Coming late April 2018!

After not eating much (or anything that delicious) on our trip through Norway and Denmark, we were SO excited to eat in Boston.  So, most of these pictures are of food.  I’m not sorry, because it was delicious.  Also, Colton had never been anywhere east of the Mississippi, so this was an exciting stop!

If you’ve ever been to Mike’s Pastry, you know that the store is NEVER this empty.  Even some of the staff were saying that they had never seen it so empty.  This is my favorite pastry shop in the world.

Bikes, bikes, bikes!  Everyone rides a bike in Copenhagen.  I have never, ever seen any bikes in my entire life.  And everyone is so polite about how they ride throughout the city.  I was so impressed with the way that this city works and how happy everyone is!

We were so excited to check another international LDS temple off of our list!  It was closed for cleaning while we were there, but it was quite the sight from the outside.  I love this picture of Colton.

The Church of our Lady was our favorite part of the entire trip.  It was actually a highlight of my life!  We chose to go on the Sunday that we were there, which I think gave an extra spirit to the day.  I have seen so many Christus statues throughout my life, even the replica in the Salt Lake Temple Square Visitor’s Center.  But this one had a much more holy and sacred spirit.

Each of the 12 apostles is also depicted in a statue, with a specific representation of their work and personalities.

The Fredricksburg Castle was AMAZING! I loved the grounds and entrance to the castle, but the best part was seeing the entire original collection of Carl Bloch’s work of the life of Christ.

The Kronborg Castle was the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  I can see why!  We also loved being able to see Sweden from the grounds of the castle.

Nyhaven had the best food that we had had for all of our trip, and some of the best views!  We ate from the hot dog cart twice and tried just about every single dessert that was sold on that street.

The Little Mermaid!  It was POURING when we went, but I’m grateful because we were able to get a good picture!  Normally this place is packed full of people.

Next stop on our Norway/Denmark/Boston adventure was Oslo!  Oslo definitely has a different feel than Bergen.  It’s much more urban and cool.  We were here for three days, and we felt that that was plenty of time to see all that we wanted.

The Opera House was incredible!  You can walk on top of the roof and get an incredible view of the city.  It was a great way to introduce ourselves to Oslo. This came highly recommended by a couple of people/websites, and I also highly recommend it.

Everyone in Norway either drives a Tesla, Mercedes, or BMW.  Everyone.

The Novel Peace Center was beautiful from the outside, but we did not go inside.  It was a little pricey and not on the top of our list.  We were there the day before the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was given out (to humanity)!

The Norwegian Royal Family lives in this palace, which was not open while we were there.  The grounds, however, were gorgeous.

A recurring theme in our pictures is construction.  Cranes were everywhere.  I guess October is not a huge tourist time, and the rest of the city works to prepare for next year!  So, I’m sorry for all of the cranes/cones/construction in our pictures.

The next few pictures are from the Vigeland Sculpture Park in downtown Oslo.  There are over 200 sculptures in this park, all of which were created by Gustav Vigeland.  We were cracking up at some of these sculptures.  We aren’t the biggest art connoisseurs, and I’m sure that there is a deeper meaning to this park.

When we saw this sculpture, Colton said, “I bet that’ll be me in a few years.”

The trolls!  They are everywhere.  Can someone explain this to me?  They honestly really freak me out.

One of our favorite parts of the entire trip was the Viking Museum.  This museum holds the most well-preserved Viking Ships and relics in the world.  It was incredible.  We found ourselves staring at these ships and getting a bit emotional!  The Vikings took great care of their people and honored them in their death.  The pictures don’t do the size of the ships justice.

Colton’s Grandma Esther is literally the tiniest woman that I have ever seen in my life, and she is 100% Norwegian.  After visiting the Norwegian Historical Museum, I completely see how she could fit in (Colton is 5’11, for reference)!

The next few pictures are from Lillehammer, where the 1994 Winter Olympics were held.  It reminded us of Park City.  It’s about 2 hours away from Oslo (driving), and the drive was beautiful.  I slept most of the way there and back…but Colton said it was beautiful.  In my defense, I was 12 weeks pregnant and suffering from a lot of jet lag!

Oh. My. Gosh. So. Good.

For as long as I have known Colton, he has talked about wanting to go to Norway.  He’s really proud of his Norwegian heritage and has always wanted to see the Northern Lights.  In this trip, we didn’t make it to see the lights, but when I saw the opportunity to fly to Norway for $400 round trip (for both of us), I seized it!

Our favorite city in Norway was, by far, Bergen.  It’s a magical waterfront town on the West Coast of Norway.  We flew in and out of the airport (which is the most organized/clean airport that I’ve ever been in in my life), but only planned about two days total to spend exploring the city.  If I were to plan this trip again, I would definitely plan more time in Bergen.  Both days that we were there, it decided to POUR, and we didn’t even care.  The place is just so magical!

 

Yep, the buildings are totally leaning into each other!  I have no idea how that entire waterfront is still standing.

Here is the evidence of us (and by us, I mean Colton) carrying our bags around the city those two days.  P.S. That is all we packed for our entire two week trip!  I’m so shocked that our bags didn’t wear out after rolling them along the cobblestones all day!

This is what the alleys between the famous waterfront buildings look like.  There are the cutest (and most tempting) little shops all the way up and down.  We bought all of our Norway souvenirs here (including that painting in this photo!).

 

This week, I had some experiences that have brought a lot of perspective into my life and where I am today.  I feel like I’ve been led by the hand to receive thoughts and impressions that will effect the rest of my life, and I’ve felt so grateful to have been led to this conclusion.

My entire life, I have believed in a loving Father in Heaven.  I not only believe that He is God, but that He is my Father that created me.

I feel grateful for the chance to be given this earthly body, which is why I work so hard to take care of mine.

I feel grateful for the chance to live on this beautiful earth, which is why Colton and I take time to celebrate it through being outdoors.

I feel grateful for the talents and abilities God has given me, which is why I choose to follow the guidance that I feel in my life.  I know that God has directed me in every aspect of my life and will continue to do so.  I know that that isn’t the most popular belief these days, as people choose to follow their own desires and ambitions instead of God’s.  It takes a huge amount of humility to accept that what’s right isn’t always what you want.  It’s through that humility and faith that we open ourselves up to the guidance that we all need from Heavenly Father.  We have to be willing to follow Him, no matter what.

I know that Colton and I have been so blessed in our lives, and it’s because we understand that our lives are not our own.

I’m not quite ready to describe what is going on, but it will all come out in good time.  The news is exciting and scary.  In fact, I’m terrified.  It’s going to push me to do something that I have never truly been good at, and I’m feeling extremely vulnerable about it.  It’s something I never thought I’d do.

But I am excited.  I haven’t felt this fire in a long time.

The point of this post: follow those little thoughts/desires of your heart/mind.  Don’t be afraid, because you just might have been guided to those thoughts by someone other than yourself.

After months and months of persistence, my husband finally convinced me to have a space to share, write, create.  As reluctant as I was to begin this adventure, I am secretly really excited.

For as long as I can remember having access to a computer on a daily basis, I have been inspired by blogs/personal websites.  I have a few blogs that I have followed for close to ten years, and I’m totally not ashamed of that.

To me, there are two sides to sharing on the internet: beauty and jealousy.  The way that you feel as you turn off your computer truly depends on your attitude.  As I sifted through my fair share of blogs during my teen years, I usually found myself digging my way out of a hole of comparison and jealousy.  It was easy to get sucked in to reading every blog post and analyzing every single picture from top to bottom, comparing my awkward 17 year old self to the 30-something moms.  With the introduction of Facebook and Instagram (yes, I am old enough to remember when Facebook and Instagram came out, although I am a millennial, thankyouverymuch), things just got worse for me. I would spend hours looking at profiles and comparing every part of my body, skin, hair, and lifestyle to those people.  This is why I’ve always been reluctant to start a blog/share too much on Facebook and Instagram.  Why would I want to contribute to that epidemic? I would never want anyone to feel the way that I felt after hours of comparing myself to people that I had never met before.

Now, as an almost quarter-of-a-century-year-old woman, I can end up on the other side of sharing (most of the time).  The internet is such a beautiful place, and I am grateful for that I live in the era of sharing every single aspect of your life with someone.  Really, I am (don’t you even dare say “it’s because you’re a millennial”).

The internet is such a blessing.  I graduated from college ONLINE.  While I was serving an LDS mission in Madrid, I communicated with family and friends once per week ONLINE.  I have learned everything that I know about Multiple Sclerosis, the autoimmune disease that attacks my husband’s body, ONLINE.  I learned everything that I know about health and wellness ONLINE.  People have shared some of their most terrifying and joyful experiences with me ONLINE.  I’m grateful for the opinions that are shared via. the internet.  I would hope that reading various political and social opinions on Facebook has allowed me to learn how to be a more well-rounded and educated human being.

After many years of poor self-confidence and struggle and spending too much time on the jealousy side of sharing, I feel that I’m ready to share my life with others and do it in an honest way.  So, in the midst of gifs, people who make careers through YouTube and Instagram, emojis, and filters, this will be a space for me to share pieces of my life, health tips/tricks, recipes, success stories, failures, and pictures.  Just like me, it doesn’t, in any way, have a facade to it.  What you see is truly what you get!