February in a Nutshell

So it's February 29th - leap year! The month seemed to fly by regardless of the extra day and I find myself behind on blogging so here's a recap of some of this month's favorite photos and videos. Enjoy! :-)

1. My auntie's amazing outfits - courtesy of Aunt Steph, but I'm sure Aunt Lil would agree that they are both pretty amazing. ;-)
2. Happy Liv!
3. Happy Evy!
4. Jumping babies.
5. Mommy's helper in the kitchen - cutting vegetables for dinner salad with her toddler knives.
6. Evy has decided to start climbing everything... 
7. Cats. They are still alive and well despite a lack of blog appearances these days. ;-)
8. Madi in her Minnie Mouse costume for barnehage Karneval celebration.
9. A spa treat from my friends Liz and Courtney. 

And big sister Madi entertaining her baby sisters by throwing a ball and making Liv smile and Evy laugh!

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Manchester Winter Break

Winter break. Nine kids. Three moms. Cheap and nonstop flight to Manchester. All the makings of a fun and crazy week! We had a blast with our friends and all their littles - it was definitely fun... and crazy!

We flew into Manchester with a short non-stop flight on Monday morning and caught the wrong train to our hotel. So after spending an extra 25 min seeing the scenery of Manchester and walking around a bit we finally got into our hotel and got settled! Then it was back out to walk around a bit, find dinner, and coordinate plans for the next day.

Tuesday we headed over to the Trafford Center to find Legoland and SeaLife Center. We booked the combination tickets to visit both locations and had a long day, but with lots of fun!

Wednesday we headed back to the Trafford Center and took advantage of their play area (with babysitters) to drop off the majority of kids before power shopping for two hours (and visiting Starbucks...). We grabbed lunch and then headed back to the hotel afterwards to give the smaller kids naps since they'd missed them the previous two days and we could tell they needed them!

Thursday we had a slow morning and all hung out in our rooms before venturing out close to lunchtime. We made a quick stop at the Museum of Science and Industry, but it got crowded very quickly and everyone was hungry to we grabbed some lunch.

Then we caught the bus to head over to the Manchester Museum, near the University of Manchester. Again the museum was pretty crowded (I think it was winter break for everyone) so we visited the dinosaur exhibit before heading back towards our hotel and calling it a day.

Friday morning we got up bright and early to make sure we were checked out and get our nine kids and many suitcases on the correct train to the airport! Another short non-stop flight and we were back home! It was a fabulous trip and we enjoyed visiting as adults after bedtime. :-)

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Valentine's Day 2016

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a low-key day and enjoyed just hanging out with the girls and relaxing. We made pink pancakes that the girls ate in their Valentine's jammies from Grandma and Papa.

Madi opened her Valentine from Daddy and Mommy (the same ones she gave to her classmates and teachers this past week!)

And then of course we did a little photo shoot with the girls to celebrate Evelyn and Olivia's first Valentine's Day!

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Lisbon, Portugal

Last Sunday we headed to Lisbon, Portugal! The girls did fantastic traveling and after we arrived at our Air BNB apartment and got settled, we headed straight out to tackle the hills and see the sunset from a recommended miradouro (viewpoint) high in the city called Jardim de S. Pedro de Alcântara.

Unfortunately, both Madi and I got sick during our trip. She had a fever off and on basically the whole time and I got a nasty cough/throat illness. However, we still had a lot of fun. The first day we headed on the bus to venture to Oceanário de Lisboa (the aquarium). It's a huge, partially-underground aquarium with lots of fish, sharks, and other sea creatures. Madi enjoyed seeing the fish, but got pretty tired towards the end.

There was a cable car right by the aquarium so we hopped on and got a neat overview of that area of the city. Madi had a blast on it so I'm glad we decided to go ahead and do it while we were in the area.

We ventured back to the apartment walking to relax for a little bit before walking to the Castelo de São Jorge which was just around the corner from our apartment.

We headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner by walking through Praça de D. Pedro IV (Rossio Square) and past a couple other beautiful buildings.

On Tuesday we walked through Praça do Comércio before catching the metro to head to the zoo.

By the time we reached Jardim Zoológico de Lisboa Madi was feeling better and enjoyed the animals. The zoo was a really amazing zoo and even had another cable car thing that Madi and I rode while Jason hung with the sleeping babies.

Wednesday the weather wasn't awesome, but what's a little rain when you live in Stavanger? HA! So we caught a tram and headed to Belém. Jason and Madi visited the Torre de Belém and then we walked over to the Jerónimos Monastery and visited inside.

Then we headed over to the highly recommended Pastéis de Belém for some traditional pastel de nata. Then it was back to the main city for a relaxing afternoon and dinner at our apartment.

Thursday we just spent the day packing and hanging out before our flights home. Our apartment was located near the Alfama district and close to the castle. There was a beautiful balcony near the two elevators that we would take to get down to get into the rest of the city. Here's that spot and the view from it - absolutely amazing!

Overall we really enjoyed Lisbon! The city was beautiful and the people were friendly. Despite feeling a bit under the weather we had a fabulous time!

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