the education of henry

#800: Summer's End

2025-08-24

This was the last week of summer for me - school starts next week. And I had an exciting week: Freya's birthday, swimming with Jonathan, video games with Anthony, two LEGO stores and five BAMs, the amusement park, donuts, ice cream, pizza, and I even mowed the lawn.

Monday

This was the least exciting day - Mom finished that puzzle she was working on over last weekend.

All done.

Tuesday

The weather was good, so I met Jonathan at the pool to go swimming.

Playing catch in the water.

Relaxing in the shade.

Jumping back in - we did this a few times.

Wednesday

Anthony came over on Wednesday and we played video games for a few hours. We discovered some new ways to smash, blast, and otherwise beat each other up in the Star Wars game.

Thursday

In the morning we all had eye exams, and then we left to meet Freya and Kara at the mall to celebrate Freya's birthday! We arrived earlier than expected and had lunch at Naff Naff. We bought Freya a few presents at the mall - she picked out a Squishmallow and some books, and then we played blacklight mini golf, just like we did for my birthday. We also got some ice cream, checked out the LEGO store, and went to the arcade for a while.

In the collection of NFL helmets, I stood by the one for Grandpa Kevin's favorite team.

Riding the escalator.

We are in the picture - just hard to see because we didn't wear clothes that reflected well.

Racing motorcycles in the arcade.

Just doing a little fishing...

Freya had to leave to do some music lessons, so we left too and went to the game shop, where I looked at all the Osprey Publishing books they had, and picked out two: Horatio Nelson and Yamamoto Isoroku.

So many to choose from....

And then we went to the nearby BAM. Our friend Rob was not working, but we looked around, and although I did not find anything I wanted to buy, Mom did. So for the first time ever, Mom got LEGO and I did not.

Mom with some flowers to add to her...growing...collection.

And since it was on the way to our hotel (sort of), we went to the newest LEGO Store in the area. Mom and Dad put together a couple of Pick-A-Brick boxes and I bought the new 327th Battle Pack.

This mosaic build is amazing - and HUGE!

Dad's favorite thing in the store - a giant LEGO brick made out of LEGO bricks, even down to the LEGO logo on the studs.

Because this sotre was not as crowded as the other one, we got a chance to test out the remote controled Lamborghini Reveulto model.

Another cool LEGO model - Dad liked this one, too.

And then we finally made it to the hotel to relax and get some rest.

Friday - Freya's Birthday

We had breakfast at the hotel - but no waffles! What kind of hotel has no waffles? Actually, it was free with points, and we got some tasty donuts to make up for it. And then we went to meet Freya at the amusement park to celebrate her birthday. The weather forecast said there was going to be rain, but other than a few sprinkles for a just a couple of minutes, the weather was good. And cool, too. No blazing heat like the other times we went this year.

Freya with her mom and dad and some presents from us.

Freya opened a few presents in the parking lot, and then we went in.

This is Freya's friend Teddy - he came along, too. We had a lot of fun with Teddy.

On the high swings.

Not crowded at all - so the ride lines were short!

Teddy and I tried this one while we were waiting for Freya to get done with one of the roller coasters.

Freya and Teddy went on Thunder Canyon.

Since they didn't get soaked the first time, I went with them on the second run.

It was fun! And I did not get soaked either - just a little wet because the seats in the boat had water on them.

And then it was time for lunch.... We ate inside the park and paid the absurdly high prices, instead of going out to the car to have a picnic like we usually do.

This pizza was good!

Mom and Dad as the Corn King and Queen.

GG and Grandpa Kevin tried it, too.

On the big swing!

Then we played in the arcade for a while - bowling, throwing footballs, that sort of thing.

Teddy and I rode Delirious.

Teddy was the only one who wanted to go on Steel Venom today, so he did.

We all sqeezed into the Scrambler.

And then we headed out to the car so Freya could open some more presents.

The last of the presents.

We sort-of sang Happy Birthday and said our goodbyes. This was my longest day ever at the amusement park. Freya and her family went home to have her birthday supper and we went back to our hotel...with a stop at the grocery store for some treats!

Saturday

Freya had another birthday party, so we had a open schedule for the day. So we went to look at more LEGO! First we tried to go to one of the newer BAM stores, but they did not open until 11:00, so we went back to the new LEGO store, and they had a new display - a pirate!

I wanted to eat here, like in Big Bang Theory, but it wasn't open yet.

We went to three more BAMs on the way home, circling around the city. I built fifteen minifigs and bought a few others. I got to talk LEGO with some new people, and with Spenser, who works at the BAM by Freya's house. We were going to stop at the big LEGO Store again, but the parking lot at the mall was so full we decided to skip it. We just stopped at the BAM that was on the way out of town, and then were on our way back home. With one more stop at the fancy grocery store to get some more treats.

From one of four the BAMs we went to.

We made it home with plenty of time to rest and relax. Except for Dad. He decided to go ride his bike for an hour.

Sunday

We were home all day. I mowed the lawn and helped with some other yard projects for a little while. Dad and I sorted all the new LEGO we picked up over the weekend, and worked on finishing sorting last month's bag of free bricks from BAM.

And that is it for the adventure part of my week.

This week Dad and I listened to Watership Down. We listened at home, we listened in the car on the way to see Freya, and we listened on the way home from our adventure. And we listened for most of Sunday afternoon. It's a really good book - and about 18 hours long. We also worked on writing my reviews of Will in Scarlet and James. I had some days off of reading so we could work on the writing and get more time to listen, since Watership Down is our last book for the summer. Next week I start on my ninth grade reading list.

For screen time, this week we finished watching Deep Space Nine. We are all a little sad to say goodbye to Sisko, Odo, Bashir, O'Brien, Nerys, Quark, and everyone else, but it is time to move on to other things. We also watched some Big Bang Theory this week, but just a couple of episodes. And I started a new show by myself, called Atypical. It is about a boy with autism going to high school. I really like it, and it is very funny.

And that was my week. It was a big finale for the summer and also the 800th post! Thanks for reading! Take care!