The Pratt Family

We got a great deal on our flights to Norway with Ryan Air, and then discovered that's where the deals would end. Norway is the most expensive country we have visited so far. They deal in kroners which have a crazy conversion rate of ~6.1 to the dollar, which just makes it more painful when our cabin was 650 kroner per night plus the price for bedlinen. We don't check any lugage when we fly Ryan Air, so we each have our 1 carry on or backpack. Spencer insisted that he carry his own backpack. When we put his backpack on the first 2 times, he fell forward, but he still wanted to carry it. He got lots of laughs from the people we passed.

We went to a viking ship museum in Oslo with these giant, incredibly well preserved ships from 1000 years ago.

We tried reindeer burgers for lunch that you eat with garlic sauce and ligonberry jam.
The kids stuck with hot dogs.

The Vigeland Statues at Frogner Park

I actually really liked a few of the statues, although I don't quite get why so many artists (especially European ones) love to create nude statues.

Cute little guy

Father and son

A sweet family

Weird statue of a pile of naked bodies

We drove up above Oslo to the ski jump that is being built for the world campionships next year. We went on a star tours-type ride where we we did a downhill race course and ski jump. Kayla and Brayden loved it, and the guy let them do it again for free.

The ski jump (our kids took one look at it from the top and asked not to go down it)

Sod roofed buildings

A view from above Oslo - we had to stop and take a picture because the water looked like it was shimmering.

The Oslo Fjord

Our second day in Oslo, we took the kids to the amusement park Tusenfyrd.

The kids loved it!

The kids especially loved this car track. They got a little briefing about stopping at stop signs, yielding on a roundabout and stopping at lights. It was just like the real thing minus the speed. They even got a little fake license at the end.

Brayden had to be near the other truck at all times and was constantly telling the other cars what to do and tried to make sure they obeyed the rules.

After the amusement park closed, we went to see the royal palace, and this was taken in the park next to it. It was probably 8 or 9 o'clock, but the sun doesn't set until about 11, and then it doesn't ever really get dark, so we had to kill time because our kids couldn't fall asleep until they were dead tired.

King Spencer - we are definitely not above eating at Burger King and McDonalds in foreign countries.

I loved these wild flowers and had to get a picture.

We drove from Oslo to Flam, and it was an amazing drive. Beautiful!

There were so many waterfalls that our kids asked us to stop pointing them out.

I would love to water ski on this amazingly glassy water (with a wet suit of course).

Can you believe I took this picture from the car window?

Moo-ve cows!

The Borgund Stave Church - unique because they were built with the planks vertical in what are called staves and have a lot of viking type carving.

When we got to Flam on the Aurland Fjord, there was a little Midsummers Night festival. These cute kids held hands and led the smallest parade I've ever seen.

We were in the parade too.

Kayla with the band in the background

The kids didn't quite figure out skipping rocks, but they loved throwing them into the water.

The bonfire

Kayla made friends with some Norweigan girls - everyone spoke English quite well.

What a fun dad! This was just before our ferry ride on from Gudvangen to Flam on a branch of the sonjefjord.

Our cute family!

Our boat was crazy crowded with Asian tourists, but it was a beautiful ride.

Apparently there's a half dome in Norway too.

We fed seagulls from our hands! It was really fun, and we still have all of our fingers.

Brayden said the seagulls have their own private airport.

The typical fjord village

Our boat

We took a ride on the Flamsbana railway

It was beautiful!

We got out on the way up the flamsbana, and they had music playing and a siren-like woman dancing and beckoning us into the falls. It was really cool.

After a day at an amusement park where Brayden went on a roller coaster that went upside down, he was really concerned that the train would be fast and scary, but instead, it put him and Spencer to sleep.

Another train that was sitting outside - Brayden was pretty concered that it didn't have a shed.

Kayla thought it was the coolest thing that she got to sleep on the top of a 3 level bunk bed.

The kids loved the park at the campground where we stayed in Flam. It had a clubhouse type structure that was basically a mini 2-story house, and there were lots of trucks, shovels and buckets left there, so the kids had a great time.