the education of henry

Grand Opening

2024-11-17

I had a full week.

Let's do the sad news first: Great-grandpa Les passed away early Tuesday morning. He was 99. We set up a memorial page of pictures of Les that appeared on the blog to remember him. Here's one of Les with Mom and Auntie Kara when they were kids.

Mom and I had a mostly normal school week. We met up with Jonathan and Nick for Recess, and afterwards went to look at some fancy Christmas trees.

At Recess with Nick and Jonathan.

Christmas trees.

I did some math.

We worked on some tongue twisters for my communication curriculum, our big focus this year.

The big event of the week was the Grand Opening of Bricks and Minifigs! We went to the Founder's Event last week, and this Saturday the official opening! We learned from one of Dad's work friends that there was a special prize for the first ten people in line when the doors opened, so we made sure we were in the first ten people. By waiting in line all night. Well, Mom and Dad waited in line all night.

We're off to stand in line!

Actually, Mom and I persuaded Grandpa Al to drive over to the store and hold a spot until we could get there. He was first! And he sat there for 2.5 hours. Thankfully there was some sun and it wasn't too windy. We arrived at 2:00 PM. And then Mom and Dad took over the spot in line.

Here we are!

Grandpa and I left Mom and Dad to sit, and we went to the dog park for the rest of the afternoon. I stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's for the night.

The first of many selfies - Mom and Dad took one every hour (don't worry, we are not putting all of those up).

You might be wondering what kind of prize would be worth sitting outside all night? The store was giving away two gallons of bulk LEGO every month for all of 2025. That adds up to over $1,000 of free LEGO!

Mom and Dad weren't the only people in line. Some of our friends joined about 7:00 PM.

The Other Brian and his boys, Jacob and Thomas.

Seven hours in and still smiling - but bundled up now that the sun is gone.

Mom, bundled up in the car to keep warm.

Mom camped out in the car most of the night to stay warm and out of the wind. Dad was outside with the other people in line. After Brian, he was joined by Mike, and Al (not grandpa), who came with his kid - who fell asleep in a sleeping bag on the concrete! Around 1 AM a guy named Walt joined the line.

Around midnight, they ordered pizza and watched The LEGO Movie. Other Brian had brought a projector, and put up a screen - but one of the connections decided not to work, so they watched the movie on a tiny little screen. But Dad says it was still fun!

It was a good idea.

Other Brian and Al. Taken around 4 AM on Saturday.

Still smiling at 4:30 AM. Dad said his feet were cold, but he was warm everywhere else.

Once the sun came up, more people started arriving.

At Hour 17.

Rob, the owner, came about 7:30 and set up the giant inflatable minifigure. He's 15 feet tall.

Rob took a selfie with the line.

Grandpa Al and I got there a little before 8 AM. And we brought donuts! For eveyone in line!

The Overnighters!

I photobombed this one.

Almost time....

The ribbon cutting.

Just a few more minutes....

One last picture - Hour 20. Wind-burned, but surprisingly not that tired.

It was a little chaotic when we got in, since we split up to make sure we got the things I wanted the most. I did manage to get my Poggle the Lesser minifig and Capatin Rex's AT-TE from Rebels.

Mike got his Simpson's House, the reason he waited in line, and The Queen Anne's Revenge (not pictured). I was a little jealous he got the ship.

I got to meet Krystle, the Australian champion of the LEGO Masters TV show.

We did not stay long in the morning. We got signed up for our free LEGO, bought our stuff, and then got going. We wanted to let more people in, and we knew we were coming back later to enter the raffle drawings again, and we had plans to meet GG and Grandpa Kevin at the store, as well as Jonathan and his family.

We went back to Grandpa Al and Grandma Wynne's for some lunch and Mom made Dad take a nap, since he had been up all night. He said it was nice to feel warm again.

We went back over to the store around 2:30. Dad and I were inside looking around when we met Caleb, who was on season two of LEGO Masters! I told him it was time to get his brick on! And apparently I was right, because I got picked to be in the building challenge as his partner!

Building with Caleb.

There's a video of the whole contest below. Dad says the funniest part was before he got the camera going: I was jumping up and down with my hand in the air when Rob said he was going to pick someone from the crowd.

Krystle with another contestant.

This "gun" is actually three different 3-D printed giant LEGO pieces put together.

A very detailed MOC of Bag End, from The Hobbitt and The Lord of the Rings.

The Disney castle.

Looking at some Batman LEGO with Grandpa Kevin.

Me and Jonathan with the big minifig.

Tired, smiling, and time to go home!

We were all pretty tired when we got home and went to bed early.

Sunday was a day to rest and relax and catch up on stuff.

These are the LEGO models I brought home.

The MOC I built with Caleb to win the contest.

Caleb signed a brick for me.

Krystle did as well.

Dad bought this little sculpture. He also bought the Corner Garage, one of the modular buildings missing from our collection.

We did not watch any movies this week, just Deep Space 9 and The Office. I finished reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franweiler and started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dad and I are almost done with Sophie's World - hopefully next week we finish that one.

And that was my week. Take care!