Birthday Wishes

Today is special for two reasons: it is my dad's birthday and our friend Kristin's as well. Elly, Zach and I surprised Kristin with a birthday brunch, but since Grandpa doesn't live in Norway we'll have to send him a song via the web...

Hadeland Glassverk

Today we travelled to Hadeland Glassverk, a glassblowing company about an hour north of town. The small factory produces some amazing stuff. After watching a few of the glassblowers at work, Kelly and I were pretty sure we'd be great at it and were given the chance to create our own works of art (a.k.a. two slightly lumpy glasses).

that little red blob turned into a huge red plate

Kelly's turn

hot stuff

the sand train

doing some digging---these tiny bulldozer's really work

making friends with a pony at the petting zoo

the final product

Zurchisons!

After a tour of the UK, Zach and Lacey swung by Norway for a visit with us. We had a great time showing them some of our favorite places and catching up, but the visit went by way too fast!

climbing rocks in Drøbak

Vigelandsparken

feeding the birds some extremely stale bread

Akershus Fortress

ferry ride to Bygdøy

Climb Every Mountain

Last weekend, I (Kelly) went with a friend of mine to the county of Telemark to hike to the top of the Gaustatoppen mountain. We started about 1000m up and hiked the remaining 850m to the top. It took about two hours and a total walking distance of 5.9km. My friend Pim is a machine, and just hikes around for fun. I have not hiked for years, and it was definitely one of the most physically challenging things I have ever done.

When we got to the top, though, it was all worth it. We could see for miles in every direction, with the town of Rjukan spread out in the valley below. Pim and I spent another 20 minutes jumping between rocks along the top of the mountain. It was amazing!

It took us an hour to get back down to the car, and then we drove back to Oslo for dinner with Bethany, Lucia (Pim's wife) and the families. It was a pretty great day, but I gained a new awareness of certain muscles I had not used much in a long time.

Here are some pictures from the hike:

the mountain

rocky terrain

still snowy

pretty views

view from the top

heading back down

Heat Wave

When you think of Norway, you probably don't think of sandy beaches or outdoor swimming pools, but that's exactly where we've spent our time for the last couple of weeks. Temperatures reached as high as 92 degrees Farenheit and though it was nothing close to a Texas summer, with only a small portable air conditioner for our apartment we were feeling the heat!

roller skating daredevil

doggy-sitting for Kaya

playing in the fountains at our apartments

Zach and Maurits monkeying around

Zach and his daddy conquering a (very) small mountain

sliding down to Elly at Frognerbadet (public pool)

Maurits and Zach

playing at Hvalstrand beach

Zach, Maurits and Lucia

Fathers' Day

Bethany and Zachary woke me up on Saturday morning (after sleeping in until 10:30 - sweet!) to celebrate Fathers' Day. They picked Saturday instead of Sunday because everything is closed on Sunday and they had a couple of destinations in mind. Before all that, though, was a breakfast of donuts, chocolate milk and cofee in bed.

Then, for lunch, we went to my favorite place - Punjab Tandoori. Now, the best part. We went to the hobby store close by and bought me my very own helicopter - freaking awesome!

Dinner was steak and baked potatoes. Basically, I got to eat all day and play with my new manly toy (until I broke it, just slightly and totally fixable). Greatest Fathers' Day ever.

Row Your Boat

We tried out kayaking for the first time ever last weekend. It was tons of fun and only one of us (not me) almost flipped over!

We also went to the annual church picnic last week. Zach played frisbee with his good friend Mauritz, had a water balloon fight, played tug-o-war, and lots of other games. The cutest of all was a relay race where the kids had to crab walk---Zach was surprisingly great at it!

Catching Up

I haven't been so great at posting regularly lately and the pictures are piling up! We've been having lots of fun enjoying the warmer weather and very long summer days. Here are a few of my favorite recent pictures:

learning how dandelions work

buying our "new" very old bike at a flea market

thrilled to see a real-life game of "Kapow" at the Aker Brygge carnival

posing just like Daddy

exploring a nearby island

playing in the sandbox at our apartments

a game of "frees-bee" (as he calls it) with some friends from church

Say "Ah"

We got a card in the mail a few weeks ago notifying us that Zach had a dentist appointment scheduled (things sure do work differently here!), and yesterday was the day.


Kelly and I talked it up to him quite a bit to try and get him excited instead of nervous, and we even practiced saying "ah" and had a pretend exam in the waiting room (see picture above). When his name was called he bravely marched into the exam room, but the second he saw that big chair he lost it (see picture below)!


After a few minutes he finally relaxed and let the dentist do her thing and we were out of there in no time (she basically just counted his teeth and poked at a couple of them). No cavities!