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| A fun day in Mon with my favorite peeps. |
This blog post is my attempt to catch-up on a variety of activities, observations, and thoughts from the past several weeks. Since being "home" from our Christmas travels through Europe, we have been focused on enjoying the family time we have before Kyle leaves on his mission. We've done a little sight-seeing, but otherwise our time has been occupied with the usual post-Christmas effort to get back into the groove of work and school. Even with these ordinary life activities, though, we've made a special effort to enjoy the moments. We've savored the family banter, game nights, time with friends, and occasional adventures. It's brought the weeks of January, which are usually just dark and cold, to life. I guess you could say we've learned from our Danish friends and have created our own hygge.
On a recent Saturday, we ventured on another family outing for the afternoon. This time we only had Ben and Grant with us, as the older kids were at an all day church youth group event. Through much effort, we talked the boys into leaving the house--they do love a Saturday afternoon of free time at home--and went into Copenhagen to visit the Royal Danish Arsenal Museum. The museum is housed in a large, impressive section of one of the old palaces of Christian IV. We walked into what is Europe's longest arched Renaissance hall and saw it lined with cannons that date from the early 1500s to the present. We were all impressed. Ben exclaimed, "This is so..." --and then he quickly remembered the pout he was in about having to leave the house, so changed his excited tone into one of sarcastic disinterest and ended his exclamation with-- "...lame." We all laughed, even Ben.
We had a good time exploring the museum. In addition to the hall lined with cannons, the museum has guns, swords, armor, lances, and spears from the 17th century to today. It also has extensive written history of every war Denmark has been involved in since the time of the Vikings, about 1000 AD. I found it interesting to read the Danish perspective on modern day wars. It's so insightful to view history and its effects from a perspective outside of my own.
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| Cannons from the 1500s. |
On a later occasion, I took Kyle to this same museum. He really enjoyed it. And, like his dad, he read every single historical plaque. I was lucky to get him out in under two hours! That same day in Copenhagen, Kyle and I went to the National Museum. This museum is pretty interesting as it has exhibitions from the Stone Age and Viking Age all the way through the Renaissance and finally Modern Danish History. Again, what I found most interesting was seeing how Denmark fits into the same modern history that I had only previously known from my U.S. perspective. There was nothing particularly shocking. I just enjoyed learning about the Danish perspective on things like the American revolution, Hitler, international social reforms, the Cold War, technology, and etc.
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| The National Museum |
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| Enjoying the city while walking from one museum to another. |
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| I love the sights in Copenhagen! |
Kyle and I had a final adventure on our day in Copenhagen as we experienced something of a scavenger hunt to find a little known monument called "Kristina." This monument is in memory of the Mormon Danish emigration to the United States during the middle of the 19th century. The monument is named "Kristina" after the artist's great-grandmother who emigrated to the U.S. in 1868. She and her family were among the early members of the Mormon community in Salt Lake City. The journey across the Atlantic took 52 days and 12 people, including Kristina's younger brother, died on the way. There are 200 cobblestones in front of the statue with the names of some of the first Mormon emigrants to the United States.
On another day, Kyle and I went to a famous modern art museum called "Louisiana." We found a few pieces of the art there very interesting and otherwise learned that neither one of us really understands modern art. We had a good time admiring the various sculptures, paintings, patterns, and eclectic collections while we came up with our own explanations of their deeper meanings.
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| "Homage to the Square" |
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Wish I could remember what this one is called.
We were too busy coming up with our own names. |
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I found this one quite interesting.
It was done with continuous
sideways motions with pen. |
What I enjoyed most about the Louisiana Modern Art Museum is it's location. The museum is right on the water with a view across to Sweden. It makes for quite a beautiful place to walk along and enjoy the outdoor sculptures.
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| View across to Sweden from the back "lawn" of the Museum. |
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| Along the shoreline. |
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| Beautiful landscape on the front side of the museum. |
The family has had some excitement with transportation lately. In the middle of December, our convenient bus route to work and school was cancelled. It's taken us until the end of January to get good at our new situation. Now the kids and Travis ride a bus, a train, and then another bus to get to work and school. After a few weeks, even the kids have mastered how to do this independently. It hasn't been without a learning curve, though. I already wrote about the day Jared got on the wrong train and ended up at a train station in the middle of Copenhagen where he had to wait in the dark and cold for over an hour before we could pick him up. (Of course, he was dressed like an American that day--shorts and a sweatshirt--and nearly froze.)
Another time, Jared forgot his pass but didn't realize it until he had already boarded the train. Luckily he didn't get a fine, but unfortunately he wasn't able to get on the bus he needed next to get all the way to school. He had a nice mile and a half walk that day.
Grant often rides the train to basketball practice. I usually drive him to the station to save him a little time. We were late one day, and the train pulled up to the station as we were still driving down the road. I had almost come to a complete stop to let Grant out when he suddenly opened the door and, in a rush to make the train, fell out of the car. Of course, we were right in front of a very crowded bus stop so there were plenty of spectators. He picked himself up, saw that the train was still at the station, ran across the street, took the stairs three at a time up to the platform, and yet still had to watch the train drive away without him.
On another occasion, Maurie slept through her morning alarm and woke up just 10 minutes before we had to leave for the train station. She rushed like crazy and made it on time to the station--only to learn that the train was running 18 minutes late. She was late for school anyway.
The best was the day Travis was on the final bus home and discovered Ben's jacket, which he had left on the bus while on his way home from school three hours before. It was a small miracle that Trav's final bus was the very same that the boys had ridden home from the train station!
We've cheered for Grant at lots of basketball games lately. His team recently won a tournament they were in, so that was exciting. We really have to control ourselves at his games, though, because Danes are much quieter spectators than Americans are. We've come to really appreciate his team. Since realizing that Grant never played a Sunday game through the fall season, the team manager arranged to have every "home" game of the winter season on Saturdays.
Jared recently hosted a 'gaming party' at our house. He and his friends from church love doing this. They get together at someone's house and everyone brings a laptop and snacks to share. Then they connect with their Internet games and the Danish/English banter goes on for hours. We made pizzas for dinner and then American pancakes for breakfast--we even remembered to set out forks AND knives this time. (Danes ALWAYS use both.)
We had a few weeks of very cold weather during January. It only got to about -4 degrees celsius, but it felt quite cold with the humidity. We had a little snow, too. It only lasted for a few days but was enough to have snowball fights, build a tiny snowman, and for the boys to enjoy sliding down their school hill during breaks. This last week, though, has felt like spring. It's been a balmy 5 degrees celsius with blue skies. We're back to jumping on the trampoline and taking bike rides for fun again. It's been so nice! There are so many fantastic places to ride bikes around here. Poor Travis has been crazy busy with work, unfortunately, so he hasn't been able to enjoy as much sunshine as the rest of us. He still goes to work and comes home in the dark. I think his co-workers have figured out that he's an American and willing to work much more than typical Danish hours.
One of Travis's co-workers, Henrick, recently invited us over for a traditional Danish lunch. He and his family provided quite a spread for us to sample Danish smorrebrod. (Smorrebrod is an open sandwich, usually built on rye bread.) They served meatballs, herring, tuna salad, meat slices, cheeses, various vegetables, eggs, and several different sauces. It was fun to try these different foods, although I confess I was too chicken to try the herring in curry sauce. All the different toppings really make a meal out of a sandwich. By the time you finish building your smorrebrod, it requires a knife and fork to eat it--of course. (I've never seen Danes eat finger food. Unless the person has been "Americanized," even hamburgers and burritos are eaten with a knife and fork.)
After a slow-paced lunch and fun conversation, we went for a walk through Copenhagen with Henrick and his family. We're learning that going for a walk together is actually a very common pastime here. We walked down to the water where we could see and take a picture of the Little Mermaid. I'll never understand why this has made the top ten list for Copenhagen, but now all the kids can check it off their list.
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Henrick's wife and daughter with Kyle and Ben as we
walked through Kastellet, a military fort in Copenhagen. |
We ended up spending several hours with Henrick and his family. I still find myself taken aback by people's hospitality here. Although Danes are not particularly outgoing, when they do extend themselves they are very open to share--food, tradition, and meaningful conversation. (There's no real small talk here. In fact, they find it strange that Americans ask "How are you?" when it's clear they aren't expecting a real answer.) Danes have a real contentedness about them. I've read that Danes are known to be some of the happiest people on earth. I don't know how true that is, but if it is true I think it may stem from their willingness to be content with simplicity. For example, they love hygge time. Hygge is a Danish word that doesn't really translate, but it means something like cozy-time. It's time where you are together with family or friends and just have a nice time. Maybe you have some food, or go for a walk, or just sit in a candle-lit room and enjoy conversation. Nothing more than that is required for them to enjoy themselves. They are relaxed and just so happy to be together. No entertainment is needed. I love this about them.
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| In front of Maurie's school. |
To bring Kyle up-to-speed on our lives here, we spent a day giving him tours of Travis's work facility, the boys' school, and Maurie's school. Everyone had a good time showing him around their world, and I really enjoyed seeing the kids' new-found confidence with six months under their belt. I feel very grateful as I look back over the last several months and see their growth and perseverance. The travel aspect of living here is exciting and fun, but the day-to-day is a real challenge. We're all learning, though. Perhaps this struggle is actually the greatest of all the opportunities we have by living here.
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| The student parking lot at Maurie's school. |
Maurie, Kyle, and I spent a day in the city yesterday. Maurie is on winter break this week, and it's been nice to have a little extra time with her. (Unfortunately, school schedules are not aligned and the boys' winter break is next week.) We spent the first part of our day at Den Bla Planet, "The Blue Planet." This is Denmark's national aquarium and is really impressive! It has fish and sea-life from all over the world and an under-water tunnel with sharks and rays. We really had fun seeing such amazing creatures. They were huge, tiny, colorful, deadly, bizarre, creepy, shy, and playful.
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| In front of Den Bla Planet. |
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This lobster thinks he's hiding.
I guess he doesn't know he's bright orange. |
The three of us spent the afternoon on the hunt for a great 'Copenhagen Dog.' Hotdogs have had quite a revival here in Copenhagen. They are actually higher quality sausages and you can find them everywhere from street stands to nice restaurants. You can enjoy a classic 'dog' or any kind of gourmet-style sausage you can imagine. Kyle and Travis recently read an article that trumpeted a few locations as making the best 'dogs' in all of Copenhagen. Of course, they've been tasting and checking them off their list ever since. Kyle, Maurie, and I rode the metro and a bus and then walked several blocks in search of one particular sausage place only to learn it's closed during the weekdays in the winter. Bummer. We then walked for a while and caught another bus to a different sausage place. (I should mention that we passed several hotdog stands on our way, but we were on a very particular hunt.)
This location had made the article because it was the first in Copenhagen to branch out with a gourmet-style sausage. Anyway, long story not short enough...Kyle loved it! Too bad I'm not personally a connoisseur of hotdogs or sausages and Maurie wasn't interested in the gourmet-style, but Kyle enjoyed his enough for all three of us!
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Complete with raw onions, pickles,
relish, ketchup, and mustard.
Properly eaten with a knife and fork. :) |
While on our hotdog hunt, we made the delicious discovery of these fastelavn buns. Fastelavn is a Danish holiday similar to Halloween. Children dress in costumes, and parade around. At fastelavn parties, they beat a barrel with a stick to break it and get out the candy. During the weeks before fastelavn, local bakeries sell these and other yummy pastries that are made and sold only during fastelavn. Last Saturday we took the family to Mon, which is the island southeast of Zealand--the island Copenhagen is on. We went there to hike and see the famous white cliffs of Mon. We had a fantastic day! We first hiked along the top ridge of the cliffs where we stopped to enjoy several view points out over the Baltic Sea. It is just beautiful! We then started down the more than 430 steps to the beach. The view from the water's edge was perhaps more impressive because we could really get an appreciation for the height of the cliffs. They rise to over 100 meters in places and are made of very soft chalk. It's really amazing to see--unlike anything I've ever seen before. The beach is made of black glass-like rocks that shatter easily. This black beach makes a beautiful contrast to the blue water and white cliffs. The only thing missing--because of winter--was the green leaves on the trees. Mon was such a fun discovery for us!
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| Bridge to Mon. |
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We see these traditional white churches all over Denmark.
This one was just before we crossed over to Mon. |
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| Unfortunately, the color of the Baltic Sea below is washed out. But this is from one of the impressive viewpoints along the ridge. |
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| The way down was a little more fun than the way up. |
As we drove home from Mon, we made a stop in Copenhagen to hunt down another famous 'dog' vendor. This one is called "Harry's Place," and earned it's place in the "Return of the Dog" article because it is one of the longest standing hotdog joints in Copenhagen. It's been open for over 50 years and is known as the traditionalist because it's food is exactly the same as it was when it opened. The place is a tiny hole-in-the-wall type shop. It's almost too crowded to get into on the weekdays, but we were lucky that Saturday evening to have the place to ourselves. Of course, with all seven of us, there wouldn't have been room for any other customers anyway--it's that small. At Harry's Place there are three items on the menu: a sausage dog, a Danish meatball sandwich served with cooked red cabbage, and a flaeskesteg (roasted pork) sandwich. We stood at the counter eating our tasty Danish dogs and meatball sandwiches while we chatted with the cook about his future visit to America and our stay in Denmark. We washed it all down with the traditional must-drink-while-eating-a-dog-in-Copenhagen chocolate milk called Cocio.
The rest of the pictures are a menagerie of a few more
moments from this last month.
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| Grant and his indoor soccer team from school. |
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A Pomelo.
We'd never seen or eaten one before.
It's basically a huge grapefruit--like the size of a cantaloupe--but without the bitter taste.
I'm a fan. |
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| This trip to the grocery store with Kyle will live in infamy. We broke the family--and perhaps the Denmark--record for the most food carried on two bikes. We both had full backpacks, full baskets, and food hanging from our handlebars. We made it home without even a broken egg! |
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| There's been a fair amount of this going on during the dark winter. |
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| Nice to have the math tutor back. |
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| Waiting for class at school. |
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| Getting creative. |
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| Grant's class did a pasta feed for a fundraiser. |
So this was our January, and a little bit of February. We're a little sad to see it come to an end, as it means Kyle will be leaving us and Denmark as he heads off to begin his mission in Guatemala. But we're excited for him. We're grateful for this unique opportunity we've had to be together here. As the Danes would say, "It's been very hyggeligt."
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| Beautiful sunset from our yard. |
Travis and Kyle went on a fun ski trip in January. They flew into Trondheim, Norway and skied for two days in Are, Sweden (a two hour drive from the airport in Norway). They had a great time! They really had fun exploring a bit of Norway and Sweden. And skiing in Europe was a bucket-list item for both of them! 
The most notable observation they made in Norway was that the Norwegians have no fear of the cold. Travis said on Sunday when they went to church and then walked around the city, it was almost blizzard-like conditions. It was windy, cold, and snowing, but there were people out everywhere! Families with small children and strollers, and even people on bikes were all over the parks and city as if it were a warm, spring day. The only difference, he said, was that they were bundled up with boots, snow pants, and etc., and riding their bikes across snow-packed, icy roads. Kyle added that, while he and Travis walked gingerly across the ice-packed roads covered by a thin layer of snow, these Nordic folks rode bikes and walked along as if there were no winter conditions at all--and for two boys from northern Idaho to be outdone in their winter adeptness, that's really saying something! I'm sure Norwegians have to be tough with such long, dark winters. 
