Reflections of 2017 Part 1

Its been SO long since I've done a blog post that I'm going to have to make this one into 2 parts. 

 Some of the highlights of the past year are:

1. Going to Yosemite with Russ in February & seeing how beautiful it is with snow!

2. Jaren & Maren wedding in the Draper Temple on February 18th!!

Great looking bunch!!

3. The passing of Mary Ellen (Grandma Larsen) on March 2nd. I will ALWAYS be grateful she was able to attend Jared's wedding and all the festivities of that day!! It wasn't even 2 weeks after Jared's wedding that she passed away. We miss her.

4. My parents visit to see us. 

 5. The tulip Festival

Sometimes I think Heavenly Father created flowers just for me, because He knows I love them so much!!

6. My visit to Kansas & being able to attend Kristy's piano students recital.

7. A trip to Ireland with our good friends the Parkins in April.

Now that's some fish and chips!

8. Zayne was born on June 28th

Uncle Jared and Aunt Maren

Zayne's first Christmas. 

Hanging out with cousins! Cute boys!

9. A trip to Norway in August with our good friends the Parkins.

Now this is where my post gets a little longer, because I never did a blog post on this trip.

This is at the train station in Flam. We did a tour called, "Norway in a Nutshell" where you take a train and then a ferry on a fjord cruise.

 This was near where we spent our first night. We went for a little walk after dinner to find a grocery store & came across this beautiful little scene.

Ferry to Flam

 Stalheim Valley

 Waterfall near Odda

Odda, Norway

 Hike up to Pulpit Rock

 Pulpit Rock 

This is one of the most popular hikes in Norway. It is breathtaking at the top overlooking the Fjord!!

We had a great workout and had lunch at the top.

 Many buildings & some houses have grass growing on the roof like this one.

 Common site on the roads.

We went to church in Stavanger and met the Redfords. Sofi, the wife invited us over to their home later that evening for fresh hot homemade rolls and cocoa. We had such a nice visit & it was fun to find out more about their culture.  All the members were VERY welcoming!!

 Bergen, Norway

We stayed in this hotel in Bergen & we felt like we were in the Twilight Zone!

We passed the time on the many ferry rides we took playing Skull King!!

Geiranger Fjord

There are so many pictures I could post of Norway, but wanted to keep this short.

We had a great time. We drove A LOT & everything there is REALLY expensive!!

One thing that has changed a lot since we were last there in 1993 is they have built lots of tunnels through the mountains. It does save you time, but you miss a lot of the beauty by going through them. One tunnel was 23 kilometers long, it even had  2 roundabouts in it!

10. A trip to Iceland

After spending 10 days with the Parkins in Norway, they flew home and we went to Iceland for 6 days. We flew Iceland Air to Norway & you can stop over in Iceland for up to 2 weeks with no extra charge. We drove around the entire country on the red road you can see. 

Pingvellir National Park, Iceland

This site is the world's longest running parliament, which began in 930 AD

Gullfoss 

When I started studying up on what to see in Iceland I had NO idea how many waterfalls they have there & some are HUGE!! The population of Iceland is only around 330,000 people and 2/3 of them live near Reykjavik. 

We rented a car & that's a story in itself! Needless to say we prayed a lot while we were driving around the country. Iceland has around 130 volcanic mountains & eruptions are a regular occurrence about every 5 years.

Skogafoss- 197 ft. high

You can see a trail up the side of the hill. It's ALL stairs that goes to the top. It's definitely a heart pumper getting up there, but beautiful view!!

Skogar Folk Museum- Turf farm from the 1800's

Skogar Church built in 1879, but furnishings are from 1600-1742.

Its amazing the different landscapes in Iceland. One minute its lush green, the next barren with black lava rock everywhere, and then black sandy beaches with cool lava tubes.

Black sandy beaches from all the volcanic mountains.

We stayed in Vik one night, the southern most part of the island. Our hotel was right across the street from the Icelandic Wear store. They had beautiful sweaters, blankets, hats, etc. to buy. 

We thought Norway was expensive!! I think Iceland has them beat. We went to the grocery store every day to buy bread, meat, fruit, etc. because it was SO expensive to eat out. We usually went out for dinner, but even a hamburger and fries for the two of us was $50.00!!

This was a VERY rainy and windy day. On our way to Myvatn Lake we stopped at Jokulsarlon-Glacier Lagoon. You can't see it, but there's a glacier behind those clouds and icebergs would break off and float down a little river into the ocean. Its crazy to see icebergs just sitting on the beach.

Dettifoss Waterfall

This waterfall has the greatest volume of water in Europe. It is148 ft. high and 328 ft. wide. You have to hike into it and can hear it from quite a distance as you're walking there. It was truly impressive and my favorite one in Iceland. Look how small I look standing in front of it & you can't even see the whole falls.

On our way to our next destination we were going through a small town & cars were pulled over all along the road. We stopped to see what was going on. The Icelanders let their sheep roam freely throughout the summer. In the Fall they gather them all up & then check their horns to search for their brand or number to find theirs. They then grab them by the horns & take them home. It was pretty cool to watch one of their local traditions.

Godafoss, The waterfall of the Gods

Today was definitely our longest day of driving and our most adventurous. What we thought would be a 5-6 hour drive turned into a 9 hour drive. We were in the North West part of Iceland where the Fjords are. We were off the main road and some of them were gravel where you could only go 25-30 mph. I had made a reservation at a B & B up there after reading about one of the top 10 places to go in Iceland. It talked about some beautiful cliffs that had 1,000's of shore birds flying around them. It sounded pretty cool to me. Anyway, we were literally out in the middle of no where with no towns, houses, or facilities near us. The longer we were on the road the more irritated Russ became!! I was trying to stay positive, but after him going on and on and on (btw he told me to be nice while I was writing this) I'd had enough!! He was convinced we'd be the only ones at the B & B and it would be a dive. Why would I get a place so far away? Look at this road? What were you thinking?? The tires on our car were worn down & we kept praying we wouldn't get a flat tire, as it was pouring the last half of our drive. Thank heavens some tourist had told us about a GPS map of Iceland you could download that didn't need cell service. When we finally pulled in we found a very nice B & B with lots of tourists staying there. Jacob happened to call us right after we got there and I was telling him our story. He was laughing SO hard that all of us ended up laughing & it ended up being a much better night then it could have been. Thank you Jacob!!

Now the irony of the whole story of the night before is: we talked to the lady who ran the B & B the next morning, about going to the bird cliffs. She informed us they would all be gone for the winter now!!! Ahhhhh, talk about never living that one down. Oh, and Russ found out the next morning that our car didn't even have a spare tire. (glad I didn't know that)  There was just a tire repair kit!! So now we had the long drive back on gravel roads again! Russ was determined to have a positive attitude the next day, which I appreciated greatly! The lady told us a different route to go, which was a little better. At one point while Russ was driving we heard a terrible noise coming from under the car. He pulled over and discovered some part of the car was hanging off dragging on the ground. He told me the car didn't need that part and continued to pull with all his might until it came off. He left it at the side of the road!! I was dying, thinking we would be charged for it, but it ran fine. Jacob got another good laugh out of that one. Its nice you can laugh about these events later:)

The only building and branch of the church in Iceland is in Reykjavik. Unfortunately, we were on the other side of the island on Sunday. We found it when we got back just for the fun of it.

Hallgrimskirkja is a Lutheran church in Iceland. It stands 244 ft high. Russ and I paid to go up to the clock and windows in the tower. We had a really nice view of Reykjavik from there.

I thought this was interesting they had a donation fund for cleaning the organ pipes.

View of Reykjavik from the tower.

Our last meal in Iceland. We had a club sandwich & fries for $55. 

Even though Iceland was expensive, I would go again. The scenery was beautiful, the food was good & the people were warm and friendly. We didn't go to the Blue Lagoon, one of the main attractions in Iceland. We found out its $100 a person to get in & we don't like sitting in hot springs that much!!

One of the best things was hanging out with Russ the whole time without him having cell service!!!!