Allie made her famous eggs this morning!
Akureyri is a great town and I loved their stop lights when they turned red! <3 p="">
We drove out of town in snow and it blanketed the ground and mountains! So pretty...prettier that Jamie was driving!
Just love this sight with horses grazing...simple Icelandic homes and a touch of grass.
The weather turns in a blink! Literally!
Hiking up some dormant volcanoes near Borgarbyggd.
We planned to spend the night near Borgarnes and arrived in afternoon so we decided to drive a for a bit in the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. It was a great afternoon weather wise so we wanted to take advantage of it. 
Lava fields that reminded us of cookies and cream ice cream.
We had pizza in Grundarfjordur close to Kirkjufell.
Kirkjufell
It is said to be one of the most photographed mountains in Iceland! We took a few just to be sure.
Thankful for our waterproof boots this vacation!!!
Sunset was a gorgeous time to be driving.
We got back to our Icelandair hotel near Borganes. It was a little out of town set on a golf course.
They have a wake up service in case of an aurora sighting but I kept peeking out of our door to see any signs. Around 11:30 pm I noticed a distinct tunnel shaped cloud. I grabbed my camera that was on my tripod and rushed outside to do a test shot. I saw a faint green shadow as you can see from the picture above! The Aurora!!!! I rushed in and told the girls and they ran to the other room to notify their dad and uncle.
It was there and then it kind of disappeared.
About 15 minutes later it came again...a bit more green this time and growing.
It soon started morphing and rippling and going across the sky.
We moved locations as it was bigger and watched the north as it became a bit darker but still it wasn't anything like what you see in a picture. It was white.
It really started to come alive and become noticeably greener.
We would have times where the aurora was static too.
Need to work on my people and aurora photo skills...:)
The Astronomer Galileo Galilei described them...
Aurora = the mythical Roman goddess of dawn
Boreas = Greek name for wind of the north
The southern lights are called Aurora Australis.
The sky then literally exploded with swirls and color...like someone was spray painting the sky. It was so exciting!
It is a magical phenomenon and we are so lucky to be able to witness it.
The Aurora Borealis is actually caused from when sunspots erupt from the sun. The particles that are discharged travel 93 million miles toward earth and are attracted to the magnetic poles of Earth. They pass through our magnetic shield and react with elemental molecules like oxygen and nitrogen and create the display of lights.
There are many factors in what colors you see like type of collision, altitude and also molecules. The colors usually range from green, pink, yellow, blue, violet, white and even orange. Usually when particles collide with oxygen, yellow and green are produced. When they collide with nitrogen they have red, violet and sometimes blue.
It takes low light pollution, clear skies and darkness and a bit of luck. They have apps that you can sometimes pinpoint if the aurora will be present in your area but we didn't find them to be very reliable. For this display they actually had predicted a low chance of activity at a KP of 2. The following night in Reykjavik it said it was a KP 3-4 (out of 10) and we didn't see them at all. Interestingly, the lights can be more active around the equinox. Since Iceland is so close to the arctic circle there days become longer quickly and by May will have too much sunlight at night to see them although northern lights can be present year round. Vedur.is was a good website to check on aurora potential. They also will have road conditions and weather alerts. Aurora-service.eu also had an hourly aurora forecast. We read that checking the night sky yourself helps your chances because even when it is low you have a might have a chance to see it as it was in our case.
It was truly a bucket list item and really so special to be able to witness this with family. The kids will never forget looking up and watching the lights dance above their head!
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