Recon mission

Sorry for the distinct lack of updates!
I was over in Gatwick last week trying to sort out childcare/ school, a place to live, a place for Bentley to stay... it was a long week and although I took a lot of photos, none of them are really appropriate to post just yet. Anyway, I managed to secure us a house - yay! It is just around the corner from some friends of ours (who used to live here in Norway and have since moved to England. We visited them last summer on our way home from Wales...) and it is literally across the road from the Ashdown Forest (home of the 100 Acre Woods from Winnie-the-Pooh fame!). It is a gorgeous part of the country and I am excited to live there.
I did not find a suitable place for the kids to be yet. I am still getting to know the education and childcare system over there... I did visit a lot of places and have narrowed the options down to about 4 places but each one involves a compromise of some kind. We are really really going to miss the barnehage here!!
The other bit of bad news is that we neglected to keep up with Bentley's booster shots and I mistakenly believed that since Norway is a "rabies free country", moving from here to the UK (which is also a "rabies free country") would be different than moving from a non-rabies free country to Norway or the UK. Not the case. And so Bentley will have to be in quarantine for 6 months and not able to be free with his family until the middle of October!!! Sooo sad!! I am looking into options for him to stay here in Norway and at least be able to scamper and run and play with other dogs for a few months before coming over and being confined to 4 walls. At least I was able to visit the 2 quarantine kennel options last week and immediately rule out one of them on the grounds that it is a prison and would be hell for Bentley.
Anyway, I am so happy to be back home with my sweet family after my long week of exploring Sussex county. One positive thing is that I am a much more confident and practiced driver of manual transmission cars on the wrong side of the road!

Riding bikes

Now that some of the snow has melted, we've been able to get the bikes out of storage and pedal around the neighborhood!
We were sad to say goodbye to Uncle Will (Woo) on Thursday afternoon, but we were really grateful that he made the effort to come see us at all!

In the meantime

...everything is melting! Snow is still in big piles but it is slushy forgiving snow that is slowly disappearing.
This week Rhiannon was not feeling well, especially on Wed and Thursday. Tryfan wasn't doing so well either. They are on the mend now though, we hope.

Downtown Oslo for the day

Today Will and I took the train into Oslo and just wandered around all day. So great!
We walked up to the Palace and took note of the herds of school kids that were heckling the guards
We didn't join in though - much too grown up for that nowadays!
We walked down Karl Johans Gate to the Parliament building, then headed over to Aker Brygge and the Akershus Fortress before following the harbor around to the new Opera House. Here is Will pretending to sing in front of it:
After resting inside the Opera House with a coffee, we took the T-bane (metro) up to Majorstua and walked around Vigelands Park. I love how this park looks different each and every time I go there.
We walked back to the Palace and visited the National Gallery (which was free!) before catching the train back to Asker. What a great day!

Squished

We try to minimize the occasions that all 5 of us have to squeeze into the car. Usually I am the one between the two carseats but this time Uncle Woo got to do it. Good times!

Action footage of sledding

Here is some live action footage that I shot while trying not to drive my sled off the cliff...

Serious sledding

Today Will and I went sledding down the "korketrekkeren" (roughly translates to "corkscrew"), which is a sledding track that starts from Holmenkollen. It was a stunning day! Here is the view from the start of the course.
The best thing is that it is free to do if you bring your own sleds! We borrowed one from our neighbor and put bike helmets on, and we were off.
Norwegians aren't really into guard rails on corners with steep drop-offs! There are some dodgy parts on the track but it was really fun.
Mandatory self-take
A viewpoint I had never been to before until today which was above the newly rebuilt Holmenkollen ski jump and overlooking downtown Oslo.
We also visited the Fram museum, which I had never been to. Awesome. What a day!

Sunday dinner

On Sunday we spent the morning outside playing in the snow in the backyard. I dug a path up to the playhouse -it has been awhile since anyone has played up there. The temperature was right around freezing, plus and minus a few degrees.
Rhiannon was happy to be cooking broccoli and ice cream with her baby while Tryfan was trying to sell it to me!
The view from the playhouse down to the backside of the house. That pile of snow on the deck is not shifting yet! I wish I had a photo of this same view from another season - quite a dramatic difference.
Our friend Michel came over for an early dinner at 5pm. It's nice to carry on family traditions of having a nice dinner on Sundays :-)
Rhiannon looves Michel. She was really happy to see him today.
After the kids went to bed, Phil and Emily came over and us adults carried on drinking wine and eating dessert and cheese for some time before calling it a night. I'm really going to miss our friends here... but I can't really think about that just yet.

Uncle Woo

Uncle Woo is here! (That's how it sounds when the kids say Uncle Will)
He got here on Friday night at the same time that Rhodri arrived back from his week in Turkey. In fact, they saw each other in the baggage claim area of Oslo airport and took the train and taxi together back to the house Friday night. Hurray!
I think the troops are happy to have someone new to climb on.
This afternoon, Will and I went for a quick x-c ski outing to one of my usual spots. It started snowing as soon as we set off but only lasted for about 30 minutes before the skies cleared.
Hills:4, Will:2 ... its a little bit difficult to not fall going downhill if you haven't been practicing x-c skiing a lot. But Will made it down 2 good size hills standing up, which is pretty good considering the tracks were a little icy and there were plenty of high-speed Norwegians flying past us.

Supposedly sick

On Thursday afternoon I was told that Tryfan had a fever and was sick so I should pick him up early. I picked him (and Rhiannon) up and and went home. This was the scene that ensued....

I don't think he is too sick. He wanted to change into his "Nisse jammies" (elf pyjamas) and so Rhiannon did too and they spent the rest of the afternoon running and dancing and laughing. Good times.

Moving on....

Well, if you haven't booked your travel to come see us already, you are too late.
We are moving on.
Both Rhodri and I have been offered positions at the company's London-Gatwick office and so we are actively making plans now to move. We plan to move mid-late April and start our new lives in the south of England at the beginning of May.
At first I was really sad, but now I accept it and am even starting to get excited!
At least we might get some more people coming to visit us if we are based in the London area... (hint hint)

Back on the tracks

On Sunday we went skiing and there was a competition (for kids) that was getting ready to start just as we were leaving, so we got to ski through the course.
We had a little picnic above the beach where we spent time in the summer. I love how so very different places look in each season! Kristoffer (our friend across the street) and his family joined us as well and the three kids had a great time climbing around on this big pile of plowed snow.

The end of our trip

Our last day in Wales was sunny and gorgeous. In the afternoon, Taid and I took the kids across the road to the fields of sheep and we found some puddles to stomp in. One of the puddles was so deep and thick with mud that Tryfan's boot got stuck in there and just his bare sock came out. Fortunately Nain is a wizard with washing and drying clothes in a hurry, so we were still able to pack them later that night.
We traveled home on Friday Mar 5. It was an easy and pleasant trip from Llandudno to Manchester airport, checking in, eating lunch in a cafe, flying to Oslo, train to Asker, then finally car ride home. I picked up Bentley as soon as I could and then we spent the weekend in "repair and maintenence mode". Sunday we went skiing back at the fields near our house and it felt so great to be back in the snow!

Welsh Mountain Zoo

The other day Nain and Taid took the kids to the zoo for most of the day so that Rhodri and I could do our own thing for a little bit. Yay! From all reports they had a marvelous time! Rhiannon and Tryfan haven't quite figured out how to stick their heads through the sign the way you are meant to yet.
There were monkeys, penguins, flamingos, seals, camels and much more!
I don't know WHY these two have such crazy expressions on their faces, but I am pretty sure they were fully enjoying the bags of crisps (chips) that Nain and Taid bought for them!
Thanks Nain and Taid for treating them to such a great day out!

Meeting cousin Leusa

We got to meet Rhiannon and Tryfan's 15-month-old cousin Leusa (pronounced "LAY-sah") for the first time yesterday. She is really cute! Tryfan looked so big standing next to her though. Here he is showing her a photo of himself from when he was a baby... she wasn't too impressed.
Leusa likes talking on the phone - this one wasn't plugged in, but that didn't stop her!
Auntie Llinos was talked into reading a magazine to Rhiannon but she didn't seem to mind.
It's so great to have our kids be around their cousins and start getting to know each other. I hope we get to see more of them in coming years!

Dinner at Jane's

Tuesday night we all went over to Jane's house for a delicious lasagna dinner, followed by several other courses of dessert, cheese and after dinner liquor. Here she is with the troops.
Nain was well prepared and had brought along some books for the kids to read while the rest of us enjoyed the other courses of the meal. Here is Taid reading to the troops.
Nain reading to Tryfan while Rhodri and I got to catch up with Jane.
Rhiannon wanted to have a photo taken with "all the girls"
And then Rhiannon took this one of "all the boys"
It was a lovely evening which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you, Jane!

Driving back up north

Today was such a gorgeous day, and we were fortunate to be driving from one end of the country to the other! Very fitting, since today was also St. David's Day (the National Day for Wales). There was so much to see - farms and baby lambs everywhere, snow capped mountains, grassy winter fields and brown bracken hillsides, stone walls and bare hedgerows... I love Wales. And the kids were so good in the car -- as long as they can listen to the Mamma Mia soundtrack and have their own backpacks full of magazines and other treats, everyone is happy!
We drove a different way heading back north and detoured so that we could call in with Auntie Mary near Aberystwyth, who kindly provided lunch to all of us.
Cousin Rachel came over to say hi to us too, which was a great surprise!
We didn't get to see Rhiannon and Tryfan's other cousins who are about the same age, but the troops sure appreciated playing with all their toys that are at Auntie Mary's house.
We got back to Llandudno around 4pm, just in time to play a bit before having dinner, bathtime and then bed. It was a great trip all around, but it's nice to be back at Nain and Taid's house.