Thursday, February 26, 2015

Chad's Defense

Our 3 years in Denmark culminated in Chad defending his thesis and graduating with a PhD.  The kids and I were honored to go and be a part of it.  Chad started out with a presentation about his work over the past 3 years and then he was questioned by 3 professionals about his work.  It was interesting to see the process.  I am so proud of Chad and all the hard work he has put in over the past 3 years.  After the defense, his work held a little party for him.  It was a nice end to all of his work.








 The room we were in had a really cool painted ceiling.



Friday, February 20, 2015

Sea Voyage to Norway

With our time in Europe running out, we decided we needed to add Norway to our list of countries visited, so we booked a mini-cruise to Oslo.  I've never been on any type of cruise, so I wasn't sure what to expect. 





The boat had a lot of fun activities for the kids, with scavenger hunts, bounce houses, dance parties and more.  They had a really fun time.  We enjoyed watching them.




 During the night, I woke up with the boat really rocking, we must have been hitting some big waves.  The next morning, we woke up early and had breakfast as we sailed through the Oslo Fjords.  It was so beautiful!



 Once in Oslo, we visited the Akershus Fortress, where they got a lot of inspiration for the movie Frozen.

Arriving in Oslo

 Akershus Fortress - Originally built in the 1200's!












 We walked into Oslo and saw where the King lives, toured an old church and visited the local Art Museum.

 Oslo Cathedral
 King Christian the 4th!  I guess Norway was part of Denmark back then.
 Looking up to the Royal Palace.
 Edvard Munch's, The Scream!

 It was a very quick trip, but we really enjoyed it. 









The boat ride back, not so much.  After leaving the fjords, the sea was really rough and we all ended up feeling very sick. We tried to do a few activities with the kids, including swimming in the little pool at the front of the boat, but it was bouncing so high, we were all feeling terrible.  We decided to rush back to the room.  Unfortunately, Chad lost his cookies and it was only with sheer willpower that I didn't follow him.  Haha!  We all layed in our beds for several hours, waiting for the seasickness to pass.  It was pretty miserable, but kind of a funny memory.  We arrived back in Copenhagen the next morning.  It was a quick, but memorable trip!