Iceland

Dan and I got to visit Iceland the end of September. Dan's company is part of an organization called the International Printer's Network (IPN) and they meet twice a year to exchange ideas and knowledge. One stateside trip, and one international trip a year. I have been lucky enough to accompany Dan on a lot of the international trips. I was stoked when I heard this year's trip was going to be in Iceland. That is one place I thought I would never see in this lifetime. It was amazing! The landscape was so dramatically different than anything we have in the states. They have hot pots and volcanoes, and lava rock everywhere. It was a very memorable time.

I always like to get a candy or a food item that is native from the area we visit, and in this case, it was chocolate covered black licorice. I was in a little grocery store and they had a bulk candy section that happened to be on sale the day I was there. Little Icelandic children and teenagers were attacking the section like their lives depended on it. I asked a teenage girl for some recommendations on true Icelandic candy and she kept scooping up shovel-ful after shovel-ful and dumping it in my bag. I thought it would be weird, but I actually liked it a lot!

Coming Home....

A yummy yogurt called Skyr, which was packed with protein. We ate it a lot on this trip.

A geyser

Whale bones by a lake... how did they get there?

Our goal was to get a picture of this guy from Belarus. He had shifty eyes and popped up right next to you when you least expected it. He might have been a spy, we're not sure.

Waterfall


The Blue Lagoon! I was stoked to go here because the Bachelorette went here last season. It has amazing natural mud that you soak in that has healing qualities. It was awesome, except for the European naked dressing rooms. yikes.

A natural spring where we filled our water bottles... this guy just took a drink as is.

Dan looks silly in this pic because the wind was pushing us over. It was hard to stand upright.

We got a private dinner in this home- turned restaurant, by a world-renowned chef. The food was amazing!

This was where we stayed.

We had dinner the first night there in this restaurant on top of these water tanks. The restaurant revolved. The locals told us that they have slowed it down since it opened, because if you left to go to the bathroom, and you came back you could get quite lost because the whole place would revolve while you were gone. They said it's especially bad if you had too much to drink.

Easter in Vegas and Mom's Birthday!

This year we spent Easter in Las Vegas because it happened to fall on my Mom's 50th Birthday and we wanted to PAR-TAY! So we spent Easter morning in a condo but the Easter Bunny still managed to find us. (It took some letters and emails but he still found us!) The kids found their baskets quickly and we spent the day lounging, listening to Conference, playing games and eating candy. My dad got tickets to The Lion King, so my mom and him went to see that. We went shopping, and swimming, went to see the Lions, and had a grand 'ol time.

Steamboat Springs

We recently returned from a lovely trip with my family to Steamboat Springs, Co. On the way there, we stopped halfway and spent a night in Vernal. Who knew Vernal could be such a highlight of the trip?! They were having the Uintah County Fair on the exact days we were there! What luck! We got to enjoy in all the small town festivities.... not only the Dinosaur Park, but also things like the DEMOLITION DERBY! HELLO! I haven't ever seen so many 80's hairdo's and cut off shorts in one place in my entire life! We even witnessed a young gal getting an underage drinking ticket right in front of us. She acted like it was no biggie, like she has a drawer full of 'em at home. You know your town has an issue when they get an Orange County Chopper to auction off at the raffle to raise money for the courts to put into their drug and alcohol program. :) Anyway, it was awesome watching those cars beat each other senseless... I fully intend to make it a tradition. When we got to Steamboat, we spent our days visiting their waterfall, botanical garden, shopping, swimming, lounging at the Condo and enjoying their ski town scenery... which happens to be very much like Park City. It was a good little trip, and it's always fun to spend time with family! Memories were definitely made. (What happens in Vernal... stays in Vernal)

Last Day in Copenhagen - Finally!

Sorry it's taken me so long to wrap up our trip, but when we got home it was chaos!

The last day of our trip consisted of sight seeing. There was this cute little yarn shop a few doors down from our hotel. I was like a kid in a candy store with all that European yarn! Dan had to capture my giddyness.

We went and toured a museum of Danish History, and then walked the grounds of a castle across the street.

We saw the oldest circus building in Scandinavia,

and took some pictures of the amusement park "Tivoli",

which to our disappointment, didn't open for the Halloween festivities until the week after we left.

We went to see a movie, "Get Samrt" (in english mind you) and then ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe Cophenhagen. We had to get up early for our flight the next morning, so we pretty much called it a night after that. The next morning we trucked our stuff to the train stop, and boarded a train to the airport, then took our 3-leg trip home. The best part was driving up to see our kids waiting with this cute sign that they made. We love traveling, but we love our kids too much to be gone too long!

P.S. This is a picture our our Clarioin hotel we thought was a nightclub. Don't be fooled, it was actually quite nice!

Day 5- Copenhagen, Denmark

Today we slept in and missed breakfast, so we needed something quick and easy for lunch to fill our hungry bellies! So Burger King it was.... and even though we had to pay $10 for a Whopper meal, (prices are pretty high here) it got the job done. Right next to the Burger King, was my favorite place to visit while on vacation, Ripley's Believe it or Not!. I know, I know, it has nothing to do with Denmark, but I feel this need to visit them whenever I am on vacation. I was not disappointed. :) I mean where else can you see.....


a Taj Mahal made out of matchsticks...

a real life shrunken head from New Guinea....

a freaky old man mannequin that takes your picture as you walk by, (which I was certain was going to come alive or do something freaky if I got too close) btw, can you see who is in the picture next to me?

and a random dude with a surprise under his kilt.
(Video of what happens when you lift the leaf coming soon...)

Then we spent the day shopping on the famous Stroget street. It is THE shopping district in Copenhagen.

We found this open art fair in the middle of the market street and were quite intrigued with some of the pics. They were all real life people in their everyday elements, we tried our best to imitate them. :)

I thought my belly matched his quite well.

This guy was a street performer on Stroget Street.

Here is the City Hall in Town Square. It is right across the street from our hotel... quite convenient.

For dinner we went to this great little place right by our hotel called Chili. I had this amazing Pastrami sandwich with goat cheese and sundried tomatoes with a pesto sauce. I don't think the pictures so it justice.

Dan had the nachos, the guacomole was to die for!

After our late dinner, we headed back to the hotel to call it a night. Tomorrow will be another long day of museums and sightseeing, so we should sleep. Only one more day of vacation before we fly home all day Wednesday!