Lucky Day!!!

Yesterday was an extremely lucky day for our family - we won a NEW CAR!!!

It all started in August when we took the kids to Legoland. After a long day at the park I was so ready to go home, but Dennis caught sight of a free car giveaway that Legoland was sponsoring. The front row of a brand new Volvo was filled with boxes and boxes of legos. You had to guess how many lego bricks were in the car. Well Dennis got it into his head that he was going to win that car! He and the boys set about trying to figure it out! They spent at least an hour and a half peering into the windows of the dark car trying to figure out what was in there, then running back and forth into the lego store to figure out how many pieces were in each box, then there was all this math involved (I always joke with my Mom, who is a math teacher, that math is completely unnecessary. Well, I guess it is useful - sometimes.) Dennis and the boys were so excited about their quest and worked their tails off. When they finally were satisfied with their answer (something over 60,000 bricks!) they submitted their guess, and all the way home talked about "What if we win?" I rolled my eyes and humored them. Silly boys.

Well, last week Dennis received a letter in the mail congratulating him on his very accurate guess and telling him that he was a finalist to win the new Volvo XC90. All the finalists were entered into a drawing that was to be held at Legoland's Kid's New Years Eve celebration. They gave us free tickets for our whole family so we could be there. We had already planned to be in San Diego that day to go to the Zoo, so we decided to cut our visit to the zoo short, so we could be at Legoland for the drawing. Why not?

We had a little bit of time before the drawing, so we played a bit at the park. It was SO crowded because of the New Years event, so we didn't get to do much. But since the tickets were free, we didn't mind.

I did get a little stressed out just before the big drawing because just minutes before the giveaway, Luke disappeared into the crowd. We were all looking everywhere for him, and I was kind of panicked because there were a LOT of people crowded around. I was looking for his rainbow stripped sweater until I saw his sweater in the stroller and began to panic more! I had been looking for that sweater the whole time, and not a black t-shirt. Ugh! Luckily, one of the boys found him, but then I didn't know how to gather all my kids who had scattered all over looking for him. The drawing was starting. Stressful!

But they all found us just barely in time for the big giveaway. Whew!

You did not need to be present to win, but many of the finalists were there. They invited the finalists to come up by the stage. We were pretty confident when we counted only about 7 finalists there.

Then they brought out the box that held all the entries. My heart sank - there had to have been at least 30 slips in there. Our chances were not so good after all. Oh well.

They pulled out a slip and the announcer looked at it. He said, "Wow, I picked a name I can't pronounce..." With that, I knew the car was ours. Sure enough. "Dennis, um. Van..bur..sr...ick, I think."

I couldn't believe it! That man of mine had been right all along! I tell you, when that man sets his mind to something, he can't be stopped!

Everybody cheered for us, and it was very exciting! I think the Legoland people were glad that the winners were present, because it makes it more fun for everyone.

Some officials pulled Dennis aside, and gave him some paperwork. We were happy to find out that Legoland pays everything, even registration. We just have to claim it on our income taxes, and insure it and gas it up, of course. But we'd have to wait a few days to pick it up because of all the paperwork. Until then, we have a little lego version of our car to take home.

Then the boys, in their excitement, descended! They thought their dad was "SO COOL!" But they had all worked hard, and all deserved some credit for the win.

Actually, I think the boys were more excited about the lego mini-Volvo than the actual car that we won! Boys.

We were on a high, so we spend a few more hours enjoying as much as the park as possible, which wasn't much, considering the crowds.

As part of the celebration, they passed out party horns and prism rainbow glasses to everyone! The kids had so much fun with those.

What a way to end 2009!

2009 started out pretty bad for our family, but ended up pretty fantastic!!!

They even had fireworks to celebrate our win!!! How nice of them!

This isn't our car, (ours is black, I think) but close enough!

The ironic thing is that, anyone who know me well enough, knows that I really can't stand Legoland, (its not exactly "the happiest place on Earth" as far as I'm concerned) and every time I go, I say I will never go back. But we keep getting sucked back there, and we keep winning stuff there. When the twins were babies the won the Halloween costume contest (they were salt and pepper - so cute!) and the prize was free tickets for our family (woo-hoo!), so we had to go back. Then my kids have won several free tickets there, causing us to have to return. Then my twins had their logo-robotics competition there last month where they won 3rd place. And now this.

So has my opinion about Legoland changed? Um, no. (But I bet we'll be back, because Legoland has preferred parking for all Volvos. Yip-pee.)

What a lucky day! What a lucky year! Here's hoping 2010 is even better! Happy New Year everybody!