Then we had a picnic at the beach near Norman Bay. It was not a sandy beach, but there were lots and lots of rocks to throw into the water. Good times!
There is also a sort of skeleton wall with wide enough beams for little people to crawl on.
It was warm in the sheltered sun but pretty cool out in the wind. Here is our picnic spot.
Bentley loved running on the beach and in the water, of course!
I think we were actually the only supporters for the whole race! We shouted "Good morning" and "WOO-HOO" and "Good Job!" to everyone who rode past us and the troops were just starting to get a bit fed up with doing this when their Daddy whooped at us.
And there they go....Huw is the one in focus on his blue bike, Rhodri is in front nearly out of the photo. They were going so fast it was hard to capture!
After they zoomed past us, we played at the Horsted Keynes village playground for a bit and then drove around to Forest Row where we knew they would be riding past around 11:00- 11:30am. There is a good playground in Forest Row too, so we played there while waiting for the cyclists to go past and then we met them at a rest stop. Huw's friend Chris was riding with them as well. Here are Huw, Chris and Rhodri with the troops and their flags below:
They all finished the race in good time without any injuries and so it was a huge success!
Rhiannon understood most of what her friends were saying to her, but it seemed like she didn't remember very much Norwegian at all to speak. Anyway, none of this seemed to be a problem because smiles, fun and laughter are universal! Here she is with her old homies on the rope swing.
And helping to prepare the lunch which was being cooked over the bonfire.
Finally it was time to say goodbye to her teacher Kamilla and her best bud Sofie.
We collected our bags and took the train from Asker to the airport with plenty of time to play and relax before our flight left at 6:30pm.
By the time we got home to Chelwood Gate, it was around 9:30pm on the Friday night and we had the whole weekend to recover, unpack, and get ready for business-as-usual on Monday.
There was mega excitement when we reunited with them at the cabin. Lots of jumping around, running and happily shouting. All 4 kids got to sleep in the same room which had 2 sets of bunkbeds, and there was a lot of activity as the troops figured out how to remove the wooden supports from the top bunks and be able to jump down from the top. Here they are industriously relocating the wooden slats from the top bunk.
There is only so much activity one can have, followed by a scrumptious pasta dinner, before these little people are ready to watch some 'Barna TV' before getting ready for bed.
Monday morning was partly cloudy and windy, but none of that mattered because we were all going for a dual family cross-country ski expedition! here are Magnus, Tryfan and Rhiannon ready to get out the door.
We skiied up a long and in parts steep hill until we got to this rock which overlooked a big lake.
We decided to make this our lunching stop, and of course we had packed a delicious picnic of pita bread filled with stuff to be heated over our bonfire in the snow. Here is KJ manning the fire and cooking the lunch. The snow was really deep and it was a challenge to get the fire going, but we got there in the end!
Here is Magnus and Rhiannon after lunch, ready to ski back down the hill to the cabin. Beautiful frozen lake in the background.
And this is more or less what we looked like as we were out skiing - Rhiannon, Finn and Magnus all took turns fighting to be in the lead and almost always Tryfan was in the back (wearing red in this photo) with either Rhodri or me.
Action shot of Tryfan - really concentrating in this picture as you can see from his tongue sticking out!
After a full day outside in the snow, everyone was ready to do puzzles, draw pictures and read stories inside while waiting for dinner to be ready.
Storytime in the kids room - each one of us took a turn reading the bedtime story to all the troops.
Sunrise on the mountains in the distance - the view from our kitchen window!
On Tuesday we went on another dual family ski expedition, this time we went the opposite direction and found a delightful place to stop for lunch. There were already couches built into the snow, and this little spot faced directly into the sunshine hidden from the wind. Perfect!
Back at the cabin, there was a GIANT mountain of snow that had been plowed into a big pile. I think all winter, the children who were coming through this neighborhood had been building and maintaining this snow fort which was hard packed by hands and knees. Kid-sized tunnels ran through this whole mountain, and it was so much fun to play on!
Here is Tryfan peeking through one of the tunnels
Here is "Daddy Troll" chasing and scaring the other trolls on the mountain
One of the huge advantages of going on holiday with Fiona and Karl-John is that we could take turns looking after the tribe of kids and have our own time to play in the snow. Rhodri and I went on a great little 1.5 hour ski tour up past the rock we stopped at the first day and looped back around. The dominant peak of Bitihorn is the local landmark - I love looking at the shape of it and under different light.
And then on our last morning, Fiona and I went for a early morning ski tour which was wonderful as well! As soon as we came back, Rhodri and Karl-John went out and we started packing the house and looking after the kids playing on the snow fort.
As we did the final tidying up and cleaning of the cabin, Rhodri told stories to all the kids in order to keep them quiet and out of mischief. He is truly gifted at making up stories which kids are happy to sit and listen to.
Once the cabin was clean, we piled into our respective cars and drove back to the Oslo area for our last night and day.
It happened to be Carnival day, so everyone was dressed in costumes. Rhiannon was shy for about 5 minutes, then she was straight back into playing with her old friends. Although she didn't seem to remember any Norwegian to speak, I think she mostly understood what people were saying. Tryfan took a lot longer to come unglued from my leg, but he was soon playing happily too.
At 5pm we left barnehage and went to stay with our former neighbor and good friend Monica and her family. Kristoffer was really happy to see both Tryfan and Rhiannon, and we had a wonderful couple of days staying with them (Fri and Sat nights).
After doing a bit of shopping at Holmen, we called in with our old neighbors from our first residence, Beate and Ole and their youngest daughter Yasmin. It was wonderful to see them and the three kids played on the floor while us adults chatted in a civilised and very enjoyable way.
Next stop on Saturday afternoon was to Sofia's house to see her new baby brother Storm and spend an hour or so chatting with their parents, Linda and Paer. Paer made delicious popcorn soup and we all had some. Rhiannon and Sofia were so happy to see each other and even though they didn't speak much, they played and laughed the whole time.
Rhiannon got to hold baby Storm all by herself and she was so thrilled about it.
On Saturday night we had a neighborhood get together at Bentley's foster family's house. There were 5 families there (including us) and it was so wonderful to visit with everyone at once. Here we are walking over from Kristoffer's house.
Monica brought over some long balloons and a book on how to make animal shapes, swords, and hats from them. So it was quite chaotic for some time as kids were running wild with their balloon swords.
On Sunday morning, we visited with R & T's former best buds Sofie and Johanne and their parents. The kids played in their backyard snow playground while us adults sat on reindeer skin covered sofas carved into the snow, drank coffee and ate pancake-type things.
By 1pm on Sunday afternoon, we were a bit exhausted from all of the intense visiting! Perfect time to jump into the car and drive for 3+ hours into the mountains to have Part 2 of our Norwegian holiday....
Here is the view from one of the many 'hides'.
A wild welsh pony grazing on the marshland with Conwy castle in the background.
Rhiannon walking along the top of the berm with spectacular clouds moving quickly across the sky ahead of her.
Taid and the troops on the homestretch along the river bank at low tide.
Looking the other direction, we could see some wood protruding from the river bed and Taid thought it was probably the remains of a sunken ship from long ago.
It was really the most beautiful day ever, and so enjoyable to spend it wandering around in a new spot. We had lunch in the cafe before driving back home to Nain and Taid's house, and I was really impressed with the cafe because it had floor to ceiling windows which looked out at the whole Snowdonian panorama with the Conwy River and Castle in the foreground. The food was pretty good too!
