Whew! Okay, where to begin.. So, this weekend was the Lego Kids Fest up in Richmond, VA. When the Fest was last in Raleigh, Brian was still pretty new to the Lego scene, and Kendall was still on the inside! We just knew Brian would get a lot more out of it now that he’s older and a Lego expert, but unfortunately, the Fest only goes to a few cities each year, and we’re not sure if it ever makes repeat visits! So, when we saw it was coming as close as Richmond, we knew we had to make it happen. 🙂
We did our usual road trip thing of hitting the road after school on Friday. It’s always a bit chaotic but it usually works out. The kids napped in the car (a little) and we had a tasty dinner at Cracker Barrel (such a guilty pleasure of mine!!) I’ve missed the Barrel now that I don’t work in Morrisville/RTP anymore! We arrived in Richmond a little later than we’d hoped, but it was okay. The kids were a little wild because of the novelty of the hotel room, and they’d recharged from their nap in the car–so we had a little playtime/snacktime/storytime/pleaseohplease-gotosleep time around 11pm. But, we all got to sleep eventually!
Saturday morning, the plan was to have a leisurely morning and let everybody rest up–we’d picked the afternoon LegoFest session so that we wouldn’t be in a rush. The kids, predictably, were up a little earlier than we’d hoped–but, we did get to have our leisurely morning! We splurged and ordered room service, and enjoyed a pretty great breakfast together! Brian noticed he could see our van in the parking deck from our hotel room window–pretty cool! Less cool was the freezing rain that had rolled in–we were hearing reports of possible snow back home. Then it was time to head out for the day. We’d planned on taking the kids to a science museum and a children’s museum, but they were so tired, they fell fast asleep in the van as soon as we hit the road. We wanted them to have some energy for the fest, so we just drove and let them sleep! It was probably for the best, they were in a better mood when they woke up, so I’m glad we didn’t overdo it. 🙂 We headed back towards the convention center and realized that now it was late enough that we should get some lunch. There weren’t a ton of options, but there was a Chili’s, so we went for it. Afterwards, it was definitely LegoFest time!! We braved the atrocious cold and rainy weather once more and headed to the convention center!
Once we were inside, chaos reigned, and the kids made the most of it! Brian went straight for the Big Lego Pile and started making one cool creation after another. The small pieces weren’t the best for Kendall, so when she started to seem tired of her stroller, I took her over to the Duplo area. I was amused to see that the Duplos were segregated by color, with about 3/4 of them the standard primary colors, and the other 1/4 a pink ghetto. 😉 I know there have been studies that say that little girls are genetically predisposed to notice pink and purple colors more, but still. Do we really have to keep the Duplos separated?! I decided to try a little science experiment of my own, and I put Kendall down on the floor right in the middle, between the two piles, to see what she would choose. There was no hesitation–she dove straight into the primary-colors pile! We had fun exploring all the new Duplos, as there are a lot of new zoo animals–white tigers, a whole lion family, penguins, a sea lion.. But her favorite by far was a little construction worker with an orange shirt and white hat. She kept him close by the whole time! She also loved a yellow “truck” (I think it might have been part of a train set) and some blue zoo fencing. I took pictures of her favorite parts so that I can buy them later! Definitely have to get that construction worker. 🙂
Back at the big pile, Brian was making spaceships, buildings, all sorts of things, and doing a fair bit of people watching, too. He was pretty amused to see a kid who begged the other kids to bury him in Legos. Once that kid was covered all the way up to his neck, he burst out of the bricks with a roar and a spectacular plastic waterfall! Brian thought that was pretty funny.
Kendall was getting a little tired, so we took a break and got some banana split Dippin’ Dots and lemonade. All that sugar perked her up a bit. 😉 She was kicking her feet in the stroller, and saying “Aaah!” to get more and more ice cream. (Aren’t her sparkly “ice princess” boots cute? We’re hoping the extra stability will help her walking!) Brian enjoyed some car building and racing madness, and I did a little shopping in the store. Afterwards, we hung out by the monochrome build area and Brandon made a cool “PERKINS” name sculpture. We let Brian take the camera for another one of his photo essays (see another post!) And then, sadly, we were out of time.. The staff started directing people towards the exits, but stragglers like us still tried to take some last-minute photos with the display pieces (now that it wasn’t so crowded!) We weren’t the last people out the door, but nearly so! 😉 Brian wished we could stay longer, but, it was definitely time to hit the road.
The drive home was.. interesting. The freezing rain and sleet did turn into a snowy wintry mix as we got closer to home. The kids didn’t sleep very much, and there weren’t a lot of great options along the way for dinner. So, we ended up at a different Cracker Barrel, which was just fine with Brian, since he loves their pancakes! We let him get a hollow chocolate chick which he thought was so cute, but he’s going to have to wait for Easter to have it! One of these days we’re probably going to end up with one of those giant checkers sets, since he really likes playing checkers and thinks those are awesome.. But for now we tell him it’s more special if it’s something we only do at Cracker Barrel. 🙂 After our dinner, we slowly made our way home, through the awful weather. Brandon was my hero, keeping us all safe, while we passed many wrecks and disabled vehicles along the way. The kids slept, but us grownups white-knuckled it all the way home! I’m not sure we’ll push through something like that again, but, we made it. The van had a thick coat of ice when we finally emerged at home! So ended another exhausting, but successful road trip. 🙂
