Hi, hi, hi!

I wanted to put up the last of the pictures of Denmark and talk about the pros and cons of renting a holiday house instead of a hotel BUT I've been sucked into planning our Summer vacation.  I can not decide between Turkey and Morocco.  I know we will visit them both eventually.  Right now I need to find out which is going to work better with a baby under two.  I'm so excited to even consider a family vacation.   We didn't go anywhere in 2012.  Obviously, pregnancy and childbirth via c-section played a major role in that.  This will be our first big vacation in almost two years!  

I'm also distracted by how great I feel.  Now that H is back I laugh all the time and Sophie laughs all the time and Redgie runs around doing his happy doggy dance and everyone is happy and laughing and distracting.  I am grateful for that.

So anyway, let's talk about winter fashion for second.  It is possible to bundle up for cold weather and look fabulous.  It's starts getting significantly harder while wearing a baby bundled up in her own puffy red and white striped snowsuit plus a head cover to block the wind.  I couldn't close my coat because of the baby carrier so I wrapped a scarf around my neck, pulled my hat down over my ears and stayed tough.   It was very, very cold and I think I look like a dork.  If you have an answer to my fashion conundrum feel free to email me stat.   My warmest coat is not so warm when left open and flapping in the wind.

 At least Sophie was warm.  She slept through the entire beach.

Redgie claimed the chair by the fire.

The holiday house had three levels, an indoor pool and a wood burning stove.  Those things are dangerous for a baby.  There were no baby gates and nothing to stop Sophie from falling down the stairs or burning her hands on the stove.  We ended up blockading the stove with stools and pillows.  A few times she started to zip up the stairs even while we were keeping an eye on her.  I never put her down in the pool room because I was afraid she would fall in and drown the second my back was turned. 

It turned out the pool wasn't a problem because she didn't like it very much and then she came down with a cold.  H and I used the sauna and pool during her afternoon nap.  Sophie wasn't sleeping that well at night so she frequently took two hours naps which worked out great for us. 

We spent so much time in the pool that I let my hair go native.  Don't ask me why I don't embrace it's natural texture because the natural texture is frizz.  The second photo is after brushing.  As all women with curly hair know, never brush it.

Pros and Cons of renting a holiday house

1. No need to get up early for breakfast or worry about Sophie throwing tantrums in restaurants BUT we had to make meals ourselves and do our own dishes.
2. There was a lot of packing, unpacking and we opted to clean the house ourselves instead of paying for a cleaner.
3. We could use the pool and spa facilities while she was napping, if we were in a hotel there is no way we could have left Sophie in the room by herself.
4. We had more privacy in the house than we would have in a hotel. 
5. The holiday house was cheaper than a hotel, though this is only true for the off season.
6. The house was too big for just the three of us.  We only used two of the four bedrooms BUT a smaller house wouldn't have had a pool, hot tub and sauna.
7. We had to make the bed, hang up the towels, and didn't have any kind of room or maid service and there were no restaurants.
8. The house came with some fun things a hotel wouldn't have had, like the wood burning stove and charcoal grill.  We bought some fresh fish by the sea and grilled one night.
9. The last day the wifi stopped working so we ended up watching some Danish satellite tv.  It was all from the 1990s.  Seriously, they had old Beverly Hills 90210.  I can not believe how dated shows from the 90s seem. 

I liked renting a house even though it was more work than our previous vacations.

 Ships docked in the channel between Ringkøbing Fjord and the North Sea.

We got freshly caught fish and grilled it one evening.

 

We ended up with a kilo of conservative salmon fillets (waaay too much, half a kilo would have been enough).  I didn't even know this was a monk fish until I Googled it.   Would you eat that?  It was the most expensive fish they sold. 

Lastly, here is my last photo dump from Denmark.  These pictures were too beautiful not to post.

More bunkers on Houvig beach