Iceland- day 1

We took Dena (Aaron's mother) to Iceland as her Christmas gift! Here's a summary of the trip. 

May 31 Dena arrived in KC and we spent some time together in the evening. June 1 Aaron had to work, so Savannah and Dena just relaxed at the house. June 2 we had to work in the temple so Dena accompanied and spent the day there also. June 3 we went to church in Cameron, MO at the Far West ward. It was really nice, and we recognized a lot of people that we've worked with in the temple. After church we went to Adam-Ondi-Ahman and had a picnic with some friends. We drove to another friends house and ended up eating dinner with them and spending a few hours at their home. 

June 4 was the big day! We did last minute laundry and packing, and spent some time doing yard work so we wouldn't come home to a jungle. 

A friend took us to the airport around 5:30 pm, and we made it through security in about 5 minutes. We had plenty of time to relax before our 8 pm departure. The flight was short since we had a layover in Minneapolis, where we changed planes. Everyone took some type of sleep aid in the hopes that we could catch a few winks on the 6 hour flight from Minneapolis to Keflavik, but that wasn't to be. Savannah slept for maybe 30 minutes in total and poor Dena and Aaron didn't get any sleep at all. The flight was uneventful aside from the jealousy we felt over the other passengers who seemed to have no problem falling asleep. We departed Minneapolis at 10 pm and due to the time difference, landed in Keflavik at 9:30 am local time.  The airport was clean and definitely wins the contest for best airport bathrooms! After gathering our luggage we went to the car rental place and picked up our transportation for the week- a brand new Toyota Corolla. It only had 1250 km on the odometer- that translates to about 775 ish miles. It was a stick shift, and since Savannah (the designated driver) hadn't driven a stick in a while, well let's just say the car died a few more times than it probably should have that day :)

We had an adventurous time driving to the hotel- as expected all the signs were in Icelandic and none of us speak that language. Aaron did a masterful job navigating and we got to the hotel at 11:30 am. We weren't expecting to be able to check in that early but fortune smiled down on us and they let us in. We unloaded the car and promptly took a 2.5 hour nap on the most comfortable beds ever! After we woke up we went to a whale museum that displayed to scale whales- they were huge! And then remembered that we hadn't eaten anything in over 12 hours. We found a pizza place (don't yell at us just yet) which served the most authentic, delicious wood fired pizza we've ever had. It was absolutely amazing and totally delicious (and expensive)!