The Week of The Baby

You know how the Chinese calendar has every year represented by an animal? Like "The Year of the Dragon"? Well, I feel like this week in the Bogart family is "The Week of The Baby". It all started last Saturday with another wonderful baby shower thrown at my mother in law's house by Ryan's aunt, Wendy, and my sister in law, Jen. There was delicious food, baby-themed games, and many more presents for little Baby Bogart. Seriously, this kid's stuff is going to overtake our apartment before he finally decides to make his grand entrance. No joke. Who knew such a little person could have so much stuff?!

After our busy weekend in Rogers, it was back up to Duluth for a week jam-packed with baby classes. Last night was the first class of the week: "Bonus Night" aka Infant CPR and Carseat Safety. The class was "free" if you signed up and are taking the Labor & Delivery courses at the hospital. It was super informative and slightly terrifying at the same time. Although I do feel much more informed and better prepared, I'm also terrified that I will be one of the 80% of parents to incorrectly use my car seat or that I will actually have to do CPR on my own child. What? I'm actually going to be responsible for this life that we've created? Holy. Crap.

And as if the class last night wasn't enough to make me sweat a little, this weekend Ryan and I will be taking the actual Labor & Delivery classes as well. It is going to be a long Friday night and all-day Saturday spent in good company with other soon-to-be-parents learning about all the "fun" we'll have sometime within the next month or so. I'm sure that these classes will also make me feel better prepared and more informed, and really I wouldn't want to not take them, but I guess I'm just a little terrified in general of the whole daunting task of delivering a baby. I hear that's normal though, right?

Really though - I guess I'm not even that worried about him actually being here and taking care of him as much as I am worried about me having to get him here. Sure, I'll be exhausted for a while and it will be a major adjustment for our family, but at least I have a little bit of experience with babies. The labor and delivery part? Yeah, not so much. I wish we could just skip that part. Wake me up when he's here, okay? :)

Thankfully, after the fear-instilling classes this weekend I have something else to look forward to. My nerdy and totally awesome chemical engineering friends are throwing a party in honor of Baby Bogart on Saturday night. I guess, technically, they are calling it a baby shower but it's more just an excuse for all of us to get together, eat some food, and play some games. I'm just impressed that they found the time and energy with their crazy school/work schedules to fit in anything besides more sleep this weekend. But I'm so thankful that they fit me into their busy lives because I never get to see them anymore since I'm not in school and that's where they practically live. I can't wait! Hopefully I can stay awake past 8 pm to enjoy it.

So there you have it, folks! The Week of the Baby! So much celebration and preparation for such a little person. Hopefully with all this excitement he'll get antsy and want to come out sooner rather than later to join in on the fun. We can only hope...

So much excitement for one morning!

Ooofta! Today has already been a very busy and exciting morning in the Bogart household and it's not even 8:30 yet!

Ryan is off and running (well, technically driving) to Hibbing for an interview/tour with Hibbing Taconite today. They had contacted him about a month ago now asking for his resume, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me. They contacted him. I'm very proud. Granted, it isn't the perfect situation because Hibbing Taconite is about an hour and a half away from where we currently live... but it's a great company and a great opportunity. So keep Ryan in your prayers today if you can.

On top of Ryan's exciting morning, I'm packing up and getting ready to head back to Walker for a big weekend as well. We have a double whammy of celebrations: my sister is getting confirmed and I have my baby shower. It will be great to see all my friends and family that I haven't seen in a while!

And that's about all I know! Sorry for the semi-boring update on life this morning... but my bags are not packed and I am not ready to go. So I should get to that! I hope you all have a fantabulous weekend full of Halloween fun and I will be back on Monday with a post about all the celebrations and (hopefully) a good update from Ryan's interview.

Stay warm everyone!

Oh! I almost forgot! I would also like to give a special birthday shout out to my cousin Molly Dailing who is celebrating her 24th birthday today and my sister-in-law Jen Bogart who is celebrating her 21st birthday today as well! I hope you both have a great day - you deserve it! And have a delicious cocktail for me. That's an order.

That will be all. :)

Sneaky Mr. Weatherman!

Alright who did it? Huh? Who told the weatherman about my post last week praising the amazing fall weather we've been having (or WERE having)? No one wants to fess up? Bueller? Bueller? Well whoever did it, just know you are on my bad list... and I'm telling Santa on you!

But seriously... the fall weather has officially arrived here in Duluth now and I'm none too pleased about it. Not that I don't love the fall - remember, I really do. I just don't love the bitter wind that accompanies the cooler temperatures in Duluth. It makes it much less pleasant to take walks, which means I have been staying inside more, which means I'm getting awfully bored.

Thankfully, this weekend will bring a change of pace as Ryan and I venture down to Rogers to see his parents. Ryan will be riding his motorcycle down (brrrr!) so it can get stored there for the winter and I will be driving down our BMW so he can do some work on it with his dad this weekend as well. I will probably just watch him do his thing and fetch a tool or two... or maybe just play with his cat and nap a lot. ;)

That's about all I know. I apologize for the lack of posting this week, but like I said... I haven't been doing much. And not doing much means there's not much to blog about. Unless, of course, you want to hear about how much longer it takes to sweep and mop now that I'm getting more pregnant? Yeah, didn't think so.

Enjoy the weekend, folks! I'll try to do something in Rogers this weekend interesting enough to blog about.

-The Bogarts

True Life: I'm addicted to garage sales

The past two mornings I've been up at the crack of dawn like normal, but unlike my boring Monday through Thursdays... I took full advantage of the morning hours by scouring the city of Duluth's garage sales. I'll admit, I get quite a few odd looks being a mid-twenties woman garage sale-ing by myself, but I just don't care! Garage sales are where it's at people!

Where else would I have found a white down Ralph Lauren winter jacket to fit my pregnant belly for a mere $10? Or how about a brand new car seat cover for $5 that sells in stores for $25-$30? Nowhere. On top of those awesome deals, I also found some quality maternity clothes for $2-$3 a piece and some adorable Vikings baby sweatpants for only twenty-five cents. Twenty-five cents people! That's as much as it costs to get one of those crappy gumballs from a machine whose flavor only lasts about five minutes- it may as well be free! 

But my best find of the whole weekend was a pair of brown Hush Puppies dress/casual shoes that look like they've barely been worn (aside from the worn-out shoelaces). Guess how much those cost me? Just guess... Nothing. That's right, they were in a "free" bin at one of the sales I stopped at. And let me just tell you - "If it's free... it's for me!" 

There's just something about bargain hunting and finding a great deal that makes me down-right giddy inside. It's addicting. And as sad as I am to say this, it's probably a good thing that the garage sale season is drawing to a close soon. I need to detox before I cross that fine line of bargain hunting and hoarding...

Enjoy the weekend and the beautiful fall weather!

-The Bogarts

Abisko's Top 5

Well, as promised, I am here to elaborate a bit for you all about our weekend in Abisko, Sweden! Today we are going to try a new concept... My Top 5 Favorite Things About Our Trip....

1.)  Dog sledding, duh!  
        
This aspect of our weekend in Abisko, Sweden takes the number one slot because it was all-around such a mind-blowing and fantastic experience. Actually, I would rank it as the coolest thing I've done since arriving in Sweden. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime sort of experience! The best part about it was that we got to be totally involved in the entire process, too. We put the harnesses on the dogs, hooked them up to the sled, drove our own individual sled (without practice, might I add), and got the dogs safely back into the cages when we were finished. How cool is that?! To be clear, although it was beyond fun and exciting, it was also a lot of work. When you think about dog sledding, you probably imagine what I did: all you have to do is ride on the sled while the dogs do all the work pulling you and all you have to do is try your darnedest not to fall off... wrong.  While it does require extreme balance, it can also be quite the workout when your dogs aren't feeling up to par that day.  Let's just say that was the understatement of the year as far as my team was concerned. I'm pretty sure the only time my dogs felt like running was a) around tricky corners and b) when I had already fallen off the sled. Which happened a lot... but at least I got the award for "Best Fall of the Day" for my sweet Superman moves. It definitely made up for my bruised and nearly shattered knee cap.

2.)  Our beautiful natural surroundings. 

          

One of the benefits to spending the weekend near a national park is that you are surrounded by so much natural beauty. The beauty we see here on a daily basis can be so numbing at times. I almost forget that although back home we do have a lot of trees and snow, but we most definitely do not have mountains. On Sunday before we took the train back to Lulea, we took a hike down a path that the hostel owner suggested and ended up finding a nearly-frozen river. The outer edges near the banks and even parts in the middle had well over a foot of ice formed, but in the middle the river rapids were still surging strong. Actually, the ice was so thick that you could walk to the very spot where it ended and look over into the crystal-clear flowing water and see exactly how much ice you were standing on. It was exhilarating and yet terrifying. It took Ryan a while to coax me into going out there because I was convinced that the ice would break and I would be carried down the river and freeze to death. Thankfully, he assured me that "Even if you did fall in, you wouldn't be carried too far because just up ahead the open area is much smaller, you'd get hung up on that for sure!" It was almost comforting knowing that I was too wide to drown and freeze... While we were out on the ice Ryan even got down and drank some of the fresh, freezing water. I was too scared, of course, but apparently it tasted delicious...

3.)  Being in Abisko while the Northern Lights were out and the best they've been in years...

Now you may or may not have noticed that I didn't mention anything about actually seeing this fantastic show of the Northern Lights. That's because we didn't. The first night we were there, we stayed up until almost 11 pm waiting and checking to see if the Lights would show themselves because you have a much better chance of seeing them when you are so far north. We decided at that point to just hit the sack because we had a busy day of dog sledding the next morning that we didn't want to be tired for.  After all, we had the next night too! Well, sure enough, the Lights decided to show themselves about half an hour after we decided to be lame and go to sleep. Just our luck, right? Even the guys who own the hostel and have lived in the area most of their life commented on the fact that even they just had to go out to see them because they were so bright... Heartbreaking, isn't it? The fact that we just got a tiny peak of them the next night is even more disheartening... we waited up until well past midnight, but it was just too cloudy. To console ourselves, we decided that it was much more memorable to have missed the "best show of the Northern Lights in many years" because that will be something we'd never forget. Over the years we would remember seeing them, but our memory of them would naturally distort and warp what we really saw... but this way we'll always remember missing what could have been our only chance to see the Lights so clearly. Yeah, I know that's lame... but it helps me sleep better at night, so just let me think what I want!

This was the only semi-decent picture we captured of the Northern Lights that second night...

4.)  The traditional wood-burning, naked Swedish sauna.

In case you just skimmed over my number four pick for our trip to Abisko... yes, I did say naked sauna.  We knew before going on this trip that one of the main draws was the large, traditional Swedish wood-burning sauna that they had there. What we didn't know is that, apparently, they think if you wear a swimsuit inside you are bringing in germs? I don't know. Don't ask me. I don't understand why sitting naked is less "germy" than sitting in a clean swimsuit... And without going into too much detail, let's just say that both Shannon and I became very well acquainted with some girls from another university in Sweden during our bonding time in the sauna. Unfortunately, they had found out the hard way the previous night that the sauna required you to be nude... the old guy who helped the brothers run the hostel taught them how to use it... hahahaha. Really, it's okay to laugh. I know I sure did. Seriously, how traumatized would you be if a guy (who is old enough to be your grandpa) was in the changing room with you and unexpectedly announced "Okay, now we get naked!" (which I imagine to be even more hilarious in a Swedish accent) and just dropped his drawers? Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and all, I'm going to go ahead and say that I am thankful it didn't happen to me. I might have cried.

Here is a picture of the changing room. Yes, we used antlers to hang our clothes on... 

5.)  Discovering the wonderful world of transportation by train.

The trip to Abisko was the first trip we took by train here in Sweden. It was amazing, let me tell you. Although it wasn't nearly as fast as taking an airplane, it sure was more relaxing and much cheaper. You don't have to deal with going through security, showing up early, and there's so much more freedom to move around. Plus, I felt like I was on the Polar Express? Please tell me that you've read that book... it's one of my favorite Christmas books ever!  Anyways, the point is that rushing past all of the pine trees dusted with snow and drinking hot chocolate made me smile imagining that I was on my way to go see Santa. Only if I really was going to go see Santa, I would've asked for something wayyy sweeter than a reindeer bell... 

Well, that's thatt! My Top 5 Favorite Things About Abisko, Sweden... Up next, we will have another addition of My Top 5 regarding our trip to Norway this past weekend. Although, that one might take a little more time to narrow down... you can't even imagine how many stunning pictures I managed to capture in two short days...

Until next time friends...

Peace, Love, and Swedish Saunas!

-The Bogarts

Sweden's Best Dog Sledding Moments

Riddle me this, Batman... where did the past three days go?! I feel like we've no more than gotten home from  our fun-filled weekend in Abisko National Park and we're already packing up for another trip! Oh wait, that's really what's happening.

It sure has been a whirlwind of a half week, let me tell you! We got back to Lulea Sunday night after a five hour train ride from Abisko, set our bags down, and passed out from sheer exhaustion. I know, I thought the dogs were supposed to do all of the work too!! Monday was filled with unpacking, classes, and cleaning. Tuesday was the day for laundry-because saying we had PILES of it doesn't even begin to describe our seemingly self-reproducing mass quantites of dirty clothes. But today has been the busiest day of all. Ryan and I woke up, took the bus downtown to buy last-minute tickets to Narvik, Norway. Then, we shoved some Max's down our throats for an extremely quick lunch downtown just in time to catch the bus back to campus. And then it was three hours of fuels & technology lecture, cooking dinner, doing the dishes, finishing up the laundry, and starting to pack for our 5:40 a.m. train departure tomorrow. Phew! I'm getting more tired talking about it all...

Anyway, moral of the story today kids... is that I have absolutely NO time to put together a quality post about last weekend before we leave for another trip. So, to tide you over until Monday, I have put together a small compilation of "Sweden's Best Dog Sledding Moments" for you to enjoy. I know it's not nearly as thrilling as reading one of my ever-so-entertaining play-by-plays of this weekend events, but it will just have to do until I have enough time to devote to a proper post. After all, I want to give an accurate description of just how truly mind-blowingly fun dog sledding and hiking really can be.

So, as promised, here are some cute dogs! Oh, and some pretty sweet action shots and wipe-outs too...

Brett rounding a difficult corner

That he didn't quite make...

Shannon's dogs taking her over the rocks instead
of the smooth ice. That happened to us a lot...

Me headed into a tough corner...

Me doing the "Superman" off my sled.
Or, in other words, knee meets rock.
I got the award for Best Spill of the Day from this bad boy...

Our guide struggling a bit..

Ryan rounding the same corner like a
professional. "No big deal"

Redeeming myself by actually staying up 
around a corner. Haha

Just checking out the scenery...

Taking a break and playing with the dogs

This puppy wanted to come home with me...
The feeling was definitely mutual

Awwww husky kisses!

The whole group

Well... da da da dat's all folks! (Say it like Porky the Pig... it's better that way)

Happy Hump Day! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Peace, Love, and Siberian Huskies!

-The Bogarts

Weekend Winter Wonderland

After getting a pretty solid snowfall Friday night here in Lulea, Ryan and I decided to take a walk Saturday to the Dollar Store and explore some of the beautiful scenery around our campus. I was even kind enough to snap some photos so all of you could enjoy it as well..

Although the snow was stunning and the weather couldn't have been more calm and perfect for a walk, the best part of the day by far was finding a fake Christmas tree and decorations for it at the Dollar Store. And we got the tree and all the decorations we wanted for it for under $20! How awesome is that?!

I took this picture of Ryan to make it look like we found out tree the old fashioned way by chopping it down in the forest. Looks pretty legit, right?

I just couldn't very well have our tree sitting around UN-decorated for a couple weeks just because it was "too early" to have a decorated Christmas tree up! So on Sunday Ryan and I decorated our first Christmas tree together... we even listened to Bing Crosby songs while decorating too. Yes, I realize it was only the first weekend in November. But I figure since we'll have to take it down before Christmas officially comes that we could set it up early in order to fully get our enjoyment out of it.

Even though it doesn't have lights, I think our little tree brightens up and warms up our entire living room. There's just something about a Christmas tree that does that... don't you think?








That was our weekend here in Sweden... Playing in the new snow and decorating our first Christmas tree together. It was perfect. We even downloaded the movie "A Muppet Christmas Carol" to watch this week. I wanted to watch it this weekend, but Ryan had to remind me that there are only so many Christmas movies... and that if I watch them all now I'll have none to watch in December. I figure he's probably right. So we're trying to space out my intense holiday cheer in hopes that it lasts us the 6 more weeks until we make it back to Minnesota...

Happy Monday everyone!

-The Bogarts

Stockholm

Two weekends ago, Ryan and I took a long weekend trip to the capital city of Sweden. We left in the evening on Friday, October 15th and arrived in the Stockholm airport around 9 pm. We then proceeded to take the "Arlanda Express" bullet train from the airport to the central station and then walk the 20 meters to our hotel. Here's a picture of Ryan waving from the train station showing just how "long" of a walk it was to our hotel. Pretty convenient, right?

We stayed in the Nordic Sea Hotel in Stockholm and it was everything a four star hotel should be. The lobby was very well decorated and modern, and the rooms were amazing as well. A little small, but that's sort of the trend in Europe. Plus, it even had a BATH TUB! Yes, a bath tub. You have no idea how excited I was when I found out... I've been missing bubble baths for the entire two and a half months we've been abroad. Needless to say, I made good use of both the tub and the complimentary bath salts.

Since we arrived so late on Friday, we didn't really do a whole lot. We went on a short walk to scope out our surroundings and then hit the sack so we could be up bright and early the next morning.

Saturday the sun was shining as we stepped out on the streets of Stockholm stuffed from our delcious "complimentary" breakfast at the hotel. (Just a little side note here... does it bother anyone else when they call it "complimentary"? Because it definitely rubs me the wrong way a little bit. Don't get me wrong, it was hands down one of the best hotel breakfasts I've ever had... but you and I both know that it was NOT free. Okay sorry... I'm done now.) Moving on, Saturday we hit up the Stockholm Tourist Center first thing to buy our Stockholm Cards. Basically, you pay a flat rate for either a 24, 48, or 72 hour pass that allows you free admission to over 80 museums and free public transportation. It's a pretty darn good deal.

After that, we took a trolley to another area of town to start our sight seeing.

First up... The Vasa Museum! It's a museum showcasing this really old ship that sank on its maiden voyage in the harbor of Stockholm some 300+ years ago. The ship was pulled up from the water about 50 or so years ago and put back together. And a majority of it is the original wood, too. They have this nice little video running constantly in it's own theater there that tells the whole history of the ship and how it was reconstructed. The exhibits throughout the museum talked about the time period of the ship, the ornate carvings and paintings throughout the ship's exterior, and re-creations of what the interior was like. It was a very unique and cool museum.

After the Vasa, we mosied on over to an aquarium nearby to see some sharks. It wasn't the most modern or best aquarium I've ever seen, but Ryan really wanted to see some sharks. So we spent a good half hour trying to get a decent picture of the sharks as they swam around in their tank. I guess they didn't really understand that I wanted them to slow down and pose for my camera, silly sharks. In the end, I got managed to get a couple pictures that weren't too blurry. The darn things are too fast!

Next up was the Nordiska Museum. Normally, this museum just shows the history of Sweden and different aspects of its culture over time. The weekend we were there, however, they had their annual Chocolate Festival. Talk about chaos! The line just to get in was never-ending! And the noise once you got inside was deafening. But it was SO worth the wait and the crowd. The entire main corridor was lined with booths of chocolate factories from around the world showcasing their unique chocolates complete with more free samples than your stomach could handle. Talk about heaven! Ryan and I ended up purchasing over two pounds of different chocolate bars. Yum! After we pushed our way through to get our fill of free samples, we explored the rest of the museum with an audio tour. The exhibits were less than thrilling to say the least, but the architecture throughout the whole museum was truly stunning.

By the time we pushed our way out of the Nordiska Museum, we were done with people for the day. We headed back to the hotel for a little bit to rest up before taking the subway to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

Sunday was another beautiful day. The sun was almost TOO bright...I feel bad saying that, but you start to feel that way when you only see it a couple times a week for a few hours per day. Haha. We took advantage of the nice weather by walking into Old Town. Here we visited the Royal Palace, Stockholm Cathedral and Nobel Museum all while walking through authentic cobble stone streets and checking out some shops.

The Royal Palace was enormous. And of course the decorations and furnishings were elaborate and expensive looking. You weren't allowed to take pictures, but Ryan and I managed to sneak a few when the security people weren't looking.

We made it to the Stockholm Cathedral with just enough time to snap a few quick photos and be pushed out the door. Apparently there was some sort of concert going on later that day that they had to get set up for? I don't know, my Swedish is still a work in progress and the old man who kicked us out obviously didn't speak much English either.

The Nobel Museum was interesting, but definitely not worth paying for if you didn't already invest in the Stockholm Card. A majority of the museum was taken up with an exhibit about peace where artists from different countries tried to portray the 14th Dalai Lama. It was interesting, but quite strange. It was kind of neat to be there so soon after the awarding of this year's Nobel Prizes because they had a small exhibit about this year's winners and their prize winning work. But overall, as a whole, I was very underwhelmed with the museum.

Sunday night after wandering through the streets of Old Town all day, we relaxed by having a drink at the Absolut Icebar Stockholm in the lobby of our hotel. It was sooo cool! (Get it, because they keep it at a temperature below freezing?!) Hahaha sorry I was pretty proud of that... but seriously, it was a lot of fun. The cover charge to get in was just under $20/person and that included one mixed drink. It was a little spendy, but totally worth it to have the experience. They even gave you these parkas with attached gloves to wear inside so you didn't freeze while you were holding your glass made entirely of ice. Ryan and I chose to indulge in a traditional Swedish drink made with lingon berry juice and Absolut 100 vodka. Delicious! After the Icebar, we walked over to the Casino Cosmopol to do a bit of gambling. Ryan played blackjack and came out about even. I played a slot machine and ended up winning just over $200. It was a fun night!

Monday we ate our last "complimentary" breakfast at the Nordic Sea Hotel, checked out, and headed to the Skansen Museum. It's a very unique museum because it's mostly outdoor. They have probably twenty different mini museums like a replica Old Town, a tobacco museum, a Swedish army history museum and a zoo and aquarium that cover acres of land. It was probably the most memorable part of our trip to Stockholm ... because I almost died of a heart attack on multiple occasions. I'm not even joking. Hear me out here...

We got into Skansen and walked around a bit before coming to the aquarium/zoo. We walked through the gift shop filled with all sorts of stuffed animals to enter and then went out a door to a very large cage. There were gigantic trees in this cage with a wooden path and wooden railings wandering through this cage... but I couldn't see any animals. And then I looked to my right, and saw this line of stuffed lemurs. There were probably a dozen or so of them... and I thought to myself "Oh that's neat that they put out stuffed animals for the fall and winter to replace the real ones so that kids can still see what they look like..." But as I approached said "stuffed" monkeys... Ryan said to me as calmly as he could... "Christina, I think those are real..." And no sooner had he said that....and they turned their heads towards me! All of them! And they stared at me with their beady big eyes! When I was like less than a foot away! OHMYGOSH!?! I screamed. Bloody murder. And ran as quickly as I could back inside.

Don't get me wrong... I like animals. My mom has instilled in my a great appreciation for watching monkeys at the zoo. They are always her favorite. And I like them too. But I like them a heck of a lot more when they are in a cage and I'm not inside the cage with them! I just don't think that they have things like that in the states! Sure, they might have a cage that you can walk through and get closer to the monkeys, but there would be some sort of fence or barrier between you and the monkeys. We don't just leave it up to chance whether or not these angry monkeys are going to treat us humans nicely or not on a cold October day. And believe you me, they were angry monkeys. They were fighting with each other for who got to be in the middle of their little warm huddle... and that's exactly why I didn't stick around to see if they wanted to share my scarf with me! Yikes.

So... first heart attack endured. Next, was onto the aquarium. And sure enough... what is the first reptile I see? An anaconda. And not just ONE anaconda... but three! Gross... Normally, when I saw something as repulsive and creepy as a snake that's twice the size of me in an aquarium, it wouldn't really bother me. But seeing one so soon after finding out that they don't keep all their animals a safe distance from me, it made my skin crawl. I kept lifting up my feet and looking around the floor to make sure that I wouldn't be eaten alive by some slimy reptile... after all, I wasn't going to be taking any chances after the lemur incident... I had no sooner assured myself that I was safe and that all of the super creepy crawlers were behind the glass, when something fluttered right above my head and squawked! They had parrots flying around freely! In the snake area! What kind of sick joke is that?! OHMYGOSH!?! AGAIN! It's not that I'm scared of birds (aside from the general fear that they're going to poop on me) but I couldn't handle trying to look at snakes while they were startling me... so I high tailed it outta there real quick-like. Phew... two near heart attacks in less than twenty minutes is too much for me.

Now to all of you reading this that don't find this either horrifying or at least comical, please keep that to yourself. I guess maybe you had to be there in my position to feel the life threatening danger or in Ryan's position to laugh at his scaredy cat wife.... but next time you are in a zoo in America, you remember how fortunate you are that we have health and safety regulations there! We don't just put up signs that say "Careful, our fish bite.." and leave a pool of fish open for small children to splash in... God bless America, people.

Well, that was pretty much our adventure in a nutshell. We stayed in the Skansen until it was time to grab our bags from the hotel and take the Arlanda Express to the airport. And then it was back to our home here in Lulea for a week full of studying for exams. Thank goodness those are done now!

I took wayyy too many pictures on this trip to even think of posting them all on here, so instead I uploaded them to Photobucket. I only added the best ones, but there are still over 80 photos for you to browse through... Here is the link to the album, hopefully it works. Please let me know if it doesn't or if you have trouble figuring out how to work the site!

Click Here to see the photos from our trip!!!

Our next big adventure will be starting this Wednesday already! Exciting, I know. We are embarking on a 5 day road trip to Gothenberg, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. Ryan and I are renting a mini van with our three friends from Nebraska and hitting the road Wednesday after lunch. It is about 16 hours from Lulea to where we want to go, so there will be a lot of driving to do, but we're really excited to see Norway. It's the only country in Scandinavia we haven't explored yet! Plus, it's special to both of us since we have Norwegian roots...

Well, that's all from across the ocean.I hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable Halloween weekend. Ryan and I skipped the dressing up, since that isn't as big over here... but we did consume mass quantities of candy compliments of my wonderful Mommy and Nana. Who doesn't love caramel apple suckers, right?

Happy Monday All!
-The Bogarts