grass stains: BrickFair blew my mind, again

It was really exciting to be offered tickets to give to one of you guys to attend BrickFair this year, and of course I was happy to have four tickets for us to go, as well.

When I took the boys last year, they had so much fun that they talked about it for months. This year, they couldn't WAIT to bring Amelia and show her all of the neat things there.

As soon as we entered the arena, we were met by a huge cityscape. I could have scoured it for detail for hours and still not noticed every little secret within it.

If you like LEGOs, I'll just go ahead and tell you, the rest of this post is gonna be like LEGO Porn. I mean, I don't even like them that much, but BrickFair is really cool. I'll jump in and editorialize a little when the mood strikes, but mostly I'm just gonna let you enjoy your LEGO Porn.

Here are a few examples of the detail I loved, though.

Things like the bank robber holding a hostage at knifepoint in downtown Tampa, complete with a SWAT vehicle and TV crew.

And a bucket truck doing maintenance work on a traffic signal.

I'm pretty sure I caught a glimpse of a presidential motorcade at one point, too.

Maybe not presidential, but somebody important. It was right in front of Tampa's City Hall.

Window-washer? Check.

Embassy Suites? Check.

All the branded stuff was adorable. Best Buy was right next to a fire station AND an arcade that was on fire. Flames were shooting from the windows and the rooftop.

Favorite detail of Waffle House? Had to be the handicapable parking spaces out front.

You know my favorite coffee drink in the whole world is QT cappuccino? WELL. Have a look-see here.

I mean, I couldn't see any tiny little cappuccino cups down there, but I know in my heart of hearts -- THEY WERE THERE.

(Sidebar: Just three weeks until we go to Disney World!)

Ima let you finish, but I used to be SO good at Q*bert.

Amelia was so happy to see "Punzel" there!

Two of my favorites of the day, the Alabama Theater and the Alabama Power building, were built by an Alabama Power Company employee named Wesley Higgins.

I know it will be hard for those of you who aren't from Birmingham to appreciate how much of his detail is crazy-accurate on these buildings, but it's really amazing.

Even though I don't know Wesley, all it took was Tweeting Alabama Power yesterday with a picture of this masterpiece for them to tell me who he was.

I MEAN.

I was just so impressed with things like the way he mixed cream and white bricks when I would have used all white for the trim, and the way he differentiated the figureheads above the entrance. So cool!

Loch Ness Monster.

Many of the structures were based on real buildings, and this was one of them. There was a picture of the Colony Hotel right next to it so you could compare the details.

I have to say, there was pretty much something for everyone. Even all you weirdos who like the zombie show.

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

This builder even had his laptop set up, showing clips from The Walking Dead right there as part of his display.

Grody.

Once we made our way past the grody zombies, we found these ginormous LEGO figures. They were as big as my torso.

But my very Very VERY most favorite display of the entire event represented the Battle of Pelellu.

Clear LEGOs looked like water churning at the rear of each boat.

The water contained several different colors of blue, clear and green LEGOs, giving it the most amazing hue.

And the large ship and small boats were packed with details, as well.

Where the water met the land, more attention to detail. Frothy waves and a gradient of sand. And fish.

I wish I could convey the scale of this exhibit to you. It was HUGE.

The land side was just as meticulously detailed as the sea side.

Oh, and did I mention there was a simultaneous air strike? Yep, those planes' propellers were really spinning.

We did see Steve and a Creeper ... because what's ANY form of entertainment without seeing a Minecraft reference?

There were plenty of Star Wars builds, too, but we didn't spend as much time on those as we did last year.

Nathaniel was really sweet with Amelia all day, so patient with her.

If we got caught up with the other boys, he made sure to keep an eye on her and draw her attention to something he thought she'd like.

I fell in love with the hot air balloons, and Amelia did, too.

Then there came what I believe was a bunch of Doctor Who stuff.

Does this look like Doctor Who stuff? Because I don't watch it, but those red and yellow dudes look like those dudes from Doctor Who, but it's possible they're just some newfangled variation of Rosie from The Jetsons and I have no idea what I'm talking about.

When we'd been there for two hours and Amelia was starting to fade, we made one final stop at the bounce house.

I don't remember a bounce house being there last year, but our kids were VERY excited to see one this year. BrickFair was a raging success, once again, for our family.