summer vacation 2014

My mom just left, after spending five weeks with us. It has been grand!

She drove down from Tromsø, about 1800km or so, just so she could bring down all our stuff that we had stored up there as well as so that we would have a car at our disposal while she was here. What a mom eh!

So we have had immense freedom these five weeks, getting to visit a lot of places we haven't had a chance to visit earlier.

We went up into Innvik Valley for a picnic:

We went up to the end of the neighboring village's valley where there's a glacier at the end of a not-too-long hike (Briksdalsbreen...when I went there last the glacier went all the way down and into the lake):

[the infamous waterfall-spray bridge]

[Leona gleefully wiping her face after the waterfall-spray bridge run]

We went up to the cabin for a short picnic and pick-up of a small trampoline and ate some cloud berries:

We went for trips to buy and stock up on food and other essentials, stopping to look at the big cruise ships when they were docked:

We drove to the nearest DMV (about an hour away, including a ferry ride on the route we took) so both Judge and I could take the driver's license theory test:

[one of the many gorgeous views along the drive]

[watching the ferry leave the other side]

[view from ferry]

We drove to that same town again as it is also the town with the nearest hospital so that Eliana could see a child cardiologist (the doctor at her 1-year check-up had heard an extra sound...thankfully it turned out that it was just the blood in the nearby arteries/veins and not anything that needs following up).

On all these trips either Judge or I drove, with my mom in the passenger seat, so that we could practice driving in Norway - driving lessons are expensive!

Other than that we hung out here in the village, enjoying way too hot weather, swimming in the fjord, working in the yard, playing outside. The girls totally love-love-LOVE hanging out with their mormor (grandma), which has also been great for me as it has allowed me naps in the mornings.

[at the dock/beach right down from our house]

We also had both my uncles and aunts come visit for a weekend each (my mom's older brothers and their wives). Both really wonderful visits - and a reason I love living here (being that it is still a natural gathering place for the extended family, and thus we don't have to travel anywhere yet still get to see them).

We had several projects:
- got rid of the broken dish washer and made the space into a little hiding-nook for the girls (here the play kitchen is in there, while now there's a lace curtain as well)

- gave away a lot of furniture that has sat in the annex over the garage for ages
- bought a second hand queen-sized bed for Judge and me and got it set up in the larger of the two bedrooms upstairs (where we all sleep still but in all our own beds...for the most part)
- bought a semi-high bed for Leona and got curtains set up for it (the bed has a pull-out desk that we have stashed away for now, as well as came with a set of drawers...just what we were discussing the room needed) - almost successfully had Leona start sleeping in it (first night slept until just after midnight before coming back to our room; second night nursed there and then decided she didn't want to sleep there after all...and that was that :P)

[basically the view from the house of the people we bought the bed from...]

[the girls LOVE it!]

Then there's been tons of berry picking:

[wild strawberries]

[wild raspberries]

[red currants...and black currants but no pic]

[goose berries]

[cherries...from the neighbor's tree]

[bilberries brought down from the mountain by my mom after a hike]

[now blackberries, and soon fruit from the trees in the yard - plums, apples and pears]

All in all a wonderfully chillaxed and peaceful summer, though at times toooo hot. As mentioned, it has been grand.

Now I'm left with the big task of editing all the photos, and subsequently uploading picture and video gems to Dropbox (in the folder I share with my sister). Yes, that's correct, this means we have Internet at home - another thing we ended up getting this summer, as we realized www access really is a life-necessity, and the one-year contract is worth it, especially seeing as we most likely will continue staying here for a while (after we ordered the subscription I found out we can transfer the contract to our new place if we do move...duh. I'm glad we didn't realize this earlier though, because the limited internet access the past five months has been freeing as well).

PS. Don't we live in a beautiful corner of the world?!

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