A day at the beach

Saturday was forecast to be sunny and warm so we planned an all-day-at-the-beach day and invited 3 other families to join us: Phil & Emily, Henry& Elianne and kids, and Richard & Elaine and kids. Of course we brought the SS Meerkat, our trusty canoe! When we arrived at about 10am, it was cloudy and windy and cold. We made a little nest in the tent for refuge, but the Minx was way more interested in playing with sand, rocks, shells and the rest. Eventually the sun came out and it did warm up and we basked. Here is our camp with the Hvalstrand diving platform in the background.
Rhodri, Phil and Richard went fishing for a long time and then came back and let Richard's son Alex climb in for the photo below. The "three oafs in a boat" situation led to some reportedly sketchy moments when they encountered speedboat wakes and the SS Meerkat got excitingly tippy.
Rhiannon really wanted to go in the canoe as well, so we took her out for her first ride! She was so entranced by the water flowing past the boat that she forgot all about her cookie until we were back on land. Sadly, we don't have a photo of this outing but there will be others. Rhiannon wanted to keep the life jacket on until we had to leave for the day!
And she kept climbing into the canoe as we were getting the car packed up. I think she is hooked!
But the BEST part of the day was that she was fast asleep for the night by 6:30pm and slept all the way until 9:30am Sunday morning! I think we will be having more days at the beach...

Language barriers

The Minx has been talking more and more, but we usually don't understand what she is saying. We were thinking that it was just normal baby talk babble, but then found out that she was actually saying "Look!" when she said "[blah blah]...... SAAAAW!" Its just that she is saying it in Norwegian. So she may be saying other things now too but we just don't understand.
Here she is post-bath in her Welsh dragon bathrobe - not quite settled down for sleepytime just yet!Last week I was away on business (to the Canary Islands, so dont feel too sorry for me!) so Rhodri was holding down the fort all week. When I came back, I found out that the Minx is very obedient when one speaks in Welsh to her -- she sits down, holds out her hands to be cleaned, and other tricks which I am only just learning about! Although I always speak in English to her, I realize that this dose is just a small fraction of what she is hearing the rest of her waking hours. However, at the moment when I need her hands to be cleaned, I have been asking her in Welsh to hold them out (after saying it in English gets me no where)!

Definitely Spring

Now it is really spring!
Last weekend (April 14-15) was warm and sunny, with sunrise about 6am and sunset around 9pm! We spent the weekend mostly around the house. All of our neighbors were outside playing, riding bikes, wanting to borrow Bentley to go on walks, jumping on the trampoline that was set up for the summer season, and just sitting around soaking up the sunshine. Here are 2 of Bentley's admirers who come by everyday to brush him after they get home from school.Here is the Minx talking to herself and playing in the sandbox up at the playground behind the house.

Auntie Sioned's visit and some canoeing!

The big news this week was that Auntie Sioned (Rhodri's younger sister) came to visit! She arrived on Monday night and left Friday afternoon. We had a really great time with her and fortunately the weather was gorgeous the whole week -- after the snow melted on Tuesday morning.Rhodri was able to take some time off and explore Oslo with his little sister. We enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine in our backyard with tea and biscuits (cookies)
Rhodri and Sioned took the canoe (called the 'SS Meerkat') out on the fjord Friday morning while I was at work :-(
We also took the SS Meerkat out today (Sunday) although Sions was already back at home. Our friend Emily came with us and we took turns hanging out with Rhiannon and paddling in the canoe. We actually have lifejackets for all 4 of us to go but naptime took precedence. Here we are loading the canoe back onto the car while Rhiannon eats some gravel.
Here was the naptime hangout spot with the launching dock in the background. This great beach is about 5 min drive (30 min walk) from our house and today it was packed with families BBQ'ing and playing in the sand.

Crashing

Rhiannon has been really into crashing her wagon lately...

Goodbyes and a false alarm

This weekend (Thursday) we said goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma Gans who had to go back to California. We had a great time with them and we already miss them :-(
On Wednesday night before they left, we went out for an early dinner with Phil and Emily which was a grand success. The Minx prowled around the restaurant saying hello to whoever would smile her direction and kept the entire place entertained while we dined.
Then after enjoying nearly 2 weeks of warm temps and lovely sunshine, we had a surprise on Easter Sunday -- it snowed nearly a foot during the afternoon. Maybe Spring is not quite here? Rhodri had only just arrived back home on Easter morning so we all got to enjoy this snowfall together. We had Phil and Emily over for a 'proper' Easter dinner and it was so lovely to enjoy good food, good company and beautiful falling snow.

Crackers

While Rhodri was gone last week, I started a new technique to squeeze a few more minutes of bedtime in after Rhiannon woke up but before we went downstairs for breakfast: feeding her crackers in our bed. Yes, this technique produces a LOT of crumbs on the sheets, but it's worth it. Here she is bathed in early morning light...

More from the weekend

The Minx wasn't actually as thoroughly bored as she looks here! She was completely transfixed by a little boy who was sitting at the table next to us at breakfast on our last morning at Engo Gard.On our first afternoon here, we went fishing in the fjord and Rhodri caught a sea trout! Of course, Rhiannon was not in the pack once the fishing started...she and I played in the sand and rocks nearby.
Here is the glass-enclosed bath house where we swam one day with Rhodri, Rhiannon and Grandma Debi in the foreground. Rhiannon would have been into the swimming except that the pool was a little too cold for her and the jacuzzi was a little too warm. So she and Rhodri walked around and around the perimeter of the pool holding hands while the rest of us enjoyed the water. On Saturday we had a cycling adventure. We drove to nearby Hvasser and rented bikes but they didn't have a baby seat so Rhodri had to carry her in the pack. We rode up to Lilleskagen beach and then down to the other end of the island to have a picnic on some smooth rocks at another beach.Here is the smooth rock picnic spot. It was a litte bit windy but we all had jackets and the Minx had her 'parkdress' to keep her toasty (windproof breathable coveralls that she plays in at barnehage now that the winter is over).Then we rode bikes back to Hvasser and drove back to Engo Gard in time for Afternoon Tea! Here is the port of Hvasser (its not too big!) with us looking windswept and interesting except the Minx was hiding from the camera.

Pure luxury for the weekend

This weekend we ventured south from Asker only 1.5 hours drive to a place called Engø Gård
http://www.engo.no/english/, which turned out to be such an amazing place to stay! We took a squillion pictures so here in the first installment...
Some of the flowers were in bloom and Rhiannon loved touching them, smelling them, and trying to chase insects around that were crawling inside them.This place is on an island (that you can drive to) and is an old farm that has been converted into luxury accommodation with outstanding meals. It is one of two places in all of Norway that made the ranking for "Relais & Chateaux" (some luxury guidebook thingy). Needless to say, we had a really good time and got very well fed. We also went swimming in the glass enclosed bathhouse, fishing in the fjord (and Rhodri actually caught a sea trout!), went on several lovely walks and had a cycling adventure. Here is our car 'Max' in front of the house that Rhodri, Rhiannon and I stayed in.
We were served a fancy Afternoon Tea
and enjoyed fine dining in the evening
Rhiannon absolutely loved playing in the bedet
She ended up sleeping in this bathroom actually because the toilet was in another small room. This arrangement worked really well and she slept like a log from 7:15pm to 7:15am both nights we stayed here! She did NOT like the huge jacuzzi bath, however.