The J6 Journey: Year 2, Day 77: Brickworld 2017!

One word sums up today: BRICKWORLD! Everything LEGO! I don't think I've ever seen so many Legos except at Legoland itself! Wow, oh wow, oh wow! So many Lego trains and lighted scenes and moving parts! It's worth more than the $10 I paid for each of us to get in. You really need more than the 3 hrs we spent in there to get a good grasp of all the little details, but, we did at least try to pay attention. Even Benaiah, who wasn't sure if he would enjoy it was exclaiming in excitement, "Oh, look at this! Mom, check this out!" And at one point, Justin said in a higher pitched voice like a little kid, "Mommy, look at this!" Yes, he's 11 1/2 and he squeaked out a "Mommy" and then wanted me to explore the exhibits with him. Ah....Keturah was a bit disappointed that there weren't more of the Friends' themes, but in reality, the bricks are more gender neutral on purpose, just bright colors for all kids. It wasn't as fun for Abishai since he had to be picked up to see the exhibits and it was loud and crowded. But he did the best he could by staying in the stroller a lot and stopping when he was told to. Grandma came, too, and enjoyed seeing all the different creations, especially the huge self propelled marble run. You could buy Legos of course, especially custom pieces and minifigures. I think Grandpa and Jared missed out on some really cool things today. However, I'm sure they were enjoying doing their "job" together with some elder training in Texas.

Other parts of the day was that I forgot how huge the Indiana State Fairgrounds is and that you can hold multiple conventions on the same day because of the many large buildings. There was a flower and patio show, a gun show, and like 3 others besides the Lego Brickworld show. It was a good reminder before I head over there next weekend for the homeschool convention. And it was much colder and windier than I thought, and we were frozen walking to and from the car to the building because I told the kids to wear lighter jackets because it would be hot in the exhibit hall. And it was warm. And we survived the long walk, as did many others. I did wish that this event had more hands on areas for the kids. There were a couple of tables of one color of Legos. One exhibit let you build a small section for a bigger sculpture. One exhibit let you take a Lego plate (the flat thing you build on) and create a picture on it. The kids did get to try out some dune buggies. I guess there was more than I thought for them. I'm just used to everything being hands on at the Children's Museum or Legoland.

So, we were hungry and tired when we got home, but Abishai still didn't go down for a nap until 2:30. Which, after just now typing that, makes sense because of the time change. We all hate daylight stupid time in this house. Especially since we are close to the western edge of Eastern time and near the eastern edge of Central time. But anyway, he did sleep 3 hrs. He hasn't been eating much because of a stuff nose, and that can be worrisome when your little guy is so little. He needs all the calories he can get! I decided we would stay home tonight and go to church with Jared tomorrow because it was so cold out and I wanted to let Abishai sleep as long as he wanted to. It was a good choice. Tomorrow will be full with church, groceries, and Keturah still has choir rehearsal although the boys don't have youth group because it is spring break. Then it's off to the races again, at least of the guys. Keturah, Abishai and I will have a pretty quiet week with the boys gone all day. I'll continue trudging through the taxes like I did today.

So, here are just a FEW pictures of the day (really, I will try to only load a few, but I know going in, it will be hard to choose!) I took something like 300 photos, so this is just a few compared to it! I might not caption everything, but here goes.

Thank goodness we had Benaiah and Leah with us today! It was awesome having two more adult pairs of hands to help with Abishai and divide and conquer with the middles. No one truly got separated from each other and no one got upset. Also, I knew he would be a bit hot, but Abishai hadn't worn that cute construction vehicle sweater yet, so I put it on him and I'm glad I did. We could show him the vehicles on his shirt and in the displays. Of course, all the trains were his favorites!

Benaiah really loves these technic car sets! They are pricey though! I would say 75% of the exhibits were by original design and 25% contained at least some if not all of a theme or full sets you can actual purchase. We talked about how master builders have to either buy lots of the sets or just buy certain pieces in bulk (those the vendors around the room).

Trucks! (I'm pretty sure these are original designs).

This drill was actual moving! It was part of a theme from 1990 that only 9 sets were made from! And the display was huge! An example of buying in bulk to get all the right pieces!

Non Lego brand fun merchandise! There were ties, bowties, hats, scarves, etc.

Handprinted pieces (on Benaiah's big hand!)

This business focuses on Clone troopers and other video game minifigures. They also make this minifigure display cases. We said, if we wanted to, we could make these cases ourselves.

A Star Wars carousel and actual rotated and had vehicles moving up and down!

I almost missed this one, but the kids said, "Look! The Washington Monument!" Their history teacher will be so please when I tell her about it!

I love the mountains in this Wild West scene.

Yes, the roller coaster did work! This was a Jurassic park kind of amusement park!

Since this is coming up in the next couple of years, I geeked out when I saw Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet (yes, comic book nerd I am!)

Another comic book nerdy thing. Agents of shield. It's expensive, but you can buy the helocarrier.

Justin and Keturah both said, "Look, Mom! There's the set you wanted as a kid!" Yes, the monorail I never got. It looks a bit lame next to other Lego train sets, but still neat!

I love these pictures made of Lego!

Minecraft! Lego movie!

This was a whole zoo! Literally! With exhibits and walkways like a real zoo! Elephants, duplo giraffes, monkeys, etc.

Not sure what this is, but it was lit up!

Lego has now made official Doctor Who sets, although a knock off brand has also made some sets. This is David Tennat who played the 10th Doctor.

Justin was very impressed by the airport!

Lots of logos! This event goes to several places nationwide!

Yes, Pokemon! Justin wanted to buy this $8 teeny tiny 3 piece pikachu and I had to tell him no, make your own. It was way overpriced.

I love the details on this castle!

No joke! LOTR the Eye of Souran (sp?) tower!

Battle on Hoth Star Wars.

Cool church!

A small Eye and other scenes from LOTR.

Scenes from the new Lego Batman movie!

Batmobile!

More Star Wars.

West Michigan University East Hall. I guess it's pretty famous. But very neat custom build.

Trainyard!

ALL of these rides were moving!

Beautiful church, and yes, that's a Lego Jesus Christ minifigure out front.

Back to the LOTR table.

More scenes from Batman, including a Batman train! Wayne tower, the orphanage, etc.

Joker's hideout

Nerd alert! The batcave in all it's glory! Some of these sets you can buy, and some of these are custom built.

I just read about the red and black Batmobile and how it is modeled after the TV show in the 60's where Batman wore a blue suit. And on the left is all the different Batman suits!

Lots of vehicles and screens! The guy even had a mobile device playing an ad for the movie in the main computer area of the Batcave!

Wayne Manor.

Costumes.

More Star Wars scenes.

Ok, so this is neat. I've seen this trick before. These are Duplo blocks. To save money, builders will use whatever color bricks the have to build the frame for a larger structure, saving the perfectly colored pieces for their project for just the exterior. This little panel was where they stored the motor controls for what's on the back of this big mountain.

And this is the back of the mountain where they "make" clones! Lots of moving parts!

A little robotics.

This older couple were showing some computerized Legos, like a Lego Simon game, and this tic tac toe game where the computer scans the whole board to see which color ball was in which slot and then plan it's next move accordingly. The computer actually won!

This device sorts the bigger blocks by color!

Huge buildings!

Abishai loved putting balls in the hole.

Racing motorize dune buggies!

Again, all these amusement park rides moved!

Awww, hugs!

You can see this on YouTube I'm pretty sure. But, it takes 7 people to set up and take care of this 60 contraption exhibit where little soccer balls are transferred from one contraption to another automatically by motors. So many moving parts!