Autumn Isabelle

Isabelle and I went shopping yesterday, and she got herself a new winter jacket and some boots. Here are some photos of the beautiful girl showing off her new clothes:

Cabin trip to Blefjell

Last weekend we went to Blefjell near Kongsberg for a cabin trip with my mother, brother and his girlfriend. It was great getting out of the city and breathe the fresh air of the mountains for a weekend. The weather was great, it was sunny and about 10 degrees - perfect conditions for outside activities.

We arrived Friday evening and enjoyed a taco and red wine meal in front of the fireplace in the cosy cabin. Saturday morning we took our time getting ready after a nice breakfast, and headed out in to the sun for a hike around the nearby lake. Some of Pernille's family (her sister with son and mother in-law) joined us for the hike as they were staying at a cabin nearby. The area was absolutely beautiful, and Isabelle was such a good little hiker - did not complain a single time! At the end of the day we grilled sausages over open fire (which took us about half an hour to get going) before heading back to the cabin for a shower, games, wine and eventually a beautiful steak.

Some photos from the Saturday hike:







Back at the cabin, Oliver (3 months old and Pernille's nephew), got a fair bit of attention:


Sunday morning we managed to get a quick hike in before heading back home. This time we started climbing the mountains behind the cabin a bit, which eventually gave us a great view of the nearby area:

Our Sunday hike

Thanks for the Skype-call on Tuesday guys - Isabelle really loved seeing and speaking to you all. She's not one to miss a chance to show off, that is for sure!

I just thought I'd upload some photos from the forest hike we did last Sunday. We started out at Tærruddalen, which is about 5 minutes in the car from our house. Isabelle walked for the first 1km or so - which took us about 30 minutes since she was exploring the forest and running around like crazy.

Then for the next hour she was sitting comfortably in our hiking backpack, while mum and (mostly) dad had to struggle with an extra 16 kilos through the forest. We made our destination, a little cabin about 5-6 km into the forest in good time, where the local ski club was selling waffles to tired hikers.

We had our waffles, hot chocolate and a couple of biscuits too, before turning around and starting on the hike back. Isabelle was really good again, and probably walked for another 1 km before it was back up into the backpack. It seemed a lot quicker to walk back, and the hike was done in no time. We stopped at our normal "camp site" on our way back, where we grilled pølse (sausages) and pinnebrød (damper with spices on a stick!). Lovely!

Return of the blog...

It has been a long time coming, but here is finally another update from Norway! The whole blog thing slipped away from us a bit with all the changes over the last year - but we promise to be a bit better with updating this page from now on.

Isabelle had her first session at dancing school today! We did not get to see much of it (parents are only allowed in class in the last session of the semester), but we are sure she did amazingly well - proud parents as we are. A couple of photos of our tiny ballerina:

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...

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!