The conclusion..... It has been a great ride. An unforgettable experience that will fill our minds with great memories and our hearts with new friends. We have been inspired by wonderful places filled with nature and cities filled with art and history and culture.We have grown closer as a family. The boys have learned so many new things. They have opened a door for learning. They now all have the desire to learn foreign languages and I think history will be more interesting to them from now on. They learned about people, and how to respect different cultures. They have seen firsthand the safety, love and warmth we can have with Jehovahs people anywhere on earth. They have made friends young and old and cherish them equally. They have learned how to travel and be street smart avoiding thieves but not letting them stop us from coming. Cole has been released from a genetic disposition of fear of trains, boats and planes. I hope that he will never let fear of some imagined danger stop him from enjoying life to the fullest. We have all learned how to save money both before and during a trip. How to spend it in all the right places and have no regrets. Many valuable lessons I hope to take home with me. Yarmo who I love to sit and listen to his kind words of wisdom told me " sometimes when you travel you see that there is the way of thinking that you have thought to be right and sometimes you see that there is also a different way and sometimes that way is better" This is so wise and so true, and some people get so stuck in there way of seeing things and doing things that they really believe its the only way. Even worse they may look down on someone who thinks or does different. What a shame. Life can open so many doors to new and better thinking. A few habits I hope to adopt. Clothes dryers are wasteful when the weather is good especially. We survived two months without using one. It was actually relaxing to hang the clothes and collect them after the sun had dried them without charge. europeans if they have a dryer ,refrain from using it because its expensive. It is for us too. propane is a huge expense. Americans have just become to lazy to use a clothes line. Food habits are different also. I admit I am a bit of a food hoarder. I have often bought things just because they are on sale and they sit in my cabinet and collect dust. It was so rewarding to buy enough food for a day or so, eat every last bit, then buy more. No more fake food either, we ate liberally of bread and cheese and natural meats and felt very healthy and good. For two months I never once thought about what I was eating and what effect it would have on my waste. It was liberating. The result is that iether I have not grown in size or I have had to much fun to care.( although I have to admit I have been concerned about the health of my liver a time or two) It makes me wonder what all this unnecessary worrying does to your metabolism. This may be the hardest thing to adopt but I will try. I vow to live simply and am looking forward to another purge of unnecessary clutter. I really suck at painting but I found time for it while traveling and loved it and I want to keep making time for creative relaxing parts of my life. I mostly learned from watching other people. We had the great privilege of being invited into the lives of really amazing families, and I loved seeing how kind and soft they spoke to each other. Never let the reserved nature of a swedish person fool you. I think they are some of the most fun loving people on earth. I theorize that because of such long and dark winters that they have it in their blood to seize the best moments of every day, and when the sun comes up they relish every second of it ,living life to the fullest extent possible. So much I want to bring home. So as we end this journey, I am thankful. Very, very thankful. I have to give all the credit to jimmie who accomplishes every thing he sets out to do. I would have never thought we could do this, but he never lets my skepticism dull his ambitions. I have had an amazing time and am ready to come home and suck the joy out of every day the way a bee gets every last drop of nectar. It may have been obvious to stop and smell all the flowers and notice every sunset and stay up late every night when your traveling because that is what you expect to do. But why stop now? It takes six weeks to create a new habit and we have had more than that. So if I can bring home this zest for life I am bringing home the most valuable souvenir ever.

The conclusion..... It has been a great ride. An unforgettable experience that will fill our minds with great memories and our hearts with new friends. We have been inspired by wonderful places filled with nature and cities filled with art and history and culture.We have grown closer as a family. The boys have learned so many new things. They have opened a door for learning. They now all have the desire to learn foreign languages and I think history will be more interesting to them from now on. They learned about people, and how to respect different cultures. They have seen firsthand the safety, love and warmth we can have with Jehovahs people anywhere on earth. They have made friends young and old and cherish them equally. They have learned how to travel and be street smart avoiding thieves but not letting them stop us from coming. Cole has been released from a genetic disposition of fear of trains, boats and planes. I hope that he will never let fear of some imagined danger stop him from enjoying life to the fullest. We have all learned how to save money both before and during a trip. How to spend it in all the right places and have no regrets. Many valuable lessons I hope to take home with me. Yarmo who I love to sit and listen to his kind words of wisdom told me " sometimes when you travel you see that there is the way of thinking that you have thought to be right and sometimes you see that there is also a different way and sometimes that way is better" This is so wise and so true, and some people get so stuck in there way of seeing things and doing things that they really believe its the only way. Even worse they may look down on someone who thinks or does different. What a shame. Life can open so many doors to new and better thinking. A few habits I hope to adopt. Clothes dryers are wasteful when the weather is good especially. We survived two months without using one. It was actually relaxing to hang the clothes and collect them after the sun had dried them without charge. europeans if they have a dryer ,refrain from using it because its expensive. It is for us too. propane is a huge expense. Americans have just become to lazy to use a clothes line. Food habits are different also. I admit I am a bit of a food hoarder. I have often bought things just because they are on sale and they sit in my cabinet and collect dust. It was so rewarding to buy enough food for a day or so, eat every last bit, then buy more. No more fake food either, we ate liberally of bread and cheese and natural meats and felt very healthy and good. For two months I never once thought about what I was eating and what effect it would have on my waste. It was liberating. The result is that iether I have not grown in size or I have had to much fun to care.( although I have to admit I have been concerned about the health of my liver a time or two) It makes me wonder what all this unnecessary worrying does to your metabolism. This may be the hardest thing to adopt but I will try. I vow to live simply and am looking forward to another purge of unnecessary clutter. I really suck at painting but I found time for it while traveling and loved it and I want to keep making time for creative relaxing parts of my life. I mostly learned from watching other people. We had the great privilege of being invited into the lives of really amazing families, and I loved seeing how kind and soft they spoke to each other. Never let the reserved nature of a swedish person fool you. I think they are some of the most fun loving people on earth. I theorize that because of such long and dark winters that they have it in their blood to seize the best moments of every day, and when the sun comes up they relish every second of it ,living life to the fullest extent possible. So much I want to bring home. So as we end this journey, I am thankful. Very, very thankful. I have to give all the credit to jimmie who accomplishes every thing he sets out to do. I would have never thought we could do this, but he never lets my skepticism dull his ambitions. I have had an amazing time and am ready to come home and suck the joy out of every day the way a bee gets every last drop of nectar. It may have been obvious to stop and smell all the flowers and notice every sunset and stay up late every night when your traveling because that is what you expect to do. But why stop now? It takes six weeks to create a new habit and we have had more than that. So if I can bring home this zest for life I am bringing home the most valuable souvenir ever.

Memories in stockholm....and Rat attacks..... Vasa, This three hundred year old ship is Stockholm's largest tourist attraction. It was very cool, and I felt like it was one of the most interesting museums for children. After touring the museum, CC ,Yarmo, Carl and jeanette and all of the kids headed to a cafe on the water. All over stockholm is these great outdoor cafes where you sit and eat and drink staring at the water, interesting boats and beautiful architecture. It is my favorite way to spend my time here, and if I could I would sit there all day waiting to be hungry or thirsty the next time. Right next to the cafe was a place that rented canoes and paddle boats. So as we sat enjoying our beers the boys paddles around the water in front of us. It was all going great until brock had the brilliant idea to ram a big red pole in the water. I am not sure exactly what the pole was, maybe a marker of some sort. Well long story short they got stuck on it, and jim and carl had to take a canoe out for a rescue mission. I think they liked this. When carl said they were stuck on a pole, I expected it to be a small pole that perhaps they didn't notice but once they were set free a rubber pole that was bright red and six feet tall emerged from under their boat. I guess they could not claim to run it over by accident. Later that night we went to a jazz club called stompen. Just a two minute walk from our place, is this really cool place with all sorts of fun strange things hanging from the ceiling. Things like a mannequin leg and old wagons and old boots. Inside this tiny dusty little club a old hippy with dred locks down to his ankles played guitar with the band. He was so old and soooo good. The whole band was great and played funk music , jimmie was in heaven. We all stayed till the bitter end dancing until they finally shut us down. The next day CC, planned a picnic in the park. We were able to meet Cecilias sweet family and I thanked her dad for making her because I love her so much. We were able to be with all the people in sweden who we have made connections with at one time, and it was surprising how in such a short time we have so many friends here. Linea who spent a week at our house brought her parents and grandmother. We adored this girl so it was great to meet her family. Linea also had a friend visiting who is a friend of my friends at home and a cousin of friends in tahoe and here we met her in stockholm. Such a small world. It was a great afternoon and a great way to spend our last day. We decided to go to stompen again. This time Carl, Jeanette and CC and our boys joined us. The music was great again, this time very old men playing big band music. The singer was eighty years old and has been playing at this club since he was sixteen. How cute is that! I think its a great thing about europe that you can bring your kids to bars with you. The kids came running up to me and said" we love going to bars because the bartender just gave us a free coke!" It was so fun to have them here with us on this last night because they have grown equally attached to all of our grown up friends. The sweetest thing happened. The trombone player made a special announcement that a young man named brock requested a special song. He asked him to play Loui armstrong Wonderful World. He said brock wanted to dedicate this song to his mother. Brock looked up at me with those big soft brown eyes and melted my heart. He then led me to the dance floor and we danced to the song ,slowly rocking back and forth, My sweet little angel in my arms. I think he melted everyones heart in that room. People clapped and he clapped and he looked so proud that he had done this. It was so precious and I will never forget it. Sadly the night had to end. As we were leaving the funniest thing happened. CC spotted a big rat on the walk back scurry behind something. Soon jimmie saw one too and was amazed by the size of it. I never saw one, but as we walked a little further one of those furry brown little monsters scurried right over the top of my foot. I screamed and cursed so loud I am sure all of stockholm heard me. As I felt this heavy soft animal on my foot I naturally kicked as hard as I could and felt it dislodge against me. For several seconds I did a frightened screaming chicken dance and I may have pulled my dress over my head but I didn't care all I could think was ,get this thing off me.I was wearing a long dress and sandals and I am so glad that it didn't get caught up my dress. So GROSS! That gave us all a good laugh to end the night with. We had to say our goodbyes. Sad. The time had come. Two months has flown by for us. I cant believe its over. I am leaving my heart in sweden.

Alice Cooper and an amusement park.... The views expressed in this blog are strictly mine and are not intended to offend any alice cooper fans. They are only my opinions and this is my blog so I can express them. We have not stopped hearing the question " when will we see carl and his family again?" from the day we left their house. We all love this family, but the boys especially are smitten. So to them it was a dream come true to hear they are meeting us in stockholm. Alice cooper was playing a concert at the amusement park. So of course we had to join them. I really hate amusement parks and I hate rock bands like alice cooper so this was a huge parental sacrifice for me. The only thing that made it all seem better was being with our friends. So off we went. When we splurged on the wrist bands you would have thought they boys won the lottery. They were so excited they jumped up and down hugging and thanking us. This is exactly the kind of money we never spend at home especially since we had been planning this trip, so it was cute to see how appreciative they were. Tristan ran straight t the giant tower which takes you into the sky then drops you from it.Zero hesitation. Brock and Cole got in line for what looked like a junior roller coaster. What they didn't know though was behind the walls was a pretty scary ride that took them high into the sky and swung them around very fast. You could hear cole screaming back in denmark. The freaks come out at night. Soon all the alice cooper roadies were surfacing. The ugliest bunch of sweeds I have seen. Black hair and lips. Guys with skintight leggings cowboy boots and dreadfully long ugly hair. At least the people watching made up for my growing distaste for theme parks. The music was dreadful, almost as dreadful as the weirdos who stood shaking their heads to what they considered to be a beat. I went with jeanette to get a closer peak, I have to say I love her personality. She just grabbed my hand and took us exactly where she wanted to go. She is really cool and I like her because She is one of the few people who say whats on their minds and I find it refreshing. So we got a closer look at this very ugly man who is famous for his crappy music. He had some sort of guillotine on the stage which he pretended to cut off his head with. If I had to stay one moment longer, I would have used it to cut off my own head. So I guess one thing I can say is that I am really getting to know myself, I am comfortable enough in my own skin to not feel compelled to like things other people like. yes I can go with the flow as good as any, but its good to know what you love and what you don't. Off to see the ship museum today. Should be a great day.

The island...... Saturday morning we walked across town carrying all our food and beverages for the weekend and boarded a fairy bound for a small swedish island. The boat ride in itself was enough fun for one day as you could see from the water how really beautiful stockholm is. A little over an hour later we reached our destination. Marcus and Esa were waiting for us with their two toddlers in tow. As we stepped off the boat we couldn't believe how beautiful and mysterious this seemed. Their are only less than 100 homes on this island and no cars,so it has a really wild and free feeling. The trail to the house was so beautiful. Aylas granddaughters held hands, while wearing their rubber boots and picked wild blueberries and strawberries on the trail. That was such a cute sight. i was surprised to see how private their cabin was, for some reason I expected all the houses to be right next to each other, but they have the most serene green grassy area, and from the cabin you can see the baltic sea, every now and then the white sails of a boat would gently roll by. We again were blessed with the most incredible warm weather. This meant a lovely day swimming in the sea and warming ourselves on the rocks. Esa is a fabulous cook. For lunch we ate traditional swedish lunch with pickled herring and lox and potatoes. I really love this. For dinner we ate a meal that we could have gone to the most expensive swedish restaurant and not had it be that good. They grilled all sorts of fresh vegetables which they served with this incredible chevre mousse. Then their was grilled venison with caramelized onion compound butter which she had made. She and marcus are so incredibly hospitable and generous. They prepared the most delicious meals which we ate on their deck enjoying the peaceful sounds of nature. They also have a great sauna that we spent hours in, then would run to the sea to cool ourselves in the fresh cold water.. The best part came in the evening though when we all went into the sunroom, in a candlelit room we sat all night sipping champagne and coffee. jimmy and marcus took turns playing the guitar and singing and then the real treat came when esa this sweet, soft spoken girl privileged us with her singing. It never fails to amaze me when small soft people can surprise you with such a powerful strong and angelic voice. She sang traditional swedish songs that made momika cry. Her and marcus sang a lovely duet, together they filled the room with a magical combination of music that warmed our hearts and as I sat there and drank in the sweet music I knew this was an evening I will never forget. Soon Yarmo even sang a song, some sort of finnish song and from what I have been told this is a rare treat. He was giggling so hard that he had tears in his eyes. I absolutely love yarmo and alya( even though I know i am horribly misspelling their names and the names of their offspring) Yarmo is one of the few men in my life that I would give the complement of reminding me of my father. He clearly has no mean or dishonest bones in his body. He is a more outgoing version of my dad but like my dad he is one of those people who wouldn't have it come up into his heart to be unkind. Ala is equally as good and kind and one of the funnest woman I have ever known. So in this room full of windows with the glow of the soft swedish summer air and candles and champagne glasses and some of the best people I have met in my life we sat laughing and singing and talking until the sun welcomed a brand new day to do it all over again. This whole weekend was a real treat. When monday came and we boarded our boat to stockholm we all waved from the deck of the boat and said goodbye to our new friends until the island slowly disappeared out of our sights, but never our minds and hearts.

Stockholm with cc and momika, ayla and yarmo,...... Were having a great time in stockholm. I have decided it is the prettiest city. Our friends live right in the heart of the old town. It is so cool. The whole time I have travelled in Europe, I have been enamored with the idea of living on one of those narrow, cobblestone streets. Who really is cool enough to live here? I think to open your window in the morning, smell cofee from cafes and bread baking and hear the sounds of people sweeping their store fronts and chatting and hanging their clothes out to dry in the sun would be such a interesting and colorful way to live. That is exactly where our friends live. They have the most amazing apartment. I am so impressed with the way they live. They have exactly everything they need, Just where they need it and absolutely nothing that clutters up their life. Gheeze, why is this so hard for americans? I think I packed more clothes in my suitcase than alya has in her closet. To much stuff, its a terrible plight. You could drown in it. Its so refreshing to see how well you can live a much richer life with less stuff. It makes me want to go home and clean house and purge all the clutter. I am hoping jimmie is getting the same idea since he has a lot more stuff than I. Anyhow its so great to be with our friends. They have had six children who are all as sweet and kind as their parents. Again, I cant say enough how wonderful friends are. Some people go their whole life and don't have one really genuine friend. We are so blessed to have a seemingly endless sea of the worlds best people . It is really great to learn from others. If you keep a open mind and heart, you can learn so much from your friends.. What comes about naturally by some people can be learned by others. So as much as my miss our friends at home, we also are making friendships here that will last forever.Saturday we have been invited to go stay in a cabin on a island. Its going to be great. I am sure that will be some fun blogging. For now, sovgat.