Harrison's Birthday, Fastelavn, the Viking Ship Museum, and More!

Hi, friends and family! We're still here and doing great! Lots of cool things have happened in the last couple of months as we continue to learn about Danish culture, celebrate milestones, and see new places. We hope you enjoy reading about it once in a while!

Harrison's 7th Birthday

Harrison turned 7 this year, and he was a very excited birthday boy. We celebrated on the Sunday before his birthday so that we could spend the day together. He requested Zac's pancakes for breakfast, my chicken sandwiches for dinner, and an ice cream sundae bar for dessert.

Pancakes with pålægschokolade and strawberries

Birthday dinner!

Birthday dessert!

We went to AirTrix, which is a big trampoline and climbing park in Copenhagen (Nordhavn). Kaden was injured from his basketball tournament, so he didn't jump, but Harrison and Khloe had a great time! There was so much to do!

They're ready to go!

In addition to the standard trampolines, there is a dodgeball court, basketball courts, big air bags you can jump into, a foam pit with a slack line, jousting, rope ladder, and rolling bar across it, motion-based trampoline video games, a game like trampoline whack-a-mole, a parkour course, obstacle courses with big timers, bouldering walls, and more. It was kind of like Flying Squirrel in Spokane, but I think it's bigger and has a few more features, so they had a great time exploring and trying all the things.

Harrison can't wait to go back (we have jump passes from Nate and Maggie we'll have to use soon!), and he enjoyed his post-jumping slushy drink (strawberry, or jordbær), too.

We came home and opened presents after dinner, and he said it was a really fun birthday.

On his actual birthday, he had to go to school. Since it was also Princess Marie's birthday, all the busses were decorated with flags, so we pretended it was for Harrison.

He took flødeboller to school as a birthday treat, we ate ice cream sundaes again after dinner, and he opened one more special present from us. Happy birthday, little nugget!

Fastelavn

Some people call it Danish Halloween, but Fastelavn is definitely its own thing, despite the similarities.

Fastelavn happens on the Sunday before Lent, a time of religious fasting and prayer and reflection. So, ya know, before this big stretch where they would fast, they'd have a party and eat a bunch of candy and sugary buns and symbolically banish evil and all that. Let's start with the pastries!

Fastelavnsboller are delicious, flaky, Danish pastries filled with cream and dabbed with frosting, or some variation of this. My first taste of the fabled fastelavnsbolle was the week before Fastelavn at lunch, where the incredible ALK bakery laid out delicious salted caramel pastries for us to eat with our lunch.

It was so good. I never want a doughnut again. Only this.

Obviously, I was going to need another one at some point, and I knew the kids would enjoy trying them, too. I decided I would get some at the bakery in town over the weekend, unless, by some stroke of divine luck, the ALK canteen baked up a bunch of them for us to buy instead...which they totally did!

Fastelavnsboller in raspberry, vanilla cream, and almond.

I bought eight. It made more financial sense than five because of how they do the pricing.

OK, so that covers the treats, but I also mentioned that they symbolically banish evil. They historically did this by putting a cat in a barrel and stringing it up on a pole or a tree or something, then people would take turns whacking the barrel with a stick. This symbolized the destruction of evil, I guess, as cats were considered a representation of evil. Eventually, someone would break open the barrel enough for the cat to escape and they'd chase it off, banishing "evil" from their lives. The person who broke the barrel open first was crowned the Cat Queen, and whoever knocked down the last of the barrel was crowned the Cat King. Then they'd all dress up in costumes and go door to door singing and collecting money to party.

Today, they absolutely do not put a real cat in the barrel, they fill it with candy and prizes, and it's not really grown adults beating the barrel in most cases, it's kids, but one of Zac's colleagues said that in her hometown, there was still a real cat in the barrel like 30 years ago, and it was still grown men beating the barrel, not children, and they did it by taking a swing as they galloped past on horseback...

It's mostly for kids now. Kids dress up in costumes (not scary ones - that's for Halloween) and have parties at school or in the neighborhood or city centers. They make cat masks and hit a little barrel with a picture of a cat on it that they decorate themselves. They still crown a Cat Queen and Cat King and sing songs.

Harrison's class in their costumes for Fastelavn (can you find the stormtrooper?)

The barrel beating!

Harrison brought home extra supplies and made little cat masks for me and Zac. It was very cute.

Oh, and I feel like, out of context, this would be a very weird Facebook post for someone to read...

...but not so weird in Denmark on Fastelavn!

The Viking Ship Museum (Vikingeskibsmuseet)

Week 7 was "Winter Break" for the Danish schools. Zac and I took Wednesday off to spend with the kids. Zac thought they might enjoy going to the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark (about 40 minutes away), plus his colleagues told him about some great barbecue food in the same area.

We timed our arrival so we could catch the intro video and tour in English, and a family ticket was pretty affordable (230 dkk or about $33)...it's cheaper during the cold, dreary months when there aren't any outdoor activities going on.

The museum houses five partial rebuilds of Viking ships. The ships were found and excavated in the 1960s in Roskilde Fjord, and they figured out that the reason they found five ships of various design all in the same place was because the Vikings purposefully sunk ships there to block one of the channels that left them open to attack from seafaring foes. Before that find, they didn't have much information about Viking ship design specifics or about how they were built, so it was a huge breakthrough in our collective knowledge about the Vikings.

The wood told them where the ships were built (Norway, Denmark, and Ireland), and the wear marks gave a lot of info about how they were used. There were two wider boats used for hauling goods (since the Vikings were successful traders), long, narrow boats for war (since the Vikings were known for fighting and conquering, too), and a fishing boat for everyday use.

They've reconstructed the boats as best they can in the museum, but they also made replicas using Viking tools and techniques that are seaworthy. In the summer months, you can go for a ride!

In addition to the ships, they have a lot of artifacts to look at, replicas of weaponry to handle, and a room where kids and adults can dress up in Viking garb and climb around on boats. There were secret compartments to open, and big screens around the boats made it seem kind of like you were at sea.

Khloe checking out coins, crystals, and bits of metal (replicas) used as currency during trade

Harrison donning a fur-lined cloak on his Viking merchant ship

Harrison wielding a Viking sword replica - fancy swords were only for rich, strong Vikings

Kaden checking out the more everyday axe - a functional tool as well as a weapon

Harrison brought a notebook and pencil so he could draw the things he saw, and it was about the cutest thing ever to see him scrunched up on the floor of the museum sketching a Viking board game or something.

His Viking ship, complete with holes for the oars and linen sail

A Viking game, a Viking sword, and a symbol of Viking christianity

A jewelry mold they used to make crosses, a sword, an axe, a helmet, a Viking, jewelry, and an old pot

A depiction of a signal fire on a hill to warn of intruders, and a sketch of what the channel barrier posts looked like

Of course there was a lot of stuff to read (or listen to), and I enjoyed reading about the old gods and accounts of Viking encounters and runes and things like that. Khloe was enjoying it, too, until she read an incredibly brutal account of a Viking king funeral. I'll leave out the details, but the slave girl didn't fare very well in the ceremony.

Photo of a sculpting created to memorialize the first recorded Viking attack in 793

"In this year terrible portents appeared over Northumbria, and miserably frightened the inhabitants: these were exceptional flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed these signs; and a little after that in the same year on the 8th June the harrying of the heathen miserably destroyed God's church in Lindisfarne by rapine and slaughter."

Anyway, four of the five us had a lovely time and learned a lot. One of us has a short attention span and doesn't enjoy learning as much as the rest of us and was complaining he was hungry the entire time even though I asked him to eat breakfast before we left the house and he said he wasn't hungry (Kaden). He really enjoyed our trip to the barbecue restaurant afterward though! It was a pretty nice day.

Oh yeah, and it was Valentine's Day, so here is a picture of Harrison in a heart-shaped public rocking bench for you all.

Khloe and Kaden

I always feel bad about how Harrison-heavy my posts and pictures can get, but it's just a product of the kids' ages, I swear. Harrison is still young and close to us all the time. His teachers send pictures of his school days and festivities, and he's always busy doing something. The older kids spend a lot of time on screens or going off with friends, so they aren't hanging around us as much (and when they are, it's not so interesting to photograph). They are still very much a part of our family though, and they're growing and developing in their own ways.

Khloe attended a masquerade ball at school! She shopped for a dress and bought it with her own money, and she made a mask. They learned a bunch of dances in the weeks leading up to the ball, too.

Of course, I don't have pictures of any of this because she went to her friend Olivia's house with all their other friends directly after school to get ready and take selfies, and the pics the school posted don't have her in them. I asked her for some photos, and I got this (and similar), which I guess is something!

One of the girls' moms posted a video of one of the dances, and Khloe is not in the shot, so this is more to show you the kinds of things they get to learn in school once in a while.

What else about Khloe? I guess she also used some of her Christmas money to buy some clothes from PopFlex she's been dying to have for a while. One of the things is called a shruggie, and I'll post a picture of her wearing it here because I'm guessing you all want to know what it is, too. It's basically a hooded pull-over sweatshirt with baggy sleeves that doesn't have a body. I think she looks cute and cozy in it. Zac, in a very overprotective fatherly way, hates it.

Kaden played on his school's basketball team agains the other international schools in the area. They went to Copenhagen International School a few Saturdays ago for an all-day tournament. They didn't win, but they had a really fun time. I asked him for photos and selfies throughout the day, and he took zero. I got one picture from the school with him in it though, so please enjoy.

...and More!

I don't know where to land all this other stuff, so here's a pile of unrelated things going on in our lives.

Danish class update

Zac and I are gearing up for our first Danish test. If we pass, we move from Module 3.1 to Module 3.2. I'm sure we'll pass.

Look how excited we are to be learning how to talk about time!

Zac's notes, with a bonus drawing of a symbol on our microwave for me to text to Khloe so she could heat up food properly.

My notes, including my paragraph introducing my little brother, Matt!

Leisure time

Harrison brought out the trumpet a few weeks ago and we still haven't put it away. It just stands on the windowsill upstairs, and a few times a day, we take turns playing barely identifiable songs on it.

I finally recorded my peanut-themed parody of Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot. (If you don't know, I have spent the last few years working on the team developing the process for a peanut allergy immunotherapy that's currently in clinical trials.) ALK had its 100-year anniversary and was soliciting things to go in a time capsule. It was very important to me that all of my ridiculous work-related song parodies get into the time capsule, so I had to really buckle down and do some recording!

Here's my setup. I made a pop filter out of an embroidery hoop and Khloe's pantyhose. It worked great.

Zac and I go for walks when it's not pouring rain. Last weekend was really lovely and we explored parts of the forest path we hadn't been to yet. We got to walk past a field of sheep with lots of little bleating lambs. It was adorable. Unfortunately, since I only had a phone camera with me, you'll probably have to imagine that one of the colored spots in the grass is a precious lamb.

On a grayer walk day, we saw a bunch of ice-sailboats. They're really popular on the lakes around here because they can freeze over completely in the cold weather. They have little blades on them like ice skates in a triangular position (but less sharp), a seat, and a sail. Pretty basic, but I bet they're fun!

Mail call...from October

Harrison got a letter the other day that was postmarked in October! It was from his friends, our old neighbors, in Post Falls. There was a big stamp on it that said: MISSENT TO MALAYSIA! So Harrison's little card was floating around the world for several months, but it did eventually make it to him!

(Also, do ALL countries have a stamp that says "Missent to ___________," or do things just get missent to Malaysia so often that they had to have a stamp created?)

House Hunting

For a few months, I've been casually browsing homes on a real estate website (kind of like the Danish Realtor.com). Zac and I like to look at the homes and keep a list of what we like, what we don't like, etc. We are also trying to gauge what the homes in our price range look like and weigh the pros and cons of being closer to work vs farther away.

We found one beautiful, single-story home with four bedrooms and two bathrooms with big windows and a lovely garden that was in our price range, but when we drove to the town (26 minutes away by car), we realized we were basically in what Zac called, "nicer Colville, Washington" and that our transportation costs would be unsustainable, especially if they kids stayed in the same school.

Next, we found one just up the road from the kids' school, but it was kind of dark and weird and had definitely had a smoker living in it at some point. It was kind of dirty and all of the landscaping was fake. Fake grass, fake plants, etc. It had a pool and a hot tub and an outdoor cabana-style bar, but the layout was weird, the kitchen counter was destroyed, and there were a lot of empty industrial cleaner containers kind of scattered around the property. The crime rate was a little higher than some of the other places we had been looking at, too. It had some good features, especially in terms of location, but ultimately, it didn't feel like something we could see ourselves in.

Of course, this was all just shopping around to see what we might eventually like. Regardless of whether we decide to stay in Denmark for another 18 months or another 18 years, we will need to buy a house when we move out of this rental. We'll never find another rental in close proximity to work and school that has four bedrooms and two bathrooms and a huge garden and allows cats and dogs and is close to public transportation. At least, not something we could afford. It just makes sense to start browsing homes.

Unfortunately, we already found one we really like that is in our price range and is somehow not too far from school/work but is also out in the country a little bit. It's a great house. We just weren't expecting to find it so soon. We still have 18 months on our lease here. Naturally, there is a clause allowing us to give notice and end our term early, but we both kind of feel like jerks for even considering that because we think it might be hard for our landlords, who are in the U.S. right now, to find someone else to rent the house for the remaining time, especially because we don't currently go through a rental agency.

Lindsey's weekend of spreadsheets, research, and budgeting...

Anyway, we'll keep you all posted about what happens there. Until then, I'll just leave you with some pictures of our lunch at the canteen from the last couple of weeks. They feed us such beautiful, delicious food that I feel like I need to honor it.

We miss you! Come see us!