Happy Birthday Isaac!

Happy Birthday Isaac! I can't believe that you are 14, that is so cool!

Two years ago I went to Sweden with Isaac and my Mom to watch Isaac participate with his soccer team in the Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden. We celebrated his 12th birthday while we were there with a little cake and some candles. Doesn't that salad look good?! I thought it would be fun to share some pictures of our time together! Isaac, I had so much fun traveling around with you and can't wait to do it again someday soon. 

Note: I think this is one of the longest posts I have ever posted so be prepared to be bombarded with loads of pictures, mostly of the handsome birthday boy. 

Some of the little cheerleaders cheering and soccer players getting ready to play.

On our way to the opening ceremonies for the Gothia Cup, it was like a mini Olympics. Isaac was playing with Mexico so we sported our red, white and green. We cheered when Mexico came out on the field but we cheered a little louder for the USA :) They tons of performers singing and people flipping on trampolines, it was pretty amazing and at the end they had a big fireworks show.

After the big opening ceremonies everyone was a little bit hyper, there were tons and tons of people everywhere flooding the streets just having a good time!

  

In between soccer games Mom and I would find fun things (window shopping) to do. We found some cool things like a little hat on a headband and some bright orange shades that we tried on but left for someone else to buy. 

Isaac getting his game on, the weather was mostly pretty nice but it did rain like crazy a few times! I had never seen so many soccer fields before. There were different sections set up for the games around town, we would take a bus to our section and then walk to the field from there. Some sections had rows and rows of fields, maybe 20 fields in a row with tons of kids playing soccer. It was pretty neat.

In case you didn't know, Mexico really gets into their soccer games. All the Mexico friends and family had chants and cheers that they would yell basically the entire game, it made for a fun atmosphere. 

Here were are in between some games exploring "old town", we mostly walked around and had some food with some of the other parents and siblings. There were some cute little shops and sights to see. 

Climbing a ton of stairs to get to this building at the top of the hill that overlooked the whole city, I think it must have been a military lookout because there were canons spread out around the hill. 

We ran across this bacon in a tube and thought it was really funny slash gross and couldn't resist taking a picture. Looking back we probably should have picked it up and thrown it in the trash, oh well. 

After a few days in Gothenburg we took a train to Stockholm to do some more exploring. There were huge rivers everywhere and tons of beautiful bridges. We had so much fun walking around and seeing the sights and eating our fair share of good food and ice cream.

We saw this huge amusement park across the river one day and decided that we wanted to go check it out so we took a train back to our hotel to get some closed toed shoes and then hopped right back on the train to get to the park before it closed. I have to say that this was the craziest park I have ever been too and it was so. much. fun. 

You can't go to an amusement park with out getting a hot dog!

  Isaac really wanted to win one of those huge soccer balls and he did!

This was by far the worst ride, are you surprised?! I thought it was going to be so relaxing and fun like how it is when you are little. But going around and around when you are older is not as fun and by the end I was trying to not throw up everywhere, I really thought I was going to die. 

Getting ready to ride a crazy ride!

OK, we called this the intestine ride and it was insane! Isaac and I rode it together and of course the line was super long so we had tons of time to question our decision. The ride was one of those ones where your feet dangle and it goes upside down and all around. I think we were both pretty nervous but not nervous enough to chicken out. Of course the ride only lasted about 20 seconds but it was worth it.

Having some more fun exploring. We took a boat tour on the river and every time we would get close to a bridge we would all get out of our seats and crouch down on the floor of the boat so that we wouldn't hit our heads on the bridges since they were so low.

 Isaac with one of the largest rhododendron bushes I have ever seen. 

 Isaac was really good at posing like the statues, he is not in the middle picture it was just neat because a bird landed right on the statues hand. 

Isaac and my Mom were good sports, a blog I read had mentioned this creperie that sounded really yummy so we trekked around a little bit and found it. It was a lot smaller than I expected but you could watch the crepes being made and the food was great!

We stayed outside of town a little ways in the white hotel in the background below. It was an old building with lots of character, an old library and a pool table (Isaac is really good at pool!). We had so much fun going down to the breakfast at the hotel each morning, I think this is one of the funnest parts about traveling, we would just hang out and talk while we ate all fruit, bread, fresh juice and other stuff they had. 

Isaac and Mom sleeping on one of our train rides, we had so much fun taking the train. The scenery was beautiful and we could all sleep since nobody had to drive. I think Isaac and I each read an entire book on our kindles. 

Happy 14th Birthday Isaac! You are so great! I am so glad you are my brother!

Love you!