So away we go. Well, sort of. We all got up on time and got into the “team” shirts that we had made. They have our team name and mascot on them (each team had to come up with a team name (and reason for that name) as well as a team mascot). Our team name is Kanalima, which means 50 in Hawaiian (we love Hawaii and the trip is a destination 50th birthday trip). Our team mascot is our dog Caymus and we had a drawing of his breed placed on our shirt sleeve! We had breakfast with a number of other teams then headed to the airport for the short flight to Billund.

The security lines were crazy long in the Brussels airport, or at least ours was and it was SLOW. We eventually made it through and got to the gate in plenty of time. We next had to board a bus which took us to our plane on the tarmack.  We boarded then started for the runway. We must have been right in line for takeoff when we were informed that we were being sent BACK to the gate to pick up a co-pilot to replace one that got sick in Billund and needed a replacement. About an hour and 45 minutes late we finally departed for Billund.

We finally arrived at Billund, took a taxi to the hotel and literally dropped off our bags behind the check-in counter and then got immediately back in the taxi to LegoLand.  We were escorted to our first challenge by Matias who gave us our instructions. We had to draw on a whiteboard the picture of a windmill which we would then have to make out of Legos. Teams will get extra points for height, extra blades on the windmill and if the windmill would actually spin.  We did beat the 1 m height requirement to get extra points for that but certainly did not reach the maximum height of some of the other groups. Our windmill did however spin and some of the other groups did not do that. That was 45 minutes of sheer craziness. Oh and that was only the first of three challenges.

The second challenge was a mastermind type game where we had to find hints hidden throughout the park given different clues, and then use the clues to determine the color and location that a Lego would go on a game board. There were 10 slots that had to be filled with up to a maximum of six colors being used.   We were literally walking around the entire park for approximally 2 1/2 hours solving quizzes and finding clues. We did however get the 10 colors in the correct location on our first try.

After a short break the teams met up again for instructions for the third challenge. And yes again the third challenge had us running all around the entire park. We had to do activities on five separate rides in the park.  The cool thing here was however that all the rides are closed to everyone except for our group. Steve (evil mastermind) states that this is the first time Legoland has ever done that for a group. It was awesome.  Up to this moment we still don’t know how the final standings came out as of yet. One was using fire type houses and filling water cups to fill a bucket without spilling the water. Team with the most volume wins points .  The second ride involved 3-D computer game simulation.  The third game was another water challenge where a small cup of water was placed on the front of a small car that we had to drive through obstacles and over bumps to try to keep the most volume of water left and fill a bucket. Each of us got to do one run through the race course and fill the bucket. We did really well on that challenge filling our bucket with 1.3 L of water!!

The fourth ride involved in getting in spinning cups and having to make a Lego truck. We only got to about the fourth step as this was very difficult to keep oriented and follow directions and put this together while spinning at a relatively high rate of speed. Luckily no one got sick!

The last ride involved basically a robotic arm twirling us around like an astronaut or someone in a fighter plane and we had to throw large rubber Lego bricks into one of three baskets. Landing it in one of the closest two baskets to the take off ramp would get one point and in the farthest basket away would get two points. We were told that we tied for the most points with a whopping three points. One in a one point basket and one brick and a two-point basket.  Kelsey then got to take a ride on a higher speed of the same game with more twists and turns and upside downs.

After finishing all the challenges the entire group took a walk back to our hotel where we formally checked into our rooms and then sat down for a group dinner.  Then it was off to bed. Tomorrow we go to Samsø, Denmark for morning and afternoon challenges. This is absolutely crazy fun and it’s only Day 1. We have spent time chatting with each of the groups over the course of the last 24 hours and it’s been fun getting to know everyone. What a Blast!!! Lets see what Day 2 has in store?!?!