SEA LIFE Michigan Aquarium and LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Michigan

I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life,  until I turned 21, then my husband and I moved ourselves to Nashville,  Tennessee.

Growing up in Michigan I never thought many exciting things were happening around us. Our family fun days usually involved being outdoors, fishing and taking trips “up north” (northern Michigan) as we call it. The closest thing I considered amusement was Cedar Point in Ohio. And Great Lakes Crossing mall was the fancy place we’d go to around Christmas time to do some shopping.

Although I moved, we still like to visit the ol “Mitten” once in a while  to see our friends and family and so I bet you can understand why I was SO happy to learn that Great Lakes Crossing is still thriving and now has a SEA LIFE Aquarium and LEGOLAND® Discovery Center!!!!

Great Lakes Crossing is still as beautiful of a mall as I remember, only now, I would absolutely plan for a family vacation to visit Michigan even if I didn’t have family there. I am so happy that these wonderful attractions are now in the state that I called home for so many years!!

Now I’ll get to the point, sense I know you probably would love to read more about these awesome places!

First we visited SEA LIFE Aquarium . I would say this was my favorite experience

because I am a total lover for all things aquatic. We walked through and experienced

each bit of fun within under 2 hours and our kids were in awe every second of the way.

 

 

 

There are so many interactive things for the kids to do,  and many cool facts about the sea and creatures inside of it. Their favorite was of course the touch tank. The very intelligent (and patient)  employee was at the tank answering every question anyone had about all the creatures in the tank. It was so cool to be able to touch sea stars, and hermit crabs. There were even Cleaner Shrimp in the tank. My kids recognize them as Jacques from Finding Nemo 😂

I never would have imagined all the cool things my kids (and us adults too) got to experience while we were there.

 

 

 

Although the touch tank was amazing,  I’d have to say my favorite part was the tunnel we got to walk through.  It was amazing to see the sharks,  Stingrays,  and (my favorite) a sea turtle!!!

The pictures are great, but they do not do this place and its creatures justice. SEA LIFE Aquarium  is a beautiful place to visit with your family.

There is something so therapeutic about being surrounded by water to me. There is even a bench inside the walk through tunnel to sit and enjoy the creatures swimming all around and above you. I could have stayed at SEA LIFE Aquarium all day long, but we had one more adventure to go on, and this one my Son just could not wait another second for..

 LEGOLAND® Discovery Center is every LEGO® lovers dream place. I immediately saw my husband and sons eyes light up right when we got to the front desk.

Right away you can see the Detroit pride, and the thing I loved most was that every employee we had an encounter with you can tell they were genuinely happy to be there. Both here at LEGOLAND® Discovery Center and SEA LIFE Aquarium everyone was so friendly, knowledgeable, and was great with kids!! The employees of a place have such an impact on the experience a family has..I’ve had an experience ruined before because of unhappy people who did not know how to treat children, so for me to see happy smiling faces and positive attitudes right away at the front desks/ticket counters I knew right away that we’d have a great experience inside as well.

My kids were so excited for the interactive rides, which is what we went on right away. Kingdom Quest was so much fun for our little ones. You get to go through a course to help the mama dragon find one of her babies and battle the bad guys with lasers.  It was entertaining and had some pretty neat masterpieces to look at!!

The other ride was Merlins Apprentice Ride, and we loved it so much we rode it twice! The faster you peddle the higher up you’ll be.

 

 

 

Next, we walked through MINILAND. It’s built from A LOT of bricks: over 1.5 million!

This place blew my mind! I absolutely loved seeing Detroit in LEGO® bricks form!!! I felt like I was able to take my kids on a tour of Detroit showing them all the famous landmarks in just a quick minute.  Of course there’s nothing like going to see the real thing, but the builders at LEGOLAND® Discovery Center have got some major talent!! They recreated a live concert that is interactive. The kids can make the lights come on and the band members play. Downtown Detroit looks so lifelike! The Renaissance center, the water front, the Ambassador Bridge, the spirit of Detroit!!! Holy smokes, was MINILAND breathtaking.

The kids were also able to play pinball at Comerica Park and score a homerun 😉

I loved when all the lights when off and Downtown Detroit LIT UP! They play fireworks on the walls and it felt like I was on top of a building staring down at the citys nightlife.

The Earthquake Center was where my husband and son built a building that was in their terms “indestructable”, and while they were doing that my daughter and I visited the Underwater Quest! It was so neat! It looked like it was underwater and had so many sweet masterpieces!

 

 

 

There really is something fun for everyone here at LEGOLAND® Discovery Center .

My boys (husband and son) very much enjoyed the LEGO® RACERS: BUILD & TEST station.  They spent so much time building their perfect racers and testing them down the steep ramps.

 

 

 

My 10 month old really enjoyed playing in the DUPLO® Farm area with the giant sized LEGO® bricks.

While my baby was right there, my big girl went to visit the “girls” over in the LEGO® FRIENDS part. Each station had something awesome built in the play area. My daughters favorite was the beautiful pink Lighthouse.

 

 

 

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With regret we were not able to visit the 4D cinema, because my youngest had a very long day and was getting pretty cranky. I read the sign outside the cinema door and it sounded like it would be a blast!

 

We could not leave without visiting the LEGO® CITY PLAY ZONE!! This playscape area looked like something a kid would dream up! My littles kept running out to me saying “we escaped jail!!” all while you heard this faint alarm going off.

We all had so much fun here at LEGOLAND® Discovery Center. Overall I’d have to say we spent around 3 hours in there, so it definitely makes for a good day trip.

The gift shops to both attractions were the cherries on top of each perfect sundae 😉 Each of us found something we loved!

 

 

I will always recommend trying to visit both LEGOLAND® Discovery Center and SEA LIFE Aquarium in the same trip. They offer some great ticket combo deals, and children under 2 are always free.

My family and I can not wait to visit again. I am sure everytime we go to Michigan they will ask about Great Lakes Crossing mall now.

Sunshine state of mind

Ladies Summer is finally here and what makes you feel better than a nice set of nails? The only thing is, I rarely find time to go sit at a salon for an hour or more. I have 3 kids, and I get looked at funny if I roll in a salon with my 3 kid crew. Haha!

But I’ve been hearing different vloggers brag about these Kiss acrylic glue on nails,  so of course once I saw they were under $7 I had to try them!

This post is not sponsored I just have to share with you when I find stuff that I love! Especially if it’s as easy as PRESS ON NAILS!

I found the ones I needed at Kroger.  They are the Acrylic nude RS (really short). I wanted to paint them a nice Summer color, so I needed the nude ones. They also have ones that have a French manicure look. I will buy the petite ones  next time because even the “Really Short” ones I have on are a little too long for my liking.  But these nails guys!!! It looks like I went to the salon!

Application was simple and everything you need is included.  Except the alcohol I used before I applied the nails to strip my nails of any oils.

I painted the nails before applying them to my fingers because I am the QUEEN of smudging fresh paint. I am not even kidding.  So I painted and let them sit for about an hour or so.

I used my beautiful  “Sunshine state of mind ” orange by Essie. Essie is my all time favorite polish!

I filed my nails a bit to rough them up some,  then wiped with an alcohol swab, applied glue to the nail and my nail and bam!

I did my nails last night and so far I have had to reglue one of them, but I did shower, wash bottles and give two out of 3 kids a bath. Lol.

My life is non stop, so I’ll take having to reglue one of my $7 nails anytime!  They are pretty and feel strong.  I will be applying these  for special occasions and whenever I want to feel pretty from now on.  I’m so happy I found out about these!