Andorra is a Happy Place

Andorra! Never thought I would have ever visited this little tiny place. It is not really a country, but a independent principality, or if you want to get really technical a "microstate". It is in between France and Spain and is home to the Pyrenees mountains. Those mountains are beautiful! It looks a lot like Utah. I would liken it to Park City, because Andorra is a big ski resort city/country/principality. We had a wonderful time there. Cosette really liked Andorra, because when she plays with her princesses they travel to Andorra. That is how you know she likes a place.

Hello from Cosette! She was happy to be at a playground. It does not take much to please this girl.

Why did we go to Andorra? Well it was spring break for Lyndon, and me and the kids were not able to get visas before we came to Europe. that means that we only have 90 days that we can spend in the "Schengen" area. The Schengen area is made up of 26 European countries (so basically all of Europe) that have a common visa policy and with out a visa you can only be there for 90 days. Lyndon's semester here in Paris puts me and the kids beyond the 90 days so in order to stay in Paris the whole semester we had to leave the Schengen Area. Andorra is not part of the Shengen are so that is why we went there. Now we can stay in Paris with Lyndon for the whole semester.

View from Andorra la Vella, Andorra's capitol city. 
We could not find much information on Andorra before we went so we were not to sure what we were going to do there. In each city there were tourism offices with a plethora of information on all the things Andorra has to offer. I wish we were there when it was warmer because there is a lot of outdoor things to do that were not available because Andorra was covered in deep, deep, deep, deep snow. That's what happens when you travel in the off season to places. We still managed to find some fun things to do.

Cosette the mountaineer!

Trying to get a good shot with the kiddos.

One day we took a hike around a frozen lake. Well it was a half frozen lake. It is getting warmer there and the lake was thawing. As we walked around it we could hear the ice cracking as it thawed. It was pretty incredible to hear that part of nature occurring. I have not seen too many frozen lakes in my life and it was pretty amazing. We did walk on the ice around the edges a little bit. Don't worry this ice had been pushed up on the shore so we were not actually walking on the lake. It was beautiful up there. Being out in nature reminds me how much God loves us because he created this beautiful world for us to enjoy. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were together. It was nice to relax and rest from our busy city life.
The frozen lake.
Father and son. Lyndon likes to do these statement poses or power poses. Not sure what to call them. I think power poses describes them best. Love him!


View on our hike back up. The views here were breathe taking. 
See what I mean. Breathe taking! And totally looks like Utah. Beautiful Pyrenees. 
Half of the lake was thawed out and it made a beautiful contrast with the frozen half.

This post was pretty wordy and we have took a ton of pictures so be prepared for some more picture based posts. I highly recommend to all friends or anyone in Europe to take a vacation to Andorra. We made a lot of happy memories here.
xoxo

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