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I'm Shay! I’m a cookbook author, lifestyle blogger, travel agency owner, wife and mama who loves making every day special for my family.

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Mix & Match Mama

Shay, Travel ·

Norway & Netherlands 2016: Days 4 & 5


Hello!  Hello!
Yesterday, I shared the first three days of our summer vacation and today…I’m back with days 4 and 5.  Norwegian Fjords…here we come!

We decided to make it a daily pic.  Hello Sunday…our first day at sea.

Breakfast with my peeps.

Heading from the Netherlands to Norway.  The kiddos looking out the window watching the world go by.  As you can see…Smith is explaining something.  Smith is always explaining something.

We decided to try out the pool on this day.  Because the weather was so cold outside (in the low 50s), they had the roof covering the pool and the heaters on.  Basically, the pool felt like a spa.

We played a lot of games and walked the outside deck for a mile.  It was just a great day of relaxing and getting over jet lag.

Heading to dinner.  These two are constantly touching.  Constantly.

One, two, three Shull kids!

That feeling when jet lag hits you during dinner and you can’t. stay. awake.

Perked up post dinner!

Two people happy to be on vacation!
Pink Dress

The next morning, we awoke to scenic touring of our first fjord.  Simply stunning.

Too much to see!

🙂

We hopped off the ship first thing and explored the beautiful town of Flam.  This was the prettiest of all of our ports.  Next time, we’ll spend a week just in Flam.  It was GORGEOUS!

Well…as you can see, they’re in love with Flam too :).

Flam is known for their trains, so we knew we wanted to visit their train and historical museum.  We always enjoy a good museum trip!

Inside the train museum!

The train museum backs up to the actual railway (seen behind).

Let’s play in Flam!

You can see our ship nestled there in the harbor behind us.

The part we were most excited about was our Fjord Safari.  We had researched this in advance and booked before we left the States.  This safari takes you out on a speed boat to check out the Fjord.  In order to board, you had to be decked out in all of this gear (water repellent warm suit, gloves, hat, googles and life vest).  My kids were PUMPED!

Just too much fun!

Ready.

So…this was a small boat.  I know.  I was prepared for being sick.  Like physically and mentally prepared.  I could have skipped this…but then I would have missed the time with my family and the once in a lifetime experience.  We booked a small boat with just one other couple included (in case I was super sick, I wouldn’t be on a boat with like 50 other people).  Funny enough, the random other couple who went with us on this safari had two adopted daughters back home.  How cool is that? Specific things trigger my motion sickness like heat, slow boat moving and claustrophobia. Well, it was freezing on the water, the boat was a speed boat and it was completely open air, so that was all in my favor.

I road next to Smith…

…and the girls rode in front of us with Andrew.

Amazing.

More waterfalls than I could count.

And then we approached this one…

…and our boat captain literally drove us into it.  We were squealing and wet and having the BEST time!

On our way back, we looked right by us AND SAW WHALES!  At first we saw a cluster of about nine and so we stopped and the tiniest little baby whale jumped out of the water.  It was so surreal!  Since we were on our way back, I had tucked my phone away in my suit, but I tried to dig for it as soon as we saw another cluster of about nine whales…

…and of course, they were all under but do you see the water there?  That’s them right underneath with their backs and blow holes just at the surface level.  It was completely crazy to see the whales that close.

Whew!  Back on land with goggle marks on our face to show for it :).
Watching them make our crepes.  She’s such a big girl now!  Miss Independent!

We walked and toured some more flam and found another park.

Coffee and Norway.

So much fun in Flam!  
Toms/Tee 

We got back on board right at the end of the day and headed to the front of the ship to watch the scenic touring of the fjord. I said “say cheese” just as Ashby got a nose bleed.  Just a day in the life of us!  #theresalwaysanosebleed #doctorssayshellgrowoutofit #hereishoping

NOTHING can keep this girl down!  All smiles while we wait for the nosebleed to stop.

Cocktail hour.

Dinner with my loves.

I basically wore my black jeans and a different top to dinner every single night.  Easy packing right there!
Jeans/Top

And this sums up Ashby’s day :).
This time of year, the sun really only goes down for about three hours every night and it never gets totally dark out (you can always see some sunlight).  So after dinner on these nights, we would sit out and watch the fjords.  You could turn on the TV in your cabin and hear them explain the history and such of the fjords as you went through them.  It took us 6 hours to get both in and out of this fjord.  That’s how big it was!
Whew!  Those were days four and five!  I’m pretty sure tomorrow, I’ll have more :).
To see tomorrow (Days 6 &7), click here.
On my foodie blog today…

…my 5 Favorite Pasta Salads!  Pasta salads are my favorite summer lunch.  See my five faves here.

xo

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Comments

  1. cathrine says

    hope you enjoyed our country as much as it seems on the pictures, thank you for sharing them with us all! some other time you all ought to come back and check out the Lofoten islands too, the scenery there is stunning, and they are located above the arctic circle so you'll get to see the midnight sun too! happy summer holiday to you all 🙂 love from norway 🙂

  3. Erika Slaughter says

    Girl!!! That is some beautiful scenery!! The boat ride looks awesome and is definitely something your kids will always remember. It's gonna be hard to top day five-it was a good one!!

  5. Sheaffer {Pinterest Told Me To} says

    I'm so amazed you didn't get sick on the boat! Actually, I'm even more impressed that you actually got on the boat! Loving following along on the trip!!!

  11. Kat says

    I'm sure you have received many comments about nose bleeds and tips, but I wanted to share what we have found works for us (my son and myself). When we get really severe ones we told our head down and put a cold cloth on the back of our neck….it helps to stop it quickly! Just wanted to share…

  12. Jess Deisher says

    That looks absolutely incredible! Reminds me of the lake towns I saw in Austria. So gorgeous

  13. Auntie T says

    This looks like a trip I'd like to duplicate (in two years). You make everything look so fun and easy! You should do a post on what you packed and wore every day. Love your blog!

  14. Jenny says

    That last picture of Ashby, flat out sleeping, cracks me up! What a cutie! Glad you guys had such a good time! 🙂

  17. Marcy says

    Thank you for sharing this amazing trip .. Can't wait to hear/see the rest. Have you tried Relief Band?? It's a battery operated sea sick band .. My husband has had great success with it on boats..

  18. Elizabeth Valdez says

    I have added the fjords on my list of places I want to travel!! Thank you Shay 🙂

  19. Leigh (Balancing By Faith) says

    Your photos are stunning…and make me need to go google "fjords". I don't know what this is!!!

  20. Amy says

    What type of stroller do you take with you? We're traveling with our 14 month old in August, and looking for a good lightweight stroller.

  22. Rebecca Jo says

    Good for you doing the boat ride even knowing you'll probably get sick… did you get sick? I dont remember reading the result. That 'going over the edge' waterfall drop would have done me in though.
    Those outfits were worth the ride alone 😉
    FYI… I never grew out of the nosebleeds. I'm 44 & have one basically every other day. Fun stuff.

  23. Judith and Lance says

    My 9 year old daughter had nosebleeds for years and I finally took her to an ENT who cauterized her blood vessels and the nose bleeds stopped. You might want to look into it.

    • Mix and Match Mama says

      Oh my goodness! Would you believe she's had that done five times since last July? Insane, right? The ENT says that her vessels are just so close to the surface that it doesn't take. She had it done most recently in May.

    • Judith and Lance says

      Wow, thats crazy! I'm so sorry it hasn't helped. It was such a relief for me not to clean blood off everything everyday any longer. She still has blood stains on her mattress from the nosebleeds. I hope they can figure something out.

  25. Bernadine says

    What a lovely trip, thanks for sharing!
    Perhaps you can do a "50 Shades of Shay" on how you pack when you travel and have enough space for all the souvenirs you buy?

  26. Wannie says

    Hi Shay, do you mind sharing with me (us) the site where you booked your Fjords cruise? I am so interested and would love to take my parents!

    • Mix and Match Mama says

      Email me and I'll give you their number! We called them to make reservations!

  27. Anna Lazar says

    Maybe I missed it in the blog post, but can you share a link to your Burberry scarf?

  29. lacynsteve says

    How was your seasickness on this cruise ship? Were you bothered by it on your Disney cruise? We are going on the Dream this summer for the first time and I'm slightly worried….just wondering what to bring/how to prepare? Thanks!

    • Mix and Match Mama says

      I typically do not get sea sick on cruises. Only one time has that happen (and by time, I mean the entire length of the cruise I was sick)…other than that, big ships don't bother me because you can't feel them move.

  30. Lisa Black says

    A-MAZING Pics!!!! I've never thought I wanted to go to Norway, but now I sure do! 😉

  31. Jess says

    Hi Shay! This trip looks amazing. Just wanted to say that I used to get nosebleeds a lot as a kid (and I did in fact grow out of them for the most part – only get one occasionally now!). One random trick that always helped stop them quickly was to put a strip of tissue or paper towel under my upper lip. Not sure why it works, but sticking a rolled up piece of paper towel between my upper lip and gums dries that area out and it somehow stops my nosebleed! Might be worth a shot with Ashby since it's such an easy little thing to do!

    • Rebecca Hapersberger says

      I too suffered from nosebleeds as a child and this trick worked wonders for me!! I recommend it to anyone I know that deals with nosebleeds.

  32. Amanda Ford says

    I think I would have cried a little if I saw the baby whale. How amazing! Sounds like you had an amazing trip (so far!). Thanks for sharing!

  33. Sheila Nakamura says

    I so enjoy seeing pics of your trips and your beautiful family. Thank you for sharing!

  37. Meg P says

    Hi Shay!! Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful trip. It looks like such a blast!! I loved the pink-ish lip color you have been wearing on the trip (the one you are wearing on Day 5). What is it?! Thanks!!

  38. Clareio says

    ohh you're making me miss the Fjords, I have a photo of me from 16 years ago JUST where your Flam family picture is!

  39. Aubrey says

    That crazy cold boat ride looked like fun! We never did Norway as a family (Nick adventured there solo when we had two under two) but after the Frozen phenomenon we seriously considered it. Glad I’m getting to see it thru your eyes without having to brave the cold (brrrr) or a cruise (ugh). 🙂

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