Cruising - St. Petersburg Day Two Surprise!

After we got back from our tour of the church in St. Petersburg, Emerson, Anna and I had only a couple minutes before we had to hop on another tour bus.

It was a surprise for Emerson and Anna and I thought that it was a super fun experience.

The tour took us to a Matryoshka store and in a classroom above the store we were taught by a very well know artist how to paint our very own Matryoshka dolls.

(The artist painted the black bits...face...arms...legs...tail...etc. to my tiger)

Then after the class we were taken to a nearby restaurant to have a traditional Russian tea party.

Super fun experience!

Cruising - St. Petersburg Day Two

On our second day in St. Petersburg Russia we took a guided walking tour through some of the city.

The main stop was the Church of the Spilt Blood.  It is a very pretty building and has some beautiful mosaics on the inside.

It was a fun day visiting some of the tourist sites in St Petersburg and learning more about Russia's history and culture.

Cruising - St. Petersburg Day One

During our first day in St. Pertersburg Russia we took a tour of Peterhof Palace.  It was a bit of a drive, but along the way we were able to see a lot of pretty churches and other buildings as well as listen to some of the history of this interesting city.

At Peterhof there were many fountains, manicured gardens and palaces to see.  Peterhof is actually a series of palaces and gardens located in St. Petersburg by the order of Peter the Great.  Peter the Great cared a lot about his image and wanted an extravagant place to take his honored guests.

We rode on this fun train to see some of the other palaces and gardens at Peterhof.

Fun re-enactments and activities for the children (we unfortunately didn't have time to participate).

Though it was a very hot day in St. Petersburg we thoroughly enjoyed seeing the beauty and culture of the palaces and gardens at Peterhof.

Cruising - Helsinki

Another port city we went to was Helsinki Finland.  The main attraction for our family in Helsinki was the temple just outside of the actual city.  To get there we had to take a train!

(Which the kids loved!)

While waiting for a train the boys had fun with dandelions.

The temple grounds were beautiful.  It was such a peaceful place.  We enjoyed walking around and looking at all the pretty flowers and taking lots of pictures.

(Below are just a couple that turned out.)

Before heading back to the ship we went to Helsinki's national art gallery.

We also stopped for a couple minutes and listened to this man and his musical bottles.

Cruising - Stockholm

We also spent a day in Stockholm Sweden.  It was a beautiful day and we saw a lot of pretty boats on the water.

The boys saw this boat and wanted a picture next to it.  

(It looked a lot like the type of boat from the Cars 2 movie.)

We also saw some peaceful riots

(Not sure what they were protesting.)

We did a hop on hop off boat tour/ride.  It was a nice escape from the sun and they boys thought it was super cool.

The gang in front of the vasa museum.

(Getting a little tired of taking so many pictures so we decided to take a couple silly ones.)

Towards the end of the day we took a rest on some park benches and watched some funny men walk around.  (The three legged man came and gave the boys high-fives!)

As we waited for the boat to pick us up and take us back to the ship we had some fun on the beach looking for cool stuff and throwing rocks in the water.

Had a great time walking around Stockholm and getting a little taste of the Swedish culture.

Cruising - Copenhagen

The first city we visited was Copenhagen Denmark.  In Copenhagen there is a temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The temple was one of our first stops in Copenhagen.  I have seen pictures of this temple before and loved it's very unique design in comparison to other temples and so it was fun to see it in person.

While in Copenhagen we also visited the 'Church of our Lady' where the original Christus statue is housed.  Our Church has many replicas of this statue at temple visitor centers all over the world.  (I personally love this statue and the welcoming feeling of the Savior standing with outstretched hands.)  Along with the statue of the Savior there are statues of the original twelve apostles.  Emerson had fun trying to figure out what each of the apostles were holding in their hands.

While on our journey to visit different sights in Copenhagen we enjoyed walking through a couple parks.  They were very beautiful and green.

Before getting back on the ship we stopped to look at some smaller boats as well as feed some birds.

The day started out a little cold and rainy, but by the end of our stay in Copenhagen the sun was shinning and it was lovely and warm.

Cruising - On the Boat

At the end of may we went on a cruise and visited some of the Northern "Baltic" Countries.  It was a great vacation and we had so much fun both on and off the boat.

Below are some of the fun things we did when we were on the boat.

The boys loved playing in the little kids swimming pool.  They went swimming most days.  (Behind them in first picture is a water slide.  Canyon and I went down a couple times and he totally loved it.)

(Stephen's sister Anna went on the cruise with us...it was so much fun having her with us.)

We also had fun going for walks around the boat, especially when we were nearing one of the port cities.

The ship had a kids club that the boys went sometimes.  They loved participating in the organized activities which were provided.

(Below is the boys after coming back from pirate night.)

We also had a lot of fun mini golfing.