Iceland

Warning... picture heavy post.  Most of this week will be photo heavy posts.

Travelling with a toddler takes almost as much time to recover as it does for the actual trip! Well, probably not typically, but getting back into our routine after a week in a time zone 5 hours different from ours has been a bit of a challenge. She's also getting back into the notion that no she will not get whatever she wants when she wants it. Unfortunately, in order to pacify her and keep her from meltdown (mainly because she was out of her routine) we gave in on a LOT of things while we were on our trip. Also, everyone we visited gave her something, so it was like Christmas and we came home with lots more than what we had when we left.


I had packed a suitcase within a suitcase knowing that I wanted to bring home 2 twin sized sængs (down comforters), but I also brought home a bunch of books, toys, food, and artwork. Four of those books were cookbooks full of recipes that I've been wanting for Christmas time, but I'm sure I'll need to give each a trial run before then so I'll be sharing lots of goodies over the next few months.  Many of the things given to her were lovingly handmade by my family members so I'll be sharing those as well.  My Amma (grandmother) made an amazing horse for her, complete with leather bridle and saddle!

My parents came with us so we flew out of Minneapolis and got to spend the day with them at Mall of America and Kirsten got to visit the Backyardigans, by far her favorite show! She loves it so much that we themed her birthday around them this year.  It's the only show she watches outside of a few Elmo bits on YouTube.

Kirsten with Grandpa at Mall of America.  Tasha is her favorite!

For today though, I will leave you with a handful of pictures from hubby's phone of Iceland.  Over the next week I'll share the pics from my camera as well as all the goodies I brought back!  This trip was mainly for visiting family, not for sightseeing.  The last trip was more sightseeing since it was my hubby's and my sister in law's first visit.  So I don't have as many landscape, amazing sights type pictures from this trip, but I do have a few.  The weather was the nicest it's ever been during a short visit, so I even managed to get a few very distant pictures of Hekla, which isn't typically visible.

Click on any of these to see them larger.  These were mostly from the walking/hiking that my dad and hubby did together, and one trip up a mountain to the see the little turf house used when gathering sheep with my cousin.

Yes, that is snow in the picture at the end of May.

This little house could be it's own post, but I don't really know much about it. My cousin took my dad and hubby up the mountain to check it out while we were down visiting with my aunt.

This little house is up at the top of a mountain for livestock gathering
and it is owned by a family, and is still maintained by them.
However, it is open for anyone to go in and use. They used to keep it
locked, but found that by leaving it open and putting in a guestbook it
doesn't get broken into, stolen from or vandalized like it used to.

My dad signing the guestbook

Two twin beds

Small table and very basic kitchen facilities

Bench and storage, it is a very small turf house.

The fence around the house and the view