Arden's Celebration

On this rainy Saturday morning hundreds and hundreds of people gathered to tell the story of a brave little girl who went to play in a new kingdom, one where she didn't have to have any more medicines and doctors and needles.  Princess Arden was remembered as a valiant and intelligent child who mesmerized all of her family and friends.  Neuroblastoma was her demon, a stomach cancer, and in 10 short months, the demon took over and took control.  Today we praised Christ for her incredible life and for God's great love and joy for each one of his creations.  Today Arden dances and sings and plays again.  

Hug your loved ones, tight.  

Icelandic Thoughts

Ok, are you sick of Iceland yet?

I was putting some things away today and I thought about a few things I noticed about our trip:

1. Everyone there eats lots of black licorice in all forms which makes me love the country more than most. YUM! Chocolate covered black licorice!
2. They have the BEST yogurt I have ever had and it is called skir. It has 98 calories, no fat, and is 3X the size of our yogurts.
3. The swimming culture was great. There were AWESOME pools everywhere and they all had water-slides and hot tubs. They all had geothermal heat and are open year round. Wonderful!
4. I was reading about Iceland before I left and one thing I found to be so true was that the terrain is so rough... volcanic and yet sooooo beautiful and this comes out so clearly in the culture. People are rough and beautiful, the art is is the same, the whole culture mimics the landscape. Interesting thought.


That's all. We give our best thanks and gratitude to Len and Sandra for going above and beyond in all things to make this a wonderful trip. They really couldn't have been better hosts and we are so thankful!!!!!!

Favorite Foto Friday (#5)

I had to pick an Icelandic photo for this week. I love this picture, mostly for the lone duck who seems to be the quiet observer of the scene, as if the duck is looking at it like I am. Or as if the duck is God's signature in the corner of the painting.

I like it also because the houses here along the pond reminded me of the houses on Boathouse row in Philly. I thought it was so appropriate that Len and Sandra had a similar landscape to what they had when they lived here... some sort of connection between their two cities.

Iceland, Day 7

Thought it was our last day, we packed in as much as we could. We got up, packed up our stuff and headed in the direction of the airport to one of the best sites yet: The Blue Lagoon. I had heard about it but I never really knew what it was and boy was I surprised! You see, there are all these volcanoes in Iceland and though they don't pose a huge threat, they heat the ground under Iceland. So, there is lots of energy stored in the ground. That is where all the hot springs and geysers come from. So the Blue Lagoon is an area of the country where they harnessed the power of the heated water to create a power plant. The water surrounding the power plant is heated geothermally by the earty and it is awesome!! It is all natural and yet still bright blue. You step in the blue lagoon and there is sand and rock on your feet. Some sections were sooo hot, up to 100 degrees celsius and other sections had mud bottoms. People would pick up the mud and put it all over their skin because of the healing power of this water and mud. This is stuff that people pay big money for in salons and spas and in Iceland it is natural.


We spent a long time in the blue lagoon and loved every minute of it!

Len and Sandra met us there and we all had lunch together before we finally had to head off to the airport.



The way home was much better than the way there. Noah didn't sleep but he played nicely and watched Happy Feet while we flew.

When we finally got on the ground in NYC we exited the plane and were greeted by an audio loudspeaker message "Welcome to America, do not speak to strangers who might be offering you a ride. You could be in danger." We grinned at the incredible difference between the simplicity and nature of the place we had just left and the complexity and fear of the place we live.

Iceland, Day 6

We got up early Sunday morning to head to church. Len and Sandra attend the main church in the city called Hallgrimskirka. Almost all of Iceland is Lutheran and so even though the service is in Icelandic, the format is exactly the same as the Lutheran liturgy. The church was full and had lots of children. It was so wonderful to be a part of their worship service. Of course, Noah didn't like sitting still so after a while he and Paul went outside and jumped off of rocks.

We took a quick trip up the tower of the church and saw the view of the city from above.


After church we got Icelandic Hot Dogs (the standard is loaded with fried onions, hollandaise, honey mustard and ketchup) from the famous stand where Bill Clinton used to get his hot dogs.


Then we headed back to the hotel so Noah could grab a nap.

Len and Sandra were so happy to have us in Iceland that they graciously threw a party for us to meet Sandra's family. It was a fantastic afternoon gathering. Noah didn't like being still so he spent his afternoon throwing ice off the balcony and moving stools around the house.


During the party we took a look outside to see an Icelandic norm... rainbows!


Finally we put on a movie and he watched Ice Age with his Icelandic relatives.



We were so grateful for the wonderful party and we just sat and talked all afternoon.

Iceland, Day 5

We accomplished so much more on Friday than we expected, so Saturday was a bit more relaxed. We went into the city and walked around, looking for souvenirs and nice things.

We knew that things were expensive in Iceland, but we were shocked at the prices we saw. At one point I stopped to grab us two cups of regular coffee -- $15. Iceland is famous for it's puffins and puffin stuffed animals started at $40. We bought nothing! It started to rain again (shocker) and so we headed to Len and Sandra's to hang out a little before dinner. Noah didn't want to go to sleep so he slept on Paul's lap.

Iceland, Day 4

We woke up Friday morning with plans to explore the country. The weather forecast was not good. Storms with severe wind and horizontal rain. Tough... we were going anyway!!! We packed up the car and headed out.

The first stop was Pingvillar, the site of the first Parliament in Iceland. It was awful. The rain was so horrid that we couldn't see. I was pretty miserable. We walked and saw some babbling brooks and took a look at where the tectonic plates split (pretty darn cool....) and got right back in the car.

one of the two tectonic plates (behind paul)

We drove a while praying for better weather and God provided. We reached Geysir which is an amazing place where tons of natural geysers come up out of the ground all the time. You are just walking along and up comes a 20-30 foot gush of water. It was so hard to believe all of this was natural and without pumps and prodding. There was a bigger geyeser in the early 1900's that rose to 80 or 90 feet but that one has been dormant for a while.


We were however disappointed with the restaurant (which served only burritos, pizza and hamburgers -- very Icelandic) and the gift shop (see below for authentic Icelandic garb).


Back in the car we headed to Gullfoss, the biggest waterfalls in Iceland. It has a similar feel to Niagra Falls but I would venture to say it is much bigger and wider and longer and multi-tiered. The other great thing is that it is all just natural. There are no stores, no big fences, no boats charting expensive trips. Anyone can go and get as close as they want... heck you could jump in if you want. There is no security or anything. It's just nature. Radical concept.



Noah snuggled in for a nice long nap while we continued eastward on the island. I wanted to make a stop at Skalhalt, an old religious community that had historic significance in the history of Iceland. I loved it. The mosaic of Jesus on the front wall was made out of 1X1 tiles and was much more breathtaking than the photos show.



Moving onward we headed far east on the southern coast to the town of Vik. We had hoped to see puffins here as this is the most likely place to see them, but we were never sure if the birds flying overhead were puffins or not. What we did see were the amazing black sand beaches and the incredible finger rock formations.

Noah was so happy all day because we kept seeing rocks and water -- a two year old's dream vacation.

We headed back eastward along the souther coast, stopping at two more places... the first one was home to the basalt church pipe rock formations:

The second, draeholey was home to these awesome rocks and coves.


We had to accomplish Paul's goal, which was to touch a glacier. There was one within our reach so we drove for a little while on a dirt road to find it and we did!! We had to go about 800 m on foot and we were able to touch and stand on a real glacier. The eerie part was there was no one there and we could have completely died and no one would have known.


Our last stop on this marathon day was at Skogar Falls, a huge waterfall in Southeast Ireland. Again, no fences, no stores... just stunning nature.

And of course, we passed a million sheep and a million more mini-waterfalls.


We got home at about 10:30 that night. It was our biggest day and Noah did his best this day.. as long as he could take rocks from every place we went!!!! There is so much more to see and do, we'll just have to go back!

Iceland, Day 3

Day three was Thursday and we knew that Len and Sandra had planned that we would have lunch with their relative Jim, so we had the morning to do something. We headed in to the city to walk around but it was still raining and pretty yucky. We just drove around for a while and found a light house and some nice views.


We finally ended up at the Pearl which is a landmark in Iceland.

4 water tanks are joined together with a dome in the center and it has turned into a museum about Iceland and a central lookout point for the city. We headed inside and watched the man-made indoor geysers forever. Noah loved watching them bubble and go off.




We headed up to the viewing deck and got some ice cream and walked around outside on the deck in the rain.


After I had enough rain we headed to have lunch with Jim. He was the most amazing man!!!! He had served in the military when the US had a base in Iceland and he fell in love with Sandra's aunt who recently passed away. He was awesome with Noah and was very patient and kind even though Noah ransacked his house. He kept telling me to relax (and kept offering beer, wine and Icelandic vodka shots) while Noah decided to snuggle up in his bed! I decided it would be best to head outside and play in the yard. It turned out to be the most amazing place... like a botanical garden!!! I told Noah we could stay outside if he would let me take pictures... I got some of my favorites in a long while!





After Jim's we headed to the hotel we were staying at the rest of the trip. It was right next to the airport and Noah was so excited to be able to watch the airplanes from the window. He did this most of the rest of the week!



We returned to Len and Sandra's for dinner and just time to hang out together.

Iceland, Day 2

The short drive to the city was nice, though it was raining and very cloudy. I was so excited to see all of the new things. The terrain was covered in volcanic rock from hundreds of years of volcanic activity. The ground was literally choppy and bulky.

When we got to the apartment, Len and Sandra were so excited to see us. We got such a warm welcome!!!! Their apartment was wonderful and it was just great to be with them. Noah quickly warmed up to them and their home, running from room to room and exploring every detail. He hopped right up into Amma's bed and snuggled in!

We were introduced to some new foods and we just sat and talked about everything. We were in quite the daze, having been awake for 24 hours at that point. We got Noah down for a nap, but we tried to stay awake to get ourselves into the right time zone.

We headed downtown to just walk around for a little bit. We strolled through the streets and went to city hall and to the duck pond (where I got a horrible bee sting... OWWWW!).

These Ducks were showing off on one leg!

On the way back to the car we walked past an art project in the city. Iceland has so many remote villages with children who never get their picture taken and so a group of artists went and did a photo mosaic of them. It was so awesome. Here is Len with Noah in front of the exhibit.

Len made an amazing Icelandic lamb dish for dinner. I'm not a huge lamb fan because it has such a strong taste, but this was so different. I really loved it! Before dinner, Noah, Paul and Len toasted "skal" to a great trip.



After dinner, Noah started to go stir crazy and so we walked out the door and there was a park! And we walked up the street and there was another huge playground. The scales were tipping in our direction.. until it started to rain!!!!