Skansen

Today, we headed out to an open air museum on the island of Djurgarden.  The rain came earlier than expected, so we didn't spend as much time there as we could have, but had a great time anyway!  Skansen is mostly known for it's structures from the 1800's, but we spent most of our time checking out the animals in the Nordic zoo.

The next couple of pics are replicas of houses from northern Sweden where the Sami live.  Sophia told me several times that these were "Sophia and Benjamin houses...not Mommy and Daddy houses".  You'll see why by how small they are!  We hope to visit Northern Sweden before too long to see if this is still how people live :-)

This is the first family pic we have taken in Sweden!  There is a nice view of the city behind us.

This is Aaron's favorite picture from the day... :-)  Go figure...

There were also some new animals for us.  This is the Alg, it is a cross between an elk and a moose.

We got up close to a Reindeer.  Funny how we aren't scared of these animals with a fence between us!  Two years ago, we were in Alaska and nearly croaked because we were way too close to a couple of Caribou.

We had a great day.  I blame the weather on not spending more time an Skansen, but I think the kids were ready for a nap anyway.  We hope to go back again before too long to see more.

Tekniska Museet

The weather cooled down a bit, so the kids and I headed out to the Technical Museum.  We spent nearly 4 hours there and had a really great time!  The museum isn't actually a children's museum, but they had a ton of fun hands-on activities for the kids.

Based on Sophia's love for all of the airplanes at the museum, maybe she'll be a pilot?

In the pictures above, notice Sophia's wind-blown hair.  There was a little green button that she got to press to make that happen.  She talked about it all day!!

The museum also had a great play area.  Of course, Ben immediately found the most dangerous play structure (for a 1 year old) and climbed to the top!

Astronaut Sophia.  I think this picture is hilarious because Sophia wanted to see through the little peep-hole, but could barely reach.  She got pretty close!

Ben also enjoyed himself!  (Sleeping, of course.)

The Park

We're back at the park!  I have a feeling there will be lots of pics from this park since we spend so much time here.  In this clip, Sophia is showing off her biking skills by pulling Ben along in her trike.  She is pretty excited to be such a good biker now.

And more pics from the park. 

Camping!

Camping was an interesting experience with the kids :-)  We are pretty sure that we woke the entire camp ground up at 4:45 a.m. the first morning.  Ben woke up screaming and Sophia decided to join in.  We escaped to Arboga, the little town we were camping by, before most of the other campers woke up for the morning...maybe they wouldn't think it was us making all of the noise?  It's pretty difficult to make kids sleep in a tent when it is sunny at odd hours of the night - no room darkening shades in there!  The days are getting shorter here, but it is still light at 10 p.m. and then again around 3 a.m. or so.

Despite lack of sleep, we had a great time!  We swam, hiked, played baseball and, of course, went to the park.  

The lake we swam in was much warmer than the Baltic!

We went hiking until it started to storm...and we kept running into snakes!

Sophia was a good hiker...

...but she preferred this kind of hiking instead:

Ben enjoyed his ride during the hike too

Finally, a little baseball...

...before going to bed

A day at the pool

With Aaron at work, Sophia, Ben and I needed to find a way to cool off.  Apparently, the weather we have been experiencing is unseasonably warm for Stockholm, but we love it!  We took our first Tunnelbana ride to Eriksdalsbadet, where we tried out 3 different pools.

Here are the kids experiencing their first Tunnelbana (underground subway) ride:

The kids had a great time playing in the pool.  Ben really did swim, but I couldn't take pictures of him swimming since I was in the water holding him...so you'll just have to take my word for it!  He did, however, enjoy a nice nap in his stroller while Sophia splashed around in the water again after we had lunch.  The girl is a fish!

Unpacking, a picnic, and a trip to the Archipelago

We took advantage of the great weather Stockholm is experiencing this summer during our first non-jet lagged weekend in Sweden.   The weekend started with our shipment arriving on Friday afternoon.  We were excited to have our "stuff"!!  We really didn't pack a lot because we live in an apartment that has been furnished, but it was still nice for the kids to have some familiar toys and books.

The kids cared more about the boxes than their toys


On Saturday, we walked around the city quite a bit and took in a little entertainment at the 1st Annual Stockholm Street Festival.  We finished off the day with a picnic on Djurgarden, one of Stockholm's islands.  There seems to be a theme with Ben and eating - whatever he eats gets all over his face!

On Sunday, we took a two-hour boat ride to Grinda, one of Sweden's 24,000 islands.  We had an awesome day!  We found a beach to hang out on for the day and did a little exploring on the island.  

Here we are on the boat ride over:

  

The Baltic was a little chilly, but the beach we found was great!  Sophia had fun swimming, but Ben mostly hung out on the beach and ate, oops - I mean played with, the sand and rocks.