LegoLand!

April's brother, Mark, just came home from his 2-year mission in Munich, Germany. This weekend we had the chance to visit him and the rest of the family. It was great to see everyone at this mini "family reunion", and especially to see Mark after so long. Our kids were happy to see "Uncle Mark", too. While we were in town, we took the little ones to LegoLand- a huge indoor lego "park"... not quite as big as that in California, but pretty big and a lot of fun for the kids. Actually, I'd go back to check it out again :)

Elin and Nate climbing the giant giraffe.

The detail on Navy Pier and the Chicago skyline is amazing.

Nate in the jungle...

Nate got some chuckles from bystanders from this one.

Nate was ecstatic with the Starwars figures. Elin... not so much.

They even had a cool ride through a dark cave- this was right up Nate's alley.

The day before we went to LegoLand, Papa (my Dad) took Nate on a little tour through his tool-and-die shop (plastic injection molding). So it was just perfect when we came up to this lego "factory" which showed how the plastic is melted, injected into lego molds, and cools down for the final part. Go Papa!

Elin prefers the giant legos.

While we were waiting in a line, all the kids started working together to build this giant lego tower, with supports around the bottom and all. It was really cool to see the teamwork between these kids.

You haven't experienced legos until you've seen a lego cartoon in 3-D. Move over, Avatar!

And finally some free time for lego building...

A lego ride! No, this one's not built out of legos.