Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Celebration in Norway

The first of our wedding celebrations took place last Saturday, April 23 in Oslo, Norway. What a wonderful time we had! It was complete with moose stew (amazingly delicious), yummy cakes, beautiful flowers, musical performances, reunions with dear friends, and memorable times with our family. Here's a quick photo report of some of the fun:


All the family together...




With Tarjei's parents...



With Julianna's parents...



Cutting the cake the "Norwegian way" (civilized with forks)...











Tarjei's brother, Sindre - Our fine Toastmaster for the evening...



With Daniel and Catherine Blomberg from Sweden. Tarjei and I served our missions with Daniel many years ago. It was an absolute treat to have them there!





Tarjei with Jaran (his lifelong friend and Best man)...



The set-up for the evening including napkin lilies and amazing Norwegian cakes...





There was a lot more to the evening, but I was busy not taking pictures...maybe more will come later!


Sunday, April 3, 2011

It has been approved!

People have been asking over the last year where we plan on living. That's a question we have asked ourselves many times over. Both have been open to the possibility of Julianna coming to Norway and for me to go to Utah. We've gone through the emotions and the practicalities, making lists of pro's and con's. Some ask: "Why don't you just pick one place and go?" Well let me tell you, it's not that easy! Once you start digging into it, there are more factors to think about than first beholds the eye, and they all need to be considered. After having made a list and weighted it once again, and after much prayer and communication, we came to a decision on February 12th that it is I who will go to Utah. For how long? We don't know.

Next step then was to finalize my visa application. March 9th I had an interview scheduled at the embassy in Oslo. We had done a pretty thorough work in our preparations, so I wasn't really expecting any issues or challenges being approved, but when it was two hours after my appointed time, I have to admit that I was starting to get a bit nervous. Close to three hours after I got there it was finally my turn, and five minutes later it was over!

Somewhere between 3 or 4 am I called Julianna to tell her all about the interview and that everything had gone well. She had expected my call and although I felt bad for waking her up, we enjoyed sharing the moment together. One week later I could go and pick up my passport with my visa approved :-)