Skiing in Hafjell, Norway

We decided to take the kids out of school during vecka 5 (week 5 of the year) and go skiing for 3 days in Hafjell, Norge which is about a 3.5 hour drive from our house in Stöpafors. Here are a few pictures from the slopes. We spent mornings skiing together as a family and then spent the first 2 afternoons helping 4 year old E to start skiing on his own (Yes, Hol, J, E, and A came with us as well). By the 3rd day E was skiing on his own and the Elliots spent their last entire day skiing together. We were amazed at how developed the mountain was. There are houses in large numbers all the way up both sides of the skiing area. There is also evidence of farming all the way up - you can see some farm buildings and fruit trees in the picture above. These were about 1/4 of the way up the mountain. At the top there are some fenced areas which must be used for cattle in the summer.

You can see the man in the mountain - a figure of a man carrying the olympic torch which was cut from the forest across the valley for the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994- in one of the pictures above. There were some snow capped peaks in the distance as well, but these are not obvious in the pictures. The boys went night skiing as well, checking out a rock concert at the top of the gondola the last night we were there. H stayed at the stuga with one or two of the little boys during the evenings so Hol and J could get a chance to get out. Even the big boys could be persuaded to enjoy the DVD entertainment after a days and nights skiing - here they are watching either Pingu, Pippi Longstrump, or Emil. What a great way to learn some more Swedish, and a rare sight to see these two boys sharing anything! As a matter of fact the whole trip was, with only a few exceptions, great as far as family togetherness goes.

Here's the whole gang minus K (who's taking the picture) and Frida the dog (who's finding goodies under the table) sitting down for a meal.