When searching for fun things to do in Utah it can be hard to find something that will appeal to all ages—the zoo and other kid destinations are usually great for the kids, but have the adults asking “why did we come here again?” Not a lot of kid friendly attractions are also fun for adults. That’s why when I recently visited Funtopia I was shocked at how much fun the adults had at a place technically designed for kids.

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Our travel post today is brought to you by Jenn from Annelily Design.

She recently took her kids to LEGOLAND to celebrate her oldest sons 9th birthday check out this post below for her tips of how she did it on a budget! 

Our kids love legos!  Especially our oldest.  For his 9th birthday we decided to include a visit to Legoland on our family vacation to California.  We already had planned to go to Disneyland later in the week so we didn't want to spend too much money at Legoland.  Many destinations in Southern California including Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, Legoland and the Legoland hotel have a deal in October where kids are free with a paying adult.  Legoland is open Thursday-Monday's during the fall months.  Even if you don't visit during the fall I have found kids are free with a paying adult coupons on cereal boxes and online.

Legoland also offers a shopping pass that allows customers to enter the park for one hour for shopping and you can go on rides during that time too.  They charge you the amount of a regular ticket per person and return the amount on your account when you leave within the hour.  Since we were staying at the Legoland hotel it was a free hour for us.  If you aren't staying at the hotel you will just have to pay for parking at Legoland to do this.  We did the shopping pass one day and were able to go on a ride, see the model Lego cities, all the new Star Wars models, and purchase a Lego our 9 year old had saved up for. 

 We stayed at the new Legoland hotel that was just finished in the spring during our visit.  Since it was the off season the rooms were much less expensive than busier times of the year.  The Legoland hotel also offers kids stay free with a paying adult during October.

 At night in the main lobby they offer three hours of free activities for kids.  One of the hours was a lego building contest.  With Halloween being so close the kids were asked to build something scary out of Legos. This was our kids favorite!  I had read the food is pretty expensive at the hotel.  Our room came with some complimentary drinks, but for our meals we brought Pizza in from Sammy's down the road or ate nearby.

Staying at the hotel is a little crazy with all the kids everywhere, but perfect if you have Lego obsessed kids for a night or two.  There are three different themed rooms.  We stayed in the adventure room.  Our room had a bunk bed with trundle underneath in the kids area and a king bed in the other section.

Be sure to head over to Annelily Design to check out the whole post! Want more LEGOLAND? Check out our trip here!

Recently I did a press trip to Houston sponsored through the GoHouston! Travel Campaign hosted by New Creative Writing and Social Media Marketing. As always all opinions are my own.

Never have you been able to get so much and spend so little! That's what CityPASS gives you.

We recently got to test out the Houston CityPASS and we loved it.

You know me... I'm not used to paying full price for anything (lol) so it was a Shock to my system when I saw the prices for attractions in Houston.

Luckily CityPASS came to the rescue! Not only will they save you a ton of money, but CityPASS takes all the hassle out of planning your attractions!

If you are like me it can be a little overwhelming planning a vacation (or even outings for the summer) and having CityPASS is like having your own personal

assistant showing you only the best attraction to visit. How awesome is that?!

As a added bonus you also get to line jump! (like a celebrity lol) Why sit in lines waiting to get tickets when you can go right to the front with CityPASS?

And if you have kids, the more lines and aggravation you can skip the better! Happy mom, happy kids!

 

With the Houston CityPASS you get 5 Awesome attractions:

:: Space Center Houston
:: Houston Museum of Natural Science
:: Downtown Aquarium
:: Houston Zoo or Kemah Boardwalk
:: The Children’s Museum of Houston or Museum of Fine Arts of Houston

You get 9 days to use your tickets, but you don't want to cram more than 1 onto one day. These are attractions that need one special day set aside.

My favorite was definitely the aquarium. I wish our kids had been with us on this trip, they would have been so excited to see everything the aquarium had.

It's not every day you visit an aquarium with white tigers, a train that goes under the sea life in a tunnel, rides and crazy cool themes!

We didn't get to the Children's museum, but I'm sure that would be a blast for the kiddos!

All 5 of the attractions would normally come to a total of around $89!!! But with the CityPASS you will save 49%!!

So save some money and stress by grabbing a CityPASS when you plan on visiting any of these cities:

New York City
Boston
Toronato
Chicago
Southern California
Houston
Atlanta
Philadelphia
Hollywood
Seattle
San Francisco

Definitely a must have!

As most of you know last month we took a long road trip across the country to Florida.

Before we left we told family and friends about our trip and the question we heard most often was "are you going to Disney World?"

We had given it a lot of thought before we planned this adventure and we decided on no.

Now I know that might be shocking for some of you that a family would travel 2300 miles to Florida and not go to Disney World, but I believe it was the best decision we made!

The cost is considerably lower to visit LEGOLAND, plus they have amazing deals that come up all the time!

Especially for Florida residents, while we were visiting residents could get into the park for only $25!!

Be sure to check the LEGOLAND site and the KGS site for specials and deals!

My husband and I talk about it and decided that Disney World is something you do by itself, there is no time to fit in anything else and we had other things we wanted to do while in Florida.

Also I think our kids are way too young to really get the most out of Disney World. LEGOLAND was really the best option for them.

Here are 3 things to consider when thinking about visiting LEGOLAND:

1. The age of your children will make a huge impact on how much you will enjoy the park.

We had my two kiddos ages 3 and 4 and my nephews ages 10 and 12. LEGOLAND was perfect for my kids!

My little girl was tall enough to go on most of the coasters which I know would not be the case at Disney World.

LEGOLAND has rides that your kids can actually control and drive!

This gave them the opportunity to really be involved and to be independent. Also gave them the chance to drive in the wrong direction and run into others.

My nephews also had fun at the park but I really feel like LEGOLAND was meant for ages 3-11. If you are looking for non-stop thrill rides this is not the park for you.

LEGOLAND has plenty of fun rides, but it'd not non-stop coasters.

2. If you want a relaxing experience LEGOLAND is the place you want to be:

Everyone knows the expression "Rome wasn't built in a day" well... Disney World wasn't built to be able to see in a day, but Legoland is!

Now that's not to say that Legoland doesn't have a lot to offer, it does, but it just means that you can take your time and relax at Legoland.

No need to run around getting a months worth of cardio exercise in on one day!

We did about 85% of the park in 6 hours. We went on a day when they had shorter hours, but we still didn't feel rushed.

3. Do you want to spend all of your time standing in lines?

I can't stand spending an hour standing in a line just to ride a ride for only a few minutes. If you hate it just as much as I do then you will love LEGOLAND!

We walked up to some rides that said the wait time was 15 minutes, but they all turned out to be only a couple of minutes!

We never had to wait more then 5 minutes to get on a ride! And if you do find yourself waiting to get on a ride LEGOLAND has you covered!

They have Lego building stations at every ride, so the kiddos can build something while you wait. How awesome is that?!!

One thing that I loved about LEGOLAND was all the different Lego statues all over the park that make for wonderful photo opportunities.

And unlike a museum or other parks you can touch them and the kids can play on them! My little girl loved the dinosaur.

If you have been to Florida then you know how hot and humid it can get. The day we went was no different! I felt like I was melting after only 10 minutes outside.

Thank goodness LEGOLAND had a solution! They have plenty of awesome activities inside where you can soak in all that sweet air conditioning!

My little boy's cheeks started to get really red and toasty so we went into the Lego building room pictured above.

They also have a movie theater that you can watch some really cool Lego movies! Also another great place to get out of the sun. (just make sure you plan enough time)

Everywhere we turned there was a play area for the kids to get out some of their extra energy and to get out of the hot sun.

My daughter was so excited when she saw the Forestmen's Hideout. She wanted to stay their all day!

If you find that you are there on a super hot day be sure to head over to the water park!

This was a pretty awesome water park, better than anything we have in Utah. My only issue... worrying about loosing my kids in this amazing water filled maze!

So be sure to pack your swimsuits and tons of sunscreen!

If you do forget something they have pretty much anything you would ever need inside the park.

I can't even begin to express how much I loved that they had free life vests for the kiddos.

With a 3 and a 4 year old this gave me more piece of mind that they were safer as they played in the water.

Now you know me and I will try to save a dollar anywhere that I can! Luckily LEGOLAND makes this task even easier by allowing you to bring in a cooler to the park!

So we packed up sandwiches and other goodies that we thought we would need for the day and saved a ton of money!

Plus they have little picnic tables all over the park and most of them are in the shade.

Also we found out really quick that we needed a lot of water to keep us hydrated and we were really glad to have our little cooler on wheels.

If you do decide to eat at the park instead the prices aren't as bad as I thought they would be. Kids meals were around $5 and meals for adults were between $7-$10.

You can also save money on souvenirs by heading over to the courtesy desk and picking up a FREE button! They have some for first time guest and for birthday guests!

If you decide to head into some of the shops you can still find some great frugal souvenirs. I saw quite a few items that were clearanced and little Lego people for only $2.99!

One thing I wasn't expecting at the park was how super friendly the staff was. They were so helpful and you could find someone pretty much anywhere in the park.

My little boy really wanted to do the Ford Jr. Driving School, but once he got on it he was a little confused on pushing the gas peddle.

I felt bad watching him sit there while everyone raced around him, but within less than a minute a super friendly staff member rushed over and pushed his car around the track for him!

How awesome is that?!

My little girl was also a little confused I think she thought is was like bumper cars and she started to chase everyone down. lol

You can see by her determined look, she was trying to get her brother in the picture above.

One of the last things you will probably see on your way out of the park is Miniland! I knew it would be cool, but I had no idea it would be as cool as it was!

I couldn't believe how amazing it was! The detail was unbelievable! We took so many pictures I unfortunately couldn't fit them all in this post.

Make sure you leave enough time to really be able to explore this area.

This was definitely the best place to take the kiddos, the ride lines were short, they were tailored to younger kids, and we could fit it all in one day.

If the cost and everything about Disney World seems just too overwhelming, I would highly recommend skipping it and heading over to LEGOLAND instead!

It's definitely the most relaxing park experience I have ever had, and I would go again in a heartbeat!

I want to give a huge thank you to LEGOLAND Florida and KGS for this awesome experience!

If you missed our day 1 or day 2 make sure you catch up! This is the story of our epic 4,500 mile journey across the country to and from Utah to Florida...

Day three turned out to be full of surprises, the day started with us thinking it would just be a pool day and it ended up being so much more!

We got a call in the morning from Kissimmee Guest Services and they wanted us to be able to experience the "Real Florida" to be honest I wasn't sure what that meant.

Then we were told that we would be able to ride on an airboat and see alligators and all sorts of Florida wildlife.

I was incredibly excited at this prospect, I have been on boats before but not one like this.

All 8 of us headed over to Boggy Creek Airboats for our new adventure!

The first thing I noticed was how friendly their staff was, you can tell they love their jobs and they want you to have the best experience possible.

While we waited to get on our boat they set us up with a funny photo opp.

My little girls head is inside of an alligators mouth.

Now normally I wouldn't find that funny, but it wasn't real (obviously) and she dug deep that day into her dramatic self, and really hammed it up.

(I haven't had a chance to scan it into my computer yet, but I will share it with you later)

After the photo my little boy started to get more and more reserved and I started to get a little nervous about how he was going to react about getting on a boat.

Unfortunately little 3 year old's can be sooo... unpredictable. Like I had predicted in my head as soon as he had to put a life vest on he started freaking out.

Then he continued to cry once we tried to put the ear protection on him. The last thing I wanted, was to have to sit out this adventure to sit on the sidelines with an unhappy 3 year old.

When you toddlers you have to prepare to miss out on fun activities, just part of being a parent.

We decided to try and distract him and to keep things moving along.

We asked our awesome tour guide if he gets a lot of crying kids on the boats, and he responded yes, but most fall asleep within the first few minutes.

And sure enough he was out after 4 minutes!! If you need your kid to fall asleep, just get on an airboat! haha!

So beautiful!

I wanted my little boy to see all the wildlife, but to be honest it was must nicer to have a sleeping boy than a crying one.

I really didn't know what to expect from an airboat ride, but the few things that I was expecting were wrong!

You see riders wearing ear protection and you think that it's going to be extremely noisy, but it's really not that noisy.

One thing that does come in handy is sunglasses, I would recommend wearing a pair since it is a little windy when the boat is going.

The biggest surprise was how relaxing it was! It's so peaceful and calm even when the boat is going.

I was also shocked at how many alligators there are, the waters we were in were home to 8,000 alligators!

It was no surprise then when we instantly came upon several of them, what an awesome experience for a family from Utah that normally only can see them at the zoo!

We also saw plenty of beautiful cranes, wild cattle and more! My little girl was just soaking up the whole ride with a smile on her face the whole time.

Our tour guide had so much information for us, it was fascinating to learn about all the animals and about the area.

Once we are back on land (and I was wishing we could go again ) the fun didn't stop!

We then got the awesome opportunity to hold a baby alligator. I think that was my daughters favorite part.

I also joined in the fun, I mean how often do you get to hold a baby alligator?

I love how soft their little bellies are, can you tell I'm an animal lover?

Now if alligators are not your thing, don't worry you can keep you distance and still have a great time.

There was another mom on the boat with us who was terrified of alligators, but she absolutely loved the boat ride!

They also have 1 hour night tours that would be awesome to check out!

If you are looking for an adventure you will never forget, something that is both relaxing and thrilling you will want to visit Boggy Creek Airboats!

Must haves for your Airboat Ride:

:: Camera (beware that it could get a little bit of water on it)

:: Sunblock is a must anywhere in Florida! 

:: Binoculars

:: Tip Money - the tour guides work really hard to make this an awesome experience and tips are appreciated.

:: Bug Spray - I thought this would be a necessity, but I honestly didn't see very many bugs, but to be on the safe side

I want to thank Boggy Creek Airboat Rides and Kissimmee Guest Services for giving us this wonderful opportunity that our family will always remember!