Camping!

We had a very successful camping / road trip this past weekend. We left Asker on Friday afternoon and drove 2.5 hrs to Stavn to camp at a campsite that looked promising on its website. Too bad the recent rains had flooded the camping area! The owner lady referred us to another campsite across the highway so we went there since the troops were restless and hungry. This place was right on the bank of a lazy river, with a steep and brushy enough bank that the kids were not too tempted to go touch the water (thankfully!). Nobody slept too much this night due to the traintracks across the river, the highway, and the hyperactive kids (esp Tryfan) who took forever to fall asleep.
Since our awesome tent has two bedrooms, we had originally planned on letting the kids sleep in one and us sleep in the other one. But unfortunately, we had to separate the little monsters because they were just too crazy together.
The next day we went to the Vassfaret Bjorneparken (Bear Park). Here is Rhiannon imitating the giant bear model. Pretty convincing, huh? You should have heard the growl that accompanied it!
Here are the troops with some of the bears in the park. There were also moose, deer, and a bunch of less exciting animals like rabbits, lambs, pigs, and hedgehogs. Actually, I consider hedgehogs quite exciting but we didn't get to see them because they don't come out to play until the afternoon and we were there in the morning.
We discovered that there were plenty of big fat blueberries in the bushes just next to the bear pen, so the troops made themselves comfy sitting right in the middle of the patch and eating berries.
Here is Tryfan excited to pet the soft (and friendly) bunny rabbit.
After the bear park, we decided to "up sticks" and move our camp to another spot. That's when our roadtrip started! As soon as we were in the car, the kids fell asleep and we drove back to Stavn, packed up our tent and skedaddled. We headed up Highway 7 towards Gol and over to Geilo, where we got out to stretch our legs and explore the town a little bit. Then we continued on until we found a nice place to camp near Uvdal. We set up our great tent and I cooked dinner while Rhodri built a fire and the kids played in the grass and up on the swingset nearby. After dinner we roasted marshmallows as a special treat. Tryfan especially loves marshmallows!
There was a bit of a kerfuffle when the farm owners whose land we were camping on came down to us and explained that we really should not camp just there since there was a prediction that the area would be flooded. The kerfuffle part was that this older couple did not speak a word of English and we didn't understand too much of what they were saying. I *really* did not want to move our tent and go stay in one of their cabins, but eventually Rhodri talked me into it. I guess it was the responsible thing to do, and I didn't want to be worrying all night about if the lake water was rising or anything like that. So we moved to a little cabin on the same property which had 2 bunkbeds, a table with chairs and a little cooking area. And so we camped in there for the night with our great tent folded up and put away, already very wet with rain. In the morning, we saw that there had been no flooding (of course!) but it was a lovely morning. Rhodri took the kids for a walk while I packed stuff up.
We left around 10am and drove to the Norefjell mountains to go for a walk. Here is the view looking back at our camping/ cabin area.
So then we took a scenic tour through gorgeous countryside on a sunny Sunday and ended up at a trailhead leading into Norefjell. We didn't even try to get the kids to hike. We just put them both in backpacks (Tryfan in the Ergo carried by me and Rhiannon in the Kelty frame pack carried by Rhods) and headed out. There were sloppy muddy trails for most of it, but it was still great. Here is Rhiannon at our lunching/ turnaround spot.
Tryfan and I are the pink speck in the middle of the photo.
After the hike, we headed back to Asker and were happy to be home. But I really wanted to keep camping and hiking - I forgot how much I love it! Good thing that I get to go (without kids or Rhodri) this coming weekend with some friends - woohoo!

Tryfan's first tur

Tryfan went "på tur" yesterday for the first time in barnehage! Here he is waiting in the staging area with his homies Johanne and Michael.
And out on the prowl. They did two laps around the block and then had a picnic. Tryfan is the one picking his nose while holding onto the rope at the same time. There was a lot of excitement because a kitty-cat followed the group as they walked around the neighborhood. Tryfan was especially excited and kept wanting to break away from the chain gang to go touch the kitty.
This weekend we are going camping! The forecast is for rain but we want to put our family tent to use - haven't used it since May in California. Of course, Rhiannon really wants Isabella to come with us. I told her to wish it on the first star she sees tonight and maybe someday soon Isa will come see us....

Eat it ?!

Lately Tryfan has been stringing together 3 or 4 words at a time, based on observations or thoughts he has. These tend to be very funny sentences. Last night when I was encouraging the kids to eat the casserole that I had made for dinner, Rhiannon was being very good and eating it all while Tryfan was NOT. He looked at me and said "Tryfs?! Eat it?! Food?! Nooooooooo" (accompanied by a vigorous shaking of his head). And then he went on to say "Yiannon!? Eat it?! Food?! Yaaaaah" The "?!" is meant to describe the lilt in his voice so that it sounds like a question but also a statement. Anyway, I did the completely unprofessional mother thing and burst out laughing.

On the water

Sunday was a beautiful day, though a little bit windy. It might have been the last beautiful weekend day for awhile, so we decided to attempt a family outing in our trusty canoe, the SS Meerkat. Previous to this day, we had only attempted a canoe outing in the presence of at least one other adult, but today we decided to just go for it alone as a family. Here are the troops at the launching point. Tryfan was totally stoked but Rhiannon didn't really want to go.
We are so lucky to have not one, but FOUR lakes that are connected by navigable waterways in our neighborhood. We started near Ulvenvannet, then around Verkensvannet, then Nordvannet and Svinesjoen. On the first leg of our journey, I had Tryfan sitting between my legs in the bow (front) of the canoe while Rhiannon sat in the middle and Rhodri at the stern. Here is a self take of me and Tryfs.
And the rest of our party behind us.
We stopped on a little island and had a picnic, then set off back to our port. After this picnic, Tryfan really wanted to be in the middle with Rhiannon rather than under strict supervision in the front with me. The tricky part was convincing Tryfan to sit still and not walk around or lean over the edge! That's when I busted out the bag of gummy sweets. I started by doling out one at a time, but by now it was getting really windy and we needed to just get back to port before things went horribly wrong. So after about 10 minutes of halting my paddling every few seconds to dole out more sweets, I just gave Rhiannon the whole bag and told her to only have 1 at a time for both herself and Tryfan as long as they both stayed still. She completely ignored the "1 at a time" part -- Rhodri described Tryfan clutching his two fistfulls of sweets and smiling a big, wide smile. Here they are sitting (laying) still:
Anyway, we made it back to port without anyone falling in or even really getting wet! It was a huge success and we look forward to more family canoe outings.

As we pulled up to the dock, there was a lady who was drying off her kayak and she had no legs! Rhiannon asked me why this lady was "so tiny" and I said that everybody is different and some people are tiny in this way. Probably not the best answer, but I didn't have much time to think about it and I could tell that the lady had heard Rhiannon ask this. We chatted with this lady a little in Norwegian and then we switched to English when she asked Rhodri to help her get the kayak into the shed. She explained that her normal kayaking partner wasn't able to come on this day but she really wanted to get out on the water so she went by herself anyway - though it took her a long time to get the kayak out of the rack in the storage shed and over to the water to launch herself! Both Rhodri and I were completely in awe of her understated determination to spend her Sunday kayaking -- very inspiring.

Skogen week

This week was Rhiannon's first week in the "utegruppe" - the group of kids that gets to spend all day out in the skogen (forest). She gets to go every day for a full week for 1 week a month, and this was her week (after we said goodbye to Gabi and Nia, of course). Here she is VERY excited, waiting for the taxi-bus to come pick everyone up at the entrance gate.
Running running for the taxi-bus with all of her homies.
She was doing a happy dance with her hands while sitting on the bus.
Even though it poured rain all day Wednesday, and still rained but not as hard on Thursday and Friday, Rhiannon LOVED her days in the skogen. They made soup over a bonfire on Wednesday, then cooked something else (can't remember just now) over the fire on Friday, and did things like pick blueberries, play hide-and-seek, search for frogs, go for a little hike, and sit in the lavvo-tent just discussing topics like love and marriage (!?!). A bit young for this, perhaps, but apparently one of the kids asked one of the teachers about this so it was discussed. One of the nice things about skogen days is that the teachers post a copy of the daily journal that they keep so that when parents come to pick up the kids, they can read all these details. Of course, it is all in norsk and there are usually some words I don't know, but now that our girl is in the big leagues I will make sure to find out everything!

Last days of summer

Cousin Gabi and Auntie Nia left yesterday, but the last couple of days that we had together after our weekend party were great. The air is cooling off though and it definitely feels like summer is over. Here is the lunchtime scene on Tuesday. Or maybe it was Monday. We laid pretty low on Monday and just recovered from the party...
We went on a bike ride Tuesday morning and Rhiannon rode her own bike while Gabi and Tryfs got to be in the Burley. Auntie Nia got to hold Bentley's leash so that he could come too.
Taking the babies out shopping for groceries. Rhii and Gabi would take turns asking us Mamas what we would like them to pick up at the shop for us, and then they would push the strollers across the lawn and pretend to shop.
The boys wanted to climb the tree in theory, but not really in practice. Rhiannon didn't give them too much opportunity anyway since she feels that it is really 'her' tree.
We fit quite a lot into the 6 days that Nia and Gabi were here, and it was good practice for the kids to speak Welsh together -- even Tryfan is starting to say things now in Welsh. Plus it was good practice for Auntie Nia to have more youngens (and therefore more chaos) around since Gabriel is going to be a big brother come late January!!

Housewarming - Part 2

Part 2 of the Housewarming Party was truly a kid-tastic event. The sky clouded over just a little bit, but in a good way. All the kids got to have an ice lollipop so Rhiannon and her homies (Sofia, Sofie and Gabriel) claimed the tiny picnic table by the playhouse and enjoyed theirs here.
Otherwise, there were kids everywhere: cooking and washing inside the playhouse, going up and down the slide, climbing way up the climbing tree, getting wet in the wading pool and/or from splashing in the green water table, pouring rocks on the lawn, and even brushing Bentley.
I didn't ever count how many of our friends showed up for the party, but it was somewhere in the region of ~20 kids and maybe ~35 adults.
Here are Nia and I in the kitchen.
We had a really great time - thanks everyone for coming! Our house is definitely warm now :-)

Housewarming - Part 1

We had a Housewarming Extravaganza yesterday and we were so lucky with the weather -- bright, full sunshine and warm (but not hot) temperatures. First we invited the neighbors around at 1pm.
I distributed 15 invitations to the mailboxes that I thought belonged to our closest neighbors (it's a little tricky because the mailboxes are clustered together in groups around the area, some with just names and some with just addresses), and 10 families showed up. Several neighbors brought delicious cakes, and so we enjoyed cake and cool beverages on this Sunday afternoon. It was a huge success.
We would not have been able to pull off a successful party without the tremendous help that Auntie Nia provided! She made sure that all our guests had beverages and knew where the cakes were, she tidied up the areas as they started getting messy, AND she made pleasant conversation with those neighbors who didn't seem to know anybody there. It turns out that a lot of our neighbors didn't know each other, so it was extra good that we had the excuse of being new and foreign so that our neighbors had a chance to meet each other.

SS Meerkat out of the garage

On Saturday we finally got our trusty canoe, the SS Meerkat, out of our friends' garage and out into the water for the first time this season! It was a lovely day and we took her out onto Ulvenvannet lake, which is the one closest to our house. Here are Rhodri, Rhiannon, Gabriel and Auntie Nia just pushing off from the launching point.
We switched passengers for a little bit so Rhiannon stayed on the beach and took this photo.
Heading back into the dock area.
The dock area which is only ~100 meters from the beach we go to but around the backside.
In retrospect, I should have bought a 3rd child's life jacket and then we ALL could have fit into the canoe. Oh well. Next time!

Oscarborg Opera

Rhodri and I joined the Welsh Society of Oslo for an evening of opera at the Oscarborg Fortress. First we took a ferry from Aker Brygge (downtown Oslo) and it was a 1.5 hrs ride down the Oslofjord to this island near Drobak. Then we had about an hour to explore the island and socialize/ eat dinner before sitting down to watch La Boheme. Here is an aerial photo I downloaded showing the fortress.
During the German invasion of Norway, the fortress was manned by the Norwegian military and they torpedoed (and sunk) a German ship which is still on the seafloor of the fjord today. Here are some picnickers in front of one of the many cannons.
Here is Rhodri and some other Welsh Society members inside the fortress waiting for the show to start.
The La Boheme stage. We were just next to the orchestra (to the left from this photo) and boy were they impressive. The performance was good, although there were times when the orchestra drowned out the singing voices, especially the mens'. The lady singers playing Mimi and Musetta were especially great, though.
But the highlight had to be the perfect summer evening weather that we had combined with the overall thrill of the special outing! The forecast was for heavy rain, and by Friday morning the forecast had improved to rain showers, but in the end we saw nothing but blue sky and enough wispy clouds to reflect the sunset colors. We even saw the stars come out! Definitely a novelty at the end of a Scandinavian summer. The show ended at 10pm, everyone got back on the ferry, and about 2 hours later (against the tide, I guess) we were back in Oslo. So we got home around 1am and the report was that everyone went to bed early with no fuss. Great! An all around success! Big thanks to Auntie Nia for making it possible :-)

Bus adventure

It's a little too far to walk into Asker from our house, and we don't have enough bikes for everyone and of course we can't all fit into the same car, so we went on a bus adventure today! Here are the troops waiting patiently in the bus stop.
Walking from our house to the bus stop.
On the bus - very exciting! Too bad only Tryfan's forehead made it into the self-take.
Once downtown Asker, we stopped into a few shops (the ones that have play areas for kids) and then had ice cream by the bunny statue and tried to keep everyone out of the water fountain.
We quit while we were ahead, well before naptime, and took the bus home for lunch, naps and more fun. As I was filling the little wading pool with water, Rhiannon found a blanket, got food and drinks from the fridge, plates, spoons and cups and set up a picnic for everyone on the deck!
Then Rhodri and I left for our Oscarborg opera adventure at 4pm...

Cousins reunited

Today Auntie Nia and Cousin Gabriel arrived for a week's visit with us! Hurray! They arrived just before dinnertime and both Rhiannon and Tryfan were SO happy and excited to see Gabi. All three ran around in circles in the backyard until they were too hungry to go any longer, and then we had a fine pasta dinner followed by cookies and Jello. Good times! We moved a guest bed into Rhiannon's room and that is where Gabi is sleeping. It took all the kids a looooong time to settle down and stop chattering to each other but they got there eventually. I think we are in for a fun week!

Tomorrow night Rhodri and I are going to see the opera La Boheme at the Oscarborg fortress (which is on an island in the middle of the Oslofjord). This will be a bit of an adventure, since we have to take the train and then a ferry and it starts at 8pm so we have to leave Asker pretty early...thank goodness that Auntie Nia is here to put the kids to bed and enable us to have this adventure!

HUET footage

Here is some footage of the Sea Survival and HUET (Helicopter Underwater Escape Training) course. Rhodri is one of the guys in orange who gets out on the far right of the screen...

Tryf's turn

For about the past 5 days or so, Tryfan has suddenly started using words to communicate. Sounds basic, I know, but he is really making an effort to use words to actually say what he wants or doesn't want. He says things like "Mama eat it" (handing me food that he doesn't want to eat), "Kitty in bed" (after he has put his kitty and blanket in his bed to wait for him), and "Tryf's turn" (when he is sharing something with Rhiannon and anxious for his part of the action). This last phrase is usually shouted repeatedly and often accompanied by angry tears and foot stomps. I try not to laugh though.

Both Rhiannon and Tryfan are really fascinated by Peter Pan right now. We have two Peter Pan books - one is the original unabridged version with sparse but gorgeous illustrations, and the other one is the "Little Golden Book" version that has the Disney view of the story. Lately i have gone in search of the sudden silence in the house and found the two of them sitting in Rhiannon's bed or on the couch turning the pages of the big original one that is heavy to carry around. And actually, it is MY book so I don't really want it to be carried out to the playhouse (so that they can read it to the babies) or in the bucket of the ride-around tractor. And I definitely don't want Tryfan reading it to his kitty cat after I have put him to bed -- this is his latest favorite thing to do: read stories to his kitty and blanket, but only if they are propped up in just the right way. Anyway, I am looking forward to actually reading them the proper Peter Pan story in its full unabridged length - the little bits that I skim over are wonderfully divergent from the Disney version!

Easy week, free day

Oh my gosh, have I really let nearly a whole week go by with no updates? Sorry! I guess there hasn't been that much to report. We've had a quiet and easy week. Rhodri has been away at a Sea Survival course all week and I've been making the most of the leisurely mornings and then picking up the kids in the early afternoons from barnehage. Here they are just laying on the step down from the kitchen to the back deck, talking to Fireman Sam on the mobile phone and pretending that the pens were magic wands (though not marking the wood, thank goodness).
On Friday I kept them home from barnehage and we had a 'fri dag' (free day). We played a board game (!) inside in the morning and then moved outside to read stories and lounge in the sun. At one point, when Tryfan was inside sleeping, Rhiannon and I were laying on our backs on the big Fatboy pillow and literally watching the clouds go by, twisting and changing shape as they do each second. I haven't done THAT in awhile, and it was just pure bliss to lay there with my sweet girl and watch the clouds.
Around 3pm we decided to go to the beach so we did that for about an hour, then came home, had a traditional Friday dinner of pizza, and our neighbors Monica, Glenn and their daughter Hanna (8 yrs) came over to say hi. We just sat around on the deck and the 3 kids played together on the slide, in the tree, with Bentley on the grass. Very idyllic. Monica and Glenn laugh a lot, and Glenn has one of the best giggles I have heard for awhile, so it was a very fun evening with them. Here is Monica (sitting) with Bentley kissing Hanna.
Bentley especially loved Hanna, but maybe not in the best of ways...
They are about the same height standing up and Hanna wanted Bentley to dance with her, so he was coerced into standing on his hind legs and putting his front paws on her shoulder and around her waist. I wish I had taken a photo but I was too busy laughing instead - Bentley had misterpreted her actions and was really trying to hump poor Hanna. Of course, she had no idea because she thought he was just dancing with her! It was quite embarrassing because we don't know these people too well, and there is our dog trying to hump their sweet daughter! We were all laughing about it at the time, but maybe next time ol' Bents will have to stay tied up...

Bundle of love

Tryfan has been taking his kitty, blanket, and "Fireman Sam" book everywhere he goes. For some reason the llama has falled out of favor and replaced by this book that, after a week of ownership, is about to fall apart from chew marks and slobber stains. Tryfan loves to bury his head into the bundle of blanket+kitty+book and giggle to himself. But he is willing to leave his bundle of love in a designated place so that they don't get wet, dirty, or covered in paint. But the kitty has to be standing up and facing him.
Yesterday afternoon our friends Henry, Elianne and their son Felix (4) came over to play, see the house, and have dinner. Rhiannon and Felix chased each other around the yard, up the tree, down the slide, into and out of the house, all the time laughing and chattering to each other. First they talked to each other in English, but then about half-way through the visit they switched over to Norwegian. Here they are coloring the rocks outside the kitchen.
Rhiannon and Felix also did some painting inside the kitchen at the little art corner we set up. They shared watercolors really well and nobody argued! Magic. So then this morning Rhiannon wanted to do some more of that and of course Tryfan wanted to as well.
We had pancakes this morning with ground pumpkin seeds and smashed-up ripe nectarine - superb! We ate them while watching a Fireman Sam video (in Norwegian), which is usually totally against the rules, but on a rainy Sunday morning we made an exception. At one point Rhiannon was laughing at something that one of the characters said in Norwegian, and when I asked her what it meant in English she said she didn't know. I asked again a few seconds later what it meant and she sighed a big exasperated sigh and said, "Mama, if I don't know, then that means I am going to not tell you." I laughed.
Otherwise, we've just had a quiet weekend. A bit of sun, bit of rain, some shopping and cleaning, playing hide and seek, friends and music. Even Tryfan sings along to "Mamma Mia" now! It's a good life ... as long as Rhodri is the one doing the cleaning part :-)

Yet another beach holiday memory

When we were in Little Haven (Wales) a couple of weeks ago, we were given the opportunity to go out for dinner! Nain and Taid offered to babysit all three kids while Rhodri, Nia, Cristian and I went for a lovely dinner at the Swan Inn - just about a minutes walk from the house we were staying in. Here we all are before departure:
Self-take en route to the big night out
The view from our choice dining table right in the window overlooking the Little Haven beach (shown here at high tide). The house we were living in is the 2nd one in from the beach with a gray roof and wooden windows. Just right in the very center of the photograph is a little white spot - this is Nain Beryl wearing a white shirt with red trousers and she is pulling the washing off of the clothesline on the middle terrace of the backyard! We tried waving to her but she didn't wave back so probably didn't see us.
The dinner was great, of course. For dessert, I ordered the cheese plate. The waitress brought out the wooden board on the left in this picture and I thought for all the world that this was the cheese plate. I was so mad! Was it a joke? What a pathetic display of cheeses, and it cost nearly 8 pounds! What a rip-off. But then about 10 long minutes later, the real cheese board appeared with so much delicious cheese that I had to take some home in a doggy bag (SUCH an American thing to do, but hey, cheese is cheese and I don't want it going to waste!).
Anyway, it was a great evening - thank you so much Nain and Taid for giving us the chance to do this!

Inspiration from a former boyfriend

This week I have been figuring how much and what sort of things I can fit into a day and feel satisfied at the end of it. I have a long list of things to do on several time scales and it's easy for the day to run away on me. Today I decided to do something just because I can. This was (and probably still is) the mantra of my former boyfriend E. Cann. He would always do things "just because I can, 'cuz I'm Cann". So I am deciding that this inspiration should be part of my daily life.

I didn't do anything crazy today - I just wore my favorite purple Anthropologie skirt (the one I bought for myself on Mother's Day) and my new favorite blue "Rollin' with my homies" t-shirt that Annabel sent me (they don't match very well though) and set out on my bike to pick up the kids really early from barnehage and take them to the beach.
This is the beach that is closest to our house. It's only about a 5 minute bike ride or a 10 minute walk - right at the end of Ulvenvannet lake. There were about 10 other small nekkid children playing in the shallow water and mud. Good times. Big shout out to you, EC, although I doubt you are reading this...!

Afternoon play

Today I rode my bike towing the Burley trailer for the first time (usually Rhodri does this while I take Bentley alongside). I picked up Rhiannon and her friend Sofie from barnehage ~2pm and towed them back to our house to play for the afternoon. Rhodri picked up Tryfan later because I couldn't fit 3 kids in the trailer. Rhiannon was SO excited for Sofie to come over that apparently she was telling everyone about it all morning, then she wouldn't let other kids play with Sofie in case that would interfere. The two of them were just sitting by the entrance gate waiting for me when I rode in. Here they are in Rhiannon's room, playing with paper dolls and stickers.
It turned into a lovely sunny and warm day, so the clothes came off and the kids played in the wading pool before dinner, then had fun driving and pushing the tractor around.
In the morning today I took Bentley on a run and explored the other side of Ulvenvannet lake. I was very proud of myself for finding a route from one side of the lake to the other via three farmers fields, a little swamp, a small bit of forest and then a scratchy and tingly thrash through stinging nettle and wild raspberries (which were ripe!). But I had been really itching to find a way around and so I am glad I did! It's probably not a good route for the Burley trailer though...

Expedition

On Sunday morning we went on a bike expedition to a spot that only took about 10 meandering minutes (that is, we didn't zoom straight there). Rhodri towed the kids in the Burley and I had Bentley on the bike springer. We brought a picnic snack + thermos of tea + blanket + berry picking tool and had a relatively short but successful expedition to the quiet shores of Nordvannet lake. Bentley got to jump in the water, I got to pick some blueberries, and nobody got hurt!
It was a bit tricky getting Tryfan back into the Burley so that we could go home.
Most of the berries got eaten, but we had enough to make blueberry muffins to take over to our friends Tracey and Victor's house in the afternoon. And then Emily and Phil came over to our house for dinner - we celebrated me being off work now for at least the next 6 months. Woohoo!