Denmark and Norway

I finally am sitting down to post about our amazing trip to Denmark and Norway with my parents. Their graduation gift to Adam and me was a trip to Denmark to see where Adam grew up, including a week in Norway to see the fjords. We had such a wonderful time! There's no way to record all of our experiences here, but I will touch on the highlights through pictures.

Here we are in the Salt Lake airport waiting to fly to Atlanta. Traveling with Dad and Mom made it so much more fun. The girls loved to ride through the airport this way.

Looking out at the planes

This is in Copenhagen, at the church with the original Christus statue, which you can see between Adam and me. Statues of the apostles line the walls of the cathedral. There's a story about President Kimball standing by the statue of Peter, who is holding keys, and pulling aside a janitor and telling him that he (Pres. Kimball) holds the keys now in our day.

This is in front of the queen's castle in Copenhagen. (Mini was slightly psychotic at this point. She had fallen down and was completely fine until she saw a little blood on her hand and then she freaked out and would NOT calm down.)

Fredericksborg Castle is behind us, a castle about 30 min. outside Copenhagen. There's a little chapel in this castle with the originals of many of the Carl Bloch paintings that the Church uses. Most people pass by without really noticing but we loved picking out all the paintings we recognized.

We spent the night at a bed and breakfast in the little town that this castle is in. We were so surprised when we walked in our bedroom and saw a picture of the temple on the wall! They were a cute member couple and were excited because we were the first members to stay with them. It was a fun little coincidence! Here we are with them.

The next morning we left Denmark, took a ferry to Sweden and drove up to Oslo, where we went to the Weapons/War Museum. Adam is standing under one of the unmanned missile planes (I don't know the technical name) and next to one of the torpedoes used in WWII. I didn't realized this, but Norway actually put up a really good fight when Germany invaded. They were some of the only ones in Europe to actually resist Hitler coming in.

From Oslo we drove up to the biggest fjord, the Sognefjord. It was a gorgeous drive on little roads winding through green valleys. Since it was raining there were waterfalls all over. To get to our hotel on the fjord we had to take two ferries. Mini found a little nook where she could see the water.

This is the view of the fjord from the ferry

We arrived at our hotel in Dragsvik around 11:00 and it was still light outside. It never really got dark. It actually helped that we were jet lagged because we slept just fine even though it wasn't dark ever and was totally light outside by 4 am.

The next day we just enjoyed being at the fjord. I will always remember our day at the fjord as a perfect day. We walked to an arboretum near the hotel then down to the water and splashed around. Then we rented bikes and rode to a nearby town, Balestrand--about 5 miles, through the most amazing scenery I've even seen. We ate dinner in Balestrand then strolled down onto a pier with a view out across the fjord. I really think that's what heaven will be like, except with all our family and friends there with us!

This is the pier we sat on in Balestrand. You can see behind to the peninsula our hotel in Dragsvik was on. It jutted out into the fjord and provided the most beautiful setting.

As if that perfect day weren't enough, at 3:50 am the next morning, Emmy woke me up rustling around in her crib. It was light outside and she was ready to play! But I glanced outside and this is what I saw...

It was literally the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and actually made me cry. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves us enough to create a world this beautiful for us. And here is Emmy bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 3:50 am, but can you blame her? Look how light it is!

I really hope we can go back to Dragsvik someday! The next day we drove to the southern tip of Norway and then the next day took a ferry down to Denmark. It was beautiful and, other than Mini throwing up from being car sick, we enjoyed seeing that beautiful area. Here's a little town called Vik on the other side of the fjord that I fell in love with as we drove through.

When we stopped to clean Mini up a little, there were a bunch of sheep that we started feeding. They loved us and this one put his front legs in the van to get food from us!

And here's what it looked like driving through Norway:

Well, I think I'll take a break and actually take care of my kids. I'll post more later from our stay in Denmark with Adam's parents and brother. Thanks for hanging in there with me!