tis the season

I heart Christmas. Went to church today and saw this in the front yard...isn't it nice that someone dug baby Jesus out of the snow?

Even nicer that someone with a snowblower did the whole sidewalk in front of our house!
I heart neighbors too.

we're moving!

Yay! We're moving out of mama kutz' house and into our very first home! I know this is a tiny little picture, but it's from the internet and isn't very good quality. After waiting around for loan stuff for over a month, we finally closed on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. And our stuff is now out of storage...and mostly sitting in the middle of the living room until all the painting is done. :) Someday when it looks like a proper house I'll have more pictures up. Until then, hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!

home again, home again...

So we've been home for just about month now...it's been a grand ole time hanging out with family and friends, looking for jobs and houses, and attempting to get life back to normal!
Normal is all relative, obviously...since I started my job in Ashland, and Josh was looking for one, we set up camp at my mom's house in Hurley.
Ahhh....living with the fam. Such a good time!
Funny story, really--my lovely mother, God bless her soul, has now gotten almost all of her children BACK into her house. The youngest of 7 finally turned 18, and one would think that the next step would be empty nest syndrome. Oh, no! Maleah, my oldest sister, moved back in with her 6 year old son Tony, because she has taken a job in Washburn and still had to sell her house in De Pere. Josh and I moved back in when we got home, Monica has her own apartment (courtesy of generous Gparents) but is home sometimes, Michaela only has school in Superior on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so she's usually around from Friday to Monday. And Dan and Marisa are going to work and school. Pete's the only one who really lives elsewhere (the Dakotas for him).
Ah, yes, back to the chaos of my high school years. It's funny how when we're all back together we revert to high school. :)
Here's a portion of the fam (l-r, Michaela, Josh, Marisa, Maleah) at Tone's play at school.

Check out that awesome deer! Antonio makes a great animal.


We had a great weekend with friends (our one year residency reunion!)

And then a fun Halloween party with Josh's old roomies in Duluth! I've never been very good at Halloween costumes, but my sister had a great idea...

I love the blue wig. I totally want that hair for real.
Thing 2, Bob Ross and Mario.

So we've been having a lovely time. We did find a house in Ashland that we love, and will be closing sometime soon! Keep your fingers crossed, anyway...I can't believe how long all this loan crap takes! Eeks. Wish us luck.

iceland!

Where did all the time go? One week in Iceland and then we're home!!! And back to the real world...
BUT before that we get to wander the country of fire and ice...volcanoes covered by glaciers, moss covered lava fields, loads of strange panoramas.
We spent a few days just wandering around Reykjavik, which I swear must have the most museums per capita of any other city. We went to the National Museum, where we got to play with things..
Grrr!

And put on costumes! We just put hats on.

Super crazy carved horn.

We also went to the photography museum, which had an exhibit by Wayne Gudmundson, who, surprisingly enough, is from North Dakota! One of hte big photos was near Embarass, and that was when I started wondering where these were taken...
About the photographer--he does lots of landscapes, mainly in and around ND and MN. He felt a need to explore the land of his forefathers, and in 1997 he visited Iceland for the first time. Iceland, like North Dakota, is a land of wide open spaces. That year he held a show, Homeplaces, in collaboration with well-known Icelandic photographer Guðmundur Ingólfsson. Each had visited and photographed the “homeplaces” of the other: Wayne in Iceland, Guðmundur in North Dakota.
It was cool. We also went to several art museums, and other random little places that I don't remember the names of.
Reykjavik also had lots of art and sculptures just hanging out. Gotta love it.
Check out these guys...

Statue and green light happy face. The red light was a sad face.





Ho! Land ahead!

Here's Josh at Baejarins Beztu Pysur, reported to be the best hot dog place in the country of the best hot dogs. Who knew that Iceland had good hot dogs? Not I, said the fly.


We went to a funny show about the history of Iceland and Reykjavik. Here's our actress. And her maps. She had lots of maps.

We went on a Golden Circle tour, which is a loop from southwestern Iceland (Reykjavik) into central Iceland, covering about 300 km. First stop was the national park Þingvellir (except the P thing isn't really a P, and sounds like th). The Alpingi (assembly) at Þingvellir was Iceland's supreme legislative and judicial authority from its establishment in 930 until 1271.

Then we went to the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur, and saw the geysers. This is where the very first geyser was ever described in a printed source and the earliest geyser known to Europeans. The Geysir doesn't go off very often, but the one called Strokkur goes off every 4-8 minutes.

Super cool mineral pools. The color was unbelievable.

Here's the cool geyser...
tension bubble...

Bubble blowing up...

Big geyser!

Then off to the waterfall Gullfoss (means golden falls).



Skalholt church and it's very pretty stained glass.

Kerid volcano crater.

Nesjavellir geothermal power plant is opposite this lovely moss covered lava field.

Hallgrimskirkja is the largest church in Iceland. That's Leif Ericson in the front.

Then we decided to rent a car for a few days and travel along the southern coast. Loads and loads of waterfalls to see, as well as glaciers and ocean and black sand deserts. Mind you, it was raining cats and dogs while we were driving in said desert. I don't know if it really is a desert. The guidebook said so.
Here's Skógafoss--one of the biggest waterfalls in the country with a width of 25 metres (82 feet) and a drop of 60 m (200 ft).

We stopped in Jökulsárlón which is the best known and the largest of a number of glacial lakes. It is situated at the south end of the glacier Vatnajökull, and appeared first only in 1934-1935. It grew from 7.9 km² in 1975 to at least 18 km² today because of heavy melting of the glaciers.
The blue glacier ice was amazing.

The icebergs float out to see when they get small enough.

More cool shapes.

Icebergs in the ocean!


Icy bits.

Glacier pictures.

We went hiking one day. The entire rest of the week had been cloudy and rainy, but that day was unbelievable. Our guide was awesome--his name is Ulfar, and he and his family run a hiking/biking/surfing tour company.
We are headed to Hveragerdi! (Can anyone pronounce these names??)

The boys hiking in the valley.

An old cabin.

Lunch by a lovely waterfall. Lunch was packed by Ulfar's mom--complete with chocolate milk box and chocolate bar!

I think this is modern art-like.

Cool plants.

Geothermal goodness.

How cool is a hot tub river? This was lovely, and if it was too hot or too cold, you just move up or down river! Awesome.

Feeding the ducks and swans. The swans were huge and kinda scary. I think they wanted to eat our hands.

Our fabulous northern lights photo purchase, with the photographer! She's from Thailand, and was also super helpful and helped us plan our southern road trip.

Government building where people were protesting. They were pounding on barrels--sometimes it sounded like fun music.

The Blue Lagoon...or Joshua Of The Mist.

The minerals make it super blue, and coats the black lava rocks with a white silica mud.

Surreal views...the blue lagoon with the power plant in the background

Greenland down below! Check out the ice chunks in the water.

Home sweet home. We had to get checked out by like 3 different customs dudes...but my peanut butter and nutella made it through. We were greeted by Josh's family and then had dinner at the Pope's table. YUM!

And there are our adventures over the past 9 months. It was AWESOME. I'm sure we'll have more adventures that I'll be able to put up here, but they might not be quite as cool. Someday, we'll do it all again!