Fun with Donna

Dave's cousin, Donna, came to visit. We love cousin Donna! She arrived on a Friday. Dave had the day off, for Midsummer. He took the train to the airport to meet her.

When she got here we let her rest for a bit, then we put the kids in the wagon and walked down to Pildams Park. We thought there might be some festivities going on for Midsummer. There weren't. But it was a nice walk.

The next day, Saturday, was Midsummer. Not much was open. We walked around downtown (the pedestrian mall.) We went to the Toy Muesum (it was open!) Then we went to McD's for lunch. Then back to the pedestrian mall, to ride the paddle boats.

gratuitous kid picture

Dave had to leave for Beijing on Sunday. But before he left we went down to the Vaestra Hamnen (Western Harbor).


On Monday I took Lilli to her last day of daycare (until August.) Donna and Tipton rode on to a nearby playground while I had a "How Lilli's Doing" meeting with one of her teachers. (She is doing great, by the way.) Then I rode (my bike) on to meet up with Donna and Tipton. From there we rode (our bikes) up to one of my favorite bakeries. We had a snack. Then we rode on to the beach. We found a playground at Ribersborg Beach and Tipton played for a while. Then we rode home, hopped into the car and drove to Ikea. Donna had never been to an Ikea before. Kind of cool that her first trip to Ikea was in Sweden! We hustled through the store until we got to the cafeteria. There we had Swedish meatballs for lunch. Then we came home and I hopped on my bike and picked Lilli up from daycare. Sorry, no pictures from that day.

On Tuesday we took the train in to Denmark and went to Tivoli Gardens. Tipton and Lilli are roller coaster junkies (thanks, Aunt Jenni!) So of course we went on all the (kid) rides. Twice.

We rode the Carousel. And a small rollercoaster called The Camel.

We rode in the boats. Tipton and Donna were in one boat. Lilli and I were in another boat. Tipton and Lilli did all the steering. Tipton thought it was like bumper cars (thanks, Aunt Jenni.)

Then we rode the Nautilus ride. While we were waiting in line Lilli saw other kids getting on the ride. She got a little upset. She pointed to the ride and yelled "MINE!" Lilli's not big on waiting in line.

We also rode on the airplane ride. Lilli rode with Donna.

Then we did the pirate boat ride. This is Lilli's favorite ride. Cousin Donna wasn't too thrilled, though. So the second time she stayed with the stroller and took pictures and I rode with both kids.

There was a big playground, too. We stayed there for quite some time. There was a large red mat that was suposed to be inflated - like a bouncy surface. It wasn't very inflated. But Lilli still had fun running all over it. There were your normal playground type things - stuff to climb on, slides. There was one really long, really cool looking slide. You had to climb up a spiral staircase to get to the top. But it wasn't very fast. The kids had to scoot themselves along most of it. Lilli's favorite part of the playground were the little merry-go-round camels. She could have stayed riding on those forever.

Next we rode the antique cars.

Then Tipton and Lilli and I rode the big ferris wheel. Donna waited for us with the stroller.

Then it was time for dinner. We knew where we wanted to eat - on the big pirate boat, of course! And as we were trying to find out how to get on the boat we stumbled across a restaurant called Ketchup. Too funny. Of course, I only managed to take a picture of their drink menu (Hey, Kay - they have Mojitos!) The pirate boat was pretty cool. Only, they didn't really have kid food. At least, not food that MY kids would eat. Example: We ordered the chicken for Tipton. It was like part of an actual roasted chicken - with rosemary, etc. It came with asparagus. Donna had the rooster and I had the halibut. Both were excellent. Tipton's chicken was pretty good, too. As was his asparagus.

And I have just realized that this is a VERY picture heavy post, and we're only half way through Donna's visit. So I think I end now and start another post for the second half of her trip. Here is a picture of the trip home from Tivoli, on the train.