Oslo, Norway Christmas Pictures

{Salvation Army in Norwegian}

{Palace is at the end of the Stree}

Movie Clip of Carter

Lets see if this works...

Watch him wiggle...

Carter Birthday Pictures

Here are pictures from Carter's Birthday (Nov 9th). He is a cutie pie (of course!).
Carter was 7 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches long.

Aquarium Downtown

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would share some of my favorite photos.

The folowing photos are from the day in July I spent with Jennifer, Shelly, Kristy and Katy while Jim, Jeremy and Tom were playing golf.....

Pulpit Rock Hike

My weekend adventure...

Info: Pulpit Rock or Preikestolen, Prekestolen in Norwegian, is one of the areas most biggest tourist attractions. This natural rock formation with a 25 meter squared plateau stands 604 meters above the sea. Thousands of tourists visit the Rock every year. The trip takes about two hours by foot (round trip 4 hrs), but the rock formation can also be enjoyed from the sea by boat. The original name of the rock formation is "Hyvlatonnå" - which means the tooth of a woodplane. Todays name could have its origin in the shape or possibly be due to that it might have been a place of sacrifice.


Lori took the below photo looking over the side of Pulpit Rock... I skipped the looking over the side. I saw enough to know it was a long way down. Do you see the white dots in the water? Those are large tour boats... and when I say large I mean ferry size large vessel.

Me standing as close to the edge as I was ever going to get.

This is about a 1/2 of the way up the rocks that we had to scale in one of the steep sections.

Thank goodness for flat sections. LOL! This was the swap area with a bunch of bugs. This flat section appeared about 1/3 of the way into the trip. Although it didn't stay flat for long.

Of course I have more pictures of the scenry but if I loaded them all my pictures you would be on this site forever. ;)

--Tammy

Stavanger, Norway

Hi, Everyone.

Here are a few pictures from Stavanger, Norway. All of the pictures were taken less than a mile from my hotel. The weather has been gorgeous. Highs of 70s and lows in 50s. The pond in the pictures below is right outside my hotel. The picture of the Raddison hotel is where we are staying.

--Tammy

Catching Up Post

Tom and I have been busy little bees lately. Here are a few pictures from the past month or so...

Tavy (modeling her birthday present)



Cutie Madison in pig tales



Madison learning to ride the horsey. (She was very good at riding it!)

Madison cooking with Grandma.

Kristy and Katy posing during Mother's day lunch.


Our neices are the cutest!

--Tammy

Heading Home

This will be me in 15 hrs. Whooooo HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Norwegian Trolls

I have seen many of these odd looking creatures while I was walking around Norway so I did a little research. Did you know a Norwegian troll is either a dwarf or giant inhabiting caves or hills? I certainly did not. They are described as ugly, powerful and generally dangerous humanlike creatures, but stupid and naive. Now I definitely agree with the ugly... I haven't seen a cute one yet. LOL! They really are every where. I actually took a picture with one. Unfortunately it is on Lori's camera....so we have to wait till she gets back to Houston before I can post it.

Here is some more background in case you are as intregued as I was:
Some trolls were believed to be giants, and the biggest of them all was Dovregubben (their king in the mountain Dovre). They were shaggy and rough-haired, with trees and moss-like growth on their heads and noses, their noses were long and they would stir with it when cooking broth or porridge. Some even had two or three heads, some only had one eye in the middle of their foreheads. Their features differed from humans with four fingers and four toes and a tail ressembling that of a cow. The trolls lived to be hundreds of years old, but would die and turn into stone if the sun caught them. They might have looked frightening, but were actually often good natured and terribly naive, so sly peasants would successfully trick them. Their supernatural powers consisted among others of transforming themselves, for instance into beautiful young ladies. Many hunters and farmers were such lured into the mountains and captured, but the trolls could never hide their tails, if you only could get to see them from behind you would know if the captivating creature was a troll or just a beautiful shepardess.

--Tammy

Top 10 Norway Observations of the Day!

More Norway Observations

1) Hello = Hallo

2) A 6” Subway Sandwich and a kids drink in the US max cost $6. A 6 in Subway Sandwich and a kids drink in Norway US $13 (84 NOK)

3) Sandwiches here consist of one piece of bread and are eaten with a fork. Toppings for sandwiches include jam, sliced meat, fish paste and a few other things I can not recognize.

4) They really like mayonnaise.

5) Food is a normal portion size…not the super size portions in Texas (which I have kinda enjoyed)

6) Most Norwegians speak English. (95% of people)

7) They don’t work here really. They don’t know what a work day consist of. Lets just say I think I would like my work schedule here. ;)

8) They also get the entire month of July off from work, plus a week off for Easter…. plus lots of other holidays.

9) Dad’s have to take 6 weeks mandatory paternity leave for new born babies.

10) They lead a very fit and healthy lifestyle. Most people here are skinny!!

Things I haved noticed about Norwegians or Norway

1) They eat ice cream even when it is 32 degrees outside. You must realize that these people are walking outside enjoying ice cream. I do eat ice cream during winter... I just don't sit outside and eat it.

2)Medium spicy means negative flavor... in other words no spicy food here.

3)There is no such thing as a line. People just push on through. You have to be very careful at the grocery store or you will NEVER get a chance to check out.

4)Every one's hair has a wind blown look. I think on purpose.

5)It rains here A LOT.

6)Everyone says Hello and is very friendly.

7)People do not hold elevators or open doors to be courteous. It is just not done here.

To be continued....

Tour of Oslo

Lori and I took the bus tour of Oslo Saturday. We woke up early so we could catch the bus at 9:20am. The weather was sunny and cold. (yes, I am a Texas girl and I think it was COLD) We lucked out with the weather because today (Sunday) is rainy and COLD. We drove past lots of interesting buildings including the Nobel Institute (http://nobelpeaceprize.org/), Parliament Building, the Palace, and a few others I am forgetting...

(Parliment Building)

We also stopped by the Vigeland Sculpture Park, Homenkollen Ski Area (Ski Jump) and the Vikingship Museum.

(Sculpture Park - The was the circle of life)

(Proof that I was there... hehe)

(Ski Jump - Just to clarify there is NO WAY I would ever do this. The picture is only part of the jump. I could not fit the entire thing in. PLUS the picture doesn't do the jump justice. That thing was tall.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmenkollen_ski_jump

(Looking out on Oslo from the Ski Jump)

(Note the double decker winged plane flying right underneath the flag)

Electric Train (They have lots of different types of public transportation)

(Viking Museum - The boat was around 1200 yrs old)

I learned many things but the one thing I am going to pass on is that a hat with horns (which we think of as a typical Nordic warriers hat) was never a historical fact. A composer made up the hat to have a dramatic effect for one of his works.... Intersting huh?

--Tammy

Norway History/Geography Lesson :)

I found a good map of Norway and thought I would share it with you all. (click on the map to enlarge it) I never was good a geography in school so I always look up maps when I go some where.

Here is a link to all the facts on Norway (some interesting and some not so interesting) :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway

Bergen Pictures

First Day in Bergen, Norway

The below was an e-mail I sent to a few of you on April 15th the day we arrived in Norway. It had some good info so I thought I would post it for all.


Lori and I have arrived safely in Bergen. The plane ride was pretty smooth except the wake up method of the lady sitting behind me.When she went by me she somehow grabbed part of my forehead!!! She also grabbed some of Lori's hair while holding onto the back of her chair for support. Other than this everything else went smoothly.

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day in Bergen, 60 degrees. You only needed a shirt and sweater. Bergen is the 2nd largest city in Norway with a population of 230k. The downtown area is made up of both small wooden houses built along cobble stone streets and more modern structures. It is a sea side city with strong ties to the fishery & shipping, a cultural city which hosts many annual festivals, home to a very good university and of course oil companies have offices here. We took a taxi to the pier area and it was really crowded. When the weather is nice Norwegians don't sit home, they are all out soaking in the sun and spending time with their families doing outdoor activities. We decided to go on the cable car to the top of Mount Floyen. It was a clear day so we got an amazing view of the city from the look off. We could have done some hiking but were a little jet lagged from the trip. Here is a website and check out the photo album for some of the views.

http://www.floibanen.com/default.asp

We took the cable car back down the hill, walked around the pier area, went to Fortress Bergenhus / Haakon's Hall (Royal Residency built in 1247), then went for lunch. We ate at a nice cafe that I had been to before. By this time we were really tired so we headed back to the hotel for a well deserved nap. That was it for today.

Norwegian Screens

Well, it took me about 25 mins to get my screen to English instead of Norwegian.... Whew, that was interesting. Apparently blogger recognizes which country you are in. Now, hopefully what you see is in English.... otherwise I am sure I will get a few e-mails. LOL!

I haven't learned one word on Norwegian since English is so common here. Everyone we speak to knows the English language well and makes it easy to get around and order food.

Now on to more interesting post with pictures.

--Tammy

Maddie's 1st Birthday

Guess who turned 1 year old! She is such a little doll.... she even started standing up while opening her presents.