Ruby Swings!

Legoland Billund: Part One

Last Friday, the train line that runs all around Denmark had a special deal for travel anywhere in Denmark for about $15 each/one-way (with a seat). Jared got to talking with his friends at work and they decided we should all go to Legoland in Billund. I must admit I was very apprehensive since our long train ride a few weeks ago was very hard on Ruby (and us!). But, we decided to go for it and we were all glad that we did...

For those that don't already know, LEGO bricks (they don't like the term "legos" apparently) and all the accessories were invented in Denmark. According to Wikipedia:

The Lego Group had humble beginnings in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a poor carpenter from Billund, Denmark. Ole Kirk started creating wooden toys in 1932, but it wasn't until 1949 that the famous plastic Lego brick was created. The company name Lego was coined by Christiansen from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning "play well".

Having played with LEGO bricks my whole life (well, practically) I didn't have a clue that they were invented in Denmark. Apparently there are also four different Legolands--the original and largest in Billund, Denmark, then three others in USA, Germany, and England.

So, after waking up at 5am, a 2 1/2 hour train ride and two bus trips totally about 1 1/4 hours, we made it to Legoland Billund. The trip there was great since there were two four year olds along with us that Ruby was very interested in. They weren't getting along that great, but even listening and watching the arguing and rough-housing was better than listening to Ruby scream by a long shot. Once we got there we had a rather ironic experience... Julie (Jared's co-worker) decided that we should all buy our tickets in advance so that we wouldn't have to wait in a long line to purchase tickets. Apparently everyone else had the same idea and while there were about 6 or 8 booths to buy tickets and at least that many aisles to enter the park through, there was only ONE guy that had to scan every one of the tickets we had printed out at home! The line was HUGE and pretty time-consuming, but once we got in everything was peachy.

There are seven different "worlds" inside Legoland Billund: DUPLO Country, Imagination Zone, LEGOREDO Town, Adventure Country, Miniland, Pirate Country and Knights Kingdom. The first picture in this post is a LEGO model of the docks area in Copenhagen featuring lots of Maersk machines and containers in Miniland. The next one of my head inside the lions mouth was just around the park... I'm not sure which "world", but I had just bonked my head really hard on some protruding LEGO bricks, which is why I have the funny look on my face. The third one is of Ruby and Jared sitting with H.C. Andersen. Then, this one is in LEGOREDO Town where we panned for gold and then they melted it down into a medal... kind of cool actually. Jared was totally captivated by the process and took about a zillion pictures... I'll just leave you with one!

This final picture is of a LEGO modle of the Billund airport. The little planes actually taxied around and the planes with propellers would spin, etc. The whole Miniland was really awesome. They had models of scenes from all over the world. I noticed that in these pictures it's really hard to tell that everything is made from LEGO bricks, but it is. They said that you could make everything they have at home with the commercially available bricks... of course they didn't say how much it would cost you to collect enough of the right bricks to do it!

Our Little May Flower: Ruby Rae

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We have had about two weeks with some rain every day. The last few days, the rain has been accompanied by rather strong gusty winds--YUCK! I guess I was just totally spoiled by those nice days that we had because now I really want summer to come and stay! Our extra time indoors has given Ruby lots more time practicing walking on her little twinkle toes. We've discovered that if she hold something in one hand (e.g. her xylophone mallet!) she seems to be able to find her balance and walk better just holding one hand. She is very wobbly though, to the point that we really wonder if something isn't going on with her ears. Skip ahead if this is too much information for you...

BUT, Ruby has always had LOTS of earwax. Not a big deal, but you have to be pretty diligent about cleaning up or else you end up with rather yucky ears after say a week. Well, for the last month or so there hasn't been much of any. Could this mean that they aren't draining properly and maybe it has her a bit unbalanced? We aren't really sure, but it just seems like she has been at this "almost walking" stage for about 4 months (or maybe more!). Everyone kept telling us that once she walks with your hands it will be no time at all. Well, that was at LEAST two or three months ago that that started, so obviously she is really taking her time or something is holding her up. I guess I just need to be thankful that she's taking her time becuase I'm sure she'll be even more of a monkey once she has that extra bit of freedom and mobility.

We had a "don't you just HATE technology!?!" moment last weekend when we discovered that the bank had de-activated both of our bank cards. This was totally our fault becuase eons ago they sent us new cards saying that the ones that we had were screwed up. Well, since we had never had a problem with them, we never got around to activating the NEW ones and eventually they got lost (well, I think they were actually thrown away--OOPS!). So, here we are at Baby Sam with about $80 worth of stuff for Ruby and we had to just leave. To make matters worse, Thursday and Friday are national holidays, so the soonest we will get our cards is Monday. Couple that with our upcoming trip to Legoland and the fact that about half of the Danske Banks don't even have paper money (other than the ATMs), this really has been a pain in the neck. Jared has, as usual, fixed us up just fine to get through the weekend, so we should be peachy (I hope!).

I thought that this picture I took of Ruby this morning kissing Trixie was so cute! She really does love that little doll and drags her all around with her. She loves to have Trixie use her toys like the rocking horse and her little walker. She'll even lug her through the tunnel with her--what a nut! It's nice that she has her little "best friend" to do things with because she really does play with her for quite a long time on her good days!

I'll end with a quick tadpole update. I know that some of you (well, maybe just Rachel!) are as interested in this whole process as I am. That whitish blob beneath the visible tadpoles are all the egg sacs and eggs that never hatched. They seem to be munching away at this day and night, though some have started to work on the duckweed, etc. I thought I could just barely see little nubs of legs starting, but it's really quite difficult to see in the pond water without actually sticking your face in and well, I guess I'm just not that curious!

Have a great day everyone! And stay tuned for some quick video clips of Ruby playing in the next day or so...

Stubberkloster: Part Two

Well, here we've been back over a week and I still haven't gotten all the pictures posted from our trip to Jutland... pitiful. In my defense, Jared came down with a nasty cold late last week and has been medicating himself with hours and hours of silly computer games. I've been known to play plenty of games myself, so I really can't say much, but that's how it's been. On top of the games, Jared has also been faithfully hunting down the best fares for our trip to the US this summer. I'm so happy to announce that we will be flying into Chicago on June 21st and staying for about 2 1/2 weeks! Yeah! We're not going to even think about how difficult the flights may be with Ruby, but pray for some kind of miracle! Ruby has a doctor's appointment in a week and I'll ask her for some of the "travelling medicine" Claire got for Carter to help him sleep... baby tranqs!

We are a bit anxious about this visit because we need the doctor to check out a little lump we found a few days ago. It feels like a little cyst or ball of fat on the back of Ruby's head. So, please, everyone say an extra prayer about this. I'm sure that it probably isn't serious, but it's hard not knowing for sure. Jared will try to come to the appointment with me to catch everything that's being said in Danish that I always miss. Anyway, back to the pictures of our trip to Jutland!!

The first picture is of Leo at his pig farm. They own a mink farm and an organic pig farm. The operation was really quite interesting. They have five groups of mothers (about 200 total, I believe). They go through the rotation twice a year of getting pregnant, then going into their "private" yards to give birth and keep the babies for 8 weeks, then it's back to get pregnant a few weeks later. The babies move along to various places until their slaughter at about 6 months. I was quite shocked at how big they get in that short of time. I was also surprised at how clean it was... really neat.

The next two pictures are from an outing in Leo's Land Cruiser around the property. Along with the farms, they also own a lot of land that they raise Christmas trees on and trees for the pine boughs, etc. used each year for decoration. They also have a hunting lodge and have people come and hunt there for deer and wild pigs (which they have a lot of!). This picture is of the lakes and the little monastary (kloster) that the farm is named after. It's really hard to see in this picture, but is on the strip of land between the two lakes.

Here is a picture of the main house. Really beautiful and very huge and sprawling by Danish standards. I wish I would have taken some pictures inside becuase they had lots of Danish design furniture. It's a very sleek and modern looking design, but they still manage to make it feel homey. Anyway, we were so thankful for the wonderful visit and the chance to reconnect after all these years. Hopefully we will see them again before too many more months pass.