Tivoli

Tivoli is like Disneyland, Botanical Gardens, an outdoor Concert venue (every day), a state fair, a restaurant megaplex and the Bellagio Fountains, all wrapped together in a tiny package. It is pretty small relative to American entertainment parks, but they manage to pack a lot into it and it is beautiful and so fun. There are gorgeous flowers everwhere you go. There are 40 restaurants and food stands, ranging from hot dogs and hamburgers to expensive Italian or traditional Danish cuisine. You can also bring in your own food, which will be doing most of the time. Last night we ate there--hamburgers and hot dogs, drinks and fries for only $50! Yikes. There are beautiful places to eat or just to sit and enjoy the weather and surroundings, like below.

There is four or five really fun rides, comparable to Disneyland rollercoasters, and the Magic Mountain Free Fall. There are plenty of little airplane rides, boat rides, vintage car rides, bumper cars...things for our kids to do. There was a ride similar to It's a Small World at Disneyland. Will loved this ride (in the picture) with his dad. We thought he might be a little nervous because it went high in the air, but he loved every second of it. The little girl next to Don was so cute. I don't know where her parents were, I never saw them, but she did this ride atleast three times in a row, and that's just what I saw. She would get off, go to the back of the line (which was very short), and was able to get right back on. Then she'd just scream on the ride. It was cute to watch. There are also all sorts of carnival games (shooting a target, throwing balls, skiball) where you can win prizes.

This might have been my favorite part of the night. It is about 9 pm in this picture--amazing how light it still is. The orchestra was playing a medley from My Fair Lady and they sounded really good! It felt so cheerful. The stage and the flowers are so gorgeous, and the weather is unbeatable. About a five minute walk from this stage was another stage where a big band was playing the coolest jazz music. The atmosphere was just so charming. Don and I bought season passes, so my thought is we have really cheap date nights for the whole summer. Just come here and listen to these concerts. Both the band and the orchestra play almost every day, and from June-August there are daily concerts from a Boys Guard Band, also. There are rock concerts every Friday night. There is a light, water, laser and music show every night, but since it doesn't get dark until late, that show is at 10:30 pm. Hopefully our kids will stay up late enough at least a couple of times to catch the show. They have special engagemens, and the New York City Ballet will be performing here for six nights in September. There is a pantomime theater with shows every day. There is also a 100 foot long aquarium here (the longest saltwater aquarium in Europe) and you can watch them feed the fish every day. There is also just a big playground with slides and a long air filled bouncy thing. This place is amazing. From how long I have ranted about it, I am sure you can tell I'm pretty sold on it.

What a fun family!!

Desi is such a climber.
She loves the pantry and if I don't tip the ladder over, she manages to get herself into such precarious positions - as you can see!
A trip to Disneyland with Melissa, Amber, Audrey, Braelyn and grandma. Launch in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
and they were off on California Screamin'.

A unique use of the neck pillows I put in the backseat for napping. I think they were in some kind of "weird" concert.
Tallon LOVES his pasta!!

Angela came to pick up Tal and Desi for the day. She already had Alan's kids and the sheer number of little bodies in this car just called out for a picture.

Spring in Denmark

William is IN LOVE with his new dollar store sunglasses. Doesn't he look happening?

Spring is coming in Denmark! Yea! I know you all won't believe this, but the other day I took the boys to the park. We kept our hats and jackets on, but were very comfortably warm playing outside for about 2 hours. I came home and checked the temperature...it was only 45 degrees outside! I can't believe I thought 45 degrees felt warm. I thought I only had Arizona blood inside of me, but it looks like the Danish Petersen blood is showing through. You can see Burke's handiwork of all the petals he'd pulled off that flower, littered on the ground. We've got to keep him away from the flowers!

This is a picture from a geneology trip we took with Don's parents two weeks ago. This was actually a detour we took to see this famous point in a town called Skagen where every house and business and building is painted yellow. This picture is where two bodies of water, the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, meet in a point. It was kind of cool to see the waves coming in towards eachother and meeting up.

Easting the Easter goods. I bought the only actual Easter candy they had, stuff that was shaped like eggs and bunnies. I didn't even think about what kind of chocolate it was. Later I realized it was the really good, expensive chocolate, like Lindor and whatever else. My kids better not get used to this, because when we get back to the states, we are going back to the Hershey's!

And for those that haven't heard--we are expecting a baby in October, around the 21st! These Danes are going to think I'm crazy having three kids so close. They space theirs out by three or four years usually. Anyway, sorry I couldn't tell you all in person, but we hope you check this, or hear somehow. We love you all and miss you!

Easter Egg Hunt

Here are a few pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt. It was a perfect day. The weather was gorgeous, the hunt was lots of fun and the food was perfect. We absolutely love getting together at the Petersens. Family is amazing. Thanks to Mom for all her work. It was a perfect day. We just missed Amy, Don, William and Burke.

Easter Egg Hunt

Amy introduced me to Picasa. It makes blogging 10 times easier. I highly recommend it. No more waiting for 1/2 hour to have your pictures up load. I just may blog a little more now. That may not be a good thing. Here are just some fun pictures. We really love being back around the family.


Alan and Darren taking it easy during the sledding fun.

Luke is always ready for a picture

This was our attempt at a family picture. It was freezing cold and everyone has red noses.

Cousins are the best!

More random family pictures

Eleanor comes home with a different cute hat from preschool almost everyday.

Bradley is super cute and very photogenic. (I think)

Mark loves his snowboard. We may have to take him for real one of these days.

Amy and Darren loving the warm weather in the snow. It was 55 that day.

Fun Family Pictures

Cannon and Luke found some mud

Andrew and Amy after their first triathlon. They had the same number.

We love Kidzsinging. Thank you Grandma.

I love this picture of Grandpa. Aren't they cute!

Some cool pics of me dancing

I started dancing last october in a performing dance company that my old dance teacher from wagners dance arts, Abby, started. We are auditioning this saturday(march 1st) for an event called "Celebration of Dance". (ok really, how many times can i say dance in this blog. now its a game...) Abby has also set up a benifit performance for May 3rd. I think the charity she picked is for the heart association. I am excited for this new piece we're doing. It's Fosse inspired and to the song Bye Bye Blackbird. Well thats all i'm going to say about myself. Peace out my homies---word.

Since we're feeling a bit homesick today, I thought I would post on the blog. Today we had to drop something off at a ward members house who happens to live right down the street from Andrew and Jessica's/Alan and Amy's old house. We asked Tallon "Who used to live there?" He got really excited and said "Andrew and Jessica and Hadley and Jency!" We were impressed that he remembered since its been a good year and a half since they've moved. It made me really sad that you're not here- or that we are not there!

This picture was taken before church and I thought it was adorable. (We just switched to 12:30 church- I LOVE IT!)


Tallon is the puzzle master. If there is a puzzle around, he is happy. He received a TWENTY-FIVE piece for christmas and can do it (almost) all by himself.


Desiree has been walking around with this little get-up for a couple of weeks now. She will bring each item to me and ask me to help her put it on. My personal favorite accessory is the first aid kit or "purse". Notice the casualty on her forhead from a toy tug-of-war with Tallon...which she obviously won.


We can't wait to see everyone in a couple of weeks! No really...we can't! Congrats to Angela and Jody too! YEAH!

Burke's Shrieking

Just wanted to give you a taste of what I hear every day. The shrieks are sometimes happy sometimes sad, but always LOUD! I laugh when I watch the video, but sometimes when his shrieks are angry shrieks, it's really not very funny! I can't help but love him, though.

Here he is! Doesn't he look so handsome? Aric commented that he can't help but think Tallon is one of the Cardon boys. I thought this was going to be a major struggle for him, but he has warn them all day for 2 days now. You can tell they are helping him. We are going to be taking weekly trips to the Doc's office, they are already bent... but at least he is wearing them! We had such a great time at thanksgiving, its been a while since we've been able to spend it with family! We miss everyone already, but really excited that we get to come down in February AND March.

Hymn Singing

I'm using Don's computer which doesn't have any of our pictures on it...sorry, I was going to post a couple of pictures. Anyway, one funny thing I've realized here is that they don't follow the same traditions of hymn singing. We definitely have hymns we sing for certain topics, especially certain Sacrament hymns. Here, they sing Sacrament hymns for opening and closing, and regular hymns during the Sacrament service. It's funny because it kind of just seems off to me, who is so used to it the American way. I guess the hymns are catergorized that way in the actual hymnbooks in America--maybe they're not categorized here, I don't know. People seem to sing out here, which is nice. I'm starting to sing a little louder now that I have the smallest of grips on what the pronunciation is like. I'm still wrong a lot, but it's a good time to learn pronunciation--when I can see the spelling of the word and hear it around me.
The ward choir probably triples my ward choir at home. It has around 20 people in it. They sound good, too!
People are very very nice, especially at church. This ward has an English Sunday School. which we love. The translating works out great for Sacrament and RS/Elders Quorum, but it is nice to have one meeting in our own language.
William has started climbing into Burke's crib with him to wake him up--in the middle of the night, whenever. He just woke Burke up from his nap. I better go get him!

Halloween

This is Halloween 2007 with the White's. The boys wanted to be soldiers and so I found camo pants and shirts at WalMart, which I thought would make a great costume. Jody, however, went a little further with it at the Army Surplus store. Caden thinks his helmet is actually from WWII. They looked great. Cannon and Crew were Batman and Superman, respectively. Brae and Brooklyn were witch and fairy, respectively. It was all very fun!