Wow! We made it. Navigating the airport with 3 carry on suitcases, a duffle bag, 4 backpacks, a stroller and two kids who don’t really want to schlep suitcases through the airport isn’t something I really want to repeat, but everything went far more smoothly than I could have possibly imagined. Really the biggest inconveniences were just how hard it is to squeeze down an airplane isle when you are carrying a duffle bag and pushing a suitcase loaded with a backpack. Here are a few photos of the fun we had on the flights.

The photo above was taken at 1AM just before the airplane finally turned the lights off. Our kids got pretty silly up so late at night and we all fell promptly to sleep at 1:15AM when the lights finally turned off.

The one causality of our trip was forgetting the $8 umbrella stroller we brought along. I just overlooked it in grabbing all of our stuff from the baggage carousel. Since the airport is over an hour away from where we are staying and train tickets are much more expensive than $8, I think we’ll be donating that stroller to the airport. I’ve got to give huge props to Flyo.no, the transport company that we prearranged to meet us. It was awesome to see my name on a sign as I exit the airport and then have a driver easily load up all of our luggage into a huge Mercedes van for a comfortable ride to our AirBnB in Bekkestua.

Our AirBnB in Bekkestua is wonderful—our fabulous host, Eric met us along with his 3 year old daughter, Julie. Maddie and Ada quickly discovered that Julie has an older 6 year old sister (how perfect!) and it seems like jumping on the trampoline is a universal way to make friends. Maddie is already referring to her “friend who speaks Norwegian and shares candy with her.”

After that, we took a short walk to the center of the city, purchased some delicious strawberries from a farm stand—the strawberries are small and delicious here, and apparently, a big thing in Norway. We spent more time at a playground I knew the kids would like when I visited back in March, though everything was covered in snow back then.

We then had our first foray in a grocery store to purchase pasta for dinner. The Norwegian grocery store is true to everything I’d heard—starting with expensive. Our simple pasta dinner, 2 bagles and cream cheese ran 154 kroner, or about $20, which is steal compared to what dinner would have cost at a restaurant.

The other thing we are having to get used to here in Norway is that the sun doesn’t set until very late (10:40pm, yesterday) and it rises at 4:01 in the morning. Though it didn’t really truly get dark last night. This, on top of the timezone change, meant Maddie and Ada really have no clue what time it was, and thought 10pm was a great time for a dance party just as their parents were ready to drop dead from a lack of sleep.

Today, Diana and I celebrate our 12 year anniversary by exploring Oslo with the kids and maybe doing some stroller shopping on Finn.no, the craigslist of Norway.