July 12, 2025
This morning during homeschool with Ollie, we started a graphic novel on the American revolution at his request. We are still in the early part of the book, but it has already mentioned George Washington which has Ollie very excited for whats to come.
It was rainy on and off all morning so it set the tone for a slow moving morning. We all snuck out for a walk at some point, though, and found snails everywhere along the path to the beach. The boys also crashed Kyle’s lap session in the pool as they can’t go a morning without begging to jump in. While waiting for everyone to get ready to head out, the boys cuddled up w Meme playing solitaire in her bed on her iPad. We finally mobilized close to 2pm to head to a lighthouse and playground.
During the drive, the boys answered would you rather questions from Meme. Would you rather be older or younger? Both boys chose older— Ollie wants to be 10 and Lenny 81. When the boy started bickering, Ollie goes, “No more mister nice…..me!” He forgot that the last word is usually guy.
We decided to drive east to Nakkehoved Fyr to check out another lighthouse. Signage was lacking when we parked and found ourselves at a very small lighthouse at first. We learned this one was called Østre Fyr Nakkehoved Fyr (Eastern Lighthouse, Nakkehoved Lighthouse):
“In 1772 two coal-fired lighthouses were built at Nakkehoved to protect shipping from the north from stranding on the dangerous north coast. The lighthouse Nakkehoved Østre Fyr is one of the few remaining coal-fired lighthouses in the world.”
The Eastern lighthouse was just ~ 2 stories high but built on a cliff near the sea. Ollie counted just ~29 steps to the top! We looked across the sea and were easily able to see Sweden– we knew Copenhagen was super close to Sweden but didn’t realize North Zealand was this close too. My and Kyle’s phones sent us the, “welcome to Sweden!” texts.
We then walked to the larger Nakkehoved lighthouse which was also home to the museum. The receptionist encouraged us to walk through the museum before climbing the lighthouse steps, but that was an impossible ask with the boys. We made our way to the top (128 steps) and had a great view of a town to the west called Gilleleje. We snapped a few pictures before the boys started running around and playing tag by the fairly low railing and we knew it was time to descend. Len had his eye on a lighthouse figurine in the giftshop but ended up with a poster that highlighted some of Denmark’s most famous lighthouses including the one we just climbed. He squealed with delight a few times in the afternoon, “I just love my lighthouse poster so much!” I told him we can hang it in his room at home and he asked, “my crib room or the Ollie room?” Since he sleeps in Ollie’s room 99% of the time when we’re home, hes confused over which is actually his bedroom. The boys enjoyed popsicles that Meme bought them while we walked briefly through the lighthouse museum.
We had promised the boys a playground visit so decided to drive west to Gilleleje. My mom and I took a stroll through the town while everyone else made their way to the playground right in front of the harbor. My mom remarked that the town reminded her of Provincetown or other oceanside villages shes visited as the narrow streets were lined with shops, restaurants and a glut of ice cream stores. There was a Ben & Jerry’s! Unfortunately all the shops closed at 4pm and we had arrived too late to do any shopping. We were happy to see the grocery store was open so we grabbed ingredients for dinner.
At the Gilleleje playground, the boys had been playing aggressively on the black rope spinner and Ollie had a clear rope burn on his forehead. After his sprained ankle yesterday and sounding like he has a cold coming on, he remarked, “Man I’m getting beat up!”
Back at the house in Lieseleje, Kyle and the boys played soccer in the yard while me and my parents started on dinner. The boys took turns playing the goalie and Ollie’s rough day continued when we took a ball to the face and then the privates. He shook off these hits, though, and demanded to keep playing. Len tried to keep up and even came up with a secret play– he told Kyle to pretend that he saw a rare Pokemon on his phone to lure Ollie out of the goalie box so that Len could easily kick in the ball. However, when Kyle actioned the plan, Len forgot all about it and ran over to Kyle to check out the fake Pokemon instead of kicking in the ball.
We walked into town for ice cream after dinner. Me and Len also found a Pokemon and were able to evolve him into his stronger form and Len was PUMPED. “I CAN’T BELIEVE WE GET TO EVOLVE HIM INTO THIS SPIKY GUY!!” I’m not thrilled with how much time we spend on this game but it is fun to all be playing a game together and to see the boys’ unbridled enthusiasm.
