A Day in Åre

One of the highlights of our trip was the day we spent in Åre, a touristy ski town about an hour away from Henrik's home. It would be similar to Breckenridge or Vail, (I think, anyway! I haven't actually been to either of those places!!!!) with tons of condos, hotels and high-end shopping. Even though it was summer, the city was still hopping. Hikers & bikers navigated their way up and down the mountain, and less "sporty" tourists like us took the gondola up and down!

Here's the gondola that we rode up the mountain.

Here's how E felt about going up! (Just kidding . . . this was actually just E's favorite new face to make for the camera. He couldn't wait to get on the gondola!)

Baby girl passed out smile after smile to everyone waiting for our ride.

Up, up and away - the boys LOVED it!!

Amelia should have been recording Henrik's face on the way up . . . he was kind of green, and very white knuckled!

Baby Girl loved being crammed into that very small box with about 50 other people, dangling in the air, high over the mountain, while being blown and tossed by the wind, until we reached the top!

When we got outside, it was COLD and WINDY!! Little N was thrilled to find snow!

We all took a short hike. Even Baby Girl got in on the action . . . sheltered by the hood on her backpack.

I just love this family picture! When we reached this point, N and I headed back down to the restaurant, and Henrik, E and Amelia decided to hike the rest of the way up to the summit of the mountain.

After hiking a bit, a tiny little waffle house came into view.

Henrik was so proud of E's perseverance. It was about a half mile, pretty arduous hike from where we were dropped off by the gondola to the summit

It was a team effort, but E worked really hard, and Henrik didn't have to carry him at all.

Almost there!!

Hooray!!!!

This is one proud little boy!

What a view!

And the waffles were good, too!! (Oh, and here's that face again!)