Happy Halloween

The girls went trick or treating at American College of Norway and had a blast as both Elizabeth's colleagues and students seemed happy to have a few trick or treaters. Joshua worked with the girls on their simple but effective costumes that got a lot of comments at the college.

 Sydney as the Paperbag Princess, Juliet as Darth Vader, and Evelyn as an elephant

 From behind complete with cape for Vader (thanks Uncle Tim and Aunt Jill for the pajamas that double as a costume) and Evelyn was extremely proud of wearing her pants backwards to use her drawstrings as a tail(her idea)

 Action shot

 Evelyn did all the coloring and shading of her mask

 Sydney and Joshua helped Juliet with hers

Sydney made the comment, "it might not be as good as the crown jewels but it looks pretty good", we agree.

Svalbard - Longyearbyen

Elizabeth had the opportunity to travel to Svalbard, Norway which is the nothernmost inhabited place on earth. Courtesy of the Svalbard treaty, Svalbard is part of the Kingdom of Norway but is not part of the Schengen area (so that people from the countries who signed the treaty can work in Svalbard without the usual procedures required to live and work in Schengen). Practically this resulted in getting passport stamps and flying in and out of the international terminal BUT not being allowed to shop at duty free! Northernmost is the buzz word - I went to the northernmost Sushi restaurant and the Northernmost Brewery (not pictured). Here are some images from the rainy and unseasonably warm weekend in Svalbard...

The view from outside the airport.

We stayed in converted coal miner's cabins. This was the view from the back of the cabins.

There is still some coal mining taking place in Svalbard because that is the only source for fuel (there are no trees) but this mine, called the "Santa Claus mine" is no longer in use.

Although there are more polar bears than permanent residents in Svalbard, I only saw stuffed polar bears like this one at the Svalbard museum.

Glacier behind the cabins where we stayed.

Svalbard reindeer have short legs which makes them look fat in the summer when they pack on the pounds to get through the winter.

Bird in flight on the boat trip to Pyramiden.

Although the weather was warm and rainy, there were a few bright spots in the sky.

The moon through the top of the boat.

There are six reindeer in this picture (like the ones above from the museum). We were very far away but it was fun to see some wildlife.

There is usually more snow this time of year but the weather allowed us to see the incredible colors of the rock formations.

We spent some time viewing this large glacier from the boat. This is one of over 2,000+ glaciers on Svalbard (60% of the islands are covered with some type of glacier)

Our destination on the boat trip was Pyramiden which was a Russian mining town (and is still technically Russian soil). The town was abandoned in 1996 and the ghost town is now a tourist destination. This is Ivan, our guide.

This sign marking 79 degrees is the farthest north we went (and very likely the farthest north I will ever go!)

Better visibility on the day we left of this glacier behind the coal miner's cabins.

This "igloo" is actually a greenhouse. It was a spot included on a tour that also went to the entrance of the seed vault where they store seeds from all over the world.

Sign outside the front of the airport.

View getting on or off the plane! Like all Norwegian air flights, this has a famous Norwegian on it - in this case Edvard Munch!

006

Day 006 in London was out last full day there, and we started in Covent Garden to see the shops and street performers before Sydney and Evelyn were treated to a surprise visit to the  Theatre Royal Drury Lane to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical.  Juliet got an afternoon alone with Joshua's parents and she was a great sport.

 Plaque outside the bathroom

 Statue of Shakespeare on the floor below

 The excitement was palpable

overhead lighting and molding 

005

Day 005 we decided to stay closer to the apartment we were renting and walk to one of the nearby parks.  We past the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal, and it is always cool to see stadiums tucked into the cityscape.  We then walked to Highbury Fields Park, which had an impressive playground that turned out to be more even extensive then we had hoped for, and made for some serious exercise for all.

 Sign leading to a bridge that goes over trains tracks to the stadium

 The playground had a slide that was a few stories high, Sydney and Evelyn enjoyed it

 This seesaw kept these two occupied for a while.  At one point they both sat on one side and Joshua hung from the rope on the other, sending them up and down like ringing a bell in a bell tower. Below is a short video too.

 Part monkey, there was an extensive web area

A wood climbing area can be seen behind Evelyn, and beyond that there was a large sand area that Juliet spend a bunch of time in (while the camera was out)

Here is a video of the zipline they had at the playground, which all three girls did about 10 times each when we first arrived.

004

Day 004 in London was a chance to enjoy the miraculous weather we had for our week there, it rained only once?  We took the tube to the Diana Memorial Playground in Hyde Park, which was the highlight of the day.  It has a Peter Pan theme complete with pirate ship.  In Hyde Park, we also walked past Kensington Palace, a pond with all sorts of water fowl, and the flower walk.  Continuing on from there we spent a few hours in the National Science Museum (free and okay) and decided to walk into Harrods department store while we were in the area because it is apparently a site worth seeing.  This may have been a miscalculation at the end of the day with some tired kids and us being less than enthusiastic endorsers of over-the-top consumerism (in any country), but we got a couple of pastries as a snack(because the tomatoes were $13 a pound, Joshua's jaw is still open) and realize we never need to go back. Once was enough.

 The neighborhood we stayed in was Arsenal

 Sydney in crow's nest

 Juliet in the side dingy

 

 And Evelyn's turn

 Part of the playground had teepees set up

 Juliet graduated to steering the main ship

 The scene was complete with live ravens

Eveyln's turn in the crows nest

 Peter Pan's shadow?

 Joshua didn't realize until that night that these stones made a crocodile

 Rams were following us wherever we went

 Part of the playground was almost like a mini ropes course for kids

 Gate at Kensington Palace

 From the pond back at Kensington

 Snack break next to a Prince Albert memorial

 They even gave us a napkin!