Matt had a conference in Stockholm Sweden for 3 days.  Since the company was paying for his plane ticket and his hotel it made PERFECT sense to me that Kalani and I should tag along.  We stayed there for a week and it was great.  There was so much to see and do, and basically everyone there speaks English.  Looking at a map things appear to be very far away, but really once you start walking it isn’t that bad.  A quick run down of what we did:

Day1:  City Hall & Palace
Day 2: National Museum of Science & Technology
Day 3:  Royal Armoury
Day 4:  Vasa & Skansen
Day 5:  Bus Tour & Temple
Day 6:  Pippi Longstocking Museum

Stockholm is a great place for kids.  Basically children under 6 are FREE for everything (at least that is how it appeared to me).  And the museums were fantastic.  It kept my interest and they always have something for the kids to do as well. If anyone has the opportunity to go to Stockholm Sweden…GO!

Today we woke up and found this picture in our backyard.  It is the first time that Kalani or I have seen snow falling or have woken up to snow on the ground!  When I told Kalani that it was snowing outside, she jumped out of bed and ran to the window.  So, now I am going to experience living in SNOW!  I am not sure if I am excited about it or not.  I am sure we will make snow angels and snowmen before we leave Scotland.

I discovered these pictures that Matt took of Kalani and thought they were very cute.  Kalani will spend hours playing with her toys, playing dress-up, or singing.  And sometimes all three at the same time.  She is already learning how to multi-task.

One of my mission companions came to visit us in Scotland.  Hermana Leche (that is what she was known in the mission field) and I served together in Usulutan, El Salvador for about 3 months.  Many crazy things happened to us while we were together such as:

• Old lady throwing rocks at her own house and calling us witches while we taught a lesson
• A one legged man on crutches chasing us through the streets
• Witnessing a couple of machete fights
• Catching and killing rats, tarantulas and scorpions in our house
• Leche falling asleep on the shoulder of a strange man on the bus…who smiled a toothless smile at her when she woke up
• Elders (the 19-21 male missionaries) calling her up since she was the mission nurse…one confessed to taking heart medication that someone gave him since he had a headache, and then he couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t functioning properly.

Oh the good times we had together in Usulutan and throughout the mission field.  It was great to have Leche come to visit with two of her sisters.  I was able to take them to see different castles, city center, and we even tried to find Nessie on the Loch Ness.

Our cousins Nate & Laura came to visit us in Scotland with their 2 kids for a week.  It was so much FUN!  We have a lot in common with them..we all served a mission for the LDS church, we were married on the same day, our daughters are just a couple of weeks apart, etc.  Here are some highlights of our time together:

– Castles (Kildrummy, Glenbuchit, Fraser, Dunnottar, Urquhart, Cawdor)
– City Center
– Museums
– Beach
– Park
– Loch Ness
– Cheese & Crackers (they introduced me to the world of eating different types of cheeses)
– Spiders Fighting
– Girls dressing-up
– Late nights talking

We expect their family to visit us where ever (outside of the US) we may be asked to live!