I am back ‘home’ in Portland but, still my soul is floating around the earth. We have returned to our hometown and are putting down roots again….phone contracts, bought a used car, set up utility accounts and kids are now at Montessori but, we aren’t done with this journey or the next steps.
I write now to continue to document our adventures for posterity and for the boys. We will be processing all this for many a moon to come and with that, comes new decisions and directions. Although, I can’t say that too loudly near our youngest son or he will run screaming from the room….just kidding. 
So, Norway….we have some stories to tell. This was not on our big list when we made the ‘dream list’ at the beginning of the travel plans but, it came about and I am so glad that it did.
I do have two friends from my Leiden University studying days in the 90s that live in 
Oslo and they both offered advice, homes, meals and warm welcomes to our travel queries.
Also, my mother in law’s grandfather left Norway to find his way to this land as an immigrant in the late 1800s and thus we had a some family lineage to find and follow. 
When we announced that we would be going on this trip my mother in law was not keen on being away from her grandkids for a year so, we said, ‘Come join us somewhere!’
And so, they did. Being recently retired folks from Idaho they started at square one to get passports for the first time and they entrusted me to plan their path. 
For us, it was a luxury to be around family, familiar and warm faces with loads of hugs but, also an opportunity to share in this family finding journey.
My Norwegian friends offered to do a little genealogy research for us and when she presented us with an 80 page document before we arrived of all she found we were blown away.
This kindness and curiosity in our background was a priceless gift. We used this information to pin point places to visit. 
Kelvin ,the boys and I arrived in Oslo before the in-laws in to the welcoming embrace of Marianne and Tore. Marianne and I studied together and had been in touch over the years but, it was the first time we had seen each other in over 18 years.
She had recently opted to not run for reelection to the Norwegian parliament but, gave us intimate access to the Parliament and a tour I am sure you could not ‘book’ anywhere else. 
It was like seeing an old friend as we picked up where we had left off last time. Talking about our kids (she has three) and her new work she showed us what it is like to be a working mom and professional. 
My other friend Brita and her partner Eva (she’s the one that did the genealogy research for us without having even met us) also joined us on walks throughout Oslo to the Resistance Museum and drinks along the waterfront among other places.
All while high school equivalent students were running around the city in their flight suits and tricked out buses celebrating their transition to adulthood. Its called Russebuss and it is a fascinating tradition. 
I’am going to write more about this and the Norwegian Constitutional Day which deserve their own billing.
So, anyway…..family history found us driving (well Kelvin driving, really. We just all cheered him on from the back seat) for what seemed like 100s of miles and hours and hours.
This was not a problem as the beauty of Norway is endless. Even when you go through kilometers long tunnels through their mountains and pop out into a landscape worthy of the best visual calendar you could ever pin up on your wall. 
The glaciers (wow), the goats (oh, my), the lambs (have to mention the for Oakley as he pointed out every one of the 10,000 we saw along the way, the fjords (unbeliveable), the moose (meese?, what is the plural for that), the eye watering bright skies with stunning panoramic views as you just look up from your google map EVERY, 
SINGLE TIME!.
In Utvick, I think we stayed in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to when including the view outside and the chick decorations inside.
I felt like we were in a magazine spread but, did not need a fresher of make up. The sun would barely set and the glow would hover on the horizon in the wee hours of the night. 
We chased down family graveyards, enjoyed several of the many ferries, and just watched the nature around us. Stunning and beautiful. Have I gotten the point across?
You will love it if you go and do get out of Oslo, lovely city yet, there is so much to this enormous by European standards country.
If you do, hug a lamb for Oakley because he couldn’t get across the stoic momma ewe. As much as we tried.
Goat Rush Hour Video – Check it out!
World School Room
Goat Rush Hour
Paradise Airbnb
The Fjord
Not even Mid Summer and loooong daylight
We decided to stay at the Legoland Hotel which has themed rooms with scavenger hunts, Lego characters walking around, life-size Lego mini figures, characters walking around and LEGOS everywhere to play with. Big blocks and little blocks.
It was so sweet to see joy on so many faces. Not just ours but, the plenitude of families from all over. There were families there from India, China, and all over SE Asia. We were definitely the minority as we would nod hello to another ‘Western” family from time to time.
French Pastries with Chinese Congee porridge with dried fish on top? Or a traditionally poured spiced chai, watermelon juice, white coffee or full cream milk?
Asia are constructed to impressive, minute detail. Even the scooter accidents with media and police presence on the street. I could have spent hours here. It was super hot so, we melted as we perused even with the welcome mister machines nearby.
A BALANCE OF TRAVEL AND FAMILY 
This academy opened the world of possibilities for us to repackage our trip, ideas and come up with an alternative plan (note: not to be confused with alternative facts).
Changing jobs, leaving schools, packing up, preparing goodbyes and selling belongings. We still have a lot to do but, we have a couple of Homeland style planning boards with tasks that we are following up on.
And an even bigger deal when we try to do it in three days in a country we haven’t driven in together (Kelvin was there on his own in 2001), driving on the ‘other side of the road’ for us Yanks and in a camping vehicle we have yet to rent or even select. The situation gave Kelvin and I some pretty funny conversations as we were trying to rationalize a mammoth drive to get in between locations for a place to stay.
It sounded good but, we were coming from Hawaii and wouldn’t be there for the first two days of her trip. She, again kindly, offered to make her trip work with ours so we can be her support and she ours.
It’s one thing to throw things in a backpack and dig out my passport but, an entirely different kettle of fish to be arranging four flights to another country with visa applications, baggage requirements, thoughts about timing, food accessibility, world schooling plans, accommodations and time changes for all of us.
Baby’s R Us with the crib my in-laws had bought us.
ckets that will transport our family to the other side of the planet.
All this snow has given us a lot of indoor time and aside from playing chess with my work schedule (seeing which clients could come in when), sitting by the roaring fire and playing competitive games of Qwirkle we have also been dreaming a lot about our travel plans.
in a conventional world. I would recommend learning more about this gathering and community here through 
I was so inspired by their work I came home and told my husband about the possibility of changing our trip of a year-long move to Brussels to a Yeear Long Round the World trip. And here we are planning it all!
That the small choices we make everyday can have small but, longer effects. We often look around us in exasperation and think, “How did we get here?” and think of the roads or choices not taken. We think big change only comes from big changes.
We had gotten to the stage of heartbeats before but, something about this heartbeat struck me and held me in such an odd moment of time. The thought of this heart beating for a long time stretched out in front of my mind. I imagined that this heart would beat for over a 100 years. The thought wasn’t just hope, that was there too but, it felt like it was fact, a truism, the future. Almost like pictures on a screen.
I send a silent kiss to wherever they are and hold a tiny piece of their souls in my heart.