Tuesday Travels

Caleb is finishing up his master's degree... during which time we haven't been able to travel as much as we I would like...

So, I decided to reminisce about some of my travels and our travels.

Last summer, even though Caleb was working through his master's degree, we were able to travel to Sweden (to visit my family) and France (for Caleb's sister's wedding).

Big HOO-RAH! First big family vacation for us (which included Sam). Another HOO-RAH!

First passport for Sam.

First across the ocean flight for Sam.

Sam's first two other countries besides the US.

Big stuff, right?!

We had a great time and the other day, while perusing pictures, I came across these.

Sam was great on the airplane, slept most of the way over (so not many pictures), however he LOVED the train, as you will see. This is a partial photo dump... I'll have to come back with more pics from Sweden.

What were some memorable trips for you?

Would love to hear from you in the comments below!

First international flight

Snoozing.

Icelandair Baby.

Stockholm Airport.

 

So excited.

Waiting to take the train.

Everything's moving so fast...

Mom, this is great! Why have we never done this before?

It's hard working watching, I need a drink.

Sam's Gammal Mormor.

  

Crawling at Notre Dame

Family Photo in front of the Eiffel Tower

Tour Eiffel at Night

Group shot!

Sisters :)

Bachelorette party in Paris. All in pink.

.sister love.

All dressed up.

All tuckered out.

Oh just goofing off in Versailles.

And we met some long lost relatives.

Sam is tired, again.

Walking around the Arc d'Triomphe.

First steps in France on the Arc d'Triomphe

family shot on top of the Arc d'Triomphe

Birthday party for Sam.

Birthday eclair

Sam's French Birthday Tart.

a few more vacation images...

skating adventures
one morning we woke up and decided to go ice-skating on Lake Siljan in Dalarna, Sweden. we bundled up, grabbed our skates and headed out to the lake.
"long färd skridskor" is popular in sweden - directly translated it would be "long distance" skating. you put long ice-skate blades onto specially designed boots. i've tried it in the past, but i don't own a pair. i had regular hockey skates, but almost everyone else had the long-distance skates.


my mom and jakob - he has the long-distance skates, and special poles, they both have ice-pick thingies around their necks; in the event they fall through the ice, they dig the ice-pick in the ice and don't drown... good to keep around :)

we skated alongside the shoreline... probably a total of 6 miles.
it was such a fun time and good exercise! we kept warm despite the chilly weather...


my amazing mom and me: ice-skating on a cold winter morning



beautiful views of a frozen dock from our ice-skating trip




close-up shot: my brother phil and me

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gallivanting in stockholm


walking the streets of downtown stockholm in the winter...


drottninggatan, stockholm
it's a "people only, no cars" street in stockholm that stretches for about 1 mile
there are fabulous stores on both sides of the street


drottninggatan, stockholm
i love the christmas chandeliers - so festive



my friends: emma, henke and petra


petra and emma goofing off in the street


henke...
it was soo chilly out...
i had a hard time taking pictures...
my fingers were FREEZING!


close-up: emma, petra, sara


goofy shot: emma, petra, sara

we met during my sophomore year in sweden. it's great that we still keep in touch.
emma, if you're reading this, i'm still sending you the converse :) xo

emma, petra and henke all live in stockholm, so it's great to be able to catch up w/all of them at once.

we spend the afternoon at a café - "fika" is what the swedes call it - basically taking time to drink coffee, tea or hot chocolate, eat a sandwich or yummy bum and catch up with friends. such a good word, wish it existed in english :)

we walked around stockholm while they helped me pick out a few wedding presents for friends in the states. then we decided to grab some dinner.
we went to a fabulous italian restaurant, that i can't remember the name of... henke, petra, emma, do you guys remember?
anyway, you walk into the restaurant and you are given a plastic card. you find a table, order your food, eat, spend time w/friends. when you're ready to leave, you bring your plastic card to the hostess. she checks you out and you pay. it's great for friends getting together - no one has to worry about splitting up the check. you each pay for what you eat.
the downside... you lose the card, you pay $100...

so there's another peek into my vacation that i WISH hadn't ended...

beauty

i finally uploaded my pictures FROM my camera TO my computer from my trip to sweden.

here are a few images i captured that i wanted to post.

a christmas wreath on a woodshop door



a woodshop with frosted windows



a typical christmas chandelier
i want to have something similar someday...
i love the elegant simplicity :)



the sunrise from my mormors house around 9am



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now if only we could get loads of snow the weatherman is predicting...

twenty-seven

i graduated high school almost 9 years ago; my ten year reunion is coming up... yikes
i graduated college almost 5 years ago; my five year reunion...
i'm married; does this mean i'm supposed to be more responsible?
i work a full-time job; i miss out on the summer, fall, christmas and spring breaks and look forward to taking a vacation and getting paid for it
i'm fully past 25 - is that considered over the 20s hill or will that happen when i hit 30?
however
january 7
i did have a birthday party in sweden and it was a darn good time
here's the set-up...

fläder tårta
kladd kaka
pepparkakor
lussekatt
saft
kaffe
tulpaner

translation: cake, more cake, gingerbread cookies and saffron buns. juice and coffee. tulips to brighten a winter day

back to the grind...

it's back to work for me... i had a blissful 2 1/2 week vacation and now it's back to reality...

~a few highlights~

• spending christmas w/caleb's family
• johannes & rebecka's wedding on new year's eve
• shopping w/my cousins (in sweden)
• ice skating on lake siljan w/family & friends
• having dinner w/friends at valpiano in stockholm
• visiting my aunt and her family in uppsala
• ice-skating w/linnea and my aunt anna
• checking out the dom kyrka in gamla uppsala with my mom
• shopping and spending time w/my mormor
• birthday party for ME in sweden
• cross country skiing w/uncle, aunt and mormor
• spending time w/people i love
• coming home to caleb...
• celebrating "christmas" with caleb on jan 10

currently my body is functioning 6 hrs ahead of EST... so i'm off to take a nap!

pictures & videos of my highlights to follow... :)

skiing

Åskaken



today was my last day in siljansnäs; the thermometer read -24C so we thought it'd be a good chance to go skiing ;)

many people say that once it's past -15C it's almost too cold to go outside; this can be true... but i wanted to go skiing before i left...

so my morbror Håkan, his wife, my 79 year old mormor and i went out on a "liten utflykt". we packed sandwiches, coffee, hot chocolate, and candy in a backpack, put our skis in a thule rack and sped away on an adventure.

it was almost tooo cold to take pictures - as soon as you took your mitten off to take a picture, your fingers almost hurt from the cold.

however, for your viewing pleasure are a few pictures from our little adventure.


cecilia . mormor . sara

our "fika stund" by the frozen lake


sara . cecilia . mormor

i must say, it was awesome to go skiing with my 79 year old mormor (grandma). she is fabulous. more on her some other post. she turns 80 this year and hopefully i'll be able to do something special for her 80th birthday.


mormor . cecilia . håkan

racing to the end


sara

trying to cross-country ski down a small hill...



here's a picture of my mormor



i am soooo proud of her!! it was -24C (which makes it -11.2 F) and she went out skiing with us.
it was such a fabulous memory and it was wonderful to spend my last full day in siljansnäs skiing with my mormor. :)