Ski tour at Sem

This week it has snowed all day every day except for Tuesday, and this happened to be the day that my friend Fiona and I had planned a x-c ski outing! We had a few inches of fresh powder over the groomed x-c ski trails and we had the wilderness to ourselves. It was gorgeous.
We set out from the Semsvannet cafe area and crossed the frozen Sem lake, went up towards Gupu and then Furuholmen stuas (cabins out in the wilderness which are open on the weekends to sell warm drinks and food), then around towards Tveiter Farm and back across the lake. I guess it was about 10 km in total, with the perfect amounts of uphill, downhill, and flat bits. And with all the fresh soft snow, we both felt quite confident on our skis! Here is Fiona:
And me in the middle of the trail just before a pack of 10 huskies came mushing around the corner pulling a very smug looking guy who must have thought he was just so cool.
This is taken from the middle of Sem lake looking up at Skaugum cliff in the background and the dog peninsula by the little (red) house in the middle of the photo. Its always so cool to see places from a different perspective.
Despite living just a few minutes drive from this area, I hardly ever go here to ski. I should go more often though, because it is so beautiful.
Anyway, the rest of the week has been good and fairly uneventful - just snow, snow and more snow with not-too-cold temperatures. Rhodri was away for a couple of days but is back now in time for the weekend. Yay!

Bus riding

We've had Rhiannon's friend Sofia staying with us for a couple of nights while her parents are away on business. Since we can't fit 3 carseats into the car, the kids and I have been taking the bus to and from barnehage -- VERY exciting! Here they are on our walk from the busstop we get off at to the barnehage - it's about a 10 minute walk. The raspberry farm is in the background and although it is about 8:50am in this photo, you can see how dark the sky still is.
I've discovered that I can buy a "local ticket" (as opposed to a "normal ticket") on the bus for 30 kroners (on my way to barnehage) and also use it to come home with all the kids! Bargain! I don't know if I am supposed to be able to do this or if the busdrivers just feel sorry for me traveling with 3 small ones - probably not the latter, actually, since there isn't much sympathy going on in Norway. Anyway, it's been a little chaotic but mostly fun having Sofia stay with us.

Ski success

This weekend we went x-c skiing both Saturday and Sunday at the soccer field near the swimming beach at Ulvenvannet. This place is where most small kids come to learn how to ski because it is mostly flat and machine-groomed so that the ski tracks are in good condition.
Rhiannon is already quite good! She just goes for it, and when she falls down she gets back up without help! Tryfan struggled to keep his feet/ skis going in a straight line, but with big bags of sweets in my jacket pocket as incentive, he held my hand and kept trying.
Here he is with some chocolate in his mouth on Sunday. He had more success on this day after I convinced him to pretend he was a train and he should stay on the traintracks. We were careful not to spend too much time skiing though - both days we quit while everyone was still in good spirits!

Tomorrow...

...tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow! You're only a day away...
Tryfan can be heard singing this song from sun up to sun down and beyond (since the sun goes down quite early and yet Tryfan's singing continues). We've watched the DVD of "Annie" a couple of times since I bought it in November, but that song has really stuck in his head. I will try to get some footage of our little performer in coming days.

Pizza night

We had our friend Haran and his son Sjur over for pizza on Friday night. We almost always have pizza on Fridays and I've been making them now from scratch ever since Monica (our neighbor across the street) showed me how easy it is! Rhiannon and Tryfan help "decorate" the pizzas with all the goodies - they love it. Rhiannon always puts pesto and mozzarella on her pizza.
And so we had a fun dinner with Haran and Sjur (who is about 17 years old) -- they are great conversationalists and have had very interesting lives. Rhiannon loves talking to boys/men and so she spent most of the evening asking Sjur questions, showing him her favorite books and toys, and otherwise charming him. I guess it is normal, right? The barnehage system here in Norway tries to have at least 20% male staff members and so Rhiannon is used to being around male childcarers. There isn't a phobia here about inappropriate behaviour between men and children the way there is in other countries and I am so grateful for that because I see how great it is for small kids to have male role models who are not their fathers. Anyway, I am babbling now. Here is a photo of the kids right before bedtime (very wound up as you can see!) with Haran and Rhodri.
Otherwise we've had a quiet week with not much to report. At least temperatures have warmed up to the point where the kids can play outside again everyday (-10 C is about the limit) and Tryfan can sleep outside again during the day. Everyone is happy about that! It's hard being inside all the time when one is used to playing outside for several hours everyday.

Snow dog

Bentley loooooves the snow, boy! I've taken him a few times this week just down the street to Ulvenvannet lake where we swam a lot this past summer. It is just so great to explore the lake by foot and let Bentley run wild. He is just a big tumble of flying snow most of the time.
But with these temperatures, his paws do get frozen after not too long outside and he has to lay down in the snow and lick them (which probably doesn't help one single bit). Hopefully it will warm up just a few degrees so we can all play outside for longer.
This week I managed to wear the same exact thing for 7 days in a row (except for undergarments, of course). I call it my new uniform: a big black down jacket, green Finnish hunting trousers, and my trusty Scarpa hiking boots. Choice! I don't know which article I love the most. My hunting trousers are lined on the inside (so I dont need long johns) and soft water-resistent material on the outside with velcro cuffs so I can wrap them around the top of my boots and walk right through knee-deep snow without getting wet or cold, even when it is literally -20 C outside in the sunshine. And I can wear just a t-shirt beneath my jacket and be perfectly toasty. So maybe I don't look very trendy, but I'm not a big one for fashion anyway so at least its nothing new. Here is me with Bentley the wonderdog

Kjempekaldt

"Giant cold" is what the title translates to, and that is what it is here just now. For the past few days and for the foreseeable future, we are having temps of about -14 to -20 C (+6 to -4 F), tending to hover right around -18 C most of the time. The forecast is for much colder actually, but we'll believe it when we see it. Here are some snowflakes on the windshield of our car with the sun rising in the reflection.
This week is Rhiannon's week to go to the skogen (forest), but yesterday, today and probably tomorrow it is too cold for even them to go. Our barnehage draws the line at -15 C if there is no wind, and the thermometer has not spent much time warmer than -15 since Tuesday. So that is sad. They still get dressed and packed for spending the day outside every morning anyway, and if the temperature gets above -15 C, they head out to a nearby campsite (though not their regular site in the big forest). Here is Rhiannon (in red) and her 'utegruppa' (outside group) walking back to the barnehage because it is too cold for them even at the campsite.
And what does she wear to keep warm, you ask? Two complete layers of wool (thin wool long sleeve top and leggings and thin wool socks + thick Merino wool sweater and leggings with thick wool socks) underneath an insulated snow suit (or jacket and trousers, in Rhiannon's case). Then of course good quality snow mittens, insulated hat, a fleece scarf and winter boots. Yes, there are days when she complains about putting these on, but she does like to be warm and toasty. Here she is in her woolies standing in front of the outerwear dress area at barnehage. Each child has their own hook and space on a shelf, but this time of year it is pretty crowded and chaotic in this area!
At least the snow is not melting and promises to be here for awhile, but it would be nice if the temperature raised just a little bit ... -8 C would be perfect ... so that we could play outside more!

Christmas hangover

I spoke too soon. Christmas has NOT finished yet. This week is when all of the "Juletrefest" (Christmas tree party) celebrations are scheduled at workplaces and barnehages. This year we actually managed to attend the one at our barnehage. It's an occasion that everyone gets dressed up for, but Rhiannon insisted on wearing her 'julenisse' outfit and hat. As it turns out, her friend Sofia did as well, but everyone else was wearing something fancy.
We've never actually been to one of these events until this year, mostly because you have to commit to coming back in mid-December when the first full week of Jan seems very far away, and I've never managed to remember to sign us up. But it also just feels wrong and weird to have Christmas parties so long after New Year. It's always been a mystery as to WHY people put on these parties well after Christmas, but this year I found out: it is a Scandinavian tradition to celebrate the end of Christmas, the taking down of the tree, and to eat all the leftover bits of gingerbread, cake and chocolate. Here in Norway, this event also involves a lot of singing, holding hands and dancing around the Christmas tree. Here is Rhiannon in action...
Tryfan didn't want to dance or sing or hold hands around the tree, but he was interested in the chocolate that was in his goodie bag! Here he is with Rhodri talking to Anne, one of his favorite teachers.
Tryfan took this photo of Rhiannon and me.
So NOW Christmas can finally be over! Phew.

The end of Christmas

You know that Christmas is really over when it is time to smash the gingerbread house!

This wasn't our gingerbread house - it belonged to our neighbors and new friends Catherine, Per and Tristan. We have been doing a lot of sledding outside their house and they invited us over for pizza and playing on Saturday night.

You can see that Rhiannon was quick to pick out the biggest, sweet-covered part of the house and saunter off to the best seat in the house. Ahh, the benefits of being a big sister!

It's been a great holiday and I think we are all well rested now, ready for action, and now it is time for everyone to get back to their normal routines. I personally am looking very much forward to some quality x-c skiing time with Bentley in the mornings once everyone is at work and barnehage!

2009, 2010

I didn't write an annual letter this year so I haven't had a chance to reflect on the year that has just finished but I reckon it was a pretty great year. Maybe this week once everyone goes back to work and barnehage I will have some time to myself...
Still, I absolutely love the feeling on New Year's Day when the slate is clean and the air is full of potential and hope. On this particular New Year's Day, I managed to stay in my jammies the entire day despite the fact that I went outside with Bentley twice. I love that I can just put on rainpants, winter boots and my big down parka and still have my pink fleece bunny rabbit jammies on underneath that nobody knows about.

New Year's Eve

After sledding in the morning, lunch and then a quiet time, we went to neighbors Catherine and Per's house for afternoon tea and biscuits! They are new friends of ours and have a son who is just a little bit younger than Tryfan. Fortunately they live just around the corner from us and so we didn't have far to travel. All 3 kids played alongside each other really nicely and so we adults could actually have a decent conversation!

We went straight from there to our neighbors across the road for a full fancy dinner and evening to bring in the New Year. Tryfan and Rhiannon took turns using my camera and they are actually getting better at taking photos. I made this collage using some of the better ones:
The mandatory family photo
Rhiannon and Kristoffer at the dinner table. They were giggling and talking in their own secret code the whole night, although I am pretty sure that most of their language is made up of the words 'baesj', 'tiss' and 'promp' (poo, pee and fart). They sure thought they were funny though!
We had a delicious dinner with nice wine to go with it and the kids played together really well with no tears or injuries, and then we took them outside for some sparkler fireworks before bed.
We brought their jammies over with us and so all the kids went to sleep while we adults stayed up talking and drinking wine. We went outside to light off fireworks in the front yard (as all Norwegians seem to do) under a partially obscured blue moon and falling snow, opened some bubbly and brought in 2010! When it was time to go home around 1:30am, we simply carried the kids still inside the duvets and put them straight into their beds. Nobody woke up until 8:30am the next day... Success!

Other Romjul happenings

I forgot to mention a couple of other things that have been happening this week. First, Rhodri and I (with Bentley) have been able to take turns x-c skiing every day this week. We can actually ski from our driveway down the road (which is packed snow without gravel on it) to Ulvenvannet lake and ski across that to the groomed trails at Kjekstedmarka. Luxury! I so love the minimal prep and mobilization work that is required to x-c in this way. So even though it has been really cold, we've taken turns enjoying the gorgeous ski conditions. The perfect snow, clear skies and full moon ski tours have been a highlight of this week.

Second, Tryfan has been really keen on using the toilet this week. I think he is a bit too young to be doing this, so we have not been prodding him or actively encouraging him to do this. However, we do have an M&M Incentive Program and Tryfan looooves sweets! So he has been practicing his pee-on-demand skills as well as a #2 in the potty on one occasion.

The #2 production scene was quite humorous although he was alone in the bathroom during the episode so we didn't actually witness it! Based on the 'evidence' there was something that went straight into the potty which was followed by a surprised, standing-up movement which resulted in some more 'evidence' in a different location which he attempted to relocate to the primary location (inside the potty) without success. What Rhodri and I saw was a nekkid running boy with brown hands... Eeehwww!! And that's when we discovered the evidence and pieced together what must have happened. We tried to be happy and enthusiastic and proud of him while at the same time laughing hysterically and trying to contain the brownness from spreading onto clothes, skin and hair. All of the excitement and strangeness of it brought tears to poor Tryfan's eyes, but I think the handful of M&M's helped convince him that he did a good thing. Anyway, I apologize for the graphic nature of this post, but as this blog also serves as our memoirs, this week wouldn't be complete without including it!

Romjul

I learned this week about "Romjul", which is the term given to the period of time between Christmas and New Year. We've had a quiet Romjul and it has been really nice. After our ski outing Monday, the temperature dropped to -20 C for a few days in a row and we stayed cozy inside. Today it warmed up and we got some sledding in.
Rhiannon and Tryfan did a good job of cooperating to get maximum usage out of the sled. Although it belongs to Rhiannon, she has found that if there is another person sitting behind her, the sled goes faster! So their system is for Rhiannon to pull and Tryfan to push the sled up to the top of the hill, both climb on, wait for a sign that the street is clear, and then zoom down. Our neighbors Kristoffer and his Daddy joined in the action, and in fact they have expanded the sled run to have a cheeky little chicane as it crossed the street and dog-legs to the right for a continuation along the side of their house. Fun!
In other news, we were delighted to receive a package from California that had a new doll in it for Rhiannon. The doll's name varies daily but her current name is "Goleta Laleea". Whatever. Apparently Goleta gets along pretty well with the rest of the baby dolls in Rhiannon's flock.
And so this afternoon we have plans to go to a neighbor's house for afternoon tea and then to another neighbor's house (Kristoffer and his family) for a posh New Year's Eve dinner.

Unpleasant start to the season

We kicked off the [cross country] ski season this year with our friends Fiona, Karl-John, Finn and Magnus. Today was brilliantly clear and cold, with soft snow in every direction. Perfect! We decided to go to Kjekstedmarka which is really close by our house. The trip started with a steep downhill followed by a steep uphill, and then it was pretty flat for the rest of the tour. Since Finn, Magnus and Rhiannon skiied together at the end of last season, we thought it might be good for everyone to team up again. Good in theory, but..
... we were not too far from the parking lot when the whining and crying started. We decided at that point to do a one-way trip and have the Daddies ski back to get the cars and meet us on the other side of the lake we skiied across. Here we all are (except Rhiannon who was blazing ahead behind me) getting ready to cross the lake. Tryfan was in the pulk towed by Rhodri.
Crossing the lake by Dikemark on an ungroomed ski trail. Karl-John, Rhiannon, Magnus and Fiona were leading and Rhodri was pulling Finn and Tryfan in the pulk by this point. It only went downhill from here... Tryfan was crying non-stop and we still haven't figured out why. He might have just been generally cold and miserable. It was, after all, -11 C.
The point at which it all went to hell. We have crossed the lake now and are on the other side by the soccer fields/ beach. All skis have been removed, snacks and hot chocolate broken out to be shared but it was too late. This is when the Daddies went back to get the cars (lucky them!). I think Rhiannon was the only one not crying in this photo.
So the Daddies got the cars and helped us all get back to them, drive the 2 minutes back to our house and thaw out. I think today set a new record for most disastrously, enormously unpleasant of an outing with children! We laughed about it later, of course, when we were toasty inside with cups of tea and leftover Christmas cake that Fiona had made and the kids were playing together in the living room without our supervision.
But at least we got the first outing over with. Hopefully our next one will be better!

Beautiful Boxing Day

When we woke up today, we discovered that we had another 18 inches of fresh snow that had fallen overnight. So great! Actually it was still snowing in the morning and didn't stop until about 2pm. We spent a good part of the day outside in the driveway sledding. This is the view out to the backyard, taken ~3pm.
The troops built this fort in the living room and were happily munching on Christmas sweets and giggling together in the early morning. Tryfan's head is peeking out to the right side of the fort in this photo.
Some sledding action down the driveway: Rhiannon steering and Tryfan holding on tight!

When Tryfan was taking a nap, Rhiannon and Bentley and I went for a walk through the neighborhood. I hooked up Bentley's harness to the towrope of Rhiannon's sled and voila!
We walked down to the canoe launching spot and were surprised to see water that wasn't frozen. It was so lovely with the waxing crescent moon, clear skies and whiteness everywhere.
While I was sitting in a snowdrift making sure no cars were coming so that Rhiannon could sled down the driveway, I saw these snowflake crystals next me and took a photo using the 'macro' focus.
I was amazed that with some photo editing tools my gray blurry photo was transformed to this!
This is the view out the kitchen door to the backyard while I am trying to capture just how much snow is back there -- it is usually 2 steps down from the kitchen door to the deck below! Bentley's nose is just visible to the left of the photo for some scale.

Christmas Day

It's hard to imagine a more Christmasy Christmas than this day has been. We woke to about a foot of fresh snow, and then it snowed all day long. Just exactly the kind of day that we had all been hoping for.
Thank goodness we didn't have to drive anywhere because it was lovely and wonderful to just savour the day in our own time. Santa brought us a waffle iron, so we were able to make waffles for breakfast! We talked on skype video to the Welsh contingent and that was great fun. We opened presents slowly and deliberately and tried to make time to enjoy each one. We were sent some really lovely presents from family and friends, and Santa delivered a steerable sled to Rhiannon while Tryfan got fireman boots (wellies). Great excitement! Rhodri and I gave just one present for both kids to share - this Peter Pan video which we all watched together later in the day.
Just like Rhiannon with her elf hat, it is difficult to get these boots off of our little Tryfan!
We spent most of the day inside, but we did let go outside to play in the snow for the last hour or so of daylight so that Rhiannon could test out her new sled. Then we had a delicious roast lamb and veg dinner that Rhodri made, talked to the California contingent of the family on skype after dinner, and had an early bedtime. There can't be too many occasions in life more magical or special than Christmas spent with children aged 2 and 4 (and the snow outside with a cozy fire in the fireplace was a great bonus).

Christmas Eve

In Norway, Christmas Eve is what it's all about. That is when everyone has a big dinner with their family and sometimes Santa Claus (Julenissen) comes to visit the house and deliver presents in person! We spent Christmas Eve with our friends Fiona, Karl-John and their twin boys Finn and Magnus. The last time we saw them was in September when we all went canoeing together, but it didn't take long for the laughing, chasing and playing to begin. Here are Tryfan, Magnus, Rhiannon and Finn.
We had a very civilized and traditional Christmas Eve dinner of ribbe (pork belly), brussel sprouts, potatoes and applesauce, with English trifle for dessert! Yumm.
After dessert when the troops were back into play and chase mode, we heard the doorbell ring! We hurried down the stairs to catch a glimpse of Santa.... Here they are waiting for Rhodri to open the door! Finn was hiding behind his Mama's legs because he was a bit scared.
Alas, Santa had already gone but he did leave a bag with presents in it for the 4 kids.
Truly a wonderful magical Christmas Eve. We spent the drive home trying to spot Santa's sleigh and reindeer in the sky.
Before going to bed, we made sure to leave cookies and milk for Santa, then read "Twas the Night before Christmas".