Lego Fest 2014

This past Sunday we set out on an adventure! 

It was a gorgeous morning and we were up before the sun to set out on our mini road trip. This day was unseasonably warm (it hit 72 that day!!!). We had been talking about this day for weeks. 

It was finally the day for Lego Fest 2014 in Raleigh!!

Hensley couldn't be more excited! We recently took him to see the Lego movie which only fueled his love for all things Legos!

We set out at 7:30 am for the 1 hour 15 minute trip to the Raleigh Convention Center where the event was being held. It was an awesome low key ride with little to no traffic since it was Sunday. Hensley only asked "Are we there yet?" about 25 times. When we arrived the convention center was buzzing with people. It was in downtown Raleigh so parking was limited which is why we chose to get there early. We got a space in the parking deck right next door to the convention center, got my backpack ready (we heard you leave with lots of free goodies and to bring a bag so we did just that), strapped my camera on and we were off. 

We were very prepared after reading lots of reviews about the amount of people that would be there and we wanted to make it as easy as possible to get in and get playing since we knew Hensley would be so excited. With my phone in hand where our tickets were stored we were in in no time. 

Since we were the early there weren't too many people there and it gave us a great chance to get a lot of pictures with the amazing large Lego models that were placed all around the entrance.

It was utterly amazing to see these massive structures built entirely out of Legos. I can only imagine the work, time and creativity it took to build some of these.

One of our first stops ended up being Hensley's favorite and we revisited it several times that day. They had several ramps and huge tables set up with all the things you needed to build a Lego car that, once built, was placed on a small red spindle which made it glide super fast across the ramps. It was so fun. I think he had more fun building them then racing them. We ended up getting a few to bring home and since that day he has played with them constantly!!!

After the cars we went to a huge area in the middle to participate in one of the many contests there were having that day. The contest we entered was the tower building contest where groups of people had only about 5 minutes to build the tallest tower out of Legos that they possibly could. The catch: You had to be able to pick up that tower when time was up and transport it to a nearby table. When time was up we had the tallest but as soon as we picked it up it crashed to the floor. BUMMER!!! Luckily they had the contests set up just for fun and each child received the same prize which was a small pack of Legos that once built contained a space flying car and a mini figure inside. 

We visited several booths throughout the day that showed some pretty awesome things you can do with Legos. We participated in a few more contests and even built a part of the massive map of the USA they had laid out. 

We spent alot of time in the GIANT pile of Legos in the middle of the room where you could build anything you wanted or just lay in more Legos then anyone has ever seen. It was very fun. 

We even met some "real life" Lego people from the Lego Movie. THAT MADE HENSLEY'S DAY!!!

Wild Style even blew Hensley a kiss ;)  

We had such a blast there and we will for sure visit it again next year. 

Since the Lego Fest was over at 1 in the afternoon and we were in a new city with LOTS to do we decided to explore a little more. We enjoyed lunch at a local downtown grill called The Flying Saucer (great great food and awesome atmosphere). It was chosen because it picked best place to get beer in Raleigh! We had to reward Andy in some way for all this kid friendly fun he was enduring!!

Then we were off to the Marble's Children Museum nearby. We were all pretty wore out by this point but it was a ton of fun and well worth the 5 bucks. It is definitely a place we plan to go back to visit in the future. 

We ended the evening with a short little walk, a snow cone from a street vendor and a beautiful ride home ;) 

Downtown Raleigh is an absolutely beautiful place to visit with so much to do. I hope we can go back in the future and check out some more that it has to offer. It was a great day spent with great friends. We couldn't have asked for a better little adventure!