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The boys love sleeping in the tent in the yard and summer weather has finally arrived! Ryan hung a flashlight from the top inside the tent and the boys were happy campers! It's much better this year for me because I feel like they're very safe in our yard so I don't need to sleep on a mattress in the living room.

Morgan loved jumping in and out before bedtime. Her and McKay would back up as far as they could and then sprint to the tent and dive into the sleeping bags. It was hilarious and they were laughing their heads off together!

The second night out there were plenty of bugs inside since the flap hadn't always been zipped up. So we rolled up some newspapers and let the boys whack away at the bugs in their tent. They both alternated between bravery and scared pansy depending on the critter. They had quite the time and wore themselves out, sleeping in past 7:30! AWESOME!!! I may just unzip that tent myself next time!

We took the kids on base to see Toy Story III Monday night. Great movie, crazy sell out crowd since it was the last night of it's three day run. I live in such a bubble! McKay turned heads as he wore his "Indiana Jones" hat. People thought he wore it to look like Woody, but when they commented to him how cute he was to wear his Woody hat, he was quick to remind them it was his 'n'iana Jones hat! The boys had simply been in a hat wearing mood and Easton found the ball cap first leaving McKay with Indiana Jones or a pirate hat. It was no contest.

Today when I asked the boys to get dressed, they became super heros. A caped Incredible and the red Power Ranger. As we ran errands on base, people got a kick out of them but they didn't know how to react to complete strangers getting in their faces. The outfits were mere outfits to them by that time. They were done being in character and didn't like attention being drawn to them. That is, until it was discovered that the nice red cape flew real nice down long grocery aisles! Just what I needed with a Morgan melt down in aisle 3 of 8. The boys are still stumped over why they didn't get to pick a treat.

At church, I get to be in Junior Primary now with the boys because I've been reassigned to be the pianist since my entire class is gone for the summer. It's so fun to hear those little kids belt out songs and even more fun to watch my own kids and get their random hugs, sometimes mid-song!

McKay gave his first Primary talk this past Sunday about how "The Holy Ghost guides and protects us." We told the story about Ryan losing his wedding ring in the snow and the missionary praying to help to find it. McKay is so darn cute! Afterward, the leaders had him hand out the "mail" assignments for next week's talk, scripture, and prayers. In a nice, clear confident voice, he hollered, "Wic-toe-wee-ah Swie-bew" [Victoria Schreiber].

His pronunciation as he called out the names had all the adults in the room swooning and giggling. When two of his friends got assignments, he just yelled their first name and walked their slips to them like he was pleased to hand them some community award. This kid kills me with his cuteness! His tantrums, on the other hand . . .

Morgan is a bit traumatized by being left with caretakers while Ryan and I traveled this past month. If we pull up to the cousin's house, she automatically thinks we're leaving her there. If we are among friends or strangers, she does not let me out of her sight. Many have asked what happened when they hear her high decibel shriek. I moved, is the simple answer.

At home she's rather clingy, but it's more out of sense of duty to help I believe. Dishes, laundry, picking up, and my personal least favorite - the bathroom. If I don't let her in with me, she screams the entire time behind the door. She wants to personally close the door, hand me toilet paper and have her hands washed too. Sorry if that's TMI, but I know I'm not the only mom who's had this much fun!

Morgan often refuses to annunciate words. It's so frustrating. Please, sorry, thank you, more, cereal, water, milk, cracker, and up are merely grunts or "nuh". I know she can annunciate because she does for other stuff like all done, bath and a few others of her choosing. She meets all the other milestones for her age in communicating, but she's so stubborn about even trying. She even gives me a bored look each time I try to practice a word with her. Singing action songs seems to be my best option here. She tries to say the most words when we sing.

Her latest happy place, a table just her size for snacking, climbing,

and teasing her brothers from great heights!

Chores or Hunt for Treasure?

The other day while McKay was at German kindergarten and Morgan was napping, Easton and I sat down to count all the accumulated coinage in the house. I wanted him to practice naming the coins, counting them, adding them up and such. [Wanna practice self-mastery, try to teach your own child to do something!] We spent over an hour and I told Easton he could keep what he could count. I asked what he thought he might want to buy.

"Super Mario Galaxy 2!!!" he hollered with the power of a thought which errupted after smoldering somewhere deep within for centuries. Sheesh, he was excited!

Heaven help me. I'd been nonchalantly mentioning walks to the shop to buy ice cream, a new Lego vehicle . . . no, he went for the whopper. This couldn't end well.

We sorted, stacked, counted, added and then there were tears. These weren't just tears though, these were heartbroken waterworks that could only be stopped by watching the game trailer snuggled in mom's lap. I reminded him of the commission chore list that he could pick from to earn money, save, and buy the game. He was in despair. It'd take forever. We compromised. If he wanted to be motivated, I'd let him watch the trailer once a day. It was a deal.

We went and got McKay, had lunch, and then Easton was ready to wash some windows. He did a great job, loved being paid! I had to sigh when by the time he was done, Morgan and McKay had pretty much undone what he'd worked so hard to do. Easton didn't even notice.

I recently finished listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, wonderfully narrated by Patrick Fraley with different voices for every character. I had it on in the car so the boys heard quite a bit of it now and then. Really loved it! What a great storyteller that ol' Mark Twain was! My dad is a great one too, wish I was! I'm excited to hear Mr. Fraley read about Huck Finn now.

With the window washing, I was half expecting Easton to pull a Tom Sawyer and whitewashing the fence scene with McKay who begged to give it a try. But the allure of the spray bottle was all too new and Easton's goal still so fresh.

Tonight I weeded a neglected spot in our yard and got distracted, leaving my little trowel and weed digger out. The kids were outside playing characters from Sponge Bob, Power Rangers, or Phineas & Ferb. I heard a lot about jellyfish, Gary and Patrick. Anyhow, I got into my favorite show, that PBS "Faces of America," and the boys sauntered over to the shovels and began digging. Dirt was scattering and we heard snippets about buried treasure.

After the show while sweeping up their fun, I asked Easton what they'd been doing. He said they were digging for treasure [like Tom and Huck]. I asked what he hoped the treasure was.

"Cupcakes!"

HA! I told him buried cupcakes probably wouldn't be so good so he opted for, "Gold! . . . uh . . . Money!"

And then the light went on.

"MONEY TO BUY SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2!!! We'll dig more tomorrow, right?!"

I foresee much digging in our future rather than chores being done. Yet I'm almost overwhelmed by an urge to bury some money for them to find, just to see their reaction!

Madrid I

I have this constant battle with my blog, especially after a trip. Do I write everything I loved so I'll read and remember it later or do I abridge it for other readers? I also can't resist the urge to research the context of things I've seen. Brevity's not my strong suit here.

Ryan and I jetted off to Madrid, Spain this weekend. A friend had told us about GermanWings' super cheap blind bookings so Ryan just had to give it a try! Our return flight was delayed by an hour and a half, but other than that it was a good experience that we can heartily recommend! We weren't tempted by their in-flight food offerings, but I did get a kick out of their menu cards. Anyone for a Happy Snack?

We found plenty of better snacks that made us very happy in Madrid! Though we didn't delve into the infamous late night tapas bar crawl scene, we did happen on the Valor Chocolate cafe around the corner from our hotel!

{Image from Amazon.com}

And we returned. Each. Evening. We loved this thick, rich dark hot chocolate! The thickness like what we had in Rome, but this was so much richer, more of a smooth dark chocolate. YUM!!! We feel it's our duty to patronize host country establishments in the name of good will. Good will, yeah - that's it!

They sure had some yummy chocolate concoctions! I tried something new each time but Ryan stuck with his first love - a marcona almond chocolate cake drrrenched in a dark chocolate sauce. I wish I had a picture, but he was a machine pounding it down the nanosecond it arrived at our table. I tried mis amigos favorite combo the first night - hot chocolate with churros. For me, the churros weren't necessary. Or at least I wasn't tempted by them when my spoon served as an adequate vehicle for said chocolate. Even the whipping cream was negotiable, the chocolate stood confidently on it's own and that's sayin' somethin'!

The Segway Tour

All other "overview" options to see a city will forever be trumped! Ryan's face pretty much says it all!

Very easy to learn and our guide said his oldest customer was 85 and chased squirrels like a five year old on his segway, loving the ease of mobility! Sure makes hoofin' it old school feel very old school! But after all the good eats, we needed to go old school! More fortunate than Gilligan, our "three hour tour" landed us safe and sound back at Plaza de Espana where we'd started.

Prado Museum

Hitting the highlights, we were in and out in two hours. I circled the rooms we wanted to hit with our audioguide and we were in business. I enjoyed each of the masterpieces and if you click on the title above, you can see which 15 works they are most proud of. I love seeing the originals of artwork I studied in college!

A famous fun one by the Spanish painter Velazquez, called Las Meninas, from 1656. He painted himself on the left painting the Royal couple, King Philip IV, who you can see in the mirror over their blonde daughter's head. It's like a snapshot and has been thoroughly studied as one of the great Western masterpieces of all time. By the time he painted it, Velazquez had been with the royal household for 33 years. I like to wonder what he thought as he painted this and how he projects each person he chose to include. Cool stuff, just wish I had a wheel chair to take a load off when touring! Ah yes, and a personal servant to bring me food and water at my beckoning. So much to see and digest!

This link, summarizes the Prado's holdings by country with examples of the paintings. Some classic big names associated with big and small canvases in a nicely spaced museum.

My personal favorite was at the very end and I now don't remember the artist. It was with the Italian Painters 1300-1600 in a large, long foyer and I can't find it anywhere now especially since it's of Mary, baby Jesus, and Joseph. Using the chiaroscuro technique, it's a dark, close intimate scene with the light coming from baby Jesus. In the central upper left is Mary, with baby Jesus dead center, and center down right Joseph. You only get a profile of Joseph because it's as if you're a few feet away looking over his shoulder. He's painted from the waist up in a kneeling position up against the manger as if he's wrapped himself around the manger to keep the baby and Mary, who's across the manger from him, as close as he can. Mary's face is lit from the baby as is Joseph's profile. It was just so personal, a new family just begun. It was like you could feel the joy and awe those new parents were feeling.

Afterward, we joined the siesta atmosphere outside by finding a patch of shaded grass for a nap while someone played classical guitar. It was awesome!

The rest of the evening was taken in eating great food and more World Cup Soccer! We were tuckered out and tensed from our segway tour + museum wanderings. Learnin' stuffs is tough business!

Proud of my Easton!

End of the year school events and activities have recently descended upon us. Boy do they cram a lot into the last few weeks! I've enjoyed watching Easton participate with all his wiggles and remember how much I loved this stuff as a kid. There was the music concert and spirit week last week with the field day today and the kindergarten celebration this evening. Easton was adorable and greatly anticipated having us there for the events.

But I think I'm most proud lately of his participation in an experiment I've been trying. In my attempt to stave off contention over a toy, game, preferred seat, shower time or whatever - I've begun trying to sit the boys down and ask them to come to an agreement of how to precede, essentially who gets to or must go first. Easton has really shined! McKay has done pretty well here too, but Easton is usually quicker to concede in order to get the deliberation over with. Now, however, I'm excited to see him also starting to employ more negotiating skills with McKay. Easton often shows great selflessness and patience when playing with McKay and it makes me so proud of what a great kid we were blessed with!

I've recently been thinking of how I could wistfully be wishing for time to freeze us all in these moments forever, but then I'm overcome with excitement to see who he will become and am contented with time marching on!

Cousins Weekend

It was my turn to watch cousins while their parentals went on a sweet escape to Berlin. Ryan wasn't able to join me so I was on my own. It proved to be a lot of fun and not as overwhelming as one might think with nine kids between the ages of 3 and 16. The older ones were very helpful and the younger ones played inventive, good guy/bad guy games pretty well together. Of course, it was a honeymoon of just two days, three nights so we were all still on our best behaviour.

To wear out the kiddos Saturday, I took the little ones to the park. The ground looked like it was moving because of hundreds of big black ants everywhere. YUCK! We didn't last long there because if you stood still, you'd have at least a dozen crawling up you in seconds. My kids screamed, the other Carters didn't even notice. I don't do ants. We left, but did get in a few happy moments like this one.

I took all those hot sweaty, stinky bodies and hosed them down at home. We all felt much better. Again, the timer on my watch proved crucial to giving everyone their allotment of time as hose holder!

I was grateful for my niece who made mac'n'cheese for the crew while I hosed them down. We fed 'em and then did naps. Now that's a great Saturday!

It's so great to have older kids around! Of course, they were probably more eager to help me out than they are for their mom because I was a novelty. Well, me and my ipod. The older ones cooked, they cleaned, they stayed up late chatting with me about deep stuff like it was fun, and they entertained the youngsters! It was awesome!

I really admire them too. They gave up their comfortable network of friends and activities to come give this German experience a try and are showing great courage in the face of daily challenges to their high gospel standards. Their German is coming along so much better than my feeble and inadequate attempts - they had to read the cooking instructions to me regularly. I'd have been lost without them!

My nephew orchestrated this game here which he called CTC: Capture the Cup. I'd come out to check on them and giggled to see them all decked out in bike helmets and armed. It was their own version of capture the flag and it was hilarious! My nephew ROCKS at creating games to play with the younger ones. He's also great at letting me tease him and I see fun potential here. I made him eat his dinner before having dessert and he made me come watch his dramatic final bites so I could cheer loud and proud for him. But he wasn't anticipating the big, fat slobbery kiss on the cheek I pinned on him! My little (now big) brother Matt used to love/hate those!

We sure are enjoying having these Carter cousins in Munich! Who'd a thunk we'd have family while here?! What fun!

Our Roots Matter

How important are our family roots and what do we know about them?

A few months ago, an old friend who loves researching her family tree blogged about new program on NBC called "Who Do You Think You Are?" Each episode follows a celebrity like Sarah Jessica Parker and Spike Lee as they trace their family roots with genealogists and found amazing things. I was sad it wasn't available online at the time and was thrilled when I thought a new show being shown tonight on AFN (American Forces Network) was it, only to find out it wasn't - but I love this one we've got!

It's a newer PBS program called "Faces of America." Here's the blurb:

What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the new PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Harvard scholar turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans — professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander, chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, novelist Louise Erdrich, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, actress Eva Longoria, musician Yo-Yo Ma, director Mike Nichols, Her MajestyQueen Noor, television host/heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, actress Meryl Streep, and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi.

What fun television!

Of course, it got me thinking of my own and Ryan's roots, but I've been reading Queen Noor of Jordan's autobiography and really enjoying it. I checked out some of the clips of her "Faces of America" interview online just now to get a better read on her because I am loving her book.

Her "Leap of Faith" book is fascinating! It has opened my eyes to Jordan's history which I've never really isolated from my study of the region, and the dynamics at work for the past century. It's a great read because it's told by an American who also deeply, proudly claims her Arab heritage as well. Queen Noor was born and raised in the US but in a chance meeting through her father, met and a few years later married a recently widowed King Hussein of Jordan in the early 197os. I thought I had a reasonable handle on the Arab perspectives, but this took it to a whole new level. And with US involvement in the region likely to continue forever, I think it's imperative to understand their viewpoints too.

Just a glimpse into Queen Noor's world: Imagine what it must be like to live in and help oversee Jordan where floods of refugees inundate your developing country with each crisis in the often volatile Middle East for the past 80 years or so. I mean really, there's a crisis annually of great proportion in that region! Now imagine the strain on scarce national resources for food, education, and healthcare to help those refugees who have no hope of returning home any time soon. Couple that with the fact your own fragile trade and commerce is being shocked or devastated by upheavals across your borders - Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria . . . Oh yeah, more than one of your neighboring countries amasses troops on your border now and then. You've got the quagmire of regional and big money Western relations all with their own agendas to desperately placate and work with to find solutions.

Let's not forget that your biggest refugee population that has overwhelmed your social infrastructure, the Palestinians, has some dark elements within who make assassination attempts on you and your family and plot to overthrow your government while you're working on their behalf with other world leaders to find a two state solution with Israel . . . Oh there's just so many interesting, amazing and difficult layers to Jordan's place in the Middle East! Reading this book sure has put the outcry in the US over immigration and security issues into a whole new perspective for me among other hot topics!

Now imagine if it was your husband trying to hold it all together in a delicate balance and you're newly married to him, starting and raising a family with lots of older step children to blend into the family dynamic, and you yourself are adjusting to a new language and culture that is now your own. Do you wear your tiara every day or not and how is it perceived at home and abroad?! Sheesh!

I'm glossing over so much here, but this area of the world is just not understood by most of us. The plight of the Palestinians has been on my mind with all the news over the Turkish aid flotilla incident. See, I'm so steeped in the nuances of the region that I couldn't even decide if I should write "incident" or "massacre" or what because it's so political. Have you seen a refugee camp before? I have seen a Palestinian one in person and read of refugee camps in other war torn countries. What if you felt compelled to live in squalor with little or no chance of opportunities for a better life in order to lay claim to the land of your family's roots, your very culture and identity? Would you be willing to die for it? Would you be willing to sacrifice your family's future for it? And that's just some Palestinian's side of it, Israelis have their own compelling reasons for being there for their own roots.

Until you walk in their shoes there, you can't say and I still don't feel I can. I met some truly wonderful, peace-loving people there and it made me wonder at my great fortune to be born when and where I was. Our roots matter and I'm grateful for my understanding of God's eternal plan for families to be connected beyond this life. We're all God's children, we have that greatest of all common roots.

Morgan's Sweet Spot

Chillin' in her stroller with her afternoon snack - cheddar cheese bites, Nilla wafers and strawberries. Some of that was self-served since she can now move and climb up the kitchen step ladder.

This little gal loves to be outside in the backyard tooling around on her own. I love that she has the freedom to do so while we live here! I didn't have that option with the boys at this age and it is GOLDEN.

The stroller has provided many hours of entertainment for her. It's her personal jungle gym. She climbs up into it and then selects where she wants to sit - front or back. She stores things underneath for safe keeping. She takes her snacks and lunch here when allowed. It is her happy place which means it's mine too!

As everyone knows, there's always a drawback. That would be the number of household items that get taken and left outside and vice versa. Yesterday, she took a cookie beater out there without me realizing it. She found it today and started in on it again to my horror. I knew it must be crawling with ants and it was. YUCK! Just gives me the heebie geebies thinking about it! I was pulling a few ants out of her hair even. Aaack!

This morning Morgan also took one of the near empty cereal boxes from the kitchen table and dumped the contents on the patio. We've enjoyed watching the skittish birds eating away at it, but Morgan's a little upset they don't stick around when she moves their way. She also tries daily to sneak her blanket out there. Oh that horrid blanket that was once so nice and white.

Ah well, it's great to have an inquisitive independent gal loving the outdoors!

Stockholm III

What's not to love? Some call Stockholm the Venice of the North. I wouldn't. It's truly its own place and sure doesn't need comparison for prestige! It stands just fine on it's own!

Sadly our Rick Steves' guide didn't make it to us in time for this trip so we had to research it old school. Old school, in my frame of reference sadly means pre-Rick Steves. I am sorry if this offends any of your finer sensibilities. Feel free to educate me!

Man, we sure wish we had better weather here! HaHaHa!

There were so many reasons to be in Stockholm and enjoy the great weather and sites on Sunday, June 6, 2010! It was Sweden's National Day, the last day of the food festival, the beginning of Love Stockholm counting down the two weeks before the royal wedding, and of course the end of the marathon tourist weekend!

There were only two things on our site seeing list: the Vasa Museum - a 1628 grand war ship that sank on its maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbor; and Skansen - the oldest European open air museum.

VASA MUSEUM

In the early 1600s, Sweden fought many wars for control of the Baltic Sea among the Danes, Poles, and Russians particularly. In the 1620s, Sweden signed treaties with the Danes and Russians but King Gustav was fighting his cousin who'd assumed control of Poland. King Gustav kept local support for the war going by making the war about religion - us Swedish Lutherans against those corrupt Polish Catholics.

Don't ya think those boots must have been fun to walk in?

Gustav commissioned a grand ship be built to show the world his supreme power and might. Historians believe the ship, named Vasa, gets its name from his family and their symbol of grain. It had beautiful, ornate painted wood carved statues by many German carvers all over it. None of our pictures of the enormous ship turned out well since they keep the museum, which was built around the ship, climate and light controlled for the ship's preservation. It was pretty dark in there!

A few crucial errors led to the ship's demise on its maiden voyage. They hadn't loaded enough ballast (food and war supplies) into the low cargo holds to offset the ship's high center of gravity and the low lying cannon gun holes were left open upon setting sail. The ship sank within hours, a little over 1,000 meters into it's maiden voyage in the Stockholm port. Wind caught the sails and the ship began leaning to the side, taking in water through the open gun holes as this model shows.

The funny or humiliating part of the sinking was that the water was only about 30 meters deep so the ship's tall masts with Swedish flags flying proudly were all that remained above water. In fact, many of those on board clung to them until rescued by local fishing boats. The ship was raised from the harbor floor amazingly preserved in 1961. Pretty cool stuff and fun science behind its raising and continued preservation. I wish we'd had more time here to read all the exhibits!

My parents once took me to see a replica of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind (1577) which was on tour from the UK to the US west coast. That was 1987 and I was eleven. We saw it on a day trip from my grandparent's house in the Newport harbor in Oregon. I still remember walking aboard and how cool I thought it was, but how small for all those men. The Vasa was three times as big! Very cool and especially interesting to me as I just recently finished reading Treasure Island and am now in the thick of Robinson Crusoe!

Just across the street from the Vasa Museum, is the beautiful Nordic Museum. We didn't have time to go inside and see the 300 years of costumes exhibit but I think I could have enjoyed it. Did Rick Steves recommend it? It killed me not to know. [chuckle, chuckle]

Well, hello there, little guy!

We kept coming across little families of geese. So fluffy and adorable!

SKANSEN

We walked through a nice park on our way to Skansen and saw people of all types spread on their picnic blankets soaking up the day. Skansen was a great place to be that day with the weather and National Day activities. It's the oldest open air museum and has collected buildings and farm steads, cultural elements, and animals from all over Sweden to be experienced in one place. There were many living history exhibits much like those in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia or the one in the Black Forest.

We talked with a handful of living history docents in their exhibits: a flat bread baker, an influential wealthy copper miner's son from the 1700s, and an inner-city working class young woman preparing to get married. It was the custom in many villages to give a young girl a plant to nurture over the years that would be used to make her wedding crown like the plant and crown shown below.

When I saw The Allotment Hut below, it looked so familiar! This one is from the 1920s.

These are all over in and around my little German town so I was thrilled to finally know what to call them and understand their origins! The Skansen hut here said these allotment gardens played an important role during the food shortages during and after WWI. In Germany and pretty much all over the world, the allotment gardens (or community gardens as they're called in the states) sprung up as a result of industrialization and urbanization by 1850. City workers were given or leased an allotment of land to grow their own food from the town, a private land owner or a church. Many would build a little hut on their allotment to double as a shed and sleeping quarters. The gardens now serve less as food security for the population, and are now seen more as a hobby and are often used for social gatherings as well as growing fruits, veggies and flowers. Food security and hobbies. Self reliance and food storage. Note to self. [Twinge of guilt.] I also read of them being in the Philipines too.

In looking up these gardens I found it interesting to note that Einstein was part of an allotment association in Berlin. He didn't keep it up to code and there is record of an association letter to him with a deadline to get his weeds and fence in order or he'd loose his lease for it being a nuisance.

Speaking of food security, Ryan sure enjoyed what he thought was the perfect food stand offering - the Suovas in a flat bread cone.

That would be "lightly smoked and fried reindeer meat in a flat bread cone with crushed new potatoes (mashed) and cloudberry creme fraiche." He liked them so much he had three over the course of five or so hours. Me? Not so much, they weren't my favorite. Too much gamey-flavor, chewy texture with the sweet and sour of creme fraiche and berry sauce. I was, however, very appreciative of their food display and English menu so we knew what we were ordering!

Skansen has their own dance troups that perform and I loved it! First there was a children's group and then the adults. The children's dances all had to do with love, courtship and such as circle games played to song. So cute!

I enjoyed seeing how this played out because each dance had one or two children in the center who had to pick a partner when the music cued them to. One song had them yank the partner out of the circle, another had them drop a hanky and the selected one had to pick it up and follow, while my favorite was a demure smile and coy look over the shoulder to be sure the partner was following. Simply adorable! And what fabulous colorful costumes!

Watching these fun dancers in their layers of thick clothing made for colder temperatures on such a warm day and sweating profusely sure made us thirsty! We headed for the water spigot to fill up our water bottles and the best dried, crisp apple chips I've ever had!

As the crowds began to grow at Skansen in anticipation of the National Day celebration concert, we decided to head out. The Skansen celebration was expecting the Royal family in attendance and as luck would have it, we happened on the parade preceding their arrival and finally did get to see the family in their horse drawn carriages and royal guardians on horse back. The size of this celebration was akin to a regular sized town in the States doing a 4th of July parade and concert. It was a little strange given some of the big national celebrations in big cities we've been to.

But Sweden has only been celebrating their National Day for a few decades now. Ryan was disappointed there were no fireworks. One of our docents reminded us that there's no fireworks on account that it doesn't get dark until about 11pm or later right now! Being that far north, the sun was up by 4am when we got up to catch our train and flight home Monday morning.

And that concludes this installment of Carters Travel: Sweden!

Stockholm II

Aren't lazy mornings great?! We took advantage of ours Saturday and still caught everything we wanted to that day. It did require a bit of extra exertion but with the nice weather it wasn't so bad.

What I mean to say is that we sprinted to a few sites. Since the marathon was later that day, one guy we came across joked to me as I ran by that the course wasn't in this area. When we arrived at the first stop of the day, Ryan commented, "I haven't seen you run like that in a long time! We should plan a 2-3 day backpacking trip in the Alps!"

I said, "Wha?! . . . What are you saying [not knowing whether to laugh, cry, or bemoan my lack of discipline and loss of athleticism in recent years] . . . and How does my running equate to a backpacking trip?!!" He was very careful to not say much other than grin at me on this subject. I'm just a bit sensitive right now on that subject.

Our first sprint was to catch the 11:30 guided English tour at Stockholm's Town Hall, the Stadshuset. This is where the Nobel Prize banquet is held each December, in the big room pictured below. Overhauled in the 1920s after the job was bid out as a contest, the building looks old and new at the same time and is a mix of many different types of architecture and decor. Do you see the raised relief of this brick work? I really liked this!

Up in the council room, the exposed roof beams are really beautiful. The architect loved the look and decided to have the beams and interior ceiling painted to look like it was ancient and planned that way.

Rick Steves says the exposed beam roof is meant to hearken back to when the vikings held their councils under an upside-down boat, but the docent said recent historians reject that as the reason. The docent rolled her eyes at us when we asked this. So Rick doesn't know it all, he's fallible. What?! After trying to plan trips without his guides' helps for a year though, I'm not giving up on them anytime soon.

We barely missed the noon boat to Drottningham Palace so we ventured, or more accurately RAN over to Gamla stan, the historic heart of Stockholm to pass the time before the next boat. The picture below is as we entered the island and our view up the street toward the clock tower of Storkyrkan, the oldest church in Gamla stan.

The changing of the guard happens every day at noon with a rousing marching band parade - hence our sprint to catch the show! Loved the helmets!!! All the guards looked so young!

Next we stopped inside Storkyrkan next door, remember that clock tower? The cathedral is mentioned as early as 1279 and was Catholic until it became Lutheran in 1527. The princess will be married in that church in two weeks. It's just a block from the Royal Palace.

Sorry, I'm always succeptable to distractions by chocolate and these official "wedding chocolates" are funny to me. But back to inside Storkyrkan -- we were surprised to see this dramatic huge wood statue depicting Saint George and the Dragon from 1481 to commemorate a famous battle.

Reading a little bit about the story this depicts could have turned into a day's diversion but sufficed to say, it is very interesting to see the transfusion of cultures and their mythology throughout our travels. This story of Saint George and the Dragon is very similar to some Roman, Greek and other mythological stories predating Christianity. I'd sure love to take a class or at least get a great reading list on cross-cultural mythology since I know relatively nothing on the subject!

Next we were on the boat to see Drottningham Palace, where the royal family lives. I love being on the water! The water must have been pretty cold but that didn't seem to stop lots of people from enjoying the little swimming areas, kayaking, boating, or just sunbathing on rock outcroppings with picnics.

After fifty minutes and feeling permanently goosebumped, we reached our destination - the palace, a very pretty mix of many classical Baroque and Roccoco styles.

There were beautiful grounds that we would have stayed to enjoy but we were getting hungry and the food festival was calling us back. We obeyed our hunger!

At the food festival, we chowed down on the Barilla bolognese, a horribly overcooked beef shish kebob, and some tasty pork and beef tenderloin cooked on a BBQ grill with different dipping sauces. For dessert, we tried the chocolate strawberry crepes while wondering why Europeans have such an affinity for the song "Are we Human" by the Killers?! A live band that was quite good dove into the song and locals loved it. I don't think I'd ever heard the song before moving here but it's played constantly in Europe. Go figure.

After we enjoyed the live entertainment and tasty food and treats, we rolled ourselves over to another movie theater . . . because we could! We would have taken a boat ride but Ryan was still a bit chilled from the previous ride.

We saw Ghost Writer with Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. It's rated PG-13 but that rating was given much too generously. While we both liked the film alright, I won't recommend it because of the brief-but-too-often-dropped swear word and the "brief nudity/sexuality" scene. Times have changed and ratings sure do get more permissive with time in the quest after the all-mighty dollar. Grrrr! It really aggravates me that by lowering the rating to PG-13, movie makers make their product much more accessible to a younger, more impressionable audience to increase their revenue. ARGH. How 'bout just dropping the unnecessary vulgarities?! It'd be so much easier than having to lobby for the lower rating, in my humble opinion and quite limited knowledge of that industry.

Stepping off my soapbox now. On our evening walks back to our hotel, we always crossed in front of this beautiful building.

It reminds me of a similar building in NYC on Broadway, but this one seems prettier, more castle-esque. And this concludes part II of our Stockholm adventure. Are ya up for part III? A bit more colorful Nordic history and culture?

Stockholm

After my sister-in-law dropped us at the airport and drove our crew back to her house, Ryan and I began our next adventure. What would I do without her?!!

We had uneventful flights and luckily the flight wasn't full so I got to pick a window seat on an empty row as we descended into Stockholm. As we got closer, the land below began to look like muddy, dark puffy clouds while the water was a dark night sky. I've never seen anything like it before and it made me nervous for all the boats I could barely see. Stockholm itself is a city located on 14 islands and I've just never been an islander before other than Venice and I guess you could even say the visit to London since Great Britain is a big island? Oh I don't know!

Anyhow, we're having a grand ol' time here! Sweden makes me think of vikings and tall, thin, blonde, naturally beautiful and intelligent women. When I interned for a summer at the UN, the delegate from Sweden fit that description so I guess you could say she is my standard. So many bleach blondes here! Ryan simply thought it'd be a cold place and he was cold today when we took a boat to a castle. He forgot a jacket and I forgot to remind him. We've had fabulous weather, sunny mid-60s but back to the beginnings.

We're staying at the Hotel Hellsten that blends "modern and traditional," and this picture of our room fits that to a tee. It smells of wonderful cedar because there's a sauna in our bathroom. I'm not a sauna gal but Ryan loves them.

After checking in, we were sufficiently starving and headed down to the food festival. First we came across these sweets made, no doubt, for Swedish National Day on June 6.

I think festival prices were reasonable, 15-50 kronas per item which works out to be about $2-7. We tried quite a few things like these from a Garlic and Shots stand. Notice, there's no shots here just a chicken curry taco, fries with aoili (a delicious garlic sauce, yummy with fries), and some real bland garlic bread.

I had a nice sweet chicken curry kebab from the Waan Thai stand while Ryan enjoyed his BBQ chicken and fries. The chicken pad thai was a flop but we moved on.

It seems fries come with everything in Europe and they're so much better than your McDonalds or, dare I say Wendy's?! I do. I do dare and say it with gusto! I find fries are one of the easier things for me to not order but Ryan insists on ordering them and then I can't bear to not try one . . . or twenty. Grrrr. Here's a look at what the crowds looked like, lots of beer and wine flowin'!

See that beautiful blue sky?! Oh how I've missed you! Germany's had a LOT of rain since April.

And then we happened on these little beauties. A coconut chocolate coffee mousse-like concoction, nice and rich. We tried a couple others, but none compared.

We realized our eyes were hungrier than our stomachs and quit while we were ahead. Since we hadn't done enough homework before our trip and many sights close between 4 and 6pm, we didn't know what to do with our evening. We stumbled upon a movie theater across from this familiar sight! One on every block! Haven't seen one since leaving Virginia!

Since we realized we hardly ever go to the movies anymore, we leapt at the chance! American movies are shown here with Swedish subtitles and we were just in time for a showing of Iron Man 2. Fun diversion, such a guy shoot'em up flick.

A full day to prepare for on the morrow, we hit the hay - then and now. Hopefully I'll get Saturday's adventures on here soon!

Sunbeams of another sort

Did you know the well loved Primary tune "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" has a second verse? I don't think I did until this evening.

After dinner the boys randomly decided they wanted me to teach them to play the piano. Simple, no? So I taught them how to hold their right hand over the keys and play a note with each finger, C to G. They weren't that impressed and thought they sounded better on their own. Then I asked them if I could play a few of their favorites to sing along with and that idea passed with flying colors.

By this time, Morgan has climbed up into my lap and I've got one boy on each side. My neighbors must have loved our "music" as the kids tried to remember to play with a finger at a time and not a pounding fist. It was a hard one to remember when you can't distinguish your playing unless you play louder than the others! We started with "Follow the Prophet" which Easton loved singing/reading along with the different verses while McKay thought the tune he played sounded more authentic than the mere notes on a page I played. I know because he told me so.

Next we went for Easton's fave, "Teach Me to Walk in the Light," and I had to chuckle because Easton said that one makes him sleepy every time. It was his lullaby from our first day getting acquainted. The heat began to rise between Morgan and McKay so I decided to step up with a rousing crowd pleaser.

Easton heartily sang "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" while the other two played, fought and sang along intermittently. As we started the second verse though, things took a turn for the worst, yet has had me smiling all night. Here's verse #2:

Jesus wants me to be loving

And kind to all I see,

I notice McKay and Morgan have a death grip on one another over my left arm/hand and a tug of war ensues.

Showing how pleasant . . .

They are now screaming at each other while Easton sings away and I play on.

. . . and happy His little ones can be.

Morgan loses the tug of war and plops dramatically into the keys with a wrenching, high-decibel screeeech. I was positive our windows would shatter! She really knows how to loosen the jaw and fling it wide open to allow all the sound those lil' lungs can muster! It's impressive for one so small, yet as welcome as fingernails on a chalkboard. I'm sad to report she practices it often to demand what she can't have. It's not my favorite.

And then all is right with the world because we've hit their favorite chorus:

A sun-beam, a sun-beam,

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.

McKay can't decide whether his hands should explode into a sunburst on the piano keys or in the air like usual, so he mixes it up and does both each time. Why limit yourself, right?!

Easton's too intent reading the words to remember any other body movements.

And Morgan, well she redeems herself. She characteristically throws her little fists to her eyes and does the peek-a-boo signs which are her sunburst movements, completely forgetting she was in the depths of despair just a nano second ago.

A sun-beam, a sun-beam,

I'll be a sun-beam for him.

Ah I get such a kick out of these guys!

Ryan and I are off to explore Stockholm Sweden the weekend. He was going to run their marathon, one of the very few run on a Saturday, but our intense travels with my parents a bit ago deterred his training. We're just going to eat our way through the city instead. Stockholm is having their food festival and National Day this weekend so there will be plenty to do, see and eat! I love eating without my children. It's a whole new level of happiness I never knew existed before having the cute, pint-sized, demanding, opinionated eaters!

I should note that Ryan has still kept up his running and now plans to supplement with biking. I think the kids flying down the hill in front of our place reminded him of how fun it is. That was at least a week ago though, when we last saw the sun make a brief appearance.

Today Ryan up and decided (or more accurately, let me in on his plan) to ya know, just run home from work tonight. "Why not?!" I thought skeptically, "It only takes 20 minutes to drive so perhaps I'll see him before bedtime!" I know there's all sorts of hidden trails and a more direct route between our place and his work, but after I knew he'd been running at least an hour with hills I packed up the kids to see if we might happen upon him if he needed us. He's not prone to carry water with him, but perhaps the sheer moisture in the air is taken in by osmosis?

We got home after an unsuccessful venture out but I circled our neighborhood a second time to ensure McKay had sacked out to my favorite Eva Cassidy song, "What a Wonderful World." Even better on repeat! Ryan was home! All sleepy heads were now revitalized with their personal jungle gym sitting before them! [Insert inner groan.]

When I asked what prompted the run home, Ryan just said he wanted to scope out the trail for his bike rides to/from work. Man, I love him! And he changed Morgan, put her to bed and did the dishes! He knows the way to my heart!