::driving and legos::

We drove to San Diego for our family vacation over the last couple of days. We didn't get to leave as early as we were hoping for because of work--super classic--late patients, emergencies and an overpacked schedule.  Anyway, we got going at about 6PM and made it to Flagstaff that night by about 10:30.  The kids were pretty good about going bed, though Max threw a fit--everybody has to take turns being bad on nights like that.  Last time it was Sandy.

We made it on Saturday afternoon at about 3PM California time.

(This photo is actually from a different trip.  We're on our way to an early morning flight and the boys were fighting and got totally yelled at which is why Max looks so pleasant.  But I love the sunflare, and the photo does give you an idea of how the car looks when we travel.  Super packed.  Just imagine the top loaded with suitcases, two surfboards, a jogging stroller and a "race car" bike on the back.  Phew)

So the rest of the story is as follows.  About a month before we left on the trip a new lego catalogue came in the mail and Max found a set he really wanted.  It's called the "Fairground Mixer" and it's basically a little amusement park with people, little fariground games and a big spinny ride.  He loved it and looked at it and talked about it and dreamed about it.  Finally I reminded him that we'd be in San Diego on vacation pretty soon and that San Deigo has a Lego store.  I told him to start earning money and to see if he could save up enough.  He got excited and went for it.

With a lot of help from Kris and I and a lot of encouragement and facilitation he pulled it off.  He earned half of the cost of the set and we covered the other half because he had his tonsils out two weeks ago and that slowed him down a bit.

We were going to take them to the Lego store on Monday, but he was DYING to go and get his set so he could work on building it Sunday when he couldn't go to the beach.  We kept trying to tell him no but he was so excited we finally gave in and took them to the mall just about as soon as we arrived.

Because it was a higher priced set he got a couple of freebies with the purchase--like a white nineteen-eighty-something space guy.  Pretty exciting.
He was so excited he even carried the super heavy bag all the way to the car himself without complaining.


Everybody was a good sport at the mall.  We have great kids.  Even though we were all tired after all the traveling and hard work before hand.





And here's the stack of booty, including the set that Max helped Sandy to pick out--Max wanted to take a picture before he started working on the sets--we made them wait until the next morning to build anyway. That was some self control let me tell you.

I think this will go down in the books as a great vacation.  I just have a feeling.