Back to School and Grandma Debbie's First Visit
Summer is over but the Barbers don't stop! The kids are back to school, we got a visit from my mom, and Zac had to cover both of our roles when I went to the U.S. for work!
Let's start with the kiddos.
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| First day of school! |
Khloe is in Year 11 and still at the international school. This is the year she'll finish with her big Cambridge exams, so attendance and focus are super important. They leave lots of time for team building and class bonding though!
Her class started with a trip to Copenhagen and then an overnight trip to Tisvildeleje (with a stop in Helsingør, which was probably not that exciting for Khloe since, ya know, she lives here).
She also had a school dance party! In Denmark, the legal drinking age (under 6% ABV) is 16, and since several kids in her grade are already of age, most parties include drinking under the supervision of competent adults. The school provided the alcohol and didn't let people bring their own, but Khloe said a lot of people drank before they got to the school.
Khloe tried a Breezer, which is sort of like a fruity wine cooler or something. She had a hard time finishing it because it was so sweet, and she was definitely not a fan of her classmates when they were drunk. She stuck it out though, and she said she did have a good time at the dance. (It was 2000s-themed.)
She's exciting about studying and works hard to focus on school. She's struggling with some teenage mental health issues, but we are working through it and learning more about the mental health system in Denmark. She got to participate in the field volleyball team at her school's sports day, and she said they definitely had the biggest crowd of onlookers.
Harrison has started his first full school year at the Danish public school. He gets along really well with his classmates. He's already lost his klubkort (the payment card for snacks at after-school club) and his bike lock key (with my Boba Fett keychain on it...) this school year, but he is really responsible about getting up in the morning, getting ready, and riding his bike to school. It takes between 35 and 45 minutes depending on how motivated he and Elliott are and how many times they stop to goof around in the forest.
He wants to try playing handball, so we'll work on getting him set up to try that. Handball is one of Denmark's favorite sports and there are clubs all over. Admittedly, I still have no idea what it is.
We attended forældremødet (the parent meeting) at his school and learned they will be taking a big overnight trip to the southern part of Denmark later in the school year, so I think it's good he had practice with an overnight trip last year with his class from the international school.
Kaden is still playing baseball. Some of the players he has practiced with for years are leaving for scholarships to the U.S.! He really enjoys baseball, and his Danish Development League tournament is coming up soon.
Kaden started in 10. klasse (10th grade) at Ungdomsskolen (the youth school) in Helsingør. At the very end of last school year (Year 11 at international school), we moved him to Ungdomsskolen so he could get some focused Danish language learning leading up to 10. klasse because 10. klasse is completely in Danish. Danish 10th grade is optional for Danish students, and kids generally go to it if they didn't score well enough on their 9. klasse exams to move on to the gymnasium (high school), or if they are still struggling to sort out which direction to go in gymnasium, or if they just didn't really find their place in school and want an opportunity to form bonds with a new class of kids and develop socially.
It's a good place for Kaden to get some deep exposure to the Danish language.
He has made some friends already, but he is having a really hard time. He isn't allowed to speak English, of course, and it challenges him daily. He's not great at speaking or understanding Danish yet, but he goes every day and gives it his best. I'm sure it's very humbling, but I've seen a lot of emotional growth from him already this year, so I can't wait to see how he's doing at the end of the school year!
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On the day that Khloe started school, we also picked up Grandma Debbie from the airport! Our good family friend, Brenda, served as a travel buddy for Mom on her flights from Spokane to Seattle to Amsterdam. Brenda got her situated for her next leg to Copenhagen and then went her own way to Poland.
I had to work off and on during her visit, and the kids had school, so she had lots of downtime at home, but we tried to get out and do some fun things! We put puzzles out for her so she wouldn't get too bored while we were taking care of business, and I'm sure Han enjoyed having her around.
On our first day out and about, we went to lunch at a great old smørrebrød restaurant in town so that Mom could have her first taste of real Danish food.
We did a little walking tour around downtown Helsingør, and then we visited Kronborg Slot.
We had tapas for dinner, another first for Mom, and by the end of the evening, she was ready for a day of rest.
Zac and I both had Friday off, so he went to Bakeria in the morning to get a selection of our favorite pastries for Mom to try. After breakfast, we caught a train to Copenhagen! We walked through Christianshavn to Christiania, took the canal tour, and then walked all over so she could see Church of Our Savior, Marmokirken, Amalienborg, Kastellet, the Little Mermaid, St. Alban's church, and Broens. We ate a Gasoline Grill and got ice cream at Østerberg, so Mom had her first train ride and her first metro ride in the same day!
After Mom arrived in Denmark, she was understandably pretty tired. When Matt called to talk, I told him I would let him talk to Mom except she was sleeping. I sent him a picture of her passed out completely horizontally in a lounge on the back terrace. Matt said something along the lines of, "Are you sure she didn't die on the way to Denmark and now you're just trying to carry on the rouse that she's alive for some reason ala Weekend at Bernies?" And of course, this prompted an entire series of photos for my brother in which Mom was having a great time in Denmark and was definitely not dead.
She was a good sport.
On Saturday, the kids and I took her to Sweden on the ferry. None of us have actually been to Sweden yet even though we literally live 4 km across the sound from it and can see it every day, so it was a fun adventure for all of us.
We got pizza at the harbor, walked along the beach, played at the playground, ate ice cream as we were attacked by hornets, played mini golf in the middle of the city, toured the walking streets, and visited what's left of Helsinborg's castle.
We took her to Bakken on Sunday. Kaden didn't come because he chose baseball practice over the amusement park, but the rest of us took the train in to Klampenborg.
Bakken is the oldest operating amusement park in the world. It's free to enter and then you can pay individually for each ride (they are owned and operated by a variety of different people), or you can get a wristband. We got wristbands for Khloe and Harrison, and we just paid by the ride for Mom because she didn't want to do too many of them.
I had to work for a couple of days, but I took my birthday off. We had planned to go to the zoo, but it was pouring rain, so we spent a lazy day at home puzzling and chatting, and then Zac made reservations at Sticks 'n' Sushi in Rungsted Havn for dinner.
Mom has also never had sushi before, so we got her some practice chopsticks and made her eat at least one thing with raw fish on it. After chewing it for 10 minutes and chugging a glass of wine as a chaser, she said it was "Okay."
Don't worry - when I returned to work, my colleagues had not forgotten that I had a birthday...
Thursday evening, there was a meeting of the supercars in the parking lot at the big food hall in Helsingør, so we walked down as a family to see all the cars and get some food. Well, we were missing Kaden again because he wanted to go to baseball practice, but Grandma Debbie got to eat good food with two of her grandkids.
On Friday, Zac and I tried to take Mom into Copenhagen to visit Rosenborg Slot and see the Crown Jewels. Unfortunately, Rosenborg sells out!! Did you know that? Anyway, we were there pretty early, but there must have been a bunch of tour groups or something. Anyway, we just got to walk around the outside.
We went to the Round Tower instead. The observatory on the top just re-opened after its restoration, so we were able to walk up and see the telescope.
Mom also got excited to go visit the bookstore across the street, and I was happy to oblige because I like that one very much.
The weekend was already pre-booked - Zac and I had tickets for Kastager Festival, the little music festival at the Ihlemanns' summer house in Lolland. The festival is held every two years, and we were there in 2024 with the kids. They chose not to come this time, and Zac and I considered skipping it since my mom was here, but at the end of the day, we decided that we'd only be gone for 24 hours, so we drove down.
The drive was as lovely as ever (it takes about two hours). When we arrived, we said hello to our hosts and their grown children, and we got to meet baby Alice, the first Ihlemann grandchild, briefly before she had to go down for a nap. Ann-Louise and Lars arrived just after we got there, so we got our wristbands stapled on by Christina, got a drink, and watched the bands setting up.
One of the cool things they do every year is design a kind of logo for the festival. This year, it was a beet plant drawn by one of the cousins. They print the artwork on shirts that they thrift, but this year, they also just made prints, so we bought one of those.
It was fun to see the evolution of a duo that had also played in 2024, and there was a brand new band who had never played for an audience before. Even though it was a little clunky, it was cool to see them put themselves out there and we all cheered them on.
We opted not to set up the tent in the camping field and to car-camp instead.
It worked great and it was easy to pack up and head home in the morning! Plus, the view is lovely.
While we were at Kastager Festival, the kids took Grandma Debbie to the Helsingør movie theater to watch the new Spiderman movie. She loved the plush recliners and they had a nice time.
Since we couldn't go to the zoo on my birthday, we decided to go on Tuesday instead. It turned out to be an excellent zoo day, weather-wise, and we got to see almost every animal out and about. We missed the anteaters, the leopards, the wombats, and the red pandas, but we had front-row seats for a lot of good action. The rhinos were especially happy rolling in the mud pits. And we got to watch the silly way giraffes drink.
On Wednesday, we used our PRE-BOOKED tickets to visit Rosenborg. Since we've visited before, I made it a goal to count all the timepieces in the castle and played a little game to see how many of the wall archeology sections I could find. (If you're curious, I counted 26 timepieces. There are some wildly ornate clocks in that place.)
Mom enjoyed seeing the wine cellar and the weapons room, and of course, the Crown Jewels. We went to eat empanadas at Torvehallerne afterward and then let her loose in the souvenir shops for a while.
We were approaching the last days of my mom's visit, but I got hit pretty hard with a cold or the flu or something Thursday after work. Fortunately, Zac took my mom to the puzzle store to buy the puzzle of Helsingør she wanted to get before she left, and the kids had some time to hang out with her.
I was sick at home all day Friday and just stayed away from everyone in bed, and then Saturday morning, Mom and I left Denmark for the U.S.! I had to attend a week of work meetings at our Post Falls site, so she had a buddy to fly back home with as well.
I was too sick to go to dinner with my dad and Dorothy on Sunday like we had planned, so they came to visit me at my grandma's house. I appreciated that a lot because it would've been unacceptable to just not see them! We had a nice visit and I went to bed early.
I was still pretty under the weather for the first two days of meetings and our work dinner, but I was feeling much better by Wednesday. We got off a little early so we all went to the brewery for a bit.
I saw that they were having trivia night, but all of my colleagues left to go get dinner and do other things, so I lured Karen and Amy and Ronn there to hang out and be my team. Team "Lindsey's Here!" won first place, and it was a very nice way to spend the evening.
Friday was Kaden's birthday! And I wasn't home! Zac took care of him. He made cupcakes and chicken sandwiches and gave him his presents.
Zac had Khloe help with the cupcakes, so they got some nice quality time together.
He also took Harrison for a nice bike ride through the forest up to Hammermøllen, and Harrison showed Zac the rope swing that he sometimes stops to play at.
So what did I do on Kaden's birthday? I drove a car for 9 hours to the Oregon coast with my mom! Her 70th birthday is coming up, and she really just wanted to rent a house on the Oregon coast with her kids for her special day. We made it happen!
We played Trivial Pursuit and snacked and had a really nice evening. On Saturday, we drove to Nehalem so Matt could show us the joy of his pinball obsession and it was so freaking fun. Mom had a good time destroying castles and attacking trolls in Medieval Madness and trying to catch Pokemon.
I also got to hit up a record store in town, and then we continued on to Manzanita. We browsed a lot of the little shops before we had to head back to meet up with the rest of our party. Vanessa had picked up Kami from the Portland airport and drove over to meet us! We went to dinner at Pelican Brewing in Rockaway and browsed a few shops in town. Mom got ice cream and we walked down toward the beach.Back at the house, we shared some fun beers Matt had brought and played games.
On the way back from Cannon Beach, we stopped at Nehalem for a few more games of pinball and then drove back to Rockaway Beach for some Pronto Pup corndogs!
The next morning, Mom and I packed up and headed out for the long drive back to Post Falls. We mailed her postcards and had a nice little roadtrip. I ran som errands when I got back to town, and I got to briefly visit with Amanda and Jasmine.
If you're curious what we're bringing back from the U.S. these days, here's a shot of the haul. We have Zac's favorite cereal, meds for my colleagues, angled paintbrushes (why hasn't Denmark discovered these?), record sleeves, good candy, Annie's mac and cheese for the kids, cough drops, more Jell-O (and proper Jello-O shot cups...this year's Christmas pre-pre-party is gonna get a little jiggly), stuff for the U.S.A. gift basket at International Day, and all the kids' favorite candies and junk food. Yikes.
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