Trip to the Netherlands and Norway (part 2)

I got to go to the Netherlands for a conference and Norway to visit my sister Carrie who lives there back in early August, and I am just now getting to putting up a blog about it! This is the second posting about the trip for Norway. The first posting about the Netherlands is below this posting...

NORWAY

My sister Carrie got married a little over a year ago to Kjetil Olsen, my Norwegian brother in law. Since I was so close to Norway after having a conference in Amsterdam, I just had to go visit them for a week. I got to be the first sibling to see them in their native environment and boy were they excited to see me!I was pretty excited too! They immediately flew me out to the coast to a town called Stavanger where Kjetil my brother in law grew up. The town has a monument to a viking battle that took place there in late 800 AD. The monument is of three giant swords stuck in the ground overlooking the bay where the battle between three kings took place. To commemorate my being there I went down into the battle bay and put my foot (toe) in the water.

Another incredible thing I got to do while in Stavanger was to go and climb Preikestolen. This is a giant slab of rock that juts out overlooking a fjord nearly 2000 feet up in the air. Kjetil and I climbed the rocky trail and were NOT disappointed with the view! This counts as probably one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life! Another important part of this hike was the time I got to spend talking with Kjetil one on one. You can't take pictures of a conversation, though, so here are the pictures of the view...And yes, I was definitely scared standing at the edge!

After Stavanger, we flew back to where Carrie and Kjetil live (in a town called Drammen), but first stopped at Vigeland Park in Oslo. It is a park designed by one man over the better part of his lifetime that portrays mankind's stages of life in all its many aspects. All the statues are nude and I at first thought I would find it silly, but the symbolism and aesthetic quality of the park overtook me. I particularly liked one tiny sculpture of a skeleton (death) separating a couple. It made me cry to think of all the relationships separated by death. It also reminded me of my own temple sealing and how grateful I should be that my marriage doesn't have to end at "till death do us part."

The time in Drammen was fantastic and below you will see a view from their deck. We ate all sorts of yummy foods and visited a glass factory and went shopping. It was sad to leave but hopefully you can share some of my excitement about being there from my pictures...
My sister posted a fuller set of the pictures that were taken on her blog and if you're interested in seeing them go to: http://olsenfamilien1.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-been-great.html

Trip to the Netherlands and Norway (Part 1)

I got to go to the Netherlands for a conference and Norway to visit my sister Carrie who lives there back in early August, and I am just now getting to putting up a blog about it! The bottom line is that it was fantasic! Here are some pictures and details from my time in the Netherlands. The posting for Norway is above...

NEDERLAND

I served my mission in the Netherlands and so going back was very fulfilling. I got to see members I hadn't seen in years and I got to speak Dutch again to someone other than myself!

The amazing picture you see above is from a canal in Leiden at dusk that was taken by my friend Dave who I stayed with a couple days while I was there. I actually didn't bring our camera since my wife was on a trip to Utah with it at the same time. I was at the mercy of my friends to take pictures and I obviously found myself a great photographer for a friend! Here are a few more...

Dave took me to a castle called Haarzuylens and it was beautiful. I never got to go here on my mission so it was new to me. Dave and I actually spent a good deal of time (hours) just walking around and talking and the conversation was even better than the pictures...

The above pictures are three more photos from Leiden. My conference was in Amsterdam actually, but I didn't really have a camera for it. I got to serve in Amsterdam for three months so although the conference went well and my presentation was well enough received, my favorite part about being in the city was just walking around remembering places that I had been. I also got to go back to Amsterdam for one day after visiting Dave to visit with another friend named Job and we went and did some more touristy sight seeing, which included a visit to the Dutch National Museum called the Rijksmuseum. My legs hurt from all the walking, but it was awesome! The number of original paintings from Dutch masters like Vermeer, Van Dijk, Rembrandt and others was staggering. Here's a picture of the museum I pulled off the internet along with a few of the paintings I liked (there were other artifacts in the museum besides the paintings, but I liked the paintings the best)...

Another highlight of my time in the Netherlands was being able to go to the temple there to do a session in Dutch. This is a picture taken after walking around the temple with Dave...

Update

We have done a lot of fun things lately. We love summer time!

Abigail LOVES carousels.

Notice how Abigail is curtsying. She have acquired this habit from somewhere. A few times at church she has gone around and curtsied to her friends.

We went to Greenfield Village in Detroit with a friend. It is a really cool place. We got to ride on a train, horse drawn carriage, model T, carousel and old time bus.

I cut Abigail's hair. This is her new swimming suit. We have gone swimming a lot at our apartment's pool this summer. Abigail has gotten really good at swimming this year. She is a champion at doggy paddling and jumping into the water.

We have a garden plot behind our little branch house in St. Johns this year. We have gotten a TON of peppers from it. I have 4 huge bags full of peppers in my freezer that we have seeded and cut up. I can tell you from sad experience to wear gloves whenever de-seeding cayene and jalepeno peppers. I ended up stringing two lines of peppers up to dry to avoid the inevitable pain involved in washing and de-seeding. We made and canned some salsa from the onions, peppers and tomatoes from our garden. It was a lot of work, but very delicious. One of the first times I ever met Benjamin at BYU he brought some salsa to a softball game for our singles ward to share with everyone. He knows the way to "win my love". :)

Abby wanted her hair curled for church. She wanted to be cute for her friend Donovan. Abby says he is "trying to win her love", but he gets jealous of his little brother sometimes. She said that the younger brother Elliot understands her better and has told her he loves her. There is much drama in a 4 year old's world.

Dress-ups at a friend's house.

DeWitt is a city 15 minutes from where we live. They have an Ox Roast Festival every year. We went to the parade they did on Saturday morning. Abigail got a bag full of candy. We sat on some friend's lawn and had a great time.

We went to Grand Haven and had a wonderful time. Lake Michigan is so beautiful. The sand is soft and the water is suprisingly warm. It is really fun to play in because it is fresh water, so you don't have to worry about getting salt in your eyes. Abigail and I played in the water a long time on this trip. The waves weren't very big and she would walk/swim out to a post and then we would go back to the beach and do it again.

Benjamin has been going strong with the no sugar or dessert for a year. So we did muffins instead of ice cream and cake for his birthday.

Benjamin had collected all the quarters for the states, so we got him a place to put them and display them. Abigail wrapped all his presents and hid them around the house. She was super excited about his birthday.

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