Norway Day 27

One more day to wait.
It has been a month! since I've seen Nate.
He has left home and will get here tomorrow.
Our family will be together again.

I am so excited!

Norway Day 25 & 26

For the past couple days we've been watching:

No cultural education is complete without the man who can save the day with bubble gum and a paper clip.

Happy Birthday Pete

It's Pete's birthday today. Hope you have a fantastic day!

Norway Day 24

Today we planned to hit the beach again. But it was a bit too cold. So we played at the park for awhile. The rest of the evening, everyone else watched the World Cup and I worked on these:

Soon I will be done with the editing of Hester's wedding photos. Then I will put together a little slide show for you all. Just a little something for you to look forward to:)

norway day 23

The kids were getting a little restless. We needed to get out and get tired. So we went to the beach again. Nothing better than sun, water, and sand to wear everyone out.

It was a beautiful day. And the beach was great. But some jelly fish had invaded.

Hazel was a bit hesitant to go anywhere near them for awhile. She just played on the beach and colored with me on the blanket for the first hour. But then she got braver and started checking out the jellyfish.

Everyone had a great day playing on the rocks, making spears with shards of shale and sticks, and climbing around.

Then, when the clouds started covering the sun, it got chilly fast. So we packed up,

Got some ice cream and popsicles and went home. Everyone slept well last night.

Norway Day 22

IKEA is the same anywhere you go. But we had to go anyway.

There is a free bus from downtown to IKEA! So we all hopped on.
We tried out all the furniture. I want this couch.times 2 1/2 for my upstairs.

The kids entertained themselves afterward by playing on the railings and eating ice cream cones.

And of course we ate dinner there. Got to have some of those swedish meatballs.

Norway Day 21

Hester had to work at the Embassy's booth at the Independence Day Celebration at Frogner Park.

So we all joined her for the festivities after church. It was a beautiful day and the park was full of all sorts of people.

Lots of street performers: this violinist behind Hester,

this crusty, golden norwegian dude (kind of like the silver painted lady libertys in NYC),

this accordian player, (hazel did a run by to drop coins in his box)

And there were tons of sun worshippers.

The gardens in the park were in full bloom and gorgeous.

We enjoyed some watermelon.

We painted our faces.

There were lots of activities for Hazel. Not so many for the older kids, but everyone still had a good time.

In the park is a statue of Abraham Lincoln donated to Norway by the people of North Dakota. Kind of random.

There was a classic car show. Interestingly, the best in show was a semi truck. (I think because it is such a novelty here. There were definitely other cars that I though were better.)
At the end of the festival, the booth next to Hester's started giving out cans of pringles. Hester now has her year's supply of potatoe chips.

We did miss the fireworks though. It just isn't a real Indepence Day without them. Oh well, we'll have to make up for it next year.

Norway Day 20

Hester and I went to see Eclipse on Saturday. The theater we went to is called the Coloseum. It is ginormous. It seats more than a 1000 people I think. The nice thing is that you can get online to get tickets and choose your seats. Anyway, the movie was kind of cheesy, but still fun to go see with Hester.

Norway Days 18 & 19

Since this is a week devoted to relaxing, not much exciting is happening. But it is quite relaxing.

The grocery stores here aren't super big, at least not here in the city. Probably different outside of town. It's quaint. Although, it does make me appreciate the abundance and variety of my HEB at home.

We have just be playing at the park, playing games at home, reading, watching TV and enjoying ourselves.

Us girls went downtown to do some shopping on Friday afternoon. We checked out the H&M - Aspen's only belt broke and she needed something to keep her pants up on her skinny body. And We had dinner at a little pizza place. We passed the Grand Hotel where Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize. I'll have to remember my camera next time.

It was quite the walk for Hazel, 40 minutes there, walked around for two hours, and another 40 minutes home. Plus we had walked a half mile to the park and back before that. She has become quite a trooper. When we first came to Norway, Hazel complained a lot about her feet hurting, or she was too tired to make it. But now she is a lot stronger and never complains. I'm very proud of her.