Everything you see in this post is made of Lego

Ok, so not everything.  Not even a majority, really.  Frankly, come to think of it, surprisingly little of Legoland was actually made of Legos.  But there was enough to keep our kids entertained on their Christmas present trip to Legoland.

I asked Paige if she really wanted me to post all 54 photos that she had starred, and she said something about Jonathan posting 800 photos of their one kid, so he could sit through a few photos of ours.  So here you go, enough photos to make your retinas bleed.  It's the modern day equivalent of me forcing you to watch our vacation slideshow, except you can scroll down really fast if you get bored.

We loaded up the van on Wednesday and made the drive over to Carlsbad, CA.  Luke, being only 34 inches tall and therefore not tall enough to ride most everything there, got to stay home for a hugely hyped "adventure with his old granny."

We arrived at the hotel that night and curled up in the comfy beds, while visions of Lego danced in our heads.

Oh, and also visions of some mysterious cancer causing chemical, given that this was posted at the entrance to our hotel building...

Seriously.  Is that not the most useless sign ever?  Exactly what kind of chemical am I supposed to look out for?  What area is it in?  Just this corner of the hotel?  The whole building?  The whole hilltop?  The state?

Californians...



So the next morning we headed to Legoland (hopefully all cancer free.)

Levi and Noah were totally into their maps, of course.

We were one of the first to the dragon roller coaster.

It was here that we discovered that Noah is not especially fond of roller coasters.  While Ella was screaming with glee, and Levi whooped and hollered like Daffy Duck, Noah broke down into tears and terror at the first drop down the hill.  I believe he claimed he was never going on a roller coaster again as soon as he was off the thing.

The super slow jousting horses were more his speed.

Even on the tame bouncing ride he wasn't quite sure he was having fun.  I've got 13 pictures of this ride.  In each photo, Ella and Levi have huge smiles.  Noah alternates between half-smiles and looks of serious concern as to his safety.

We braved the water ride, even though the temperature seemed to be barely above freezing.

The lady on this ride claimed this elephant was made of 284 gazillion Legos.  She actually said how many Legos it had, and I made a point of attempting to remember, but have since forgotten the count.

At some point Levi and Noah discovered that there were XBox games at strategic locations around the park.  All other rides promptly became second fiddle to the prospect of being able to play real, live, XBox.

We somehow pried them away though.

Luckily for them, they discovered that Legoland also sold churros.  A place with Xbox and churros?  It's like what 5 year olds must imagine heaven is like.

We finally rolled back up to the hotel late that night.  I headed out to the local TGI Fridays to pick up something resembling actual dinner, as opposed to churros and hot dogs enjoyed at the park.  There, I discovered that the mysterious cancer chemical was also in the food.  Wonderful.

Again, a highly useful sign.  Chemicals "may" be present here?  Well, are they, or aren't they?  And how am I supposed to know?  Does that sign mean I shouldn't eat the food?  Or just certain foods?  Or I should bring my handy "cancer causing chemical detection kit" to test the food prior to consumption?

Californians...

After waking up the next morning without any obvious tumors, we headed out to Legoland for day two.  Having seen most of what the place had to offer the previous day, Levi and Noah came armed with a list of exactly what their highest priorities were for the day.  Number one?

I think we actually convinced them to go one one ride before Xbox, because the lines would be shorter first thing in the morning.  But they made it to Xbox as soon as they could, and hit it several more times throughout the day.

They dug up dino bones.

The fairy tale cruise.

Duplo village.  Pronounced "Duh-plo" if you really want to drive Paige crazy.

Squirt guns.

We did some minature golfing.  Again with the signs, this one on the hut at the entrance the the mini golf area...

I asked Kaitlyn behind the counter if the attractions that would spray me with water were in any way related to the cancer causing chemicals (much to my wife's embarrassment.)  Kaitlyn assured me that I would be perfectly safe while golfing.  I'm not sure how exactly she knows that, but I took her word for it.

Californians...

I'm not sure if this was the water spraying attraction, the cancer causing one, or both.  I'm also not sure that the intricate level of detail in the Lego modeling of the skunk's rear end was entirely appropriate for a children's entertainment venue...

While the skunk spray may not have caused cancer, I believe it did cause grumpiness.  Neither Noah or Levi made it through all 18 holes, and got pulled off the course for timeouts.

We ended the night with fireworks and hot chocolate before heading back to the hotel.

Day three dawned with an unexpected plan to go for a quick trip to the aquarium prior to driving home.

Which Paige somehow expanded into additional rides.  Complete with raincoats.  Obviously this was not spur of the moment, and she and the children were colluding against my attempts at a timely departure from cancer-land.  And shooting me with squirtguns.

A stop by a Lego shark.

A log ride.

That is the grin of a woman who has tricked her husband into spending an extra day at Legoland.

The one picture out of 414 proving I was actually there.

And now, at 12:37 according to the picture timestamp, we make it to the aquarium.  So much for "we will just go see the fish real quick, and then leave."  Suuuuuure we will.

And after the aquarium, we made our way back through the park towards the van to leave. Of course, Paige snuck onto a few more rides.  Because apparently all the hungover parents slept in on New Years Day, and the park was empty, and how could we pass up this opportunity?

Although I will say that the sight of terrified little Noah screaming down the hill, eyes wide with terror, does give a parent a certain sense of satisfaction, having endured the terrible threes at the hands of said child.

We didn't make it back to the van until around 2:00.  A little later than at least one of us was planning on.  We loaded up all our tired and happy kids, and got ready for the drive back.

However, we did have one quick task to take care of prior to pulling out of the hotel parking lot.  We also think this may explain the source of all the noxious chemicals that this area apparently has in their water...

Arizonans... ;)

I've been workin' on the railroad

Merry day after Christmas!

AJ Lock did a fine job getting us back into our van this morning...

Guy did that scary fast...

Melly Clismaaaa!

I just gave them blanket permission

While we were down and out with the flu this weekend, Noah was listening to a Winnie the Pooh book on tape, when I overheard this...

Really?  Really?

I told Noah I hereby gave him permission to climb any tree, without having to ask me first.

Ever.

What is this world coming to?

Meteors!

The Geminid meteor shower hit its peak last night. For whatever reason, I got the itch to see some meteors. So I loaded up some blankets and a lawn chair and headed away from the city lights at 2 AM. At least, a little ways away.

I saw a bunch of meteors. Watched for about an hour before I got cold (I know... wuss) and saw probably 50 of them.

I attempted to get pictures. With a 15 second exposure, I figured I could at least capture something.  But after 47 photos, all I got was this...



Oh wait.  That was a semi truck full of smelly livestock.  Different kind of meteor.

I actually got a whole bunch of this...

Multiple times when I triggered the camera, meteors would fall all around the field of view (but not in it.)  Then just as I heard the click inidcating it was done taking that exposure, a huge one would go streaking right through were I was aiming.

The show is still supposed to be going on tonight if you want to head out in the wee hours!

Answered Prayer

So today we received our much awaited court date!  You may have heard me audibly scream out in joy as I checked my email, for the 1 millionth time this month, to find our date.  We are scheduled for court on February 28, 2011.  That is now one of my favorite days of the year! 

Now the planning of travel and childcare can finally get under way.  Now we have a date and can make plans.  Ahh, that feels so good.

No, we do not know when we will bring her home.  That will be the next and final great wait.  Just let me enjoy this moment of being able to make plans to go and meet my daughter.  Ahh, that feels so good.  :)

(Yup, her hand.  All we dare post right now.)

For "cousin" Hannah

After our cousins came to visit, Ella and Hannah agreed to write letters.  Hannah held up her end of the bargain, and we soon got a cute little card.  It has since disappeared, but I believe it said something about the northern Addink cousins growing pumpkins.

So here's a picture for Hannah, to show that we southern cousins can do the same.  Not that we really put much effort into it.

 

Not that I am certain those really are pumpkins.  They could be poison ivy for all this city slicker knows (my wife says it isn't.  I'll take her word.)  I'm just guessing pumpkins since all the Halloween leftovers went in the compost bin, and a short time later things started growing out the sides of it, unprovoked by us.

Which leads perfectly into a quote from C.S. Lewis that our pastor read today...

"The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. . . .

In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity.… But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders. Or one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the deathlike region of ooze and slime and old decay; then up again, back to colour and light, his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. He and it are both coloured now that they have come up into the light: down below, where it lay colourless in the dark, he lost his colour too.

In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognise a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends. It is the pattern of all animal generation too. There is descent from the full and perfect organisms into the spermatozoon and ovum, and in the dark womb … the slow ascent to the perfect embryo, to the living, conscious baby, and finally to the adult. So it is also in our moral and emotional life. The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial: but from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and Re-birth—go down to go up—it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies.

The doctrine of the Incarnation, if accepted, puts this principle even more emphatically at the centre. The pattern is there in Nature because it was first there in God. All the instances of it which I have mentioned turn out to be but transpositions of the Divine theme into a minor key. I am not now referring simply to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. The total pattern, of which they are only the turning point, is the real Death and Re-birth: for certainly no seed ever fell from so fair a tree into so dark and cold a soil as would furnish more than a faint analogy to this huge descent and re-ascension in which God dredged the salt and oozy bottom of Creation."

C. S. Lewis, Miracles (New York: Macmillan, 1947), 112, 115-17.

What am I going to do with this kid?

Levi wanted to mail a letter to his aunt, so we had to walk down to the mailbox.



Since it is at the end of the block, we had to put on shoes.

I suppose I did just say "put on shoes" and didn't specfically spell out that they should be your own shoes, and not your sister's fancy girly shoes. I generally assume such things are just understood.

Perhaps I should assume less, and spell out more...

Please pray!

This past week new information from Ethiopia was handed out to families in our agency. We were thrilled to get a "new" update of our precious daughter and the best part is always new pictures. She is just as cute as day one! We love her dearly and are still praying that whatever mountains, that seem to be standing in the way, can be cleared and that Sophie can come home. I must admit I had another sleepless night praying and begging God all night long to spare her life and bring her home, SOON.

The news in the updates is always two months old. So we found out that in the beginning of October she was pretty sick and had to be put on an antibiotic. At the end of October when the report was written, she weighed in at 11lbs 7.5 oz. She weighed at 5 months old what Ella weighed at 7 weeks! My heart is aching for her. I have no way to help her. It is a miserable feeling. I am hoping that she is better now and gaining weight, but I have no way of knowing.

This coming week she will turn 7 months old. Please, please, pray. She needs lots of prayer.

Pray for her health and safety.
Pray for her to grow!
Pray that her parents (that us!) get a court date sooner rather than later.
Pray that she is being cared for durring her sickness and knows what love feels like.
Pray that our adoption will move forward without glitches.

Grab bag

I’ve been too busy at work to actually blog anything.  So instead you get a bunch of little tiny posts, all rolled into one.

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First of all, no, we don't have any more info about our munchkin.  Our agency told us we would have a court date before the end of the year.  Possibly he meant next year, cause it sure doesn't look like it will be in the next two weeks.  We are hearing from other people who got referrals around the same time we did that court dates are out in February.  And hearing from other people that the process in Ethiopia is really slowing down.  Note that both of those we heard from "other people."  As in... not from our agency.  We expected to be frustrated by the wait time, but the utter lack of communication from our agency is by far the most frustrating thing about the whole process.

We did, however, get another medical update, which included new pictures and some details that I sooo wish we could share with you.  But we can't, at least until this is all legal.  Which we are really praying doesn't take another 11 months...

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We took our kids on a big ol' bike ride the other day.  First we headed over to the park, where the kids practiced their tree climbing.

Then we rode over to Sonic for a late lunch.  Paige found a wounded little bird on the side of the road and had to stop to rescue him.  He rode with Luke in his trailer.  At least there is no doubt where Levi gets his love of all little woodland creatures (since there is no way I would stop to help a bird.  Creepy little suckers that peck your eyes out!)

The kids are getting pretty good at their bikes.

Of course, that was on the way back from Sonic.  On the way there, we had this...

Paige thinks I am a mean 'ol dad for posting this.  However, I'm merely interested in the physics.  And fairly impressed that Noah went down that hard and walked away with only a beat up finger and a scraped chin.  And then got right back on the bike and rode the rest of the way to Sonic.  With his eyes fixed firmly ahead.

And I'm impressed that I managed to get off my bike and to Noah in 3.2 seconds, without dropping my iPhone.

Noah's finger, the worst of the damage (he excitedly told me today that the scab fell off!)

By the time we got home Luke was pooped.

And the little rescued bird?  Nowhere to be seen.  Guess he didn't want to be saved.

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Speaking of Luke, he has now learned how to crawl in and out of his crib.  So I took the side rail off his crib.  Paige wanted to wait until we had a bedrail to put along the side, since she was sure he would fall out and injure himself.  But since he was already dropping 3 feet down the side of the crib, I figured a roll out the 1 foot side wouldn't hurt him.

And no, this post doesn't end with some story of how I was wrong and we ended up in the ER.  Just a cute picture of Luke, almost falling out of his bed.

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Our church home group leaders live right across the street.  The other day, their youngest daughter was selling lemonade (yes, you can sell lemonade on the sidewalk in December in Phoenix.)  Ella walked over to get some, and shortly came back.

"Dad, I need five dollars."

"For what!?!?  Are you buying the whole pitcher?"

"No.  Just one glass."

Aye carrumba!  Their daughter has certainly got the whole profit margin thing down, but possibly not the supply and demand part yet.  And my daughter was totally willing to fork over $5 for a single glass of lemonade.  Later that night, we saw this sign posted at the end of the street:

Ahhhh, too funny!

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The other week we went to Chunky Cheese to celebrate a birthday with friends.  Yes, our kids call it ChuNky Cheese, no matter how many times we tell them the cheese isn't chunky.

Observation #1:  We may have been the only white people there.  Since when did Chucky Cheese become an all minority thing.  Very weird.

Observation #2:  Levi and Noah have somehow picked up admirable boat steering skills.  I'm not exactly sure how, but I was impressed.

Observation #3:  Luke does not like to share his video game with anyone.

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Back to bike riding.

After Noah's big wipeout, Levi decided five days later that he didn't need training wheels.  Not sure what possessed him, but he got Paige to take them off.  And then, without missing a beat, he rode down the street.  He was so excited, he had to take his bike out for a nightime ride to show me when I got home.

And then the next day, Noah decided he could do it too.

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Our HOA had a big Christmas party in the park at the end of the street.  This was as close as our kids would get to Santa (Luke was home napping, but likely would have stayed even further away.)