More Iceland

We had a great time and now feel like we are back on normal time. I do miss the cool temperatures compared to the week we just had. Summers in Iceland would be nice if we could afford it. Hiking was great, we barely broke a sweat with the 55 degree days. The wind could be nasty, but the trip was wonderful and I highly recommend it to everyone. Poor Gunnar Jet-lag was hard at first. Go Iceland!

E-Z Meals

I decided that I am sick of coming up with recipes and things to make for dinner, so I joined this service. They give you 7 meals and recipes with a detailed grocery list. You can choose from several grocery stores for their newest ads. Here in Austin you can choose Walmart, ALDIS, or any store, other areas have several other choices. I choose AlDIs because the list to feed 4-6 is about 65 dollars and I need to add to that to feed my brood so that is a great savings compared to what I usually spend. I went to the store yesterday and came home with 14 meals worth of food(two weeks of menus) for 120 dollars, WOW!!!!!. We should eat better and cheaper. WIN WIN for all of us. Check it out.

Iceland Independence Day June 17th 2009

Independence day in Iceland June 17th. Independence from Denmark during World War II. Denmark could not keep them safe any longer so they were set free by default.

More Iceland

The first video is at the geysers. The second is at the falls we walked under. The whole country is like a huge National Park.

Iceland and the time. A few videos also.

We did not bring a watch and we never were sure of the time with the never ending sunlight. Last night I woke up freaking out that is was dark outside and why. After a few minutes of standing at the window I woke up enought to realize I was home where the sun does actually set at night. Of course I woke up at 3 am anyway hungry for breakfast.
This is the first time I have seen these videos(so sorry).

Iceland is wonderful and it gets into you heart.

We had dinner with friends of my parents while we were there and had a wonderful leg of lamb and then at another home an incredible fish soup. Valla told us the night before we were leaving that Iceland gets into your heart and then it calls you back. I think she is right, it was just so beautiful and friendly there. We loved our trip and all the beautiful things we saw, what an amazing country to see. Thanks Dad and Mom for putting us up, feeding us, driving us around and giving us the grand tour.

Home

We flew home yesterday and the weather was wonderful when we left. We had hot dogs the best in the world(plysner) for lunch and then toured around Hafnarfjordur and saw a lovely garden planted on a lava field. We toured a museum on the settlement of the area and of a prominent early family there. The airport was busy and we did a bit more shopping, love the food and drinks in Iceland. The seats by the window for both our rows were empty so we had extra room on the way home. The sky was clear and we watched the landscape below us seeing Iceland disappear and then Greenland and Canada. Back in MN the weather was bad, but the clouds were incredible. We circled for an hour and David was getting ill. Landing we made our way through customs, which is not pleasant, and then to the van only to get a flat tire right outside of Lakeville. We made it home at about 9pm to see some of the damage from the tornado. Yea the sun went down.

Glacier Bay

The glacier bay was beautiful and very cold. We were given a large piece of ice from the glacier to try, it is the oldest item we may ever eat something like 2000 years old. We rode a duck boat out to the water and then toured the large glaciers in the water. Several films have been made in this bay. The yawn is how I looked most of the time, midnight sun is not good for sleeping.(The sun never goes down, never!!!!!!)

The Blue Lagoon

We all enjoyed the Blue Lagoon near the airport on Friday last week. They have buckets of silica mud masks around the rim of the lagoon, so I covered my face in it and it saved me from a worse sunburn then I got. The water was very warm even with the outside temp of only 55 or so. The sulfur and silica in the water made every ones hair stiff, but a shower after with lots of conditioner was all we needed. The mud mask is sold in the store, for about 55 dollars for 4 ounces so we didn't buy any to bring home. We only got burned from our upper arms up, you cannot see into the blue water. Look at Qatar's hair we all looked like that.

WOW!!

Iceland is incredible, every time I think it cannot get any better we see something that changes my mind. The water falls we saw yesterday were amazing and riding the Icelandic horse to the beach and along the ocean had some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Pictures to come. We are so busy that I haven't had time to download photos, but I am on my second card, I filled the 4GB card two days ago.

Iceland

We are here and it is cold and wet. The plane trip was long and cramp, but we each had our own tv screen with lots of options. Church was in Icelandic and I feel so bad for the members in our ward who have the service translated it is really hard to keep up with the flow.
Exhaustion flowed over me every few hours until I finally fell into bed at nine last night. I should be good today. I left the video camera and card readers at home so I will need to borrow a card reader to get my pictures off the camera.
Love you at guys at home.

Iceland here we come

We are getting ready to leave on Saturday. I went out and bought a new camera since Gunnar lost mine. Now just what else to bring. My parents need a few things and now that I have all the items I hope to have room for clothes. Luckily for us you can still check bags for international flights. We will be there over The Iceland Independence Day that should be fun. Lots to do before we go. We will post when we can.

The boys all went to a Twins game last night and they are all very tired today. Lots of grumpy kids Yeah!!!!!