Vacation Monday, part 1 (June 8): LEGO tour

Today was tour day!

We started out with a great breakfast again.  I saw something called student bread and grabbed a piece.  The pieces were small  (1" cubes) and so sweet.  It was a pastry crust, what tasted like the jelly part of a Danish, and topped with small layer of frosting and sprinkles.  Apparently it's supposed to be a way to use up extra ingredients, but I had it two days and it was the same both times so I'm not sure that's the case anymore.

We walked to the LEGO house this time - it's about a twenty minute walk.  We got there a few minutes early so climbed the blue stairs.  Last time we were here I went half way up the yellow stairs for a picture and I regretted not climbing all over the outside of the house.  (To be fair, there just wasn't time.)

We started by building ourselves out of minifigures.  I choose a bag (because I'm the person that carries the bag when we travel) and a donut. Ben had wanted a surfboard and got one passed to him too.  There were two people named Ben and they both had Benny shirts on.  Isaac was wearing the LEGO shirt he made in art and got several compliments on it.

Our first tour stop was the museum.  It's interesting to hear the stories behind LEGO company - the founding, the ups, and the downs.

LEGO comes from LEg Godt, which translated is 'Play Well'.

The original ducks LEGO made:

Transitioning from wooden toys to plastic building bricks.

The patent (and our guide, a LEGO historian)

A cat!

I really liked this vase, although I expect that the lighting and case color helped a ton.  Also, I noticed that nothing was dusty and then one person on the tour asked about that...it is the responsibility of the history department to keep it clean.)

Then we went to the vault.  It had moved since the last time we were here and it was so much nicer.  Before it was in crank shelves and everyone had to be in the same few rows as everyone else and it was in the basement.  Now it was up higher so there were windows and natural light and there were stationary shelves with wide rows.  We found several different interesting sets.

With set 1!

Browsing

Joshua looked at most of the Minecraft sets

This set, the Minecraft mountain, was one that Isaac really wanted for years.  Unfortunately, by the time he realized it was a set it was retired and way too expensive.

Joshua with his first big set.

Cheryl with a favorite set.

Browsing.

While we never got this set, I made Isaac take a picture with it because for a period of time his favorite color was black and he was into all black everything.  We got a bulk LEGO of black pieces that he played with on the counter while I made dinner.

On the way back I had Ben take a picture of me by the window trees because I was wearing my tree shirt.

Friday: blueberries

We went blueberry picking this morning.  The kids weren't thrilled about it, but I was.  We ended up with two buckets and I bribed them with ice cream afterwards.  (To be clear, I bribed them with a dessert.  I said they could have ice cream if there was no grumbling about blueberry picking next time we go.  If they wanted to grumble but then be happy next time, they would get donuts instead.)

There was a polar bear, so I had my picture taken.

Our garage door broke last night.  They were able to come out and fix it right after lunch.  It was a little funny because I sent Ben a text saying it was fixed and literally a half second later I got a call from him.  He had just received a text saying that they were on their way to fix the garage door.  We laughed about the timing and sighed about how so many companies text Ben after clearly stating I should be the point of contact.

Thursday: not exciting

Today was, thankfully, much less exciting than yesterday.  We originally had plans to go to a playground with a friend, but that got canceled.  We moved a few plans around to make the schedule work better, but nothing exciting.  

We went rock climbing today (instead of tomorrow).  I also went to my karate class tonight, and will probably do so for the rest of the summer, so that we can have a free night on Wednesdays.

Wednesday: unexpected

I had a plan in mind for the day.  For the most part, it went to plan, but the little things in between were completely unexpected.

I dropped a Coke can nine inches and it opened, spraying Coke all over the kitchen.  Isaac was there and Joshua was willing to help clean it up too.  We got it done, but I felt so sticky afterwards.   The picture isn't very good but I'm walking to the bathroom on a little rag so my sticky feet don't touch the floor.

We had our ducts cleaned today.  They haven't been cleaned since the house was built and a few things I've read have said that they don't really need to be cleaned.  However, we're still dealing with some drugstore beetles and I don't know where they're coming from so we had the vents cleaned.  We'll see if it helps at all.  It was significantly louder than I was expecting.

As the duct guy left the pest control guy showed up.  I mentioned we had the ducts cleaned because we couldn't figure out the bug situation and he scoffed at that.  ("Well, the pest spray isn't really helping either," I thought to myself.)  At the end he seemed so surprised that they were all on one side of the house (away from the food) and that they were drugstore beetles.  He even took a few pictures because ...he didn't believe me?  I offered him a specimen to take as I have plenty, but he elected not to do that.  They told me the spray doesn't eradicate them, but it does kill on contact at least.

After dropping Joshua off to science camp Isaac and I sewed a little cover for his nightlight to make it less bright.  The cover fit surprisingly well for something we just threw together and it made the nightlight look like a little pillow (as you can see in the bottom of the picture).  So we also made Giraffe a little pillow.

Joshua and I got home after camp and I was talking to Isaac about life when we hear Joshua call out, "can you come help?"  "I'm stuck."  "You're going to be surprised."  He had sat in a 5 gallon bucket and couldn't get out.  Long story and about ten minutes later I had cut the top of the bucket and he was free.  Yay for tin snips. And now our bucket has a pouring spot.

Tuesday: climbing

 Isaac and I went rock climbing while Joshua was at a science camp.  I was hoping for a bunch of new routes, but we were there two weeks ago so there wasn't much new.  I noted at one point that I wasn't sure what to work on because there were a bunch of kids on the auto-belays.

Isaac encouraged me to do a V1.  I got it!  Then I tried a V2 again.  I had tried it last time we climbed and it did not go well.  This time I got it!  It is helpful to have Isaac nearby both for encouragement and ideas.

vacation Sunday part 2 (June 7): WoW

The place we went to after lunch was called WoW, which I'm sure stands for something.  It's an outdoor playground, but it's really more of a mix between a playground and a ropes course.  We have most of the elements in the US, but nothing like it in the US that I've seen.  As a bonus, Ben got in for free because of Father's Day!

The place was huge and it was fun to walk around and see what there was.  We came to a zipline first.  I almost suggested passing it, since we have ziplines, but instead we went on it.  There was no line and it was nice big fast one.

Then we ran into a rope net with balls.  I was going to go on it, but it was too jumpy for me - I can't jump and this was moving around too much.  The kids were on it for a bit.  Joshua almost lost his glasses in the swamp underneath and that would have been a problem.  Luckily the rope caught them.

There was a hamster wheel by the net.

Next was a rope balance.  Joshua was doing well on it and then Isaac started.  Joshua kept laughingly yelling at Isaac to stop trying to knock him off, but really that just naturally happens when two people are on it.  

Cheryl didn't want to climb the fairly steep hill that lead to the rope balance, so we set off to find her.  However, there was a water pillow that we ran into first.  So obviously the kids jumped on that while I went to find Ben and Cheryl - we then went around the non-steep way.  Ben and I sat on the water pillow and it was harder than I expected, but still a little bouncy.  We didn't stay here for too long.

There was a small slide next to the water pillow.  By small I mean larger than most playground slides, but small in comparison to the nearby slides.  It used sleds to go down, which was nice because I didn't have to worry about getting my clothes wet and it slid well.

Reflex test!  Isaac and Joshua both caught one bar, while Ben and I caught most of the bars.  When Ben was pulling the rope there was a tell for several of them though.  He pulled them in such a way that they shook a bit before actually falling down.

We went through a snake maze, which was really just following the body of a snake.  There wasn't really an maze to go with it.  They had bent all the trees at an angle though, so it was an interesting tree canopy to walk through.  Right as we were exiting the maze it started to rain again, and after a moment it did not seem as though it was going to stop.  Never fear!  I had rain ponchos!  They were decent ponchos too.  The forecast had called for quite a bit of rain throughout the two weeks so I had water-proofed our shoes too.  We continued on.  

Next was the actual maze we were looking for.  It would have been nicer if it wasn't raining out because there wouldn't be puddles, but I enjoyed myself.  Ben's shoes had some larger holes in the mesh and so his shoes weren't as dry as ideal but he dealt with it.  We all split up, but when I got out I found that two people had decided not to go in.  It took Isaac a bit to come out, but we finally got him out too.  During this time I went in a labyrinth nearby - it was just circles to walk through with a lookout in the middle.  (The circles were made of trees though, so it wasn't much of a lookout per se.)

From there we could see the big slide - the highest free fall slide in Scandinavia.  There were two other tall slides on the lower too.  We all started with the "lowest" slide, which was perfect and fun.  Then Ben went to the tall slide and the rest of us did the spiral slide.  Oh my, that was not as much fun.  The spiral was really tight and it was bumpy and I came off of it slightly sick.  Ben had come down the big slide by this time and loved it.  The two boys went up to do it too, although Joshua was a bit on the edge.  Joshua had also taken his rain jacket off by now because it was just misting once in a while.  Joshua came down and was not happy.  His carpet square sled had been wet and so his whole shirt and pants were wet.  He also didn't enjoy the drop, because there is a steep drop at the beginning.  Ben loved the drop again and I think Isaac enjoyed it too, but I was paying more attention to Joshua at that moment.

We moved to the next area and Ben and I were questioning our choice.  I had really wanted to go here, but there were other options in the area that we could have done instead due to the rain.  The rain had started again and Joshua was grumpy.  However, things started to turn around again.  Our next station was a low ropes course and Joshua got excited about it and his attitude turned around.  The rain slowly started letting up too.

We continued exploring and found another rope trampoline.  There were no other people on it and only one ball.  Then some more zip lines!  More ropes courses!  More rope trampolines!  We found a bunch of variations on the same theme but it was fun to explore and find one what came next.  The things were all different enough that the kids wanted to explore whatever play item was next.

We moved into a new section.  There were some similar things, but again there were new variation on the themes.  There was a really high net trampoline.  We found some tarzan ropes and a beam swing.  The beam swing was fun, but got uncomfortable rather quickly.  At this point we thought the rain was done, but the weather forecast was so weird.  It couldn't predict whether or not it was going to rain in the next thirty minutes.

(This is one of several favorite pictures.)

The next spot we found had another high rope trampoline with two large balls.  The kids played here for at least 30 minutes.  The weather was nice and we just enjoyed being outside.

(This is another favorite)

Large swings were the last items that we found.  The kind you have to jump on and and you get a long arc.  There were a few other things as we walked back to the start, but that was about the end.  While Ben and I doubted our choice in the middle, in the end I think it was a great choice.  (To be fair though, the other choices probably would have been good too.)

We decided to walk to a nearby fast food burger place for dinner.  It didn't have great ratings, but we all thought it was delicious.  The biggest problem was that it was SO. HOT. INSIDE.  It was like a sauna.  There was outside seating area so we sat there instead, but it wasn't exactly warm.  Not cold, just not warm either.

Joshua and I got back to the room first and I made Joshua start his journal email.  He wanted to hide from Ben and Isaac though, so he ended up typing under the bed.

There was a nice looking swimming pool so we decided to go there to round out the evening and to stay awake a bit longer.  The water was so nice and warm.  I usually get cold in pools quickly, but this was like bathwater.  They also had a lot of floaty things, including a 3'x3'x4" foam square, that were fun to horse around with.  We all tried to get on the square a few times, but couldn't quite get all of us on.  I left a bit early because a headache was starting and apparently after I left the three boys tried to sink the foam rectangle.  It ended up shooting out of the water and hitting a window pretty hard, but nothing broke so all was fine.