Denmark

A few days ago we returned from an impromptu Danish holiday, and here are the juicy details...

We took the ferry from Larvik to Hirtshals in Northern Jylland (called Jutland in English; the part of Denmark attached to mainland Europe), and let our newly acquired GPS guide us for the 30 minute drive to Tversted. My uncle's firm owns a holiday appartment at a place called Tannishus and he and his family were well into their annual stay when we decided to join them for their last few days of Danish fun. Anne Marit's (who is married to my uncle and hence technically my auntie, but I am not allowed to call her that because she's way too young to be the aunt of someone my age...) sister we family was there as well, and together we made up one big, happy beach party.

After a few days on the beautiful, sandy beaches of Tversted we went to Fårup Sommerland (a theme park) which was absolutely fantastic. Isabelle turned out to be absolutely fearless, and loved all the rides - the scarier the better. The poor thing was fairly unhappy when told she could not go on the big roller coasters (because of height restrictions). We told her that we'd go back when she is 6, because then she will be old enough.. Seems Isabelle was too smart for us, however, because when the three of us two days later set our eyes on Legoland, the first thing she did when arriving in the park was to look at me seriously and explain: 'mamma, jeg er seks' (Mum, I am six!).

While the rest of the family headed home to Norway after Fårup, the Quinns experienced Legoland before heading to Ebeltoft on the Eastern coast of Jylland. Our hotel room had the most beatiful sea-view, and at night we experienced some lovely sunsets. It did not even matter that the weather turned a bit greyer on us, we still had Djurs Sommerland (yes, another theme park) to see, and beyond that we were happy just relaxing in our room and the hotel pool, not to mention walking around the pittoresque streets of Ebeltoft. After eight days of Danish delight we returned to Larvik late Wednesday evening, and as the following photos shows, we had the most amazing holiday...

Isabelle on the ferry heading for Denmark

Milk moustache

Our beautiful daughter

need I comment?

Isabelle and Nora enjoying the beach

Digging a pool

Burying Thomas

Dusting off

Relaxing after a full day of digging

Smiling hard for the camera

James, Isabelle, Nora and Erik Arthuro

Building a sandslott

Isabelle and Nora in Fårup, the trampoline was pretty popular among our girls

Nora and Isabelle on one of the rides. Thomas, Simen, Anne Marit and Vidar in the background.

My first horseback ride... proud! (Fårup)

My favourite toy in Legoland...

Isabelle and mamma queuing for the Legondol

Pretty happy about my new face-job...

Legoland is exciting for the big kids too!

Some wonderful rides for the kiddies...

Yep, she is tough!

The paint is wearing off and the princess is pretty tired...

...waving good-bye to the train...

the sunset in Ebeltoft

Loving Djurs Sommerland

James is pretty happy as well...

That's one big fish!

Exploring Ebeltoft

Thesis, holiday, sun, fun and summer solstice

Last week I finally finished my thesis, and can now proudly add the Siviløkonom (or just Siv. øk.) title to my (future) business card! Here are the stats: my thesis has 99 pages, 26,777 words, 174,017 characters, contains the results from 4,888,880 simulation iterations, and I pity the two fools that actually have to read it (my supervisor and an external sensor). I do not envy James who will have to start working on his in about 6 weeks time, but at least he will have a great office in our beautiful new home to work in.

After the graduation ceremony Friday evening, James and I took the funicular up one of Bergen's seven mountains, Fløyen (425 metres), and had a lovely meal at the mountain-top restaurant. What a magnificent view, and a great way to celebrate the completion of my education.

The last few weeks have been crazy, and have involved a couple of return trips to Bergen. The 8-hour car trip over the mountains is really scenic and beautiful though, and here are some highlights:

Out of the last 2 weeks prior to completing my thesis (and James finishing his exams) I only spent one day with Isabelle, and it was really nice to return home and be able to relax and have fun with my little girl. The weather over the last couple of days have been beautiful, hitting 30 degrees today, which means Isabelle has been loving her little plastic pool out in the garden. James snatched this photo a couple of days ago when she was having a warm shower after playing outside in the cold water for hours - I think it clearly shows just how much she's enjoying summer!

Yesterday, James, Isabelle and I rode to Pernille's place (my brother's girlfriend) in Sandefjord (we have a bicycle-trailer for the little one) for Midsummer celebrations, called Sankthansaften/St. John's Eve or Jonsok/John's Wake; the eve of celebration before the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist, although it has been celebrated since the times of the Vikings. It was the day where the medieval wise men and women (the doctors of that time) would gather special herbs that they needed for the rest of the year to cure people. Bonfires on the beach, speeches, picnics and songs are traditional, although bonfires are built in many other places where beaches may not be close by (i.e. on the shores of lakes and other waterways, parks, etc.). Here is a photo of the bonfire at Granholmen, which is really close to Pernille's house:

The bonfire was lit at 10 pm, and Isabelle the lucky girl got to stay up late and participate in the festivities. It is generally a bit difficult to convince her that it is bed-time nowadays, as she will often respond: "men det er ikke mørkt ute!" - it is not dark outside. I think we will have to teach her how to tell time as soon as possible so we can more easily convince her that is is actually quite late, even if it is light outside. On the way back from the beach Isabelle picked some flowers, and she was singing to them the whole way home. She even kissed them at one stage, and I was lucky enough to catch the moment!

Hope you are all well, we will hopefully be much better at updating the blog over summer as we have a bit more time on our hands. We are hoping to go to Denmark for a short holiday next week, if I can get some reasonable priced tickets with the ferry. I'm going to book them tomorrow, and since Pernille's sister works at bookings and can offer a friends-discount, I think we'll be in luck! Beyond this trip we're planning on spending the summer holiday organising all of our stuff and preparing the big move. We get the keys on July 18, which is only 3.5 weeks away now - and we are so excited about it! We can't wait to have some of you come over and visit us in the near future...

A break from studying

As we get closer to the end of the school semester, Line and I (mainly Line) have been hard at work at our desks revising and writing. So when we heard that the store from which we got all our wedding crockery was celebrating their 270th anniversary with 50& of everything in the shop, what better way to blow off some steam than by spending a stack of cash!



Well, another even better way to relax was to get Isabelle to create some custom artwork for her new bedroom! She ended up very good at using the paint roller; both her feet had a nice, even coverage...

Hello from Isabelle!

just ran across some videos we made a little while ago.

Happy Norway Day!!

Just thought I'd post some photos from May 17th, enjoy! School is picking up and we have very little time to spend updating the blog sorry.. I promise I'll write some more thorough updates over summer!

Heading off to watch the first parade...

Three girls looking great in their bunads (Isabelle, Nora (my cousin) and farmor Ruth (Isabelle call her great grandma 'mor', by the way)...

Equipped and ready to make some noise!

My grandparents Ruth and Erik.

Hurra for Norge!

17.mai sure is tiring for big and small, although nothing a little nap can't fix:

Running. I believe it is Isabelle's favourite activity.

Isabelle meets Leo, grandson of a friend of my dad's. Not too interested to start with...

But the indifference passes quickly!

Ice cream is an integral part of any May 17th celebration...

Hanging out with mum's cousin Simen!