Northern European Cruise

 The words amazing, incredible,awesome, pinch-me-am-I-really-here, don't even begin to describe our cruise with Brian and Amber to Northern Europe.  (I'm having serious problems with blogger so it's not in order, but there are a few pic and a few words of explaination, just try to put it all together, I dare you!)

 Dancing in the royal ballroom

 The original Christus

 The castle that inspired the writing of Hamlet, and our picnic lunch on the grounds

 Laughing at Amber as our doting head waiter brings her three desserts after dinner, and  a pile of bacon for breakfast!

So, a few of the highlights, and I know I'm missing several things:
Brugge Belguim: stepping back into history among the 11th century buildings, then getting into more modern 16th century ones.  Canal boat ride (in the rain) through the canals, this city is known as Little Venice.  The Church of St Mary's where Michelangelos' Madonna dn child are...the only sculpture of his outside of Italy.  CHOCOLATE...need I say more!  Brugges Square, litterlly jaw droppingly beautiful.  Climbing 366 steps to the top of the bell tower adn being lucky enough to be 1-2 feet away when they started chiming! Windmills.  Our tour guide (brian)  and his able bodied assistant (amber) looking back to make sure we were still with them and hearing him say, "And we're walking, we're walking people..."
Day at Sea where we slept in until 10 and Bri and Amber slept til noon, yes folks, that's 12:00 noon!   (our lunch date got pushed back to 1!).  A basketball contest with a Johnson sweep....Brian took first place by a huge margin, and Amber and Larry tied for second place.  Me?  Well I was the entire cheering section, go team!  Lounging, ice cream, reading, games, fun.
Copenhagen Denmark:  Frederiksborg castle where there is a room filled with original Carl Bloch paintings, Nyharn, the Rainbow Row of shops along the waterway, gorgeous!  Cathedral of Our Lady with the original Christus statue. Stoget, a famous pedestrian shopping mall, all streets are for walkers and bikes only, no cars allowed.  Boat ride through the canals of Copenhagen, and yes, it did rain once again!.  The Little Mermaid Statue.
Helsingborg Sweden:  Church of St Mary, a beautiful 1533 church, ferry across the North Sea through Osengund Sound to Helsingor Denmark to go to Kroneborg Castle, where Larry's family is from.  Also the location for the inspiration and filming of Hamlet.  Lovely picnic lunch on the grounds.  Back to Sweden to hike up to the Keep, the only remaining part of an 11th century castle.
Oslo Norway:  Took a train up to the mountains where the old Olympic ski jump was to hike through a couple of small towns w/amazing views of the fjiords and city down below.  But, once again, the rain found us, the fog moved in and we couldn't see very far in front of us, so we went back into town and took a ferry to the Norwegian Folk Museum with homes and buildings from the 11th century on to more modern times of the 18th century.   Stood in the hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded and back on the ship.
Day at Sea:  Sleep in, relax, eat, read, play games, enjoy!  Another exciting ship contest, a putting contest.  Dad got the booby prize for no points and Brian came in second and was so proud of his "major award"!!
London:  In a nutshell, Buckingham Palace tour, Parliment, Big Ben, Westminser Abbey tour, Tower of London tour, riding the London Eye, hiking to a tiny gluten free restaraunt, yummmy!   Trafalgar Square, pictures at night, hike back to hotel and crashed!
Well, it's only a small sampling of our trip, but it was truely an amazing experience!!
Thanks to Brian and Amber for HOURS of research that allowed us to get so many things packed into each day's adventures.  It was awesome!

Isolde Renee is Here!!!

Pop Pop gets a hug from Granddaughter #6, our precious little Isolde.

 Grandma's turn for cuddle time, she's soooo tiny! (Isolde, NOT Grandma!)

 Miya LOVES her new little cousin

 What a sweetheart!  Isolde is a beautiful, sweetheart.  We are so glad she is here and that she and mom, and yes, even dad, are doing well.  A little sleep deprived, but happy and well.

She is such a precious angel.  We are so grateful for her and grateful for this blessing for her little family.

Summer Fun Never Ends

We've had the opportunity to head to Utah to visit family, enjoy a few days on the Snake River with Craig, Char and family and friends, and had a great week.  Then I headed to southern Florida to enjoy a week with Scott and his family.  Here are just a few of the many pictures we took, enjoy!

 Happy 4th of July!

 Who had more fun at the park,Kinsey or Scott?

 We got amazignly close to the wild animals at the Safari

Oops how did this get in there twice, can't figure out how to delet it!!

 The river trip was amazing, we LOVED the experience!

 Dancin' with Don Alma

 Reading Dad's children's stories to him

What a great lookin group!

It was a wonderful two weeks.  Can't wait to go again, thanks and love to all family.

Groovin' With the Blue Man!

 Dad and I had the opportunity to go see the Blue Man group last night.  Didn't really know quite what to expect but it was pretty hilarious and fun and interesting and very entertaining.  And yes, Miya, we did stand up with everybody else and "shake our booty-bum-fanny-heiny and all the other 30 or so words they used to call that part of the anatomy!"  We were close enough to get covered with the shooting confetti and hit the big balls a few times that they shot out into the crowd.

After the concert, they came out into the foyer and allowed folks to come up and take pictures, and, if you wanted, they would "blueify" you...You point to where you want your mark and he would take one finger, rub it on the grease paint on his head and give you a blue mark.  Since I had already thrown away my program, (which is where most of the ladies were having their blueprint put), I went for the cheek blueprint!  Silly Grandma!!

What a fun night!!!

Brian's Birthday Surprise!

We are on our way to surprise Brian on his 30th birthday...which included a lot of fun for us and for the Palmers as we flew out to D.C.

We stopped at the National Zoo for the day before heading over to Brians apartment.  The pandas were the hit of the day.

Brian was TOTALLY speechless!   It was a complete surprise and oh so fun to see him in shock before he was able to realize that we were really there.

This is Brian still in shock and not quite sure what to say or do...so funny.  I would never have thought that we would take him so totally off guard!  Yea us!!

Brian cracks up throughout the viewing of his birthday video, The Johnson Family Presents:  The Life of Brian-Blackmail Edition.  Many, many thanks to Allen for his professional talents in making the film!

The Palmer girls became metro-pros, they loved riding the metro and refused to sit down, hanging onto the pole was much more authentic!

Lila loved the escalators!

The girls had fun sharing a borrowed stroller at the museum of art

And we walked...and walked...and walked...from the Library of Congress to the Lincoln Memorial, from the White House to the War Memorials and everywhere inbetween!



I think we wore Aunt Amber out!

Girl Power!!

These girls are never too tired to pose

We waited about 1 1/2 hours for lunch and we were STARVING!

You can't go to DC without taking pictures at the ever popular tree sites!
Now this is a face of a 30 year old man!



Super Girl Power!!

And finally a much needed and deserved stop at the most popular site in town, the yellow ice cream truck!



All too soon our trip comes to an end and Lila is riding to the airport in style with monkey

The girls did a super job sitting by themselves on the plane ride home...they were so grown up!
We had a great trip!  Thanks Brian and Amber for the birthday party.  It was a great time.