Norway and Sweden, Summer of 2010

Friends

It’s going to be another one of those multiple-posts-in-one-day dealies.  The Norwegians have a word for it, it’s called “Skippertak”, which basically just means –> buckle down and get it done.   Today’s theme is summer, and some of the really, really fun things we’ve done. 

 

At the end of June, and for 10 days thereafter, we went to Norway, but spent most of the time at “Stugan” or the family cottage on the Swedish coast.   It’s always a very pleasant time. 

Due to how we booked the tickets, Eric flew with Rachel and Daniel, while Anida had a more direct set of connections.  It wasn’t bad going there, but the return trip routed Oslo-Copenhagen-Manchester-Newark-Charlotte-Denver for a total of 5 flights and 26 hours.  The kids are travel champs though, so no biggie there.

Grandpa and Farmor are building a garage where Farmor’s flower garden used to be, so Daniel got to help dig up some of the plants for relocation to Sara’s garden.

In the day before going down to Stugan, we headed out to the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, on the theory that Daniel would enjoy that.  I think it’s safe to say that he was a little underwhelmed by the real thing. 

Life at Stugan falls into a fairly predicable pattern. The boys fish for crabs at the dock and play on the beach.  We take a trip or two around the area and go fishing in Grandpa’s boat.  The boys caught some mackerel this time, and enjoyed eating that.   This year, Daniel was strong enough to climb the cliffs on the North side of the cottage.  There are pictures, but not on our cameras, since Anida couldn’t watch, and Eric was busy making sure he didn’t fall.

  

This year, Rachel was able to participate in the crab fishing, and was pretty good at it, though much less obsessed than the boys.  The water was a little bit cold at the beginning of the week, but warmed up significantly.  Rachel’s the only one of the kids that spent any real time in the water. 

So it was a mellow week.  We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with strawberries and a nice champagne, then went back to Oslo for a few days.  As always it was nice to spend time with Jacob and Leo, and remarkable how well the kids play together despite the distance.  Daniel picked up a Norwegian accent the way he usually does, and that lasted for a few weeks.

    

And that’s really the news from Norway this time around.  We flew back on the 4th of July and watched the fireworks from above – though truthfully the kids slept for most of that.

Up next – random other summer activities.

 

Love, ADRE.