensor with their wands to hit the dragon to injure it and eventually to kill it. As I mentioned earlier, the girls had a lot of fun on this Magi Quest game, although it did lead to some arguments, unhappiness, and even tears. In the end, only Emily was truly happy because she got credit for everything she was supposed to get credit for, including defeating the dragon. The other two were missing just one thing each, which is weird since the three of them did the quests together.
The water park was fun for all, even the grownups. I couldn't take many pictures in there, of course, for fear of getting my camera wet. The favorite attraction seemed to be the big water slides. Eric was only allowed to ride certain ones, mostly because the big ones required the use of an inner tube that he was too small to fit in. This experience only affirmed my belief that having season passes to our local water parks suits this family best. The kids only wanted to go for a couple of hours at a time. With our season passes, we do just that, and then come back on different days through the operating season to enjoy the park again.
I took this last picture on the day we left. Check-out time was at 11am, but they allowed us to play in the water park and the other attractions for as long as we wanted. Aly and Natalie played in the water park, along with Patrick. Melissa and Emily were content to sit in the lobby. At first the big boys were there too until Alex complained about being bored and took off. Eventually both big boys ended up playing in the arcade again. Eric, as you can see from this picture, looks bored, but he was having fun just hanging out in the lobby.
I forgot one more detail. We all had to wear wrist bands for as long as we stayed there. Melissa, Patrick, and I could even charge to our room just by scanning our wrist bands. The wrist bands were also our keys to our rooms. Anthony and Emily could also use their wrist bands as keys. This was interesting because Alex always wears about five or six other bands on his wrists (rubber ones). Add the "gr8 space" wrist band that the big boys used to play video games, and Alex had quite a collection. Eric also had another wrist band to show which slides he could go on. All in all, the wrist bands were pretty cool--no need to carry anything else around.
I have some other things to say, but this post is already getting too long. I'll post them tomorrow.
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