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We are home.
Safe and happy.
It was a wonderful trip.
Lots of smiles, memories and fun with my favorite people in the world:
Noelle, Quinn, Fish, Maia and Crew.
Noelle put the whole trip together.
She is a rock star.
She is an angel.

Noelle I love you.
You are brilliant.
An amazing mother.
Funky groovy wife.
You have a big heart.
Thanks for showing the kids the world.
Let’s do it again.
And when the kids are gone we will do it again then too.
I love you!
Your spouse,
Steve O.

Noelle (and Fish) at the Museum of Bags and Purses, Amsterdam.

Could you show me the Noelle O. collection?
Excuse me, you don’t have a Noelle O. collection?
Wait a minute you don’t have a single Noelle O. purse.
I am so out of here, this is the worst Museum of Bags and Purses I have ever seen.

Tak- Holbaek, Denmark

Jason, Pernille, Carina, Thomas, Hannah, and Marcus.
Ream family, a very big thank you for everything.
We had so much fun in Denmark, you guys rule.
Thanks for the fun, the late night cards, the swimming, the bike rides, the yard party, the Sønderby party, the log jam duels, the Michael Rasmussen translations, the churches, the castles, the place to sleep, the bus rides, the walks, the Danish treats, and the quiet times on the farm. It was brilliant to watch the kids play nonstop for 3 weeks. Skibby is the most amazing place. You are great, you have big hearts, thanks again for sharing.
We love you.
See you in the USA next year.
Steve, Noelle, Quinn, Fischer, Maia, and Crew.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Hotel party tonight. The kids enjoying some bulk legos we got at Legoland.

Orange

Our last day in Europe. We are in Copenhagen, Denmark. Noelle looking at shops and stuff,
me danish film institute and a bike shop.
Kids are enjoying our fancy hotel (only second one in Europe)

Riding to Sønderby havn

Noelle pedaling to my favorite place in Denmark, Sønderby havn.

Amsterdam 5 star lunch

A typical lunch. We found out early that we could not afford to feed the kids at fancy European sidewalk cafes, so we started packing Noelle lunches. Here is a typical big city lunch in an alley in Amsterdam.

The Goat-Lejre, Denmark

This is the goat moments before he took 2 year old Marcus Ream and sent him flying. We were watching the kids pet the goat then in a quick snap he hooked Marcus by the the seat of his pants and flung him into a perfect back flip landing on his back in the grass. I screamed in fear like a little girl as I saw him twisting in the air above the goats horns. After we found out that Marcus was not dead or had not broken his neck we could not stop laughing. I still have this image in my mind of Marcus 6 feet in the air upside down legs spread flipping and twisting above the horns of this cranky goat.

Skibby farm, Denmark

The boys cooking hot dogs at Ream farm.

Salzburg rain

Quinn and Carina

Rest Stop #2- Roskilde, Denmark

Maia.

Favorite place in Denmark

This is Fish at my favorite place in Denmark, more about this later.

Rest Stop- Roskilde, Denmark

Noelle

Crew at Viking Museum-Roskilde, Denmark

Open Water Swim Roskilde Fjord

Okay Kipper is right no photos of me.
So here is one.
I heard of a 10k open water swim a week after we get back to the USA at Deer Creek Reservoir. So I have been doing a little training here in Denmark. Fischer took this photo of me in the Selsø bay. I swam over an hour and my hands were a little numb when I got out, I think Deer Creek will be much warmer. 10 k will be my longest open water swim.

Selsø, Denmark

Noelle in wooden castle shoes.
Selsø Slot 2 kilometers bike ride from Skibby farm.

Crew and Marcus, Skibby, Denmark

Crew and Marcus at play.

Roskilde, Denmark

Our Danish host Pernille.

Hamlet's Castle, Helsingnør, Denmark

Dogpile on Jason.

Day Trip to Gershøj, Denmark

Quinn with apple on the Flying Dutchman.

rock sculpture, fjord, Denmark

Late Evening Fjord

bike,
swim,
stack rocks,
late evening fjord trip

Skibby, Denmark

We are here for 3 weeks.
We are staying at the Ream family farm.
The farm is on a lake.
The lake is a bird refuge.
The lake is next to the fjord.
It is amazing, quiet, super fun.
This place is heaven.
(this photo lake left, the farm center, fjord right)

Amsterdam Bike #2

Found Hat-Paris, France

Maia with found hat (and Hulk tattoo)

Amsterdam Bike #1

Amsterdam

My favorite piece of big city graffiti/stencil art.

The Anne Frank House

We have been reading “The Diary of Anne Frank” at night with the kids. On Quinn’s 11th birthday we got to visit the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. It was a powerful thing to see the “Secret Annex” while reading the book. We are learning about World War ll, the Nazis and what it meant to the entire world. It also a great starting point to talk about stuff going on today.

Lucky Fish- Koolskamp, Belgium

When you watch the Tour de France on TV you always see the lucky kids that get the water bottles that the riders throw off to the side of the road. Sometimes your are only lucky enough to get remains of a rider's lunch. Lucky Fish with apple strudel or something wrapping.

Tour de France Stage 2- Koolskamp, Belgium

Maia kept saying, "It should be the Tour of Belgium"

The AmsterO's

It is Holland. It is The Netherlands. They are Dutch. Anyway, one of my new favorite Euro Cities.

when it rains it pours...

We are bike race headquaters. We drove straight thru the day and night to get to Belgium on time to catch todays stage of the Tour de France, it was worth every minute of sleep I skipped last night and then some. All of us, from Steve O (a.k.a. Tour Ambassador) down to Crew loved every minute of the wet rainy day. I'll admit I got choked up as the peleton wooshed by, Steve O thinks this is really funny...
And thank goodness for our own personal Tour Ambassador. The kids loaded up on "schwag" as the caravan (wacky French promotional vehicles or "floats" that fly by at 60 km/hr parade chucking stuff out at the spectators) came thru before the racers. We were in the know all the way thru, good position, timing, well informed... we're sure glad to have our Tour Ambassador on board.

where is MY bike...

Noelle here...
Here is some more info at this stage of the game, a bit redundant from what Steve O just said, but I stayed up late last night writing this, couldn't log on the internet (not euro wireless savvy enough I guess) he beat me to the punch, I post it anyway.
We are here at the world cup mountain bike race, downhill in Schladming Austria. Steve O had had his fill of castles and museums and decided we needed a sporting event for a change. (I think Fischer was feeling the same way). He did a little research and found this weekend full of races not far from where we were in Salzburg. Schladming is a groovy little resort town surrounded by the Alps, with the Dachstein (one of the tallest peaks in Austria) towering over it. It has rained quite a bit the last few days so the mountain was muddy, but the races were super fun to watch. And, in the end Steve O’s people- GT riders Brian Lopes and Jill Kintner, (both Americans) won, undefeated.
Speaking of bike races... we are busting out north to Belgium tomorrow to catch a stage of the Tour de France before we head for Denmark on Friday. We decided we’ve come too far to miss out on this event even if it takes us a few km out of our way. I’m a littlle upset I don’t get to see Lance riding, but I’m keeping my hopes up in perhaps seeing him as a VIP on the course (I can dream can’t I?) So watch the Tour on Tuesday and we’ll try and lure the American cameras our way with some kind of silly behavior, or outfit. (somebody TiVo that stage for us...)
The last week and a half have been fun, (and wet) with kids so happy to finally be with their long-lost Danish/American friends. The new level of chaos was a bit comical, but we made it through with lots of giggles, loads of muddy wet clothes, a few tantrums, 3 castle tours, (one tour included the torture chamber) a sound of music bike tour in and around Salzburg, one lost child by Mozart's house in Salzburg, getting familiar with just about every playground that came within sight in Germany and Austria- especially important to stop if it has a "barf machine" (oversized sit-and-spin spin toy) and trolley.
The Ream family are making their way to Vienna today, and off we go to Belgium...

With the Reams

We hooked up with the Reams, our Danish friends, in Germany. We did Germany for a while them moved on to Austria.
Sorry we have not blogged for a bit but...
We were with them for a about a week and a half.
Today they went east to Vienna and tomorrow we are heading west to see a stage of the Tour de France in Belguim.
Tonight we watched a World Cup Mountain bike race in Schladming, Austria.
The riders that I work with from GT bikes both won, Jill Kintner and Brian Lopes.
More updates soon...

At the Top of Notre Dame

Quinn with one of the Gargoyles that Victor Hugo describes in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

Hunch Sighting #3

After climbing about 400 stairs to the top of the tower at Noter Dame we saw this...

Hunch Sighting #2

While passing "Rue Victor Hugo" we stumbled in to this... a face that even a mother could not love.

Hunch Sighting #1

While inside Notre Dame we found this hideous creature.

Whistler's Mother/Crew's Mother

Paris.
Crew's mother with Whistler's Mother, during Crew's daily mobile nap.
Check back soon for Hunch photos, we have been reading "Hunchback of Notre Dame" at night to the kids.

Favorite Swimming Hole

Swimming hole Italian style, Vernazza, Italy's Cinque Terra. We spent all day here. We swam, relaxed, had a picnic, lots of cliff jumping and just hung out all day long---super fun. All the kids jumped like crazy. Fish did the big cliff. Quinn did the big one a million times. Maia took a while to get the guts, then jumped off the big cliff. The biggest cliff I have ever seen a 7 year old jump. Some Italian lady was worried sick about Maia sitting at the edge of the cliff---she though I was a crappy parent letting her do it. Maia did it, said it was easy. Love the swimming Euro style!

trains, trains, trains and subways

Maia on a Paris train. The kids loves the trains.

High Above Paris

Fish at the top of the Eiffel tower.

Quinn's New Hat

We did the tower. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France.

Florence

The family in Florence, Italy.

Crazy Crew

Crew and his big sister waiting for Pizza in Italy.