Paging Doctor Zachy

Since last year's trick-or-treating experience was not a huge success (Halloween is not widely celebrated in Norway...yet), this year I arranged visits with a few American friends from church in advance so we'd have more luck. Even though we only visited 3 houses, Zachy loaded up on loot and had a great time.

On the night before Halloween we had a little party for the junior high kids. I had lots of games planned, but their favorite activity was having a toilet paper fight after making mummies out of each other. Zach loved it too!

Happy Birthday, ALC

Our church here celebrated their 50th anniversary last month. One of the members wrote an original cantata (a full-blown concert with several movements) as well as original music for the Sunday morning service. Both were performed by a full orchestra and soloists from the Norwegian Opera Chorus. He even wrote a piece for the children to sing.

Practicing at home

Rehearsing at the church

Performing

On the next Saturday we ran all over town like crazy people with the youth group on a Scavenger Hunt (using a bunch of "borrowed" ideas from my time in the Wilcrest youth group!). Afterwards all the teams met back at the church to watch a slideshow of all the silly pictures and videos.

On the following Sunday it was the youth group's turn to lead worship. So after the Scavenger Hunt, Kristin and I prepared them to lead the songs, say the prayers, and one of the senior high youth even gave the sermon.

Practicing the Psalm of the Day

Northern Italy

We felt a little badly that we didn't take Zach along with us on our first trip to Italy, so we thought he ought to get to come with us on our second. This time we were exploring Tuscany and the rest of northern Italy.

We started out on the west coast in Pisa, where we had fun taking the obligatory pushing-the-leaning-tower pictures and Zach was thrilled to get a taste of all the pizza and gelato we'd been telling him about.

The next morning we travelled by train to Florence where there was even more gelato to sample. After a fun ride on the carousel, we toured Accademia (whose main attraction is Michelangelo's "David" sculpture) and the Uffizi (which houses tons of well known masterpieces). We also strolled by the famous Duomo, and of course did some shopping.

We took the advice of our hotel's concierge and had a traditional Florentine dining experience at a restaurant called Lantini. We feasted on prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, barley and tomato salad, chicken liver pate (not a family favorite), some ribollita (literally meaning "reboiled" soup---very yummy) and pappa al pomodoro (delicious tomato, bread, and basil soup), roasted chicken with potatoes and spinach, biscotti dipped in vin santo, and of course the local chianti. We were stuffed!

We devoted the next day to touring Siena, a beautiful small Tuscan town about an hour's drive south of Florence. Though the art museum's collection is impressive and its Duomo is gorgeous, the real appeal of the city is its medieval architecture. Thanks to the Plague (how often do you get to say that), the city was left decimated and looking a little frozen in time.

Then it was back to Florence for another fantastic dinner and more sightseeing (and another carousel ride) before our train ride the next morning to Venice.

Venice is amazing! From the moment we stepped out of the train station, we were blown away by the beauty of the city and its waterways. After Zach's naptime we made a beeline for the Piazza San Marco and the Basilica and were treated to an almost-closing-time free tour. Every inch of it appears to be covered in gold and the whole interior glows as you walk through. Such a beautiful place.

Afterward we jumped into a gondola for a sunset tour of the city. We enjoyed every minute of passing under bridges (Zach gave me smooches under each one) and winding our way through the narrow canals. Such a cliche touristy thing to do, but it was our favorite!

The next morning we set out for the Rialto Market, and then took the ferry to the island of Murano, famous for its glass. We toured a glassblowing studio and the glass museum before heading back to Venice for one last Italian dinner and gelato (this time Zach's favorite, pistachio, only because it is green of course).

We had a fantastic vacation, but it was certainly a whirlwind tour! We were glad to get back to rainy and cold Norway where we could cozy up and get some rest.

Trains!

This weekend we took a little road trip to Zachy-heaven, otherwise known as the Norwegian Railroad Museum. He loved every minute of exploring the antique trains, but when he saw the enormous toy train set with remote-controlled trains to push around, he was in love!

Sunpajic and other August Fun

I (Beth) am now leading the junior high youth group at church called Sunpajic, and it is a blast so far. About 10 kids turned up last Friday for our first event of the fall, an action-packed night of dodgeball, scripture relays, craft-making, and pictionary. They are a fun group full of energy and enthusiasm. I think it will be a good year!

And here are some miscellaneous pictures from August that had yet to post:

Ireland!

Visiting Ireland has been a lifelong dream for Kelly, and though we had our share of rough spots on this vacation (like the rental car that was literally falling apart as we drove), the beauty of the land exceeded our expectations.

We hit the ground running on the first day in Dublin. After taking a

whole tour of the city in one of Zach's favorite modes of transportation, a double-decker bus, we toured Trinity College and then visited

Dublinia, an interactive museum of Ireland's history all the way back to the vikings. Afterwards we enjoyed browsing through the amazing collection of religious texts (like the earliest known copies of the gospels and Paul's letters) at the Beatty Library while Zach snoozed.

Zach definitely did not sleep through Riverdance however! He loved every minute of the dancing and clapped emphatically after each song.

After a bumpy start with the rental car (part of it was held together with zip ties), we started on our drive to Kilkenny, stopping at several

sights along the way including a tour of Knowth, a huge tomb from about 3200BC, complete with its own "Woodhenge" that predates the more famous Stonehenge (by a lot). We made a quick visit to Trim Castle, cool in and of itself for being a castle made even cooler as the filming location for Braveheart, the greatest movie of all time, then explored a bit of Kilkenny.

We visited Kilkenny Castle

the next morning, which was impressive but somewhat overshadowed in exciting-ness by the playground out back to some in our family. We had an awesome time monkeying around and playing off some energy before hopping back into our rapidly-deteriorating vehicle (part of it was scraping the ground) for another drive through the country.

Our next stop was a tour of the Rock of Cashel, the ruins of a cathedral and tower dramatically perched on top of a huge mound overlooking the beautiful countryside.

Driving a bit further, we passed through

Killarney National Park, stopping to take pictures all along the way. Our favorite spot was Torc Waterfall, where we had fun running and climbing, and I had fun taking pictures. Though I could have camped out, we figured it would be best to head on to our B&B in Kildare, but we got

to drive back along the windy road through park again on our way out of town the next day.

After a good night's sleep, we set out to explore the Dingle Peninsula. We followed the path of a 45 kilometer driving tour, stopping at historic sights like an oratory, beehive hut, ancient fort, church ruins, etc... the place is filthy with this stuff! The drive is almost completely along

the coastline of the peninsula, so breathtaking gorgeous-ness surrounded us the whole time. Such a beautiful place!

Then it was on to Limerick, our overnight pit stop on the way to Dublin for our flight home. We had Zach all pumped up because our hotel was

supposed to have a pool. Well, we get there and it is really their sister hotel about a 10 minute drive away that's got the pool, and they don't let kids swim in it after 5 p.m. (and it was well after 5 p.m. of course). So we asked to be switched anyway, thinking that we could sneak the little guy in and no one would be the wiser. So we switch, drive over, and run down to the pool only to find that they've got a full-time pool/spa receptionist, so there will be no sneaking him in. We were really proud of Zach though because he took it in stride and after a Happy Meal and a "swim" in the bath tub, he was a pretty happy camper.

We enjoyed our drive back to Dublin the next day, having grown a bit (but only a bit) fond of our death-trap of a rental car. Ireland was a fantastic mix of country and city, old and new, and one of the prettiest places in the world.