me, laur, and monette in our new faux fur hats- the perfect purchase for the below freezing temperatures
alright folks, instead of separating this into days as i usually do- i am doing it all in one great big post. a whole weeks worth of pictures (47 photos to be exact). so, unless you've got a good hour or so on hand, feel free to just browse through real fast- whatever floats your boat.
we had an awesome week here in denmark- i dare say the best week (gotta save the best for last right?). steve's mom and sister came into town. that meant 4 girls all under one roof, lots of fun girl conversation....and shopping! doesn't get much better than that right? don't worry, steve was enjoying it too even as the one lone boy in the group.
jayne was ecstatic about the two fresh faces that made their way into our home. as much as she loves her mom and dad... we can only be fun for so long. this girl loves visitors and she definitely loved having her grandma and aunt lauren here. lots of attention. lots of love for the little miss.
and thus our adventures began....
we spent pretty much all day out and about. that meant lots of stroller time for jayne. we accommodated by bringing headphones and movies. this girl wouldn't make a peep. it was awesome.
Monday morning started off by hitting the Nyhavn Christmas market. We browsed the small selection of vendors and found some goodies.
We tried on these awesome faux fur hats. They are so warm!
We ended up each getting one (our actual hats are pictured at the start of this post). They really got the job done, and you will notice their appearance every day for the rest of the week.
We walked by this one vendor and the man got Steve's attention and asked if he was American. Steve was a tad confused and said, Yeah I'm American. Then he goes "no, is that your wife?" (pointing to Lauren) and then it dawned on us that he was asking "Are you married?" and not "American." Steve clarified that I was his wife to which the man pointed above our heads at a lovely mistletoe and told us we had to kiss. Monette captured our first mistletoe experience. It was a fun/funny moment.
Steve and I purchased this little guy to bring back with us to the states. Nothing extravagant, just a traditional wooden-pully Santa ornament with the Danish "God Jul" (Merry Christmas) on it.
We like him. We also got Jayne a cute piggy ornament (not pictured). The Danes LOVE their pigs (they eat a lot of pork) and they were everywhere to be seen at the markets.
Jayne enjoying her movies. They really saved us this week.
The street was so pretty with its twinkle lights and hearts. It was even more magical when it was completely dark, but I never got a picture of it. Boo.
After Nyhavn we headed over to Tivoli to check out the shops there. They had a neat Ice sculpture station set up. It was pretty neat. You could even see the sculptors in action.
We stopped for some hot chocolate and ebelskivers. At this point it was FREEZING outside, but magical with the lights nonetheless.
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Day two, we headed on the train to Hillerod to check out one of the most famous castles here in Denmark, The Fredericksborg Castle. It carries original paintings by Carl Bloch, so we were excited to see this and take a tour of the castle itself.
The castle is HUGE!
Here is one of Carl Bloch's paintings you may recognize. There were a number of his paintings in the chapel there, each one so tender and beautiful. It was really neat to see the originals so up close and personal.
The chapel
Beautiful stained glass windows
Lauren a queen for the day
Jayne getting a good view of........
....this!
The ballroom
We were glad we came and saw it. Albeit a FREEZING walk to and from the train station, it was worthwhile and we were really glad we came.
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Day three was a "girls only" day (minus Jayne, sorry Jayne). Steve stayed home with the little one while we ventured out to Aarhus for the Christmas market there. It is a three hour train ride, but it went by so fast. We left early in the morning, ate lunch on the train, and enjoyed a good 4 hours in the city before heading back on the train home. On the way out there we happened to sit by a woman who was LDS (talk about small world). She was from Norway and was on the way to visit her mother. We chatted with her the whole way there which made the ride go by so fast. Its always so fun to make a connection with a stranger through the church.
When we got to Aarhus the first thing we did was head over to the Christmas market. We had read up online that it was a building filled with 95 vendors all handcraft stuff for Christmas. It sounded awesome..... but wasn't quite so. Monette described it perfectly as a bazaar 30 years ago. Needless to say, we didn't find much of anything. At all. But our spirits were not dampened one bit, because we were in one of the coolest cities and there was plenty of sites and shopping around town.
We headed over to Den Gamle By to check out the outdoor museum there. It depicts Denmark life over the centuries. They even had a few booths set up selling some Christmas goods. We got some hot chocolate and perused around, enjoying the historical surroundings.
Afterwards we headed over to the main shopping street just in time for the twinkle lights above to light up. It was a fun atmosphere with the lights, window displays, and crowds of people doing their Christmas shopping.
One very interesting thing we learned while checking out the Christmas markets is the lack of religious decorations being sold. We could not find a creche ANYWHERE. Very few angels. It was mostly santa, after santa, after elves, after gnomes. Seriously. Quite sad really, people here are not very religious (and yet they celebrate Christmas). Any way, we were happy when we finally found a Church store here in Aarhus that carried some beautiful nativities that were made in Germany. We each purchased one to bring home.
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Day Four, we did a little site seeing. It being Lauren's first time here, we wanted her to see some of the "must-see's" of Copenhagen.
The lovely Little Mermaid is now back home (after being in China for the World's fair). None of us had seen it yet so we braved the freezing and very windy cold to check her out. Can you believe the ice all over her?
She is definitely the "Little" mermaid- her size is nothing astouding, but still fun to see.
Wind+snow= this.
We got to Amalienborg just in time for the changing of the guards.
Marble Church
Afterwards we checked out a few stores in the city and headed over to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. That night we went over to the Moran's for a yummy dinner. Jayne loved seeing all her friends again. It was a great night.
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Jayne sporting her adorable (and oh so soft!) gift from from her Great-Grandma Middie.
Thanks Gramma Middie!
We love it!
I sadly have no pictures of our last day with Monette & Lauren. I forgot to grab the camera on the way out the door so all of the photos from this day are on Monette's camera (which I'll have to have her send my way once she gets home).
We woke up early and headed over to the temple to do initiatories. Steve stayed with Jayne in a waiting room while us girls went, and then we stayed with her so he could go. It was a great morning being at the temple. It is so different than Utah, as here there are very few members, very few temple workers, which made for a very very quiet temple experience (it really seemed as if we were the only ones there that morning).
After the temple we came home for a quick bite to eat and change. We headed out to Stroget to get in our last Christmas shopping. We found some goodies and called it a day. We had walked roughly 9 miles since morning by the time we got back to the apartment that night. Crazy.
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Monette & Lauren left early early this morning. They were awesome to bring back a bunch of our things to Utah so we don't have to haul it with us to Maryland.
These next couple of days will include a lot of laundry and packing, which is why I knew if I didn't do this post right now it wouldn't happen for a long time.
We leave this lovely city early Tuesday morning. It will be a little sad saying goodbye to what has been our home for a few months time. We have had a great adventure here, and made some long lasting memories.
But geeze louise, I really can't wait to come home!!!!!
