We got a whole week and a half for Easter break, so we packed in a lot of fun!
These pictures were taken at the folk museum, which we visited with our friends, the Høgsets and the Vågens! We had a great time painting Easter eggs, picnicing, playing, and exploring Norwegian homes and buildings from centuries long past! The stave church was really cool. Annie found the only puddle in the place and sat and splashed herself to her heart's content--to the surprise of all the on-lookers :). I was just glad I'd brought her a change of clothes!
Dad had some days off later in the week, so we went to see the Viking ship museum! These ships were built in 800-900 AD, and later used to bury Viking nobles, so they contained some awesome artifacts when later found--which were also on display.
Then we visited the Kon-Tiki museum, where we learned about the famous expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl. He and his team built raft-boats out of natural, primitive materials and tried to prove that ancient South Americans could have traveled by boat to Polynesia. Interesting.
Had a picnic on the beach with friends from the ward! The weather was great.
I thought this was funny. These Laban gummi-men are a really popular candy around here. The Easter package shows them wearing skis! Apparently, Norwegians like to travel to mountain cabins over Easter break, and go cross-country skiing. I don't usually connect Easter with snow...only in Norway! :)
(James colored this at school :))
Carl brought four of these home from work--one for each of our kids!
In Norway, instead of Easter baskets, kids get large, decorative eggs that open up to reveal the goodies inside!
Nice colors, kids!
The eggs got kinda cracked-up during the hunt:
The Easter Bunny came! He left the boys some Lego Ninjago spinners, and for Annie some tiny horsies!
It's "Vinterferie," or winter break (end of February), and one of the scheduled temple weeks for our ward. So, we packed the kids in the car and made the 6-8 hour trek to Stockholm, Sweden! We got to see the temple, Stockholm, and inner Sweden for the first time. Of course, the climate and scenery were much like Norway, but grocery prices cheaper, so we took the advice of our friends and bought some meat to stock our freezer. :)
This video shows our church building and some of the ward members. We were at "Dugnad," which is co-operative clean-up time. Both our church and our neighborhood plan dugnads for the fall and the spring.
This is also a fun Norwegian tradition: "Lyktetur," or lantern walk. We gathered with Joseph's school classmates and their families on an evening in October. Walked with candle-lit lanterns into the forest near the school, and roasted hot-dogs together. :)
Gabriel is from Sweden, Amanda from England, they're in our ward, and we like them a lot! They have a new baby girl and a great apartment next to a picturesque lake. We were invited by them to a Sunday BBQ in July, and a few weeks later had them over to our house for treats and games. Played a fun stick-throwing game from Sweden. I wish I remembered the name of it.
