Bucket List 2014 revisited

Let's revisit Bucket list 2014 to see how we did on our adventures.

-Grow own food (Christy)

Our garden was a success for our first year. The girls loved to snack on strawberries and basil leaves while playing outside during the spring and early summer. I loved eating tomatoes and cucumber warm and straight off the vine! We still have brussel sprouts currently that have braved the sub zero temps. Can't wait to start another garden in a couple for months. 

-Go strawberry picking (Christy)

Well, the girls went strawberry picking all the time in our backyard, so this item merged into the latter one. 

-Go to 2nd grade (Brady)

Brady has done this in exemplary fashion! She is rock star in second grade. Homework time is now stress free and she is earning lots of high marks on her papers. 

-Go to kindergarten (Reese)

Reese has blown kindergarten out of the water! She loves school and looks forward to the specials and centers everyday. 

-Go to the Children's Museum (Brady)

-Start running (Elli)

Elli kicked hypotonia in the butt and has fully caught up developmentally to her peers!

-Go to DC (Karl)

We made a couple visits to DC last year. Once to visit the memorials and visit good friends that moved to Maryland. Then another time to see the SF Giants in the playoffs. We see lots more DC visits in the coming years once we move to Maryland ourselves. 

Going to see the Giants play was the highlight of the year for Karl. 

-Go overseas (Christy)

Karl and Christy celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in the grandest of styles.

-Go to the Great Wolf Lodge (Brady and Reese)

This might has been the highlight of the year for the girls!

-Go see Pop Pop's fish (Reese)

Reese (and the other girls) spent their spring break with Pop Pop while her parents explored Europe. Reese had such a great time, she demanded she sleep at Pop Pop's house, while the rest of the family stayed in a very nice beach house!

-Have a Kid free weekend on our Tenth wedding anniversary (Christy)

We spent the weekend of our anniversary in the trees! This might have been my favorite highlight of the year. The team work to manage the course was rewarding and the adventure of it all was exhilarating. 

-Attend an air show (Karl)

Although, Karl looked forward to bringing all his girls to the airshow, rain and traffic caused this to be a somewhat disappointing experience. I don't think Brady was sold on the idea. 

-Bike/run/play at Mt. Trashmore (Christy)

This time around last is least! This was the only item we didn't complete. Mount Trashmore was visited, just not as an entire family and we did bike rides, just not at Mount Trashmore, so all is good in the Orthner World!

Copenhagen Day Six

We have already gotten most of our sightseeing in town done by now, so we decided to venture out into the suburbs. We noticed Frederiksberg was on the metro line, and I remember reading about another palace there. The map also showed the original Carlsberg brewery was there and a MALL! Why not finish the trip out with a afternoon of shopping; makes me happy! Therefore it makes Karl happy...happy wife=happy life. Castle, beer, shopping!

We arrive at the grounds of 'Frederiksberg Slot' and enjoy all the green.

 I had taken pictures with the older girls in mind, but this one is for you Elli... DUCK!

Then the castle came into view...

"I don't remember it being yellow in the book Karl." Oh yeah, the guide book has black and white pictures. 

We journey up the slope to the top to adventure around inside. We comment on the lack of ornateness in this castle as we look for the entrance to tour the inside. All signs indicate there is no inside tours as it is an active military academy. HMMM The map said it is Frederiksberg Slot, and the guidebook said there were Coat of Arms to see and the National Gallery. HMMMM. Light bulb... We are at FrederiksbErg, my guidebook mentions FrediksbOrg. Rookie error I guess, but we are not in the correct town. I knew the castle wasnt yellow!!!! Oh well, next stop it is. 

Ok, side bar...look what a lot of the city parks have in them... An inground trampoline for the kids! 

Luckily for us non beer drinkers, there is a world renowned brewery for us to tour. But hey, Karl needs to tour Carlsberg, right?

 J. C. named his brewery after his son, Carl. His son took over the passion for beer making, revolutionized the beer making process and made it into the international name it is today.

 The museum at the brewery holds the Guiness Record (since 1968) for the largest collection of bottles of beers. (and maybe the dustiest)

...22,250 bottles of beer on the wall, 22,250 bottles of beer. Take one down and pass it around, 22, 249 bottle of beer on the wall...

Admission fees include two glasses of beer. Luckily sodas are happily substituted. 

After a nice relaxing tour of the brewery, we headed off to the mall. Walking up the street, I noticed a kids store's window. It attracted me and I wanted to go shopping. But the shop was closed, well it was only suppose to open 15 minutes ago, carry on. Onto the mall... that is also CLOSED! This is the conversation that I had next.

Me: "why are all the shops closed today?"
Dane: "today is a holiday!"
Me: "Easter?"
Dane: "yes"
Me: "so all the shops are closed Thursday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday?"
Dane: "yes, and Monday too!"

What?!?! I guess that is it for us today. We hit up one of the three things we planned.

 The only things that are open today (and through the weekend) are eating establishments. We even saw grocery stores closed. I heard another Dane refer to this time as the Easter Period. 

Luckily, Karl and I saw our glass has half full. 1. We can go back to the hotel and just relax. 2. Luckily, this 'Easter Period' only overlaps one day of our vacation. 

On yet another side note, Karl and I looked at lots of art work and statues this week. Mostly all portray people nude. No matter the activity they are posed nude. I even said to Karl at one point, we have seen women taking care of kids/babies but they are never portrayed nursing even though nudity is not avoided. Well, be careful what you wish for...

This domed ceiling was pretty neat though since it is a mosaic.

Well, folks, that is all. Our trip has come to a close. Off to a day of traveling across the big blue. 

Our final thoughts.

Though, many of our 'planned' adventures have come up short, we had a great time. I think more than anything we liked the opportunity to just be us; the TWO of us. My favorite part was seeing all the buildings and observing a different culture; the clothes, eating habits, public priorities, etc. Karl's favorite part was exploring the palaces. Now, I can start dreaming up a plan for our 20th anniversary. 

Copenhagen Day Five

You know how I mentioned that Copenhagen goes to sleep at 6 EVERYDAY, well I didn't mention that they don't wake up until 10. So today Karl and I were out the door ready to explore before Copenhagen was ready for us. So we hit up some of the outdoor hot spots. These first few pictures are just random sights. Again, I think the picture does the talking.

Marie is Reese's middle name, so we thought she would love seeing this.

Look at this lovely sight in Denmark! Spectacular, huh?

How do you mow a really steep hill? You tie an average mower to a pulley system and lower up and down over and over. Clever, huh?

One of the most well know things in Copenhagen is 'The Little Mermaid' statue. She was placed here 101 years ago. The statue was a gift to the city from Carl Jacobsen. He is known for his brewery, Carlsberg.

Oh, I hear the church bells ringing ten times, maybe something will be open. The Marble Church adjacent to the Amalienborg Palace was calling our name. It is the green dome between all the palace buildings.

Now, let me tell you a little story with a roller coaster of emotions. We scheduled this European vacation in alignment with Karl's work trip to Sweden. European vacation. Much happiness. I looked at the dates, it coordinated with my nephew's first birthday. Much sadness. But the timing also lined up with Brady's spring break. Happy. Wait, it also falls on the girls best buddy's birthday. Sad. When reading about Copenhagen and what to do there, I came across Amalienborg Palace. The Queen uses it as her winter palace and main office. I also read that every year on her birthday, she comes out on the balcony and waves to the locals (and tourists) as they sing her happy birthday after the changing on the guard. Her birthday just happens to be April 16. Happy. If I can't celebrate birthdays with my favorite little guys, why not celebrate with the Queen. A couple days ago, while in Denmark, I googled the tradition of the Queen's birthday to see the schedule of events to make sure our plan was in place. The Queen has already retreated to her summer castle and will not be sung to in Copenhagen, but it Aarhus instead this year. WHAT?!?! SADNESS! No time for sadness in Copenhagen though, carry on.

Well, we had this day planned for months to visit the Queen's active palace, so we just stuck with our plan. Let's just say we were among many disappointed locals and tourists who did not do their google 'research.'  This is her palace. 

The building she lives in is private but we got to tour one of the other buildings on the grounds. Look how fancy!

We stuck around for the changing of the guards at noon. Again, this event doesn't normally draw such a crowd...there just happened to be lots of people with miniature Danish flags in hand, about to be disappointed.

Remember this view from our hotel window? Notice that spire in the distance off to the right?

 Yeah, this one. No it isn't leaning, I just don't have the energy to photoshop right now. 

Well, this is what it looks like if you climb 300 steps inside the bell tower and then an additional 100 steps on the outside of the spire! So this is what our hotel looks like from the top of Our Savior's Church. The hotel is the brick building that is just right of center.

Whoa, don't look down. Let's leave that to the camera.

Speaking of spires. That is one notable thing about Copenhagen, it's skyline is defined by spires not skyscrapers. There is only one skyscraper in the city and they decided they didn't care for buildings overshadowing the spires. In this picture alone there is 5 very unique spires.

Just me hanging out in the hotel room and this lovely lovely day.

And let's not forget about this handsome man! I love him so!