Legoland Denmark

Legos are originally Danish and so is Legoland.  This was the first one.  We went with Mia, John, Ethan, Edward, and David's brother, Jon.  David's sisters were there with their families as well.

Ethan and Edward with Lego treasure.

 We went on a fire truck ride where we had to drive a fire truck to the fire then put out the fire.  Our team was awesome!

 

Then we saw the penguins.

We went for a buffet lunch in the castle and the restaraunt had the coolest play place ever.  Huge foam legos were a big hit.  Ethan built a huge tower.

Here's John and Austin on a lego boat ride.

And Mia and Edward.

 
Ethan rode with his Grandpa (the photographer).

By some miracle of fate the babies actually fell asleep and had a nice nap.

We stopped for a snack and Grandpa was showing Edward how he could feed him without looking and it would look like Edward had man hands.

Legoland had a really great aquarium.  It had sharks and all different kinds of beautiful fish big and small.

Ethan and Edward even got to hold a crab.

Bryson to went off with his Uncle Jon and his cousin for some big kid rides.  His favorite was one one where you program what moves you want on the ride, then you are fastened into a huge robotic arm that reads your card and gives you your ride.  It was very cool.

After a stop for some ice cream and the gift shop, we headed back to the vacation house.  What a fun-filled day!

 

Denmark Day 1 - Hans Christian Andersen

We spend the rest of our travel day recovering from the jet lag which worked pretty well.  We were served a wonderful Danish dinner of new potatoes, frikadeller (seasoned meat patties), and polser (hotdogs, only much better).
 For our first day of touring in Denmark, we visited a city called Odense.  We started out with lunch at a cafe with Alice, and David's sisters Jonna and Jennifer and their families.  Odense has a Hans Christian Andersen musuem and the house that they think he was born in.  There were a few things that struck me when learning more about HC Andersen.  He obviously had a big impact through his stories like the Ugly Duckling and the Little Mermaid to name a few more popular ones.  And his talent of telling stories was recognized and rewarded during his time.  Not many artistic and creative people can claim the same.  He also loved to do paper cuttings.  Still to this day most danish households have intricate paper cut outs at least for their Christmas tree decorations and many for window decorations other times of the year.  This all stems from Hans Christian Anderson.  He had an incredible impact on his country.

The babies weren't very excited about most of the museum exhibits, but we kept them busy going from yellow square to yellow square. 

We walked around the old part of Odense when we were done with the museum.  The babies' cousin Tommy was entertaining them with Peek a Boo while some people stopped for souveniers.

To let the kids have some fun we stopped by a park before heading home.

 

Grandma helped Kadence pick some flowers out of the grass.

Hello from Denmark!

 

 

Austin liked walking along the wall at the park and jumping off the end.  Cousin Betsy is leading the procession, cousin Zac is bringing up the rear.

When we got back the the house, we found Mia and her family waiting for us.  They had just flown in.  That night we had a danish chicken soup and then went swimming in the indoor pool.  What a great day!

Denmark, here we come!

We have the fantastic opportunity of joining David's mom Alice and most of David's brothers and sisters in Denmark for a vacation. Alice is having a Gymnasium (high school in Denmark) reunion so she rented a large vacation home and invited all her kids. David spent a year in Denmark when he was in 5th grade and was excited to go back and see where he lived and to see where Alice grew up.  So off we go...
 
The airport is so boring we could chew our shoes!

The airport is so boring I could chew her shoe!

Bryson actually told the babies to bite their shoe to see what they would do.  Thanks, Bryson! Watching movies on the plane was more fun.

And playing games on our i-pod

Now it's time for stories and a nap.

 

 A 5 hour flight from Boston to Iceland, a short layover in Iceland, and a 3 hour flight to Copenhagen and we're finally there!

And trying to entertain babies while waiting for the rental car.

 

Let the festivities begin...

In New York, as soon as graduation is over, the graduation parties begin.  Most people have one, so there is a party most evenings for the 3 weeks after graduation.  The day after graduation, McKay was the DJ for two of his friends who were having their party together.  He has DJed a few church dances and has worked hard to acquire all the equipment he needs.

 

Mckay and Bryson mixing it up.

 

Here is McKay with a bunch of his friends that he graduated with.

Kadence and Austin had a good time eating potato chips and playing in the ice for the sodas.

 

I love this picture of McKay.

Voorheesville Class of 2012

The day has finally arrived.  All assignments have been handed in, all tests are complete, and all requirements have been met.  Graduation day.  While McKay has been looking forward to this for sometime he has the same dilema all graduating seniors have.  A conflict with being so happy to be done with the work and so sad to see it all come to an end combined with the uncertainty of what the future holds.

He insisted on one final bike ride to the school since he has done this countless times over the past years.

Here is McKay as the procession entered the Auditorium

 

 

The ceremony was very nice including one of the student speakers that made a comment about how she could never beat McKay in a rapping competition (he's quite the rapper).  The graduating class also presented their class gift to the school.  They had the great idea of giving the school a mascot costume.  Now there will be a Blackbird Mascot at the sporting events.

And finally...time for diplomas!

 

He did it!