It was the perfect surprise for the boys, and it was fabulous! The Legoland Discovery Center opened at the AZ Mills Mall in Tempe on a Friday, and we were through the doors Saturday morning.

I was just as wide-eyed and giddy as the boys since it was thrilling to be able to take them to such a cool place. They rode the first ride with Stephen while Brynn and I checked out the Lego Phoenix. It was impressive! We loved walking around spotting city landmarks, the Cardinals’ stadium, ASU, Chase Field, and destinations around Arizona–all carefully constructed out of Lego bricks. Some of the displays were even interactive.

Then the discovery center opened up into a big play area with lots of Lego brick building “sandboxes” including Duplo blocks and large foam bricks. Brynn loved the Duplo farm animals. There was a Lego themed play place, another ride where Silas and I got to “fly” together, a parent lounge, and a race track for Lego cars. Stephen and the boys talked to a Master Builder who was hard at work. For lunch, we ate at the cafe and bought the boys the kid lunches that came packed in Lego lunch boxes to take home.

The 4D movie was super cool, especially because the idea of 3D was new to Silas. He thought it was pretty awesome how the characters looked like they were reaching out to touch him. Cooper, on the other hand, refused to wear the 3D glasses, so he enjoyed a blurry movie with some extra water and wind effects.

We played hard all day long and built lots of happy Lego memories.