Saturday, May 31, 2014

Surprise Vacation

This past year has been, let's say, less than usual.  We moved to a new city, started a new school, and I worked more-than full time outside the home.  Then there was a revolution followed by a war in the east.  We lived on the verge of evacuation for months. Yeah, not our "normal" kind of year.  A few months back we decided that this kind of year deserved an unprecedented vacation to kind of balance out the bad with the good.  We told the kids that as soon as school is out we are going away...to somewhere in Europe...but it was going to be a surprise.
Stop-over in Krakow

We took our time getting there, stopping for three nights along the way.  The kids colored a map of the countries we traveled through.  I expected that crossing into Denmark would give it away because a few months ago the kids were begging us to take them there for their "dream vacation" which we promptly discredited as too far away and too expensive. (Wink, wink)

Boy were they surprised when we pulled into Legoland Hotel's parking lot. Watch it here.

It did turn out to be far away and expensive but a lot of fun too!  The kids were the perfect age since the hotel caters to kids.  They enjoyed the scavenger hunts around the hotel and the lego building competitions.  Abigail and Matthew both won prizes.  We were expecting some little mini-lego set but Matthew won two average-sized lego sets and Abigail won the Champion Lego game. 

Inside an "Adventure" room complete with two bins of Legos.
Included in our accommodations was a two-day pass to Legoland.  The rides were the perfect amount of adventure and Elizabeth was just the right size to enjoy all the rides as the big kids. 







We're still making our way home.  We spent today walking around Berlin. (Pictures will have to come in a different post.)  On our way home we'll stop off in Budapest, Romania, and Mukachevo to see our friends.  It's been a great trip!  And a much needed one at that.