What We Did On Our Summer Vacation by the Cruz Family

Since this was such a big trip, I had to get the whole family to help me with this entry.

K = Kris
L = Luis
M = Mason
S = Siena

The following takes place between August 15 - 29, 2017.

K:  After 3-4 years of talking about it, we finally made it to Scandinavia.  After 19 hours of travel, we made it to Stockholm.  Course, in true fashion, we managed to arrive at the right address on the wrong island.  Who knew?  At least these 3 were able to goof off while waiting for the second cab to take us to the correct apartment.
M: Scandinavia I knew was going to be an amazing experience, especially talking about it for years. Though I wish it was closer. 19 hours of travel = 19 hours of no sleep in my case.
S: Yep, the trip was tiring. While we were waiting for the next taxi, we goofed off little!

K:  Waiting for the Stockholm subway.  It was the kids' first subway ride.  I have no idea why everyone was wearing gray (except Siena).
S: I guess I don't own anything gray anyway.

K:  To fight jet lag, we had to keep busy so our first stop was to go to the Vasa museum in downtown Stockholm.  The Vasa was a Swedish warship (below) that sunk in the Stockholm harbor about 20 minutes after it first set sail due to being too tall and too narrow.  The sediment in the harbor preserved the ship and it was brought back up 333 years after it sunk.  The ship was put back together with mostly original parts and the wood sprayed with a preservative for 17 years, followed by a slow period of drying which is still ongoing.
L: We were so tired from the 19 hour flight that Siena and I took a little nap in the Vasa museum theater.  We could not keep our poor little eye lids open.
S: The ship was so amazing, but that is true, we couldn't stay awake.

K:  View of the top of the Vasa.

K:  Luis and Mason checking it out.  And trying to stay awake.
M: Even though I was tired, it was one of my favorite museums to visit in Stockholm.
S: The design was amazing! I wish you could have gotten on the ship, as you can see a bridge onto the ship for only the workers!

K:  The back of the Vasa.  This ship was truly amazing.
M: A lot of detail for a ship that sunk after 20 minutes.

K:  Siena checking stuff out.

K:  Staring down a Vasa cannon barrel.
S: Who ever said that was a good idea.

K:  Dad and Luis get a feel of what it was like inside the ship.
L: As you can see from this picture the ceiling is very low.  I was surprise to find out the shipmates recovered in the wreckage were fairly short.  No vikings giants on this ship.

K:  Mason messing around while we wait for our boat taxi in Stockholm.  We took boats to get around as much as any other form of transportation in Stockholm as the city is built on a series of islands.
M: I went down to touch the Baltic Sea water. It was freezing.
S: Tired, tired, tired. We managed to last until 8:30. Or everywhere else instead USA, 20:30.

K:  Even Mom embraced the subway way of life!

K:  After a good night's sleep, we were ready to tackle Stockholm again.  Even better, the sun decided to shine!!  While we waited for the archipelago tour, we decided to check out the military museum. Who doesn't like a few good tanks?!?
S: There was very few days with sun. But hey, at least a few is better than nothing!

K:  Even Mom and Siena checked out the heavy machinery.

K:  No explanation needed.

K:  Outside the Military museum.
M: Us weird Americans.

K:  Me posing next to Queen Kristina.
S: MOM? IS THAT YOU?

K:  Siena reading in the museum library.
S: Too bad everything was in Greek.

K:  The kids check out the inside of a personnel carrier.
S: It was cool inside.

K:  The Cruz family shooting stuff.
L:  They had a great collection of weapons. There must have been about one thousand weapons in the museum.

K:  Mom eating a French Dog. Mmhmm.

K:  The tour of the Stockholm archipelago was really cool.  So many small islands.
M: There's nothing like the Stockholm archipelago in Oregon, let alone the U.S.
S: The view was really pretty!

K:  With my boy!

K:  Siena with the fortress behind her.

K:  Apparently this one was still struggling a bit with jet lag.
M: At least I tried to stay awake.
S: I actually went asleep.

K:  After the archipelago tour, we went to the Skansen which is a large outdoor museum and zoo.  It is huge (75 acres) and includes a replica village with working shops.  First we needed refreshments.  And Mason needed to show off his new shades (his old ones broke en route to Stockholm).
M: Fresh like the better tasting Swedish Fanta.
S: I agree with Mason, the Fanta was sweeter than the USA.

K:  Yay for the industrial revolution.

K:  Siena spilling the beans.
S: Who hasn't wanted to spill the beans? Punny pun puns.

K:  Siena got to play this 150 year old piano.  The gal in the house was ready to give her a job.
L:  Your piano teacher should be proud.

K:  Mason was more taken with the old service station.

K:  Who dat?

K:  Never too old for a snake slide.
S: The slide was up a hill. I was able to Spider Man up my way.

K: As much as we enjoyed seeing the animals, I think they kids liked messing around in the exhibits more!
M: Only took me and hour to get out of that one.

K:  Wait!  We found an animal!  There's an owl in that tree!
S: I've never seen an owl before!

K:  Taking a break by an old mile marker.  I think this is the day we walked the most - around 9 miles.  Definitely tired legs all around.

K:  We like old houses, even old school houses.

K:  At the giant windmill.

K:  The tired, hungry, yet happy bunch.  Shortly after this we went to dinner at a nearby restaurant.  In the restaurant, Yaya looked at a picture of a building on the wall and remarked "that sure looks familiar"!  It was a picture of the restaurant we were eating in...  Siena didn't let her live that down for the remainder of the week.
S: "That place looks familiar." What a joke!

K:  In typical Scandinavian fashion, the sun disappeared the next day.  It didn't diminish our enthusiasm though.  We started the day with a panoramic bus tour of the city and learned about some of the various districts and islands we had seen over the previous few days.
M: Stockholm is a really amazing and different city from Portland.

K:  Mason was feeling pretty fancy having his Sprite in a wine glass at lunch.

K:  Outside the Royal Palace.  Yes, those stones are awkward to walk over.
S: It was funny because Daddy only walked over the smooth bits and did a serious long cut!

K:  The palace was quite impressive.  I imagine Queen Kristina would have been pleased.
S: MOM? IT THAT YOU?

K:  Siena didn't seem to mind looking at a bunch of rich stuff.
S: All the rich stuff is so beautiful!

K:  Yes, I do love the fact that there is a Queen Kristina.  I pose with all things Kristina wherever I can.
L: My 2 Queens.
S: MOM? IS THAT YOU?

K:  Because going on a bus tour and walking through the Royal Palace isn't enough, we then headed to the Nordic Museum.  It was huge.  Despite tired legs, we tried to make the most of it.
M: I loved the Nordic Museum because it had a Northern Lights exhibit (we couldn't see real Northern Lights in the summer).
S: This might have been the biggest, but the most fun museum so far!

K:  Siena was still unsure about the headdress with candles on it.

K:  Did I mention how tired we were walking through this place?  We could have laid around here for an hour.

K:  But there's no laying around when there's a gift shop to mess around in.

K:  After surviving the Nordic Museum, we had to have some shenanigans outside the ABBA museum on our way to dinner!!

K:  Cool kid on the subway.

K:  The next morning we packed up our stuff and boarded a train for Fåglum, the small township where Lena and Anders live.
S: Lena and Anders is family that came with their kids in Oregon to visit us!

K:  Siena and Mason at Lena and Anders' farm.  It was such beautiful country!  We loved it!
M: The Swedish country side was something most Americans don't get to see, so it was an awesome experience.

K:  We took a walk around their property and saw many of the farm houses that have been part of the family for generations.  This is Siena walking with Frida.  The kids were very happy to see Frida and Axel again after meeting them last summer when they visited Oregon.

K:  Ron, Luis and Axel.

K:  Mason.

K:  Oh yeah, I was there too!
S: Oh! I wouldn't have guessed.

K:  Lena and Anders invited a lot of relatives over for us to meet.  They set out quite a spread (note the Swedish flag in the background).

K:  Mason is feeling his Swedish pride!!
M: Gotta rep Sweden.

K:  Did I mention that these boys like each other?  (Axel and Mason)

K:  Many of the families that came for the big dinner had kids.  Ours were the only non-blondes.  It was great that despite coming from completely different countries and backgrounds, they made friends quickly.

K:  Here is a rough and dirty family tree* covering a lot of the folks who were at this dinner.  In blue are some of the relatives we spent extended time with including Tomas** and Helena who joined us on the family site visit the next day and of course Margareta and Anders & Lena.

* - For a detailed and complete family tree, please contact Ron
** - Tomas visited the states several years ago and stayed with my parents.  We had such a great time with him then and it was wonderful to reconnect with him on this trip.

This is Herman Swanson's parents and brothers in the family home about 1900.  From left: Nils Svensson, Sven Svensson, Sven Nilsson, Johanna Larsdotter Ahlberg, and Oscar Svensson.  Herman and Johan had already emigrated to the US.  Nils, Sven, and Oscar are Herman's brothers.  Sven Svensson became Swan Swanson after he moved to the US.

This is Herman Swanson.

K:  This is the Nils Svenson family.

K:  After dinner, the whole group of us went on a walk to the old homesteads.  We had to greet a few cows along the way.

K:  This is the rock that Sven Svenson dated and initialed before he left Fåglum.

K:  Anders explains some of the family history.

K:  Not sure this picture needs much of a caption.  Beautiful sunset with playing kids = pure joy.
M: And a whole bunch of trees to climb!

K:  Cake and coffee also = pure joy.

K:  Mason is loving this trip!

K:  We headed off the next day to see other family sites and churches but first Siena needed to pet a baby chick.
S: There was roosters and they were chasing Mason!

K:  This is the church at Fåglum and Lena showing us the graves of Sven Nilsson (1848 - 1915) and his wife Johanna (1850 - 1924) as well as Nils Svenson (1884 - 1975) and his wife Berta (1882 - 1936).  Sven Nilsson is our common relative and Nils Svenson and my great grandfather Herman Swanson were brothers.  See the family tree above.

K:  The kids check out the old bell tower at the church.

K:  Inside the Faglum church (Anders is the caretaker so we got a special sneak peek).  The church was built in 1845.

K:  Mason and I can't resist any opportunity for a dramatic pose.

K:  I'm not sure exactly what you'd call this - baptism bowl?  Anyway, this is from the 1130s.  This may be the oldest thing any of us have ever touched.
M: I am sacred now that I've touched it.
S: So old! And I thought my camera was old!

K:  This rocky spot is where the house my great grandmother Anna grew up.

K:  This is the church at Essunga which is where many of our relatives were married and baptized.

K:  Luis and Axel in the cemetery behind the church.

K:  After the family sites visit, we drove down to Gothenburg and a group of us (me, Axel, Siena, Mason, Luis, Frida, and Lena) went to a soccer match.  Seeing a real European football match may have been Luis' highlight of the trip.  We watched two Gothenburg teams go head to head: IFC Goteborg v. BK Hacken.  Hacken is Lena's team so of course that's who we were rooting for, even though IFC Goteborg was the home club.
L: This was the only night possible to enjoy a European football match.  I am glad Frida was able to make this match happen for us.  It was an amazing experience.
S: Soccer is always a good time.

K:  The next morning we were taken on a private boat for a tour of the beautiful Gothenburg archipelago.  Margareta, Anders' brother is sitting next to my mom.  Martgareta lives in Kiruna in northern Sweden.  Margareta's son Per was a 3x Olympic mogul skier for Sweden.
M: This was one of my favorite days of the trip.
S: We were almost in Denmark!

K:  Views of the archipelago from the boat.

K:  Following the boat tour, we went to Lena's parent's summer house on one of the islands.  There are no motorized vehicles on the island and the only way to get there is by boat.

M: I'm guessing not a lot of Americans get to see the islands of the Gothenburg archipelago, let alone walk around on one!

S: I bet we are the only Oregonians that have seen this beautiful island in Gothenburg!

K:  The group outside Lena's parent's house on Varholmen.  From left:  Mom, Dad, Frida, Lena's father, Margareta, and Lena.

K:  The kids on top of the hill by the house.

K:  Mason shows Siena a crab leg he found.  She is not impressed.

K:  Mason climbed a lot of trees on this trip.

K:  Mason climbs trees, Siena finds hammocks.
S: I liked relaxing on them.

K:  Siena and Axel chilling after lunch.

K:  After lunch, we explored the island.  I'm contemplating this sketchy bridge.

K:  While it takes more than an iffy bridge to stop me, it slow down my mom and Lena and Anders.

K:  The more adventurous amongst us (me, Mason, Frida, and Axel) ditched our shoes and waded over to the next island for some exploring.  Apologies for this shot of my rear but the going was VERY slippery.
L: I tried crossing the water but gave up when feeling the cold water.  Like Kris mentioned VERY slippery.
S: Me too, and I hung out with Daddy.

K:  I made it...and dry!!
M: Though we did have to walk around the island barefoot.

K:  Since we left our phones behind on the smaller island so they wouldn't take a swim, we have no pictures but it was fun exploring.  Next we retraversed the slippery rocks back to the main island and continued our adventure, which lead us to this crevasse.  As it was fairly narrow in places, it was again the same group of 4 of us that made the trek.

K:  See, this thing is no joke!

K:  Axel and Mason take a break midway.  This part of the hike motivated me to lose a few more pounds...
M: Wouldn't wanna be claustrophobic in here.

K:  At the end of the crevasse!!  Course, we still had to go back up it.

K:  He's the king of the world!!

K:  Axel goes where the rest of us choose not to.

K:  We reunited with the rest of the group and made our way down to the lighthouse.

K:  Found it!

K:  After hiking around for 2 hours, this group needed a break!

K:  Not the kids though, they needed a swim.
M: Me and Axel were the only ones who actually swam though.
S: It was cold!

K:  Siena found the water a little bit cold so she instead did her best mermaid on the rock impression.

K:  One of our favorite things was fishing for crab with a string and clip.  There's 3 pictured but we probably caught 15 - 20 total.  Not to fret though, they all made it safely back to the ocean as part of the great crab race of 2k17.
S: The crab race is where we dump the crabs onto a rock and watch them go into the water. A medium-small crab won!

K:  Luis chills with Lena's dad.

K:  Siena and Frida on the way back to shore.

K:  While the rest of our friends and family back home enjoyed the big eclipse, we had a nice dinner and walk.
M: Who needs an eclipse when your in Scandinavia.
S: What eclipse?

K:  Luis insisted that I break this blog up into 2 due to length but as the blog already crashed on me once and I lost hours of work, I'm just going to plow ahead or it will never be published!

Anyway, after a wonderful week in Sweden, we hopped a bus and went to Oslo, Norway!!!

K:  We did some shopping and sight seeing the first 2 days and checked out this beautiful city.
M: And our apartment was a block away from Karl Johans street, the busiest street in Oslo!!
S: There isn't as much shops in Stockholm, but there was in Oslo!

K:  The next day was another museum day, starting with the Viking ship museum.  We love gift shops!

K:  This museum had 3 very old viking ships but more interesting to me were the preserved bones of some of the ships crew.

K:  Following the Viking ship museum, we went to the Kon-Tiki Museum.  This museum was more interesting that we initially anticipated.  It's dedicated to the adventures of Thor Heyerdahl who sailed the world in rafts of reeds and balsa wood.  Below is the Ra II made of reeds that Heyerdahl sailed from North Africa to the Caribbean.

K:  Kids enjoying these crazy vessels - this is the one made of balsa wood that Heyerdahl sailed from Peru to Polynesia in 1947.  Heyerdahl's son was at the museum while we were there and shared additional anecdotes of his father's adventures.

K:  We next went to the Fram Museum (which is right next to the Kon-Tiki).  The Fram is dedicated to Arctic discovery.  Luis and the kids standing in front of the ship Fram.
M: This was one of my favorite museums in Norway. Very Nordic.
S: WE GOT TO GO ON THE SHIP!

K:  We can't resist these things.

K:  Lunch with a northern lights scene in the background.  Siena's lunch was a waffle.  There were waffles everywhere!!

K:  Pull that sled Mason!  You can do it!
M: I could totally survive out in the arctic.

K:  Have I mentioned we like hands on things?

K:  Siena showing how the toilet would have been used.

K:  Papa Ron on the Fram.

K:  Finally a ship we could climb around on!  The Fram was so cool!

K:  Drive that ship honey!!
L: Off to Puerto Rico!
S: Let's go back to the USA.

K:  Woah, hi guys.

K:  Because you can never see enough in one day, we also checked out the Akershus Fortress.  Construction of the fortress began in the 1290s and it served as a prison, palace, and military headquarters (still does).

K:  The girls at the top of the fortress.

K:  The group on the ramp alongside the fortress.

K:  The girl and a sculpture.

K:  We LOVE art!
M: This doesn't even have anything to do with the fortress?!
S: Haha!

K:  Siena and I take a selfie while waiting for our bus.

K:  We met up with some relatives Wednesday night who took us to an amazing restaurant called Frognerseteren above Oslo.  From left Oskar, Mason, Me, Mom, Siena, Dad, Marit, Kare.

Oskar is Oskar Bjorlykke, a published author, grandson of Oskar Dalen.  Marit Dalen is granddaughter of Gerhard Dalen.

K:  We had a wonderful meal that included reindeer, cod, and veal (don't judge me).  Siena also learned that she likes brown gravy.  After scraping it off of her meatballs, she actually tried it and found she liked it.  Mason was given a Norwegian Kroner as a gift.  He liked looking through the hole.
M: I still have that coin to this day! And reindeer meat is good.

K:  The happy eaters on the train on the way back to city center.

K:  The next day in Oslo was filled with more sight seeing, starting with the Oslo Opera house.  The exterior is white marble from Italy which makes the building look like a large ice burg coming out of the water.
M: It also looks liked a glacier.

K:  Siena with the opera house behind her.

K:  Hoofing it up to the roof.

K:  Halfway there guys with the fjord in the background.

K:  Mason found a seagull friend on the roof!

K:  The gull liked me better.

K:  The boy and I with the iceberg sculpture in the fjord behind us.

K:  The interior of the opera house.

K:  After the opera house, we learned how to maneuver the public bus system and made it to Frogner Park, Olso's largest park.
M: The central park of Oslo, which was amazing.

K:  Frogner park is home of the statues of Gustav Vigeland.  As most of the statues featured naked people, Siena was not a fan.

K:  She did at least stop to smell the flowers.

K:  Mason not peeing into a fountain.
S: It doesn't look like he is in this picture.

K:  Taking in the scenery.

K:  Making it to the top of the sculpture features.

K:  At the top.  Apparently these guys needed a break.
M: We only had to walk through the majority of the park.

K:  Who doesn't enjoy a weird statue.
M: Siena.
S: Me.

K:  Because we thought we hadn't walked enough, we then went to the Folkemuseet (Folk Museum) which contains 155 historic, authentic buildings from all around Norway.  This museum also claims to be the first open air museum.  They may need to speak with the folks in Stockholm about that...

Siena developed a particular disdain for these traditional roofs which had vegetation growing on them.  Note that these roofs are made of several layers of birch bark which the sod on top holds in place.  Despite appearances, the roof is watertight.

K:  Another hill for us to walk up.

K:  We'll happily investigate any nook and cranny we can.

K:  This is the Gol Stave Church which dates back to 1212.  It was originally from Gol, Norway and was relocated to this museum in 1885.

K:  Mason also liked knocking on every door he saw.

K:  Inside the old stave museum.  There were no lights except a few candles but the interior carvings were very amazing, especially given their age.

K:  The family.  Siena was continually tortured by the sod roofs at this museum.

K:  Knocking on yet another door.  I was somewhat fascinated by the barns.  Almost all of them have a ramp like this for the livestock to walk up and into the barn.

K:  Papa Ron and Mason checking out twin storage buildings.

K:  Hi Siena.

K:  Who doesn't like a tractor.  Tell me, who.
L:  Kris loves her tractors.

K:  We're those people always trying to climb up into places that are supposedly closed off.  Siena's small, she can make it undetected.

K:  Lots of walking today...lots of walking.

K:  Mason at the wine store.  Even in Norway, you're still too young son.
M: But I'm tall enough to reach over the counter.

K:  The museum has an apartment building with different sections decorated featuring traditional Norwegian decor over various decades.  Siena especially enjoyed the 60s.

K:  The girl in the old folk town.  Yes, it did start raining on us a little bit that day.  The other days were beautiful though.

K:  Mason being goofy outside the subway stop.

K:  Our crew unwinding as we do...on our phones.  I should note that this day was Luis and my 15th wedding anniversary.  My parents were nice enough to feed the kids for us that night so Luis and I could go out to an amazing dinner at the Grand Hotel in downtown Oslo.  Unfortunately Luis and I were unable to get them to leave the apartment that night...
M: We had Max Burger, the Norwegian Burger King.

K:  Friday was a travel day - 8 hour drive from Oslo to Alesund.  In addition to the beautiful fjords and mountains, one of the highlights of this drive for us may have been this rest area...probably the nicest we've ever seen!
M: I loved seeing all of the fjords. Good luck finding anything like this anywhere but Norway.

K:  I took about 50+ pictures that look like this.  Everywhere you turn on this drive the view is incredible.  It makes our Columbia River Gorge at home look like a mere red headed stepchild (apologies to my ginger friends).

K:  We finally arrived in Alesund and met up with Sandra and her son Peter.  Back in March 2016, I received the following message from Sandra on Facebook:

Hello Kristina My name is Sandra and come from a small place in western Norway. The last couple of weeks me and my grandfather, Magnar Nystøl ,have been looking for our family that emigrated to America. I know from what he has told me that a woman named Lina(Originaly Helen) Torland and Rasmus Torland was his aunt and uncle. We have been searching the internet for their family og now we were woundering if you may be one of them? Lina and/or some of her children visited my Grandfather and Grandmother in the 80's but he says that he didnt have much or any contact with them after that. Lina was my great grandmothers sister. My great grandfather also went to America, to Minnesota but he came back to Norway and then married Linas sister. He keept in contact with Lina untill he died. His name was Johannes Holen/ Nystøl. We would love to get to know our american family, and hope to be planning a trip over seas. I also send a picture of Lina and Rasmus and their children. I know their are called Amy, Rut, Borghild, Lee, Ray, Arthur, Julian I am sorry to bother you if you dont belong to the family. Best wishes Sandra Aarsheim

K:  Needless to say, Sandra found the correct family.  We've been messaging regularly ever since this and it was so exciting to finally get to meet her!  After dinner, she took us up to this scenic spot with a view of Alesund at night.  I don't think any adjectives I could add to this picture would do it justice.

M: My favorite spot of all the places during our trip.

K:  The AirBnb apartment we stayed at outside of Alesund left much to be desired but the view was pretty darn nice.  If only the beds had been adult sized.
M: They had a heated pool though, which is all that matters.

K:  We met up with Sandra and Peter again and first walked around the Alesund Folk museum.  The kids found some stuff to play on.

K:  Mason posing for for an artsy picture.

K:  The boy in yet another tree.

K:  After ditching Mason in the tree, we found some more houses with sod roofs for Siena!!!

K:  This picture is a combination of all of our favorite activities:  Mason knocking on the door, mom peeking in the window, and Siena complaining about the sod roofs!
M: This is all we did at all of the outdoor museums. By the way, they had a lot of outdoor museums for a cold place.

K:  Mason and Peter checking out an old structure.

K:  After the Folk Museum, we went to the Alesund Aquarium.  I found a friend.

K:  There were some pretty disgusting cool fish at this place.

K:  Our favorite part was the hands on areas.  Peter has grown up around fishing and ships so he is completely comfortable around marine life.  My kids took some cues from him.

K: Mason and Papa Ron.
M: With some huge fish behind us.

K:  Siena and lots of fish.

K:  Checking out the sea otters at the outside portion of the aquarium.

K:  Goofball.

K:  Mason - what is happening here?!?

K: More fishing for crab.  Fortunately we got some good practice in with the Swedish relatives so Mason and Siena knew just what to do!

K:  Thanks to Peter's inspiration, Mason was brave enough to pick up the crab.
M: 1 out of 2 crabs I picked up that day.

K:  Peter holding another crab.

K:  After the aquarium, we took a ferry to Larsnes to meet up with more Norwegian relatives.  This is a farmhouse near where Rasmus Torland grew up.

K:  Walking up the road to the Dalen farm where my great grandfather Rasmus grew up.

K:  Yep, my children are in yet another tree.  Note that the original Anders Dalen house was located just behind this tree.
M: This was the most fun tree we climbed, and it had written names on it, probably from past generations.

K:  Siena is inside the old barn at the Dalen farm.

K:  This is hard to see but the year 1886 is etched into the side of the barn.

K:  The old farmhouse.  Pictured from left: Oscar, Gerhard, Rasmus, and Bernard.

K:  My family at the same spot.
M: I'm standing right were Oscar and Gerhard were standing!!

K: The extended group outside the house.  Note that the two gentlemen on the left are Torbjorn and Inge (see family tree below).  Jacob Bjorlykke is the gentleman on the far right (brother to Oskar Bjorlykke who we ate dinner with at the mountain restaurant in Oslo).

This house was built by Oskar in, I believe, 1909, so Rasmus didn't grow up in this house but this is the farm on which he was born.  In 1911 Anders & Berte Marie moved elsewhere.  Torbjorn & Inge are brothers and grandsons of Oskar.  

K:  Here's the family tree of this side of the family.  I should note that the names in color are relatives we met on this trip.

K:  Inside the house.  The kids check out the old wood stove.

K:  Inside the family room of the farm house.  The upholstery on the chairs in the back were hand stitched.

K:  Yaya and Mason with the family photos behind them.

K:  You may be wondering how Luis was dealing with all of the Kris family history.  Well, if you know my husband, he was pretty into it.  And he's a darn good sport!
M: Us kids, not so much.

K:  After checking out the Dalen farm, we went to Torbjorn's house in Larsness for some food.  This is the view from their home.  Did I mention that every single spot in Norway is a view?!?
M: And hills.

K:  My mom looking at some family pictures with the view from Torbjorn's living room behind her.  I really should have taken a picture of the wonderful food Torbjorn's wife and daughter in law served for us.  It was wonderful!!

K:  After Larsnes, we took another ferry across a fjord and met some more Norwegian relatives who took us to the church in Rovde where my great grandparents were married.

Here's the family tree of this family group.  As with the Larsnes relatives, they are related through the Rasmus Torland side of the family and names in color are relatives we met.  For simplicity, I left out dates, spouses, etc.

Pictured here are Julia, Margrethe, Gerhard, Aksel (Margarethe's husband), and Else.

 K:  For fun, here's Margrethe (second from left in the above picture) at age 15. 

K:  Our family by the family grave.

K:  The church in Rovde.

K:  This is Rasmus and Helena's wedding picture taken at the above church.  I'm guessing due to the windows not being shown that maybe this was taken at the back of the church.

K:  Mason and Siena at the altar.
M: Probably the 10th church we visited.

K:  And by the organ.

K:  All of us at the spot where the great grandparents were married.  This was a pretty surreal experience.

K: The scenic cemetery outside the church.

K:  Mason in the cemetery with the Rovde church and fjords in the background.
M: Fjords were also everywhere by the way.

K:  This is the original wedding party leaving to go back across the fjord that is pictured behind Mason in the above picture.

K:  After spending some time with the family at Margrethe and Aksel's house (and eating what was probably our 5th meal of the day), we retired to our home in Fiska which was actually Marit and Kare's summer home that they were kind enough to let us use.  It was also right across the street from the other family members.

The next morning we had breakfast at Gudveig Strand's house along with her sister Sigrun.  The sisters are related through Rasmus' sister Magda Dalen.    

K:  Gudveig started and maintains a large dairy farm.  Siena is sampling fresh milk for the first time. 
S: A lot of the stuff was more stuff that I wasn't that into, so that's why I didn't comment on a lot of them. But the milk tasted like milk, and I suggest it for all human beings! 

K:  This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.  This is Mason with a picture of his great great great great (4 greats) Grandfather Ola.  Perhaps when Mason's mustache grows out we'll see the resemblance.
M: Grandfather Ola is wearing 150 year old clothes, meanwhile I'm wearing a Vans T-shirt.

K:  This is Gudveig next to a family heirloom that was a wedding gift sent to her grandmother Magda from Rasmus and his brother from back in the states.  She has taken very good care of it over the years.

K:  After breakfast, Gudveig took us on a tour of her dairy farm.  Admittedly we're city folks so this was pretty new and exciting for us.  Mason made friends easily with the cows (note the cow tongue sticking out).
M: I had to post that on Instagram.

K:  Siena was a little more iffy about the bovine friends and wasn't super excited by the smell but I think she enjoyed it as well.

K:  I made some friends too!!!

K:  This is the youngest calf on the farm.  He was all of 2 weeks old.

K:  After breakfast we met up with Marit Svedhaug Fure and her daughter Heidi Kgefl.  They are related through my great grandmother Lena's side of the family.  It gets a little complicated here as there were a few different marriages and children.  Hopefully my white boarded family tree will help clear things up.  Long story short, Marit and Heidi are descendants of Nils Torbjormsen Svedhaug and Helene Haldorsdotter.  Nils and his other wife Berte Berge are my great grandmother Lena's parents.

K:  This is Marit and Heidi.

K:  After visiting another family church and cemetery, they took us to Ervik to see the memorial of the sinking of the SS Sanct Svithun by a Canadian squadron during WWII.

K:  At the beach outside the memorial near where the Scant Svithun was sunk.

K:  It is also at this site that my great great grandfather Nils Svedhaug is buried.

K:  My dad and Marit at Nils' grave.

K:  Awww, they really do like each other!!! 💗
S: He was almost choking me! Who said that? ♥
M: Hehe.

K:  Along the road back from Ervik we saw the site where my great grandmother Lena grew up.  We also got to explore a few old outbuildings that are still somewhat standing.

K:  Here's an aerial view of this same area taken in 1954.

K:  I'm pretty sure Mason could happily spend an entire day exploring these places.
M: American Pickers?

K:  See what I mean?  They really do like each other!!!
S: Yeah, that was fun. But I only had him do it because there was poop all over the grass.

K:  After site seeing with Marit and Heidi, we met up again with Gerhard Dalen and Margarethe Dalen's families to see the Torlen farm.  The farm isn't currently maintained and there is no road to get there so we had to hike up a grassy hillside.

This house was built by Ola Monsen Torlen, Anders' father, in about 1840.  At that time it was considered a big, extravagant house.

K:  Barn and outhouse at the farm.

K:  Stream and barn running by the farm.

K:  Just had to include this shot since Siena's reaction made me laugh.
S: What?

K:  Meanwhile Mason found yet another tree.

K:  Hiking back down the hill.  More fjords in the background.  Did I mention the view from every vantage point is amazing?
S: Yeah.
M: No.

K:  After the visit to the Torlen farm, we met up with Sandra's family at her parent's house.  This is us with Sandra.

 

K:  After dinner they took us down the street to a local restaurant for a surprise.  Turns out that the surprise was in the pictures on the wall at the restaurant...they include my great grandmother Lena from her visit back to Norway in the early 1960s.  Lena is the woman sitting on the left in the white hat with glasses on who appears to be staring at the camera with an expression that says "one day this picture will be hanging on the wall of a restaurant."

K:  The other picture of Lena and family at the restaurant.  Lena is in the center here again in the white hat and glasses.

K:  Some family pics outside the restaurant.  Us with Peter!

 

 K:  Sandra and I with Siena the photobomber in the background. 

S: There I am!

K:  We then hiked up (another) hill to Martina and Johannes Nystols house.  Here's the group of us from what was once the barn.  It has been since converted to a patio but part of the barn is still underneath.

 

K:  Group photo/Sandra selfie!

K:  All of us with Karin's family.  Karin is the blonde 2nd from the right (next to her husband).  Her youngest son Kasper is in front of her.  Her sons Marius and Andreas are on the left (Andreas' girlfriend is in yellow).

K:  All of us with Sandra's family.  Sandra's mom Lillian is far left and her sister Veronica and father Frank are on the far right.

K:  The kids! Peter wasn't too sure about all this.
S: Poor Peter! We took a million pictures here.

K:  After seeing some of the family sites, we went back to the house for cake.  Cakes are very big in Norway.  There were 5 of them.  I had a piece of each one.

K:  Somehow we all ended up on a couch next to each other.
M: Me, lying across everyone.

K:  Sandra's sister Veronica with her grandparents Magnar and Jofrid.

K:  This was an amazing trip.  I'm sure I've made a couple of error in people and places but I did my best.

Everyone we met was so kind and generous.  We can't begin to thank everyone for making our trip so memorable.