this is why moms worry... =)

im sure you are curious to know how our ski weekend went.... i'd say it was... "eventful"! our plan originally was to go to Oslo, where we would get our memberships to a chain of ski huts in Norway owned by one company, take a bus to a town called Losby about 6km from the 1st hut we booked for Friday night, skiing about 15 km on Saturday to another hut we booked to spend the night and finally skiing a little bit to take the bus/train back home on Sunday.

long story short, we never made it to Losby... or any of the huts for that matter!!! we trained to Oslo, got our memberships and picked up the key with relatively few mishaps



(except running for the 1:36pm train, and only me and Debbie making it on, so Audrey and Laurent had to catch the 2:36!)... and after sorting out our memberships and picking up our key to the huts, we hopped on a bus that would get us to Losby. when we asked the driver to tell us when we got to Losby, he told us no buses go right to Losby but he would get us close and we'd have to walk maybe 20-30 min. so we got off the bus, probably about 4:30 or 5pm at this point, and pulled out our map of ski trails in the area (which would turn out to be THE BEST investment of 112NOK (about $20) i've ever spent!).

we were about to head off towards Losby when a guy walking his dog passed us, and we thought we'd play it safe and ask him the best way to go. He recommeded instead of walking, to head directly for the ski trail across the road, which would take us to Losby.

i guess it was about two hours or so into our ski adventure that we started wondering whether we'd missed a turn to get to Losby, so we stopped another cross-country skier to ask. he looked at our map and told us we would have been much better going the OTHER way to Losby... and the quickest way there from this point would be to head back to where we started!! but given how far we'd already come, maybe we could head for Mariholtet, another hut about 5km ahead of where we were. it was maybe not owned by the same chain, and of course, we hadnt made reservations, but he was "SURE we could stay there for the night".


so we took a tea and cookies break and onwards we went!! we finally arrived at the hut around 9:30pm, about 10km or so from our intended hut... a little tired but super excited & proud to reach our destination. but then.. .we knocked on the door, and a lady peered her head out of the door, told us it was a privately owned (motel-sized?!!) house and told us to go to the next town 8km north to find a place to stay and shut the door in our faces. ai yah!! we tried to map out our plan, but before we left, me and Debbie tried to knock on the door again, put on our best puppy-dog faces and ask as sorry-ly and diplomatically as we could if there was any possible way we could even sleep just in the cafeteria for the night. negative... i think its the first time my little-people-discount didnt work for me!! haha..

we bundled up and got back on the ski run, and stopped another passerby-er to tell him we were lost and looking for a place nearby to get to to stay (half secretly hoping a more compassionate soul would take us in for the night!)... he didn't but recommended a better option of skiing 5 km to a town called Oppsal where we'd be able to catch a train to Oslo, and from there back home to As!

so thats what we did... we skied our way to Oppsal, where a super nice Somalian man giving us directions to the train station ended up giving us a ride there because he was afraid we didn't understand his english directions... took the train to Oslo, Oslo to As,


and... made it back home (deadtired on the kitchen floor) around 2am!

so that was our ski weekend!! quite the adventure (and exactly what my mom was afraid of... hehe!) !! not quite as planned... but we all really had a great time, smiles & laughs all around all night, owl calls, yelling over a huge (and beautiful and frozen) lake to hear echos

and even breaking out into Hakuna Matata, and a


3am dinner and sleepover at debbie's when we got back....




an adventure to be remembered for sure!!

a few more pictures from the evening...

big beautiful frozen lake by moonlight so bright there's shadows from the trees!






late night picnic at the Olso train station while waiting for our train!





safe and sound... just minor battle wounds with the snow! (on an additional plus side, id say we all got a LOT better at skiing by the end of the night! at first, a crash was imminent with every downhill slope (hence the cuts and scrapes), but by the end of the night we were actually skiing, yay!)




and there you have it... our wonderful ski adventure! and i wouldn't trade it for the world!

just as a disclaimer, i DID talk to my mom before putting this story up! =) hehe.. love you all!!

til next time,
rainbow =)