Sweden and Norway

            NORWAY





                 and


            SWEDEN






 Our last stop on our trip through Europe ended up being Norway and Sweden. Visiting Sweden has always been a dream of mine. I told Hayden that Sweden was in my top 5 countries that I dreamed about visiting. So, Hayden being the amazing husband he is, made it happen. He got invited to the Fjall Marathon race and we decided to go! Hayden's parents also decided to join us and we were so happy and excited to see them as it had been a few months since we had seen family. We are pretty close with both his family and my family, so having them come was great!

Trondheim, Norway

We flew from Geneva to Trodheim, Norway and spent our first day in Trondheim. Trondheim was probably my favorite city that we visited in our travels. It was what I pictured it to be with the colored houses and the beautiful fjords. It reminded me a lot of Anchorage, Alaska. It was a nice city and had some cool things, but it wasn't super touristy and had a nice, laid-back feel.

A nice surprise was the Nidros Cathedral which was originally built in 1000 A.D.
We also enjoyed watching people try to take the bike lift up to the top of the hill.

Trillevalen, Sweden
After a day in Trondheim we picked Hayden's parents up at the airport and we were very excited to see them!
We then drove to Trillevalan, Sweden which was a 2 hour drive.
The race put us up in a place that was near the start line and close to trails and fed us all meals. It was nice because Sweden is actually really expensive. We really enjoyed the lodging because a lot of the other racers and volunteers were staying there and we got to make friends with some amazing Swedish people. We really loved the people there, they were very nice and spoke great English which made communicating a lot easier.
Some of the activities we did were:
1. going to the lake- Sweden is know for it's beautiful lakes and we were able to go enjoy a few of them.

2. Trail running with Hayden. We had someone to babysit Crosby, so that was fantasitc! It was nice to go run together and Hayden's parents hadn't seen Crosby for a long time, so the tradeoff was good!

3. The adventure park in Norway- this was about a 1hr drive and one of our favorite things. It big and small zip lines, climbing, a ropes course, and canoeing. It was beautiful and something I would definitely recommend. I also overcame my fear of rock climbing and heights!

4. The Fjall Half marathon, VK, and 7k.

Hayden and I raced all 3 races and Hayden's mom and dad and Crosby(carried in a pack) did just the 7k.  Hayden won the VK and took 3rd in the Half marathon and I was 5th in the VK and 6th in the half marathon. The half marathon course was so beautiful, but way different than anything that Hayden or I had ever run. A lot of the race goes through a swamp area and the ground was very spongy and muddy. They even said this was a dry year!! We enjoyed it and had a good time. 

 

This was my first VK (3 mile race with 3000ft+ elevation gain) and I really loved it. 

The true hero and champ for the weekend was Hayden's dad. He had never done a race before and we talked him into doing this one. This one was probably a little bit intense to start on, but he made it and did well! He was not liking us at all the first half which was climbing over 1500ft  for 3 miles. After we hit the top and started going downhill, Hayden's dad took off and left us all chasing after him. He ran the last 1.5 miles and finished his first race ever. We are so proud of dad Hawks for doing it with only 4 days of training! Hopefully we didn't ruin him forever on trail races. (haha)

We loved our time in Sweden and Norway and want to thank everyone that made it possible for us to go there!

Headed Home....a little early

I haven't posted in a while because things got crazy and we have been in and out of Wifi the last few weeks. We have been traveling and enjoying Europe for the past 3 months with Hayden’s running. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to travel like we’ve always wanted to. When Hayden and I first got married, we talked about this dream of ours but weren’t sure if it was really possible. But luckily, running is Hayden’s job and we do some online work as well while we are away!

Visa Problems
However, recently we hit a bump in the road. Being from the US, Europe doesn't require anything but a passport to stay in the country. We had heard that we had 90 days, but we thought we had 90 in France, 90 in Slovakia, 90 in Sweden, or in other words, 90 days in each European country. It turns out that we only have 90 days in the whole Schengen area altogether which is almost every country in the European Union except for a few countries. We tried to file for a tourist extension for 30 days so that Hayden could run the UTMB weekend and me the Jungfrau marathon but the process is rather arduous and we have to go back to the states to complete it. It would require traveling to the Embassy in the US in Los Angeles, waiting for an appointment and then only having a 50 percent chance of getting a tourist visa extension because we already stayed in Europe for 90 days. We are not allowed back in until November. If we overstayed, we could get fined or possibly banned from Europe, so it's not worth risking it.

Update: Hayden’s sponsor HOKA ONE ONE is trying to help Hayden get a short work visa to get back for UTMB weekend, so it looks like we will be back there! I still have about a week before my 90 days is up so I can go back with him!

Needless to say, we are coming home and now home It's been a long time so we are excited to be back but also a little sad because Europe has been fun!

Delayed Flights

On our travels back home, we had quite an adventure, but what is travel without a few airplane delays.  We were flying out of Trondheim, Norway to come home and we got there with plenty of time to check in and also to figure out our stroller and car seat that the airline lost the week prior. They are going to compensate us, so that’s good! If dealing with no stroller wasn’t enough, our flight got delayed by 5.5 hours. They said the plane had a very small dent in the nose and that they had to fly in their engineer from Amsterdam. He got there about 5pm (5 hours later), looked at the plane for 2 minutes and said that they were good to go. So we flew into Amsterdam, Netherlands, but we missed our connecting flight to the United States. The airline didn't have any more flights going out until the next day to the U.S. so they put us up in a pretty nice hotel and gave us meal vouchers. It was inconvenient and hard to travel two days, especially with an almost 1 year old, but we did get to CHECK ANOTHER COUNTRY OFF OUR LIST!! Amsterdam was busy but really nice near the outskirts. We finally made it home late the next night and in time for my dad's birthday the night before and Crosby's birthday the next day!











Crosby's Birthday
Crosby turned 1 and we had a fun time with family! He got a new swing which he wants to go in all the time from Grandma and Grandpa, a walker from my sister and some other fun presents. We went to the lake and played in the sand (his favorite thing) with cousins and had some birthday cupcakes!

What did we gain from our travels:

1. Europe is a nice place with great people and we have made great friends.

Our favorite "step-Grandma" Fran!

2. There are so many beautiful countries and places in the world with so much to offer. We saw so many diverse places from






the Swiss and French Alps

to the cities of Budapest and Vienna,















to the rolling hills of Sweden,














the Fjords of Norway,











the majestic Dolamites in Italy

and the high Tatra mountains of Slovakia.













3. European racing is full of passionate people that love their endurance sports and it is so fun to be a part of it. We were in France during the Tour de France and although we didn’t watch it, there was a lot of excitement about it. The ultra marathon races are these huge events as well and very serious and professional.

4. Training for the Ultras is great out here, but the best training happens in your own home in a stable environment. It is easier to recover, not over-race, and feel at peace in your own environment and in your own bed. We did learn how to run technical European trails and really enjoyed the European style of racing! Hayden came home with all wins and one 3rd place! Pretty successful summer for him!

5.  I have the best husband in the world. He is so supportive, loving, and a great dad. Our little boy absolutely loves his dad and I do to! I don't know what life would be like without Hayden.

6. Living abroad with a baby was a great, rewarding, and sometimes difficult experience. It will be so fun to show Crosby the countries he’s visited when he’s older and understands. With a baby people like to tell you how cute your baby is and are nicer to you.







It’s led to some conversations with strangers as well. We would always try to find an activity for Crosby to do and we found the local park or a big open grass field was his favorite. We also met some great friends, the Hawkers who

have a little one as well. They showed us the ropes on how to travel with a little one. The hardest part was moving around and flying back with a baby. It would take Crosby a few days to settle into each new place, but we were blessed with a champion sleeper!












7. We are part of the LDS religion and would always try to find a church to go to. The closest was usually 1+ hour away, but it was amazing how the church is the same in Europe as it is in our hometown!


8. Last of all, Europe doesn't have any Mexican food and their attempt at it isn't great! That was our first stop on the way home and oh it was soooo good!!


Keep looking for more posts because we aren't done traveling yet and there is some great stuff in our own backyard in Utah!