Two more

These were both Iceland too.  One from my camera and one from  my mom.  Can you tell we took lots of pictures of each other?

Missed one.

I missed uploading this one.  Jer took this shot from down the street.

Squaw Peak

I took Cristina and her mom up to Squaw Peak while we were waited to pick up Frederico from physical therapy.  It was mamita's first time ever seeing snow.  I went and gathered up some snow and she poked and prodded it. 

Before we left

We had some fun things before our trip too.  We had a Ward BBQ.  That was fun. The lady across from me is a one of my favorites.  Not only is she my kid's piano teacher, but she also is the Bishop's wife.  Our husbands spend about 12-18 hours together every week.  She understands and appreciates the time away from our family to support her husband as they serve in their callings.

Evelyn LOVES reading.  She loves cuddling too. Grandpa's good at both.

Water rocket launching at the Ward activity.

My silly girls.

Sam loved this Mario hat years ago.  It's kind of fun to see it re-emerge as Seth new favorite.

Big trip - first stop

Our first step was to LA, then from LA to Iceland.  This is a picture out the window of Greenland.  Because it's so late in the year, mostly there were clouds out of the window, but they broke long enough to get a glimpse.  May favorite was looking out and seeing clouds everywhere except one mountain peak poking up through them.  We had one day in Iceland.  The we were going to do was sold out, so we just wandered in Reykjavik.

I loved these little stick people on the side of the road.  If we had had more time, one of the things that I would like to have done is going to the History of Art museum for Icelandic art. The other thing would have been to go to the more northern coast to see the giant blocks of ice that wash up on shore and the northern lights (wrong time of year for that)... though I did see one in the airplane that kind of curled up around itself as we were flying in.

 

The name of this store was perfect.  Icelandic is a very different language.

There was a walkway between the windows of our rooms, I popped over to say hi.

We ate at the Hard Rock Café (I think they're fun if over priced).  Jer and I split a plate of lamb.  I about died!  That was so delicious!  Iceland cooks with lots of herbs.... SOOOOO GOOD!

I loved these stone men all along the coast line too.  They were pretty neat.

Iceland is known for it's sheep herding, Icelandic ponies, volcanos and Vikings.

We thought this was pretty funny... There was a Chuck Norris Grill with Chuck Norris jokes written all over the front doors.

Some European buildings still have grass roofs.  Many of the buildings that we saw were made of the corrugated metal siding in bright colors.  They have Geo-thermal heating, so we were nice and toasty.  The Airbnb was so comfy, but the shower was too small for Jeremy to fit in... and even worse for me.  Still bathed.

This is Hallgrímskirkja, the Lutheran Church on the island.  It was the highest building until they got their first sky scrapper.

My Vikings

I found about 6-7 of these little toy soldiers on top of signs as we walked around.  I think they were probably part of a walking tour or someone having fun.

Jer with his Ada sign.

We found a Baldursgata street too.  That was pretty funny for all you nerds out there.

There were a bunch of little trolls in all the gift shops, but we did find two big ones on the street too.  We passed several art shops that looked pretty normal, but I loved one of the photographers shops.  He had a fun sense of space and irony.  My favorite photograph was a nun in her habit vacuuming an empty church.

Big trip

My parents both retired this year.  My Dad served his mission in Frankfurt, Germany 40 years ago and we got the opportunity to be able to go with them.  It was close, a bout of lice with our family, heart issues for my mother-in-law, projects at home, school for kids... we almost had to let them go without us, but thankfully the lice cleared up in time, projects were put on hold, soccer and piano put on hold and most importantly Kate was with Grandma and Grandpa Robertson to help with their projects (a deck rebuild) and our kids.  She was able to see Ruth (accidentally), who was in the Provo MTC.  The kids loved having her there and I'm grateful for the help.

We took the frontrunner up to the airport and my mommy heart was sad to leave my kids.  I knew they'd be okay, but we've never left them without parents for more than overnight.