Hello from Denmark!

A typical Danish home nearby the house we're staying in. I love the colors on this house and the flowers.

The narrow streets in Ringkobing are made of cobbelstone and most the homes are brick. I love how roses and Hollyhocks sprig out of the stones along side the homes .

The girls in the dinning/living room. There are really three living rooms in the house and three bathrooms!

The backyard. Tirza at the patio table and Annah in the flowers.

The girls with "Grandpa Ben" in the backyard

The girls and my dad with their first Danish soft ice of the summer

Shane and the girls enjoy their ice cream at the town square/plaza, just a few blocks from the home we're living in.

The horse drawn carriage going by outside our house.

A typical Danish bakery. There is one on almost every corner in Denmark.

Annah checking out the pasteries.

Our street

We arrived yesterday after an easy, uneventful flight. Both girls slept much of it (Annah on the floor under our feet and Mira across the seats). My dad picked us up and we went back to his place for the first night to see him and Kirsten (his wife) and Mikkel (their son and my half-brother). Erik, our home exchange partner came by for coffee so we could meet and exchange keys. It was nice to meet in person after planning this via email for the last year. Today we got settled in their wonderful home in Ringkobing, a quaint little town with cobblestone streets and watch men that walk the streets and ring bells at 9 pm each night to signal the end of the day. Every 15 minutes or so a horse drawn carriage comes by the house and the girls run to the windows when they hear the horses hooves clomping on the cobblestone street outside. The house is right near the main pedestrian only shopping street with many shops, bakeries, etc. Of course we had to discover the ice cream shop and the bakery first thing. The bakeries in Denmark are absolutely amazing!

Tomorrow we plan to explore the fjord and harbor, just across the street from us and also go to the beach. Erik and Bente have two bikes we can use and we might rent a bike for Mira and a seat so we can bike as much as possible (gas here is more than $8 a gallon!). My two sisters also arrive tomorrow evening and we really look forward to seeing them.

That's it for today - just wanted to share these pictures and let everyone know we made it. We're trying to figure out how we could possibly come here for a year :). We'll update with more pictures again in a couple days.