Road trip! (Rjukan adventure part 1)

I must admit, I still get a little bit giddy when planning for a road trip - even if it is only a couple of hours of driving and staying out somewhere new for just one night! This is what we did on Friday- Saturday this weekend. We left Friday morning at 10:30am and drove to our lodging for the night near Tuddal. Since we can't all fit into our car, we rented a van for the weekend. Here is the view of the 4 back seats.
Our lodging for the night was Tuddal Mountain Hotel, which is the oldest wooden hotel in Norway. It turned out to be a very special and intimate place -- 20 bedrooms plus lots of common areas that had cozy alcoves, board-game playing areas, sitting/ socializing nooks, and even a library.
We ended up spending quite a bit of time in this library, especially on Saturday morning because Breakfast didn't start until 8:30am and both kids woke around 6am. That is a LONG time to tiptoe around trying not to wake other people, and it was great to have a closed off place to not only browse through old books, but also to play with old trains, trucks, and even a wooden children's desk with the top that lifts up!
The hotel is situated on the edge of a [still frozen] lake and there were many x-c ski trails in the vicinity.
When we arrived on Friday afternoon, first we went sledding. Here is Taid Trefor about to go down a hill with Rhiannon. He didn't quite get the steering correct and they both tumbled off into the soft snow but nobody got hurt!
Here is the little lookout perch where we set up camp for the afternoon after sledding. From here (~30 ft from the hotel), we could monitor the skiers and sledders on the hill below but also Tryfan and Rhiannon could conduct snow relocation activities using their buckets and shovels in a relatively containable area.
For some reason on this day, Tryfan was acting particularly irritable, whiney, and generally un-fun to be around, and he didn't want to be out of sight of Mama or Daddy. This foiled our x-c ski plans, but we were able to take turns going. I went for a little jaunt first, then Rhodri and Sioned went afterwards. This was Sioned's first time on skis and she did great! No photos on my camera unfortunately.
But the highlight of the day was after the kids went to bed and we adults got to enjoy a 4-course dinner that was an entire evening affair! The hotel owner, Rune, is also the head chef, with his son Einar as the sommelier (a knowledgeable wine professional) and his wife Elsa as the hostess, so the formal set-menu meal with different wines to go with each course was superb! Earlier in the day, Trefor and Sioned chatted a bit with Elsa about Wales and singing and so forth (we don't think they get many foreigners staying here), and Elsa then assigned us to the best table in the dining room, with unobstructed views out to the lake and the mountains beyond. We had accidentally left the baby monitor at home, but as luck would have it, Rune's mother Cecilia was also staying in the hotel for the weekend and she offered to sit outside our room knitting with the promise to come get us if the kids woke up! Needless to say, we were exceedingly grateful for our temporary grandmother. Anyway, it was a really special evening.

On a mission...

As we were preparing for our Welsh family visitors last month, Rhodri planned a mission to go visit Rjukan, the location of the "Norwegian Industrial Worker's Museum" (actually the museum was nearby in Vemork). Yawwwwn...or so I thought before visiting!
It turns out that this destination is where one of the most prolonged and effective secret operations during World War II took place, as it is a heavy water plant that the German Nazis had taken over with suspected plans to build an atomic bomb. During 1943 and 1944, four different missions were undertaken to [successfully] destroy this capability. The film "The Heroes of Telemark" [1965] and the book "The Real Heroes of Telemark" by Ray Mears [2004] describe this true story. Needless to say, it was fascinating and really amazing to visit this place, especially after hearing Rhodri describe the story on the drive over.
We had some other adventures along the way that deserve their own posts, but this place was the real destination and I am so glad that we made it there today.

Quiet on the streets of Oslo

Today we took a family outing into the city of Oslo for some touring around. First we went to Vigeland park and it was coooold and for some reason we were not quite bundled up enough :-( Tryfan & I hung out in the car while he slept for a bit, then we high-tailed it to the cafe for some warmth and nourishment, and met the others there. After some lunch and a scamper around the playground, we visited the Akershus castle/ fortress. The light was very flat and Oslo wasn't looking her finest, so I wasn't too inspired to take photos. Here are the troops sitting atop a cannon, though.
We walked around for quite awhile and then circled back up Karl Johans Gate (the main street in Oslo). When we saw the Movenpick ice cream shop, we made a pit stop and indulged in some yummy Swiss ice cream while sitting outside.
About this time, the skies started clearing and the air warmed up to a balmy 40 deg F or so, and we headed back home for a spot of tea and some quiet sunshine. We busted out the beach toys for some snow relocation activities.
The scene in the backyard on Thursday evening ~6pm
Tomorrow we are off to Rjukan in Telemark...

End of winter visitors for Easter

Winter is indeed finishing, but spring is not here yet...at least not in any pleasant way. It started raining last night after Trefor and Sioned arrived -- they brought the rain from Wales with them! -- and continued all day today. Most people (Norwegians, anyway) have left town to spend the Easter holidays at their hyttes (cabins), and nearly everything is closed until Tuesday now. Easter is a big deal here! Since barnehage and work finished today at noon, the kids and I hung out at home while Rhodri, Trefor and Sioned went into Oslo. We took a trip to the 'good' grocery store downtown Asker, and Rhiannon wore her new trenchcoat while coercing Tryfan to wear her purple hat. They have started holding hands now as we all walk together down to the car from the house.
It is so great to have Auntie Sions and 'Taid' (Grandpa) Trefor here! They brought with them the entire first season of 'Shaun the Sheep' episodes, so we hung out on the couch watching some together.
We have a few things planned for this long weekend. Tomorrow we plan to go into Oslo and see the sights, then Friday & Saturday we are going to the village of Rjukan in Telemark to visit a historical place and hopefully get a last bit of x-c skiing in.

Waning days of snow

The snow is melting. We have had 50 deg (F) weather with warm winds and bright sunshine in recent days and while it is soooo lovely to have this weather, it is sad to have this wonderful snow turning to plain ol' water. On Sunday, we joined Sofie, Johanne, Elin and Oystein for some sledding at the Asker golfcourse near their house. Andreas (a boy who is in Rhiannon & Sofie's class at barnehage) joined us too. Tryfan and Johanne were happy to see each other, and they both sledded down the hill as well. Tryfan went down by himself for the first time and he liked it so much that he went down an additional 3 or 4 times!
After about an hour of this fun, we went to a birthday party for David March, who was turning 3. This worked out pretty well, because we were all ready for some food after climbing up the hill several times. So we ended up having a full Sunday afternoon, and this was a bit unexpected because on Friday night Rhiannon woke up feeling poorly. All day Saturday she moped around just wanting to lay on the couch and was not her usual chipper self. She slept in our bed on Saturday night and then Sunday morning she bolted upright and said "I'm a LOT better", then climbed off the bed and went in search of some breakfast food!

Happy

Tryfan learned a new word this weekend - 'happy'! What a nice word to know. Here he is in bed saying his new word to himself as he winds down for the day...

10 years - then and now

Rhodri and I have been married 10 years today!
I wish we had been able to save the bottle of Chateau St. Jean's 'Cinq Cepage' wine that my dear sister Heidi gave us 10 years ago to celebrate our 10-year anniversary (if we made it that far) but with all the moving we have done, it would have gone bad by now so we jumped the gun about 6 years back. Anyway, here are 2 photos I scanned in from April 3, 1999 - the coldest (and probably also the windiest) April day in Santa Barbara on record! It doesn't look cold here since all of us ladies are wearing sleeveless dresses, but as soon as the ceremony was over, wool blankets emerged from car trunks and jackets were shared and we went on to have a ..umm.. memorable reception that involved a lot of coffee, alcohol and live celtic music to dance crazily to. Anyone else remember this day?
We decided to celebrate today by going out to a sushi dinner as a family. To those of you not living in Norway, this might not sound like such a special thing to do. However, if you saw the bill for our humble meal of rice, edamame, 2 sushi rolls, 6 pieces of nigiri and 2 chocolate desserts, you might change your mind. Eating out is just so expensive here! Needless to say, the urchins made the most of the situation and went chopstick crazy and there was plenty of rice on the floor under Tryfan's chair.

Easter breakfast

The barnehage had their annual Easter breakfast for Tryfan and Rhiannon's classes on Wed Apr 1 from 7:30-9am. We didn't even try to make it in for 7:30am, but we did get there just in time for Rhiannon to sing a song with her class. Despite her apparent love of singing, she mostly just stood looking around and not singing very much. But we are proud of her for standing up there anyway.
In other news, Tryfan and his little friend Johanne have started to really play together. Their teacher Ana was attending to another child and turned around when she heard great laughter -- Tryfan and Johanne were taking turns playing peek-a-boo under the table. She said Tryfan was laughing so hard that he was struggling for breath!

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....

Michel to the rescue

On Friday, my colleague Michel offered to help me out with the kids on Saturday since Rhodri wasn't getting home till late that night. Although we would have been fine alone, I took him up on his offer. After all, he is a 20-something single guy living downtown Oslo and a dose of family life with small kids would probably be educational for him! First we picked him up at the Asker train station and went shopping. I would normally not attempt shopping alone with the kids, unless Tryfan was asleep in the stroller or backpack. But since we were in Asker center anyway, I figured we could run some errands. The troops were exceptionally wild, running running running in every direction and wanting to pick up shop items and not put them back. Michel did a good job of chasing after them. We all held hands and ran to the Italian bakery to buy some treats for lunch.

After some food and a nap for Tryfan, we set out for a ski/ sled adventure at the Asker Golf Course. Rhiannon did a little bit of skiing and then we all went sledding down the small hill in the background of this photo.
We had a little picnic of chocolate, hot cocoa, and some biscuits (cookies) at the bottom of the hill in really deep snow.
We had a really great day! One of the best parts was when Tryfan was having his nap, Michel and Rhiannon played board games and did puzzles while I scampered around the house doing chores that needed my full attention. I think Michel had a good time as well, since this day was an eye-opener for him and interesting in that it is such a different life to his normal city-bachelor lifestyle. Thanks, Michel :-)

Carnival

Yesterday was the Carnival celebration at barnehage, so everyone came dressed in costumes and they had wild party! Here are the troops before we put our coats on to leave the house in the morning.
Here is Rhiannon talking to her 'homies', Sofie (Pippi) and Yasmeen (princess).
They had a mambo-parade through the school while listening to music, then they got to hit down pinatas full of chocolate, then had a feast of pølser (hot dogs) and other marginally nutritious food. It was a stunning day of just-below freezing temps with bright sunshine and still plenty of snow on the ground, so after all the partying inside the big kids went out to play while the little kids slept. Wish I could have been celebrating Carnival rather than sitting at my desk all day!