Heflin's Head West - First Flight and Legoland

When Jennifer and I started thinking about vacation plans for the summer we really only had one place in mind that the kids had talked about, Legoland. So, we started planning for another trip to Florida. However, after doing some research I notified Jennifer that there was actually another Legoland in the USA, which was out in California. After debating on how to get to California we finally decided to take the kids on their first airplane ride. We decided that if we were going all the way out west we better take advantage of it and try to get in as many different things as possible. Unlike other trips that we have taken in the past we left a few days at the end of our trip so that we could have time to relax before going back to work.

Heading to Cincinnati for the kids first flight! I think we made the right choice not picking an early morning flight, I am not entirely sure that we will have made it on time.

The kids really enjoyed the moving walkways in the airports. I was just thankful that we were able to get rid of all our baggage at the checked bag area. I was also thankful that our bags weren't over the weight requirement.

Ready for the plane to take off!

Picture of Landon looking out the window just a little bit after takeoff. This was about the last time he looked out the window. The rest of the time he spent looking in his backpack for something else to do, playing Pac Man on my phone, or nudging me to wake me up. Needless to say I might have picked the wrong seat partner.

Brinley looking out the window.

Brinley enjoyed playing on mommy's phone for the duration of the flight.

These poor children were forced into a little manual labor and were required to take their own strollers with them. You would have thought that we asked them to carry a heavy suitcase or two.

As soon as we arrived in Las Vegas we took the shuttle to the car rental place and then hopped in and started the 5 hour drive to San Diego. Thankfully Jennifer was smarter than me and decided to pack the portable DVD players. The kids watched a couple of movies on the ride and everyone did really good. We made good time and arrived around 9 pm. We were all ready for bed and everyone got a good nights sleep before vacation was truly going to start in the morning at Legoland!

Since we were all on east coast time, we all got up fairly easy and got ready to head out for an adventure. We got to the park before it opened and were one of the first people in the gates. Too bad that they stopped you about 50 yards later and checked to see if you were staying at the Legoland resorts. We were not so we had to unfortunately wait another hour for the gates to officially open. We took advantage of the time by getting some pictures and looking around for a souvenir. 

We even headed over to meet our first character, Ninjago.

Brinley with a bunch of the Lego Friends girls.

Landon with a life sized Batman made out of Legos.

Riding on some prize winning horses on the carousel.

Lego Batman! 

Landon was so excited about driving this Lego boat.

My girls riding in the boat behind us.

Brinley in the knight's outfit.

Brinley riding the jousting horse around the track.

A little boat ride around the world built in Legos.

Some famous landmarks from around the world: NYC skyline, Taj Mahal, Big Ben and the London Eye, the Eiffel Tower, and Mt. Rushmore. 

Just a year ago Jennifer and I were in front of the real Eiffel Tower. Not anywhere close to as spectacular as the real thing, but very impressive when you consider it is constructed completely out of legos.

The dragon was one of the kids favorite roller coasters. We rode it multiple times.

Coastersaurus was another favorite of everyone. Here Landon and I were trying to make our best silly faces for the camera.

Three of us got the memo to put up our 3 goggles. Brinley apparently didn't hear me. We definitely love us some UK and some 3 goggles!

Technic was another roller coaster that everyone really enjoyed. 

Someday she might not want to hold onto her daddy's arm like this, but it is moments like this that I cherish. 

They had a huge Star Wars land with many of the main characters and spaceships from the movies. They even had many scenes from the movies set up. It was really remarkable.

Brinley wanted her picture with this huge dinosaur head.

She also wanted her picture with this little girl lego car. Landon got upset and you can see him pouting in the background of the picture.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It almost looks like the kids have been put through a shrinking machine. Usually these little flowers are so tiny and here they were bigger than the kids. I just thought it was really funny.

Landon finally got to get his own little car. This was the small kid driving school for kids aged 3-5. Landon was running circles around the other kids because of his countless hours on the dune racer at the house.

Brinley and Jennifer even stopped by to see Wyldstyle. 

We flew helicopters too. The girls flew the police one while the boys took the fire department one for a spin.

Jennifer is terrified of spiders and has rubbed that off on the kids. So, I made them all take a picture with this giant spider.

The park closed kind of early around 6pm, so of course we closed the place down. We all had a lot of fun and would definitely recommend it for anyone that loves legos or has small children because it is definitely a park for them. One last picture with all of us and our silly faces.

On our way back to the hotel I decided to take a little side trip over to the beach for the kids to see the ocean. Well, seeing it wasn't enough! The kids really wanted to play in the sand and water. They had tons of fun and didn't want to leave. 

Brinley could have played here for hours.

She even wrote her initials in the sand.

As much as we all wanted to stay I knew that we needed to go eat dinner and get to bed so that we could get up and explore some more the next day. 

Well, we made it an official west coast trip by visiting the famous In-N-Out Burger. Nobody ordered off the secret menu, but everyone did enjoy their meal.

Brinley loved it!

The first part of our vacation was a huge success. The kids took their first plane ride and weren't scared at all. We made it to San Diego and on our first full day out west we went to Legoland and also the beach. We sure did pack a lot into our vacation and this was just the first 2 days. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Kentucky Basketball Games

Of course the best UK sporting events to attend for myself are the men's basketball games. This was my 4th year with season tickets and I couldn't have been more excited for it. Typically Jennifer and I go to the games together for a date night, but this year we didn't always get the schedules that we wanted at work so the kids, mostly Landon, got the privilege of going to quite a few games with me. Here are some of the pictures from our adventures.

Brinley and daddy time.

We love getting there a little early and walking the concourse. There is always someone giving something away for free that might keep the kids entertained. This time she got a foam finger.

A friend let me borrow his parking pass for a couple games so we parked behind the stadium and walked in the media entrance. One time I ran into a Kentucky legend, Cameron Mills. My sister was a big fan of his and was actually a friend of his from back when he used to travel around with FCA. He asked how she was doing and was happy to take a picture with me.

Not exactly Jennifer's favorite date night, but maybe mine.

This year more than ever the stadium was hardly ever to capacity. So when people would leave I made a point to move down a little closer to enjoy the game more up close.

Christmas time in the Bluegrass!

Students didn't buy tickets as much this year either so the upper arena student section was never full. Since our side of the stadium was always packed I chose to usually take the kids over to the other side so that things wouldn't be as cramped. So this ended up being what our seats were.

For the Louisville game this year McKinley was able to get some extra tickets to the game, so Andrea and Chris got those as a Christmas present.

The Louisville game was the most dominate performance that the Wildcats played all year. They crushed the Cards by 29 points!

Jennifer and I even spent our New Years Eve night standing in the eRUPPtion Zone for the Georgia game. This brought back all the memories of when we were in college. Only difference was that we stood at the back so that Jennifer could see better instead of being down front in all of the chaos.

Horrible picture, but McKinley and I made it to a game too.

My little man had so much more fun this year at the games. He is a big numbers guy so he enjoyed watching the score and keeping me up to date during the whole game.

The boy also loves to make some silly faces. I wonder where he gets it from.

Landon signing his name on the get well soon boards for DeMarcus Cousin.

The dude loves some popcorn!

This was taken at the Vanderbilt game which didn't start until 9 pm. At the time neither of the kids had ever witnessed UK lose in any sporting event. The game ended up going into a miraculous overtime and the Cats ended up pulling out the victory. Unfortunately, Landon fell asleep in the second half and missed all the fun. I snapped this picture and even got a video of me screaming along with about 22,000 other fans during the end of the game and overtime. My sole reasoning was because Jennifer always tip toes around the house after the kids go to bed because she thinks they are light sleepers. I was just proving otherwise.

Landon's favorite riding spot for the walk back out to the car.

We even stopped in early one night before the game to catch the pregame show with the KSR crew.

We even stuck around for the player post game interviews and got to sit close for the Jared Vanderbilt interview. I hope this guy comes back and gets completely healthy. If he does he is going to be amazing!

We even got front row seats to the Coach Cal post game interview.

Date night with the Prock's.

I thought it was funny that our jersey numbers one night were in numerical order.

A big kid at heart. This was the night before my birthday. The next day I was turning 33 so I had to throw up the double 3 goggles.

All the date nights with my gal.

We even  got to all go to the exhibition game fundraiser against Morehead State. Jennifer and the kids were happy about stopping at Pies and Pints before the game.

Family game night at the exhibition game. All the money raised for the game was donated to the flood victims in Houston.

This picture makes me happy. The little guy knows nothing about the sacrifice the men and women give for this country, but he knows that you are respectful and honor the flag.

The kids sharing their Sprite.

The kids are Heflin's for sure because they love free stuff. Tonight we picked up a couple of posters of the team.

There was also another night when things just happened to work out and we got some extra tickets from some friends.

Kentucky Basketball is one of my favorite things and I am so glad that I have been able to share my passion with the kids. I hope that when they get older they enjoy our visits to RUPP as much as I do. Next year might be a little different for us. I have been accepted into the group known as the Committee of 101, which are the guys in the blue coats at the football and basketball games that help with game day operations. So, be looking for me next season. I will be wearing my blue coat and UK tie. I am still planning on keeping my season tickets for a 5th year for men's basketball, might just not always be sitting in them. Go Cats! Thanks for reading and God bless!

Tie and patch that will go on my new blue coat.