Denmark

When you are blessed to have friends like family you hold on tight - through the years and the miles.  Back in 2009 we were blessed to have the Sorensens as neighbors and they became like family.  Their kids (Mads & Ida) were like our niece & nephew and we have had the pleasure to watch them grow from 4th & 6th graders to fantastic young adults.  Here is Mads, showing that he's not too cool to show the girls around.

Simon and Jonah, and then again later Allan and Anna, took a crazy ride on the swings.  Apparently you get a great view of Copenhagen and even into Sweden from those heights, and all the riders loved it!

Anna and a giraffe at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.  Given Anna's lovie is a giraffe, this choice is totally on point.

Ida & Mads posing with our kids in Hillerod with their town castle in the background.

What was once the castle in Hillerod has now been claimed by Julia as her new home.

King Jonah.  I think the crown suits him.

Julia also tried her hand out at royalty.  She quite liked it, even if it only lasted a few minutes.

Julia, with her Danish flag, fitting right in.

Brothers at the playground.

Jonah and his best Danish friend, Simba.  Jonah doesn't remember Simba from his baby days, but it didn't take long for them to get reacquainted
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The kids at Legoland.  This place blew all of our minds!  The hotel was so full of character and the park itself was perfect for our family.  The cruise may have exposed the kids to all sorts of culture, but it is the Legoland portion of our trip that will really stick with the kids in the years to come.

Anna and Indiana Jones - Lego style.

If there is a princess, Julia will find her.  This is of course the famous blue Lego princess.  Unlike Disney princesses, Lego princesses don't seem to have a persona they need to adhere to and are able to freely interact with visitors.  I don't know much about the blue Lego princess, but it was a lot of fun to meet her.

Jonah giving Julia a ride around Legoland.  Because of Jonah's disability, he got a special pass that allowed him and 3 "helpers" to by-pass all the lines.  His ability to have the pass was born out of this last year, so the cost was very high, but as we accept that this is the season we're in, it did help enhance our experience.

Noah and Anna now have Danish drivers license.  Ok, they're only valid in Legoland, but the kids were really proud - and also prepared to try and drive the rental van.

What's better and 1 giant cotton candy (candy floss if you're Danish)?  Clearly, 2 giant cotton candies.  Fear not, we managed to eat both of them with no trouble.

Jonah, doing his part to reduce our cotton candy burden.

The girls also did a nice job in cotton candy consumption.  The picture doesn't do justice to the blue sheen that covers Julia's face, nor the strange shade of blue that Anna's mouth is.  In the background, you see Noah & Simon skipping the cotton candy in favor of ice cream.  I may be bias, but I think the cotton candy crew were the winners in this afternoon snack.

The girls were so excited to see the Lego Friends characters!  I usually don't love gender specific toys, but for Lego Friends I make an exception.  There certainly are some general Legos that appeal to my girls, but more often than not, it's the Lego Friends camper, boat or airplane that catch their attention.  If it takes white and pink bricks instead of grey and green bricks to engage their sense of building and creation, I don't feel like that's a hill to die on.  It may or may not help that one of the Friends is named Stephanie - just saying....

The littles on a boat ride.  Although I'm sure the boat would never actually tip over, it wasn't a tight fit into the track and so you could get it to rock side to side a bit.  I'm happy to report that even after 2 times around neither Jonah nor Julia had managed to tip the boat over and they still had fun.

This frog jumper ride was Julia's favorite ride in all of Legoland.  I'm pretty sure that she rode it at least 6 times in 2 days and she would have kept going if we'd let her.  It was always just a touch more fun for her when Jonah would ride with her.

The bigs were barely small enough to ride the carousel.  This because obvious when they spent most of the riding trying to look like they were riding real horses instead of enjoying the ride.  They had a lot of fun though and I love that they figured out how to enjoy what would otherwise be considered a "baby ride" so that all the kids could be on the same ride together.

Jonah enjoyed the carousel ride simply for the ability to be on a fun ride.  Didn't you know that Spiderman rides a horse?

This is the "man" just inside Legoland from the hotel entrance.  The best part is that this is the uniform of the welcoming staff at the park.  The real "welcomer" was just behind that yellow sign and tried to photobomb the picture once he realized we were there.  Unfortunately his timing was off and he didn't make it, but we loved that he tried.  There was such a spirit of fun to be shared at Legoland!

Around the Ship

Brothers playing Bingo.  It was a fun 10 minutes even if none of us won.

Twirl-girl dress and a stage - what more could Julia ask for?  I suppose a closet full of only twirl-girl dresses, but for now, the 3 she has will have to do.

Our bookends.  When Julia can't travel on Jonah's lap in his wheelchair, this is her second favorite mode of transit.  Luckily Noah is usually willing to oblige.

Such aa good looking group.

The bigs - although they annoy each other on occasion, they are truly the best of friends and "get" each other in ways that only siblings can.  It's usually a lot of fun to watch them together.

The littles.  There was a period of time where Jonah was easily irritated by Julia, but since coming home from the hospital we've seen their relationship blossom.  Jonah is enthusiastic to spend time with Julia and they play beautifully.  Julia, on the other hand, has always looked up to Jonah.  You can see in her eyes that she may think that he hung the moon.  It's so wonderful to see them enjoying each other again.

One morning, Simon and I were surprised at how late the kids were sleeping in - they were so quiet that even standing with the door cracked we couldn't hear them.  When we just couldn't believe they were all sleeping anymore, we peaked in and this is what we saw.  So grateful that we have kids who love to read!

Helsinki and Stockholm

The girls in Helsinki.  I can't even imagine Anna's face in another 10 years if she's already this full of sass.

This is the face that we hope lasts a lifetime.

The littles.  This has become Julia's favorite mode of transportation.  She may actually be the worlds slowest walker, so having her ride with Jonah suited us all while walking around Helsinki.

These loves - sometime, no matter how exciting the location, it is each other that they find the most exciting.  Helsinki had nothing on they fun they made for each other.

One of Noah's greatest joys this trip was getting to serve his brother and push his wheelchair all around.

Fresh raspberries from the Helsinki market - yes please!  Simon had to feed the kids like baby birds to make sure that everyone got a share of this delicious afternoon snack.

In Stockholm we visited this 17th century war ship, the Vasa, that sank on it's inaugural voyage.  It sat at the bottom of the ocean for over 300 years before it was rescued and restored.  It was a pretty cool looking ship and our favorite museum of the whole trip.

Stockholm is a city of islands.  The easiest way for tourists to get around is a hop on/hop off boat.  Stockholm is a beautiful city, our favorite port of our trip - the one was would be most likely to go back and visit - but even it's beauty doesn't compare to the beauty of the people who were in the hop on/hop off boat with us.

I never had a sister and never really felt like I missed out until I had the chance to see these 2 together.  They are great sisters to each other to have great care and admiration between them.  It is my prayer for them that as they get older they always hold onto the things that make them great sisters.

The boys capture wonder.  They're always looking, always asking, always wondering.  Noah coined his catch phrase of the summer, "I have a question" before every question he asked (and he literally asked 100s of questions).  We laughed at it, begging him to just ask his question, but really, it was the perfect illustration of wonder.

St. Petersburg

Ah, old Russian royalty - the excess and beauty was breathtaking.  Shortly after arriving in St. Petersburg we were off to the Peterhof Palace, which was the summer home of Peter the Great.  Apparently Peter was a bit of a prankster and had trick fountains around the grounds - fountains that look like statues and benches that suddenly spray water on the guest.  Here are two of the trick fountains - because the grounds were busy it was pretty easy to understand their tricks.

So many fountains! There are actually 150 fountains on the grounds.

Julia was feeling a little grumpy about not being carried.  As she loves pictures of herself, it didn't take long to turn this frown upside-down. 

What is more classic Russia than matryoshka dolls?  We had the opportunity to try and paint our own matryoshka dolls.  We had varying levels of success in painting, but everyone had fun.

I started as Jonah's paint partner, but I wasn't very good, so Elena, the artist in training, took over and Jonah ended up with a much nicer end product because of it.

Simon has a surprising artistic bend and with Julia's direction they ended up with a nice looking replica.

The middles 

The kids goofing off - trying to lift a pillar of Saint Issac's cathedral.

Peter the Great's winter palace which has been converted to the Hermitage museum which has over 3 million exhibits.  They say that it would take 10 years to see all of the exhibits.

In the Hermitage there is a Knight room.  At this point in our trip, Jonah was so tired that he slept through the whole Hermitage.  

Bolshoi St. Petersburg State Circus - this was perhaps the highlight of our St Petersburg adventure.

St. Petersburg was our longest port visit, which gave us more opportunity to explore.  It was an interesting city to visit and the touch communist Russia was still there to see.  

Estonia

I have heard that a weed is simply a flower someone decided didn't belong.  To Julia, dandelions are the most beautiful flower around.  Be it dandelions in Inverness or Estonia, Julia will always stop to pick the flowers.

Anna - a little piece of my heart.

Brothers at the door for the House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads.

The only kind of pigeon that is tolerable is a stone pigeon.  Tallinn was a fun city to walk around in and explore, but the pigeons were probably the highlight for the kids.

Getting Started and Berlin

In the dome of the Reichstag (German Parliament) building.  They have a mirrored center, so if you can find the correct angle, you can see into the parliament meetings while they are happening.  Not only was parliament not in session while we were there, but we couldn't find the angle.  It seems that only in theory do this dome represent government transparency.

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.  The narrow passageways are meant to symbolize the alone-ness of the holocaust and the blocks build these pathways, where you never know if friend or foe is around the corner.

The kids hanging out with Jessica, our tour guide with Simon works out foreign cash withdrawals with the bank.  We needed the cash to pay for ice cream, so the kids were reasonably patient as they waited.

Look at the smile - how could you not love that face?

Spiderman was also waiting for ice cream.  He was dairy-free this trip as there seems to be a dairy allergy trying to take form, but the sorbet was close enough for him.

A bit of the Berlin Wall in the background.  Most of the wall is down now, but it does stand near a few museums and monuments.

Checkpoint Charlie.  When I was a child, I lived in Germany for a few years and we came to Berlin once.  We passed through Checkpoint Charlie all those years ago as a legitimate checkpoint.  What stands today is all replica with actors dressed as US military who will pose for a picture for with for only a 4 euro (hence they're not posing for my pic).

The kids are ready to go ORD to CPH! (Chicago to Copenhagen)

A mere 8+ hours later on a red-eye flight - we've made it to Denmark!

A shower and a decent night of sleep and we're ready to head to the ship!

What do you do when your oncology team tells you in late June that you have a green-light pass to really travel - not small scale local trips, but real travel?  If you're us, you book something fabulous before they have the chance to change their minds and so that meant a 9 day cruise around the Baltics followed by almost a week exploring Denmark.  Sixteen days of uninterrupted family time with intermittent connection to the rest of the world at best.  Time to connect with each other, make memories, drink in togetherness, learn how to be together again, time to laugh, to celebrate and to choose joy.