Fun At Legoland Discovery Center

One of the first places we went on vacation was the Legoland Discover Center in Kansas City, MO.  Kansas City is close to three hours away from my parents' house, so originally we had planned on doing a few things there, and spending one night.  My guys didn't really have anything else that they wanted to do, though, so we changed our plans a bit and drove up just to spend a few hours at Legoland Discovery Center.

Elliott is really into Lego right now. For the last two years, the majority of what he asks for for his birthday and Christmas have been different Lego sets.  He also spends a lot of his allowance on them as well.  So he was really excited to get to go.  We told him ahead of time that it wouldn't be as big or as cool as the actual Legoland in California that two of his friends went to last summer, but it would still be fun. And he did have a lot of fun.

We paid an extra $4 for the Activity Pack when we first walked in.  It had some fun facts, and a few different activities for the kids to do.   The best part for Elliott was collecting stamps at each of the different activity centers, though.  It helped us ensure that we actually made it to all the different centers as well.  And at the end of our trip he was able to show it to the girl at the register and get a button, which he thought was pretty cool.

In the first room we went into there was a place to see how much you weighed in Lego blocks, but it was broken, and said everyone weighed the same amount, so that was kind of disappointing.  Elliott was still able to see how tall he was in Lego bricks, though.

There were several different places where you could play with the Legos to create different things.  Elliott's favorite was the one where you could build race cars and then race them against other people.  Elliott built several race cars, and won a bunch of races.

One of my favorite places was the Mini Land.  They had a bunch of different scenes built from Lego blocks.  Since we were at the one in Kansas City they had a great Wizard of Oz area.  Elliott really liked the movie Oz, so he wanted to spend a lot of time looking at that one.

 The house actually spun around, which Elliott thought was the coolest thing ever.

Elliott's favorite part of the whole day was seeing the movie, though.  We saw a Legends of Chima movie in 4D and Elliott loved it, especially when the bubbles came out.  He even went so far as to say it was his favorite movie he had seen for at least a month (and we go to the movies nearly every weekend when there is something playing that is appropriate for him).

There were some rides to ride as well, but I didn't get any good pictures.  I just had my cell phone, and the pictures just aren't good when someone is moving.  Elliott did have a lot of fun on the rides, though, especially Kingdom Quest.

Saving Money on Vacation

My family took two vacations this summer.  And we paid for both with cash.  Our first vacation was to Missouri, where we are both from.  We stayed with my parents, so that saved us a bunch of money . Our second vacation was to Washington state, though, where we know no one.  We were still able to save a bunch of money.


Travel by car if it's cheaper.
We travel by car when we travel because we often take our two dogs.  We also live in the Minot, ND area, where it costs around $500 per person to fly anywhere.  It's MUCH cheaper to drive where we need to go, even counting stays in a hotel.  We also like the freedom to stop in various places.

Travel with others.
Even though we are only a family of three we own a minivan.  That means that we are often able to invite others on vacation with us.   In addition to having more fun with extended family, they can also help pay for gas and even hotel stays so we save money that way.  My sister lives with us now and was able to get off work to travel with us to Missouri.  When we went to Washington in July, we invited one of my other sisters and my aunt, and met my sister in law there.  We were able to rent a larger suite and saved a lot of money over paying for just a hotel room.  We stayed in a 2 bedroom suite in one area and a 4 bedroom beach house in the other.

Pack your own snacks and meals.
Another way we save money while traveling is to pack a cooler.  My family isn't necessarily big into sandwiches, but we also pack fresh fruits and easy to eat veggies, along with beef jerky, sunflower seeds, and trail mix.  Throw in some juice boxes, soda, and bottled water, and we are set!  We limit our eating out to once a day or less, and maybe one additional drink from a gas station (if they are cheap, like they often are in the summer), while we are on the road.  When we are at our destination we try to stick to the same limits on eating out, but if we are busy, we sometimes have to eat out twice in one day.  That works on a budget if you plan carefully.

Look for good deals.
Another way we saved money was to look on groupon and livingsocial for the area we knew we would be traveling.  We ended up getting vouchers for 2 different area restaurants this time, but there were other options as well, just none that we wanted to do this time.

Plan Ahead.
I always start planning for a vacation several months in advance.  In fact, we are already laying the groundwork for our family vacation next summer!  By planning ahead you can often find a great deal on lodging.  We ended up paying $125 a night for a 4 bedroom cottage just a few minutes from a beach on the Washington coast.  Just outside of Seattle, we got a 2 bedroom suite (with a pull out couch in the living room) in a decent hotel for just over $100 per night, by booking early and using an additional discount.  They even upgraded us for free!  If you are traveling with others, this can really save you money.  We had full kitchens in both units, so that made eating in much cheaper and more appealing.

Plan to relax.
We did a lot of things in Washington, but we made sure to leave some free time, to just sit on the beach and relax, or play games in our room.  That helped us recharge our batteries, and helped us save money.

One Busy Summer!

I'm not sure how so many bloggers manage to post everyday.  I know part of it is because I don't treat blogging like a real job, but I seem to have a terrible time finding the time necessary to blog.

We just got home from our first summer vacation over the weekend.  We went "home" to Missouri to celebrate my dad's 65th birthday.  Darla was able to get the time off to go with us, and we were there for about 2 weeks.  Since we stay with my parents, it was a pretty frugal vacation.  We did end up doing some shopping (although the fact that there were 3 adults, a child, and 2 dogs traveling together in a minivan meant we had to really watch what we bought so we would have room).  But overall we stuck to our budget pretty well.

It's always amazing going home and seeing how much things have changed in the area.  The growth in SW MO isn't nearly as fast as it is here, but since it had been almost a year since we had been there, there was still plenty of new stuff.  We didn't get to check out nearly as much of it as we had hoped, but that seems to always be the case.  We had planned on going to Kansas City, or at least Branson, but didn't have a chance.  The only touristy thing we really did was a trip to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield. Haha.  It was actually the first time we had ever even taken Elliott there even though we had been meaning to for years.  He loved it there, and wants to go back every summer now. :)

Assuming my husband gets the leave he requested, we are only going to be home for about 2 more weeks before taking another vacation.  My husband just switched work centers, though, so we still aren't sure on his leave.  If it goes through, we leave for Washington in just over 2 weeks. We will be spending some time in Spokane, Seattle, and right on the beach.