Hytte experience extraordinaire - part 2

After the afternoon BBQ on Saturday, we all played outside. Mostly we took turns sledding down a short but steep hill - I will post a video of it later. Here Finn, Tryfan and Rhiannon were being towed around at relatively high speeds. Tryfan and Finn fell off when they turned a corner, but they were both laughing and not crying - always good!
Back inside in the cozy cabin, Rhiannon was doling out Cheerios to all the boys.
Sunday morning was gorgeous as could be, and we went back for Round 2 of the ski-to-the-trees and have a picnic scenario before driving back to Oslo. Rhiannon and Magnus were keen to get started here.
Smily faces in the snow, except for Finn who had just bit his tongue and was cuddling with his Mama
We were all sad to say goodbye, but we did have a lovely drive back. Now Rhiannon keeps asking if Finn and Magnus can come stay with us. Actually, Finn and Magnus have been making their way into lots of our conversations since the weekend finished ... "Finn & Magnus loooove eating fish for dinner, and they always ask for spinach and broccoli to be served with it".... "Finn & Magnus always sit properly in their chairs at the dinner table, don't they? And after they finish all their food, they say 'thank you for the meal' to their Mama and Papa, don't they?"
hee hee hee .. so far, so good!

Meowing

Finn, Rhiannon, Magnus and Tryfan meowing together on the couch for no apparent reason.

Hytte experience extraordinaire - part 1

We just got back from a weekend at the company hytte (cabin) in Valdres, about 3 hours drive away from here. We met Fiona, Karl John, and twins Finn and Magnus there and our weekend together was better than we could have imagined! Rhiannon had these boys wrapped around her finger. She organized everything and told them where to sit, what to eat, how to sing the right words... they acted out many different scenarios, but usually she was the Mama and either both of them were babies or one of them was the Papa and the other was the baby. It was soooo funny to overhear their conversations (in Norwegian). Sweet little Tryfan tried so hard to keep up with them and was always about 1 step behind. But he didn't seem to mind! Here are the 3 muskateers in front of a big tractor. Magnus in blue, Finn in red.
On Saturday morning we set out for a ski adventure. These 4 were so excited to go play in the snow together, they dragged their snow suits from the coat area into the kitchen while they all still had their jammies on. Rhiannon is in mid-air diving into the snow in the background here.
The x-c ski area was only ~3 km from the hytte and it was the perfect place for us! We all set out on skis and all 3 kids went by themselves for 400 whole meters - that is pretty much a record. Rhiannon led the way.
At the 400 meter mark, we realized that the good times were about to come to an end, so we set up a little camp in this stand of trees. We tried to get a fire going so we could cook polser (hot dogs) on it in true Norwegian style, but the fire never really took so we just ate other goodies, drank hot chocolate, and looked at our watch...9:30am!
When we were all chilled and ready to go again, all 4 kids piled onto the pulk and Rhodri towed them back to the base with Karl-John carrying all the skis. Magnus (standing, in blue) sat on the very back behind Tryfan when they were ready to go. Meanwhile, Fiona and I took off in the opposite direction to get a little bit of skiing in alone - so lovely! In retrospect, we should have done a much longer loop though...
When we got back to base, we let Rhodri and Karl-John go off alone while we minded the munchkins. There was a wonderful cozy hotel/restaurant/ hangout place and the lady working there was so nice to us! Since it was still pretty early in the day, not many people were around and the kids literally ran circles around the place. We were having some quiet, "chill-out" time here so Rhiannon and Magnus shared an apple and some water in a chair while Fiona and I drank tea. I don't recall what Finn and Tryfan were up to, but they seem to be pretty independent little people who don't demand too much at times...
When we got back to the hytte, we barbequed the polser that we failed to cook earlier. That made these guys pretty happy, and here they are with polsers in hand!
By this time, it was only 2pm and a lot of the day was left! We'll have to save that for part 2...

Midweek tidbits

We are having some fun times at the moment. Rhiannon has been saying all sorts of things in Norwegian, in Welsh and in English that just make us laugh. "No delicious for dinner, please." and (when looking at a piece of artwork) "That's fan-tas-tic!". As for the Norsk side of her speech, she is definitely busting out with words, songs, phrases that we are not familiar with. She still talks to Tryfan mostly in Norsk -- usually yes/no questions -- and he answers back, sometimes 'ja' and sometimes 'nei'. Most of their dialogue is about topics such as being spun around on Daddy's office chair, reading tractor books, or eating grapes/ rice cakes/ M&M's. But it's pretty funny to listen to.

A week or so ago, Tryfan was going through a phase of being totally addicted to "Lily-the-pink" music video (yes, the same one as was posted a few weeks ago showing the band The Scaffold wearing white suits and singing that terribly persistent drinking song). Any time he saw a laptop on the dining table, he would climb up to the nearest chair, pointing to the computer and saying "this! this!" and would NOT be distracted or wooed away without a dose of Lily-the-pink. We couldn't even say Lily-the-pink or even Lily when Tryfs was in earshot. So in the end we had to ban all computers from the dining table. But now Rhiannon knows all the words and the little hand gestures and it is quite funny to the two of them enjoy watching this 3 minute video so much!

We are getting ready for a weekend trip to the company cabin (hytte) in Valdres. We went there back in October but this time our friends Fiona, Karl John, Finn & Magnus are coming too. Should be fun...

Ole!

I have been in Las Palmas all week and got back late Friday night. I saw this flamenco dress when I was there with these sort-of matching shoes and knew Rhiannon would love it. She was SO excited to put this on and prance around the house this morning. But we made a rule that she is not allowed to climb on the furniture and dive onto the sofa while wearing it, so reluctantly she changed out of it when she just couldn't resist the couch temptation anymore. I love this picture of her -- it was during the first few seconds that she had it on and she was actually saying "Ole!" when I snapped it.

I missed all 4 of my sweeties (incl. Bentley of course) when I was away, but it was good for everyone I think. Plus when I was on the flight home, I sat next to the man who was the personal butler to the past 2 Norwegian kings (King Harald and King Olav)! How cool is that?!

A more successful ski outing

We tried a second time to go skiing at Eiksetra, and this time was far more successful than last time (when it was -18 deg C and we ended up pulling the kids around the parking lot in sleds until they fell asleep). The first good sign was this big red tractor that Tryfan was very excited to walk around and touch.
We met Sofia and her parents (Paer and Linda) here in the hopes that Rhiannon and Sofia would encourage each other on the skis. It worked pretty well for the most part, at least on our side. Here we are setting off across the lake. The ski trail turned out to be not-so-good, because ice fishermen had tramped along it on their way to fish! Not cool. Anyway, it was quite dark and overcast when we set out but the skies lightened and soon we had lovely clear and warm conditions. Rhodri is towing Tryfan in the pulk, then Sofia, Linda, Paer and Rhiannon (and I) follow.
On the final stretch, Rhiannon decided she had done enough so Daddy carried her. Tryfan was sleeping in the pulk by this time, so he was off parked in the shade.
We didn't venture too far at all, mostly because we wanted to quit while we were ahead. Rhiannon and Sofia were excited about having a picnic at the end of it all. Here they are chuffing down chocolate.
This was our base camp -- the same one we used a couple of months ago. Tryfan is the red dot on the right partly in the shade. He had a good sleep and the rest of us took turns getting some proper x-c skiing in and watching Rhiannon and Sofia sled down the hill where all the other kids were playing.
There were also a bunch of pregnant sheep that were hanging out in their pen near the parking lot. Rhiannon, Sofia and Tryfan spent quite a bit of time watching them, trying to pet them as the sheep walked past the gate, and discussing (in Norwegian) about their fat tummies and funny 'rumpas' (backsides). It was very entertaining to listen in on!

Couching it

This morning we got up and baked some banana muffins using a recipe which called for no sugar or even honey -- just apple, orange and lemon juice plus raisins and bananas to sweeten it. Yum! All 3 of us did it together and then we celebrated our success by watching a few episodes of "Shaun the Sheep".

Let's start at the very beginning...

...a very good place to start!

Rhiannon loves singing! This is her most popular song in recent days.

Another snowy Sunday

We woke up to more snow yet again. After a quiet morning inside, we ventured out to play and work in the snow. It wasn't too cold - just around freezing. This snow pile next to the house is actually taller than what is pictured here and it is quite impressive! Tryfan was so cute trying to shovel snow just like Daddy. Meanwhile, Rhiannon helped build a snowman and a tunnel with our neighbors 2 doors down.

While everyone was busy, I took Bentley on a walk to our favorite meadow. Usually it is nighttime when we go so I haven't ever shown a photo of it. As you can see, there is a trampled path down the middle, but when I have stepped off to the side of it, all of a sudden I was up to my chest in snow - no exaggerating! It's good exercise for ol' Bentley to bound through the deep stuff off the pathway and I threw snowballs for him to jump for, which is one of his favorite games.
The snow was really sticky and poor Bentley had huge snow hemorrhoids.
When we were done being outside, we went over to visit our friend and neighbor Beate, along with her kids Carina, Max and Yasmin. Carina works in a pet shop and has recently brought home a bearded lizard, which was great excitement for the kids to see and touch. We had tea and pastries and relaxing conversation. What a great way to spend our Sunday afternoon! Thanks Beate :-)

Art, babies, and Ikea

We were so excited to see that it was snowing when we woke up - something different for a change - NOT! This winter is unreal - we just keep getting more and more snow. Anyway, the troops and I did some art projects while listening to music early this morning as Rhodri slept in. We even lit candles for the occasion. Nothing crazy, just some coloring with crayons and then mincing up chunks of Play-Doh into bite sized morsels and then squishing them back together again.
Then Rhiannon decided to look after her baby and push the stroller around, so Tryfan decided to do the same. Fortunately, we have TWO babies and TWO strollers. Rhiannon was trying to get her baby to sleep by pushing her stroller gently around the room, and Tryfan was more into the stroller-ramming technique, so they were making quite a bit of noise and soon Rhodri was awake.
Here is Tryfan checking in on his baby.
We actually went on to have a pretty full day. We mobilized and went into Asker to do some shopping, then we all went home for a nap, then we were off to a birthday party for our colleague Michael's daughter Victoria who turned 5 today. We were quite well fed at this party and so on our way back home, we stopped by Ikea rather than racing home for dinner. Tryfan and Rhiannon were SO excited to ride together in a shopping cart/ trolley that it made the whole excursion a really fun outing. After all, we got to ride in the elevator twice and Rhiannon got to push the buttons both times as well as having free rein to jump up and down in the cart as much as she wanted to as long as she didn't hurt Tryfan. Plus there was a seat belt for Tryfan so he had limited mobility although he didn't seem to mind since it was such a novel (though short!) experience.
We actually managed to come away with only the 2 items we went in looking for, plus a couple of ice cream cones which we shared. The forecast is for another foot of snow tomorrow, and we have no plans as of yet. That, I reckon, is a perfect forecast!

Tractor spotting

One part of our daily life here right now is tractor spotting.
Rhodri has always been a fan of spotting tractors -- at University, he even wrote a tractor-spotting guide for his classmates when they went on geology/ geophysics field trips! So it is not uncommon for him to burst out excitedly with "Massey Ferguson 12-20! Blue one! Oh that is rare!" (okay, I made up that example up because I haven't fully learned all of the model series of Massey Ferguson or any other tractor manufacturer despite us being married nearly 10 years...)

So anyway, with all this snow we have been getting here, there have been many tractors on the roads and pathways clearing the white stuff out of the way. On our 6 minute drive from home to barnehage, we usually see 3 or 4 tractors and those are some exciting moments in the car with the kids craning their necks to look out the optimal window for tractor viewing. We learned today that Tryfan has been particularly occupied with tractor spotting when he is playing outside at barnehage. This morning when there was a tractor working nearby, he climbed to the top of the snowy hill and just stood watching the tractor work and then drive away. He even stayed there a few minutes after the tractor had left, just to make sure that he wasn't going to miss anything. I guess he is a chip off the old block, as they say....