New friends in Norway

Yesterday we drove down from the mountains into Trondheim and walked around a little bit (mostly going into outdoor clothing shops, of course), then drove to spend the afternoon and evening with Petter and his family about an hour north of Trondheim. Tryfan and Ola hit it off right away and so did Rhiannon and Mia! Rhodri and Petter chatted away and I was very happy to get to know Berg. Here is the scene...
Tryfan and Ola spent the whole time playing Transformers, and in the end Ola gave Tryfan 2 really cool Transformer toys. He was soooo stoked! Here Tryfan is saying "It's just a radio..." (but of course it is NOT just a radio -- it transforms into a baddie robot!).
Mia had a big collection of "Little Pet Shop" stuff and Rhiannon was thrilled to play with them too. In fact, Mia sent her away with a few goodies as well.
Here are Petter and Rhodri. Petter is the guy who runs the Arctic Training and Expedition company that hosted Rhodri and his friends last week. Here is his website: http://arctic-training.com/
The whole family... It was so lovely to meet them and I'm sure we will meet again because Rhodri and Petter are doing a lot of scheming...

Storlien ski tur

Our stretch of days in Storlien (actually in Storvallen) were spent staying at this place:
http://www.storvallensfjallgard.se/ which is sort of a youth hostel/ scout camp/ mountain farm type of place. It was really great because they had a main lodge (in the background to the right of the first photo) which prepared hot meals daily (for a fee) and also had a lovely cozy lounge/bar area, and then we stayed in a 2 bedroom cabin just a few hundred feet across the parking lot. Here is Tryfan ready to ski on the first day:The owner Niklas also did the cross-country ski trail grooming using his snowmobile, and this morning he knew we were going out on a ski tour so he got out there before us to make sure they were nice and groomed. So kind! Here are R & T (mid-fall) with a moose head and the snowmobile in the background.
We had a good morning ski tour and the weather was perfect: about -5 C with fresh snow and sunny/ partly cloudy skies.
After we had some lunch, I went out for a solo ski tour and Rhodri and the kids went sledding. I came back just when they were heading back up the hill.
Upstairs in the main lodge, there is a play room that has a pingpong table and lots of space to run and slide on the wood floors. Perfect for that late afternoon, pre-dinner restlessness.
We had dinner on Monday night in the main lodge and it was delicious!
Then Tuesday morning here is the breakfast scene:
And the post-breakfast jumping on beds while supposedly getting dressed scene...

To Norway, and beyond!

We've had a busy February so far and the first couple of weeks have zoomed past without us realizing it! We have been planning and eagerly anticipating this week-long trip to Norway and finally it is here. Actually, Rhodri went to Norway a few days before us on an Arctic Training and Expedition course that he had organized with his friend Petter. Here is the link to that story...
Meanwhile, the kids and I flew from London to Trondheim and met him there. They each got to choose a present for the trip - Rhiannon chose a fake gameboy thing which was free inside a penguin magazine and Tryfan chose a "baddie" Transformer. Here they are engrossed while waiting to get on the plane:
It was a gorgeous flight over Norway and this mountain caught my eye so I photographed it. Turns out that it is a place we've been to: Gaustatoppen is the name of the mountain and Rjukan is the town that is at the bottom of the narrow valley below. Here is the story of when we went there...
Anyway, the troops were great on the plane and did some coloring in their new coloring books and played like little puppies when they got bored. Here is Tryfan in "Sister Jail". (Yes, the photo is the right way up - they were laying upside down on the seats)
We arrived in Trondheim, met up with Rhodri, and drove east for an hour until we got to Storlien, Sweden (just about 3 km from the border with Norway). Here is the hytte (cabin) that we stayed in for this part of our trip:
Next episode: Lewis family takes to the skis...

Lego paradise

My good friend Lou promised Tryfan a shopping trip to the Lego store in Brighton as his birthday present, and finally we found a time yesterday (Sunday) to do this! Tryfan could choose who he wanted to go with Lou and I, and he chose Rhiannon. So sweet! Here we are in front of the shop:
Once inside, there was just about every variation of Lego set invented. Of course Tryfan had been scouring the Lego catalogs in the days ahead of this trip in preparation, so he knew exactly which one he was looking for. Then we went looking for dresses for Rhiannon in her upcoming role as Flower Girl. Tryfan was content to sit under the racks and play by himself.
Then we all went to a pub for Sunday dinner.
It was such a wonderful day - really special to spend quality time with Lou and the kids.

Long lost friends in Kent

We took a little road trip last weekend by driving out to Folkestone in Kent. Our long lost friends Cristiano and Rachael live there and we hadn't seen them for 5 years, so we had never met their two lovely daughters Issy and Francesca. They have a Land Rover Defender so we could pile all the kids into it and drive to the beach for a play.
It was a rather cold day but there is no point going to the beach and even attempting to have kids not get their feet wet, so we had them take off their socks, tights and trousers in order for them to play freely at the water's edge.
Rhiannon took this photo of the 4 of us + baby Francesca and Bentley the wonderdog
Here is a happy photo of me and Cristiano. We first met him in June 2001 and worked together on a research ship in the Faeroe and Shetland Islands. Then we visited him and Roberto (another Italian friend) in Milan sometime around 2004 I think and had a grand alpine ski holiday with them.
I love long lost friends!

Toothless

Over the course of about 2 weeks, all of a sudden 5 of Rhiannon's front teeth fell out!

Wonder Woman!

For the past couple of weeks - I guess since the start of the year - the troops have been getting up early in the morning and watching the original TV series of Wonder Woman! This is from the late 1970's so we don't need to worry about bad language or excess violence. But there are clear 'goodies' and 'baddies', and the occasional alien in there as well.

My sweet sister Heidi gave me the 1st and 2nd seasons on DVD box sets several years ago and I had watched several episodes over the years but this definitely hadn't been getting the airtime until 2012!

In fact, the troops are so inspired by Wonder Woman that Tryfan cannot seem to stop twirling with his arms outstretched (though he calls himself 'Wonder Willie' quite often) and Rhiannon has been using various ropes as her magic lassos to make people (i.e. Tryfan) tell the truth. So, it is all good and very entertaining.

Vision Board evening

On the first full moon of this year, December 9th, I hosted a Vision Board evening at our house and it was so wonderful that I have to share about it!

The general idea is that we walk in the direction that we look in life. So if one was to put aside time and energy into thinking about and reflecting on what it is that one actually wants to have, be, do, express, deliver... and then goes through a process to honor those thought buds and reflections in order to put them together into a visual display, one would be more likely to enable those things to come to fruition. My dear friend Tammy from Stehekin shared this idea with me during the summer after she attended a similar gathering at the start of 2011. I had been thinking about this idea ever since then and was very glad to have been able to implement it.

The general starting point that I used to prepare for the event was this website, but didn't follow the protocol too closely. And so on the night we were 8 ladies and the instruction was to bring as many magazines as possible. I provided the large poster boards and cleared the living room of furniture so that we could spread out on the carpet. We started with a few moments of being silent within ourselves and sort of opening up our receptacles for inspiration, and then we started flipping through the magazines. There wasn't much banter or chatting - it was mostly quiet as we looked for images or words that caught our attention for whatever reason (even if we didn't know why) and then cut them out and made individual piles of our cuttings.

Then after about 1.5 hrs of this, we took a break and then got the poster board out to start laying out the image/ word scraps and arranging then rearranging on the paper until it looked pleasing. Then we glued and some of us glittered and drew and folded and all sorts! But the intention was not to create a final product, rather more of a base on which to build. And the intention was also not to present or even feel like we needed to share or explain our vision boards to each other. It was just a personal effort we could each take away and build on. I think everyone enjoyed the evening - it was something a bit different and it felt really good to really get stuck into a creative project for a few hours. Will be interesting to see what unfolds...

Starting off the year

After our rainy day at the beach yesterday, we had a lovely clear cold 2nd day of January. We went for a walk in a different part of the Ashdown forest. Here's a little snap of ol' Bents
Then it was back to work/ school/ nursery for the most part starting on Tuesday 3rd Jan. But our dancing friends had enjoyed our NY Eve dance off so much that they organized one of their own last night. Tryfan and Oscar have matching Darth Vadar outfits but only Oscar has a red lightsaber. This is always a point of contention since we do have 2 lightsabers at home but they are both blue. Darth Vadar, being a baddie of course, has a red one. Anyway, here are the two Darths sitting on the kitchen counter at their house:
For some reason this was a really long week, even though it was technically a short week! 2012 has a different feel to it already.

Happy New Years 2012

After our dance party last night, we decided to drive about an hour to the beach as this is a Gans family tradition anyway. So we reunited with our friends from last night at Birling Gap and walked down the cliff staircase to the beach. It was raining pretty hard but most of us had our rain gear on.
The chalk pediment looks so much like snow! Beautiful to have white rock with black pebbles and seaweed and stuff
We found shelter in a little cave and had snacks
Then we all went to a nearby pub for some warm food and bevvies. Nice way to kick off 2012!

New Years Eve

We had a great, though fairly spontaneous, New Years Eve! Emma and I decided earlier this day that we could have a dance party at our house (after the success of the Lewis family kitchen dance session). So we cleared furniture and chilled the champagne and our friends came over at 6pm!
We all took turns choosing music to dance to
Then took a break to eat some jelly (aka Jell-o) and then light sparklers outside
Our friend Nev had been visiting the night before and VERY generously gave us an enormous christmas cracker which was full of 'Hotel Chocolat' chocolates inside! We read all the jokes, put on the party hats and ate chocolate.
Things started to melt down around 9:30pm so Emma, Rob, Sophie and Oscar all left and we settled down into a rather normal-type evening. Happy New Year!

Last days of 2011

We had some good times in the stretch of days between Christmas and New Years! Everyone left us on Dec 28th which felt premature because we were all still having such a good time, but then quite often it is better to quit while we are ahead (that is, before things start going pear-shaped). We smashed the gingerbread house after days and days of resisting the troops' pleading.
Gabi and Tryfan have matching Robot jammies so they all did some robot dancing
Everyone went to Wakehurst Place (except Rhodri and me) for some fresh air and a change of scenery. Here are Rhiannon and Gabi with their Auntie Sioned:
Uncle Cris let them watch funny videos on his laptop and they were just cackling in laughter!
And in the early morning, all the kids get up to watch cartoons. They don't normally get to have breakfast in front of the telly but Rhiannon has become so adept at serving cereal and cleaning up when the milk gets spilled that we can't really resist anymore (especially since Rhodri and I are still sleeping at this time).
The last night we were all together, we had a bit of a dance party in the kitchen. During dinner preparation, Nia and I were dancing in there and soon Rhiannon joined us and we had so much fun that we got everyone in there after dinner to boogie...
We were sad to say goodbye to everyone but we had a really great time together so we are grateful for the memories.

Last night (Dec 28th) we all went to our friend Blythe's birthday which was from 3:30-5:30pm. It was such a great party because it was out in the Ashdown Forest at dusk with glow sticks and a pirate treasure hunt! Blythe turned 4 years old and all of the siblings and parents were invited to come along. Here is a not-very-good photo of the scene...
So a big huge herd of us local families got to spend a couple of hours out in the lovely forest sharing the gorgeous moonrise and watching the stars come out. Fortunately after a day of rain showers and totally cloudy sky, the clouds parted and we had a clear starry sky for the birthday party!

Christmas Day

Hurray for Christmas Day! As predicted, the kids woke up at 5-something and went downstairs to see if Santa had come (which he had, of course). They piled into their stockings and watched cartoons for a couple of hours ... there were several begging trips upstairs to try and rouse the adults so the present opening could begin. But last night there was much discussion about how to cook the turkey. We had been following Nigella's soaking recipe and her cooking advice is much shorter and hotter than the Lewis family's traditional way of cooking... so there was much controversy over how to proceed. Here are Rhodri and Trefor looking uncertain as they get ready to stuff the big guy...
And then Rhodri expressing the success of the cooking attempt by following Nigella's instruction
Trefor is now a converted fan of Nigella!
I don't have any photos of the kids opening presents, but it was a truly exciting morning/early afternoon. Rhiannon got the double baby stroller that she had been wishing for from Santa, and Tryfan got a Hot Wheels Racetrack (which he didn't even know he was wishing for) from Santa as well as some Ninjago Lego. In fact, Tryfan got 3 Ninjago Lego things as well as a big Star Wars Lego thing and he was SO excited about them that when he opened the 3rd of 4 Lego thingies, he stomped his foot and put his hands on hips and said "I just cannot believe it!".
Here is the Christmas Dinner scene when we ate around 1:30pm.
Me and Nia
Rhodri and Taid
Then after dinner we (Rhodri, Taid, Nia, Bentley and I) went for a walk in the forest
When we got back from the walk we had some of the gorgeous Christmas Cake that Beryl had made. It was sooooo delicious. Here she is about to cut it with Sioned and Valentin and I watching.
So overall it was a lovely Christmas!