Heddal Stave Church

After seeing pictures of this church on Pinterest I looked up directions.  It turns out this church is less than 2 hours from us.  We had a beautiful Saturday morning so we decided to hit the road.  The drive to the church was very pretty.

The church is so pretty in person.  It has a cemetery around it and it is near a lake.  The green grass everywhere made everything look so amazing.

The kids love cemeteries and they were very anxious to explore this one.

Inside the church was beautiful.  This church was originally built in 1250.

Some of the decoration on the inside of the church.

Garrett got scared in a dark area and wanted his Daddy. 

Out in the cemetery the kids were looking at some of the gravestones.  

This grave almost made Addie cry.  It was for a little girl who only lived to be 4 years old, she has such a tender heart.

Garrett was so proud of his handsome outfit, and he loves when he has 'two pockets'.

Such an amazing place.

The church was in Heddal, but that is about all that is there.  We started looking on our phone for a place to eat.  There were not a lot of choices so we headed back to the closest town, Notodden.  We were hoping to find a pizza place open, but for some reason restaurants here don't open until 1 or 2 pm. It was only noon so we were in rough shape.  Thankfully there was a Thai restaurant open.  You never know what you are going to get at a small town restaurant, but we found a gem here.  The spring rolls were amazing and we were all really happy with our meals.  

After lunch the kids wanted to go into a pet store that was next door.  A pet store for these kids is almost as good as a zoo.  We got to see fish and hamsters, mice and a parrot.

This parrot was tucked away downstairs and he was so fun.  He said "Hello" when we walked up and then he just looked at us and pecked at his cage.  When we were ready to go we started to say Good bye, but I thought that maybe Norwegian would work better for this bird.  Sure enough I said "Ha det" and the bird answered back with a LOUD 'Ha det' of his own.  The kids thought that was great and it ended up being their favorite and most talked about event of the day.

A 2 hour ride home and naps all around and these kids were ready for more fun.  Garrett decided he needed knee and elbow pads for his scooter ride.

Ben needed his helmet for extra safety during tree climbing.  The boys ended up going for a bike ride with Jon and Addison.

Addison is now riding her bike with NO training wheels.  She is so excited and proud of herself.  It is so much fun to watch her grow up and reach these milestones.