We’re back from a wonderful vacation in west Norway. Great to see good friends again and having fantastic weather with sunshine most of the days. MT almost became fish and is more secure in the water than ever before; a few more days like this and he would be swimming for real - and above the water surface Way to go, big guy!

I’ll be back another day with more pics from our summer!

I found some old sunset photos and wanted to make a digi scrap of them. It turned out nice, in my eyes at least. Not that pink is my color - but in a sunset it is the most beautiful and amazing thing. This is the soft and light version of pink, by the way. Love the blue and lilac, but that I always do!

Click the photo for credits.

This day has been slow and sleepy I can’t say I’ve done much, other than being with MT and washing some clothes. It’s been sunny for the most part, but there is a chill in the air that makes me not want to go bathing(!) That’s to bad because I really want to swim a bit…..

Tomorrow night or Friday we are expecting some new guests, we can hardly wait! I’m going to make the most out of tomorrow making this place cleaner and tidier. If I can manage to get out of bed that is….

Last night we got visitors from North Norway. We haven’t seen them for too long! So nice of them to drop by on their way south They couldn’t stay long, but we have enjoyed last night and this day together. Since we live so far apart we seldom see each other, but hopefully next May/June we visit them up in the land of the midnight sun

We also celebrated my birthday yesterday, with family at first and then adding our friends, when they arrived, we grew to a total of 20 people - so it was a busy and fun day

I’ve scrapped another page; about our favorite summer tradition:

Since we had our “big” trip in late May early June, our summer vacation was to go to grandma and grandpa and hang out with family for a couple of weeks. Not bad

The summer was good - still is Could have been more sun, though!

Finally fall is over us, for a long time there I thought summer would go right over in winter, but now it’s here. The wonderful and colorful autumn, sometimes wet sometimes cloudy but mostly warm enough to enjoy the outdoors without a lot of clothes on!!

Today it’s been wet and windy with only a little bit sun, but the kids (MT and the next door’s boy at 5 yr) have enjoyed the weather to the fullest. Now they’re sitting in front of the TV enjoying some Pooh after a day outside running around MT’s on his second slice of bread. I’ve been outside to, but not as much as they; and I haven’t moved around like they did either…..
Now I’m going to plan a trip to the far north of our country coming May, we’re going to visit some friends there and even some family. Two or three weeks in May/June. It’s going to be great and will be our main vacation next summer (at least money vise….). I haven’t been in the north of Norway more than two times before in my life and this time I hope to finally see the midnight sun and Nordkapp (most norther part of Norway). We’re going to fly up there and then rent a car to move around; I don’t want all of our vacation to be about driving up there….

Have a great Sunday!!

Speaking of Sunday…
In our churches the team from the scripture reading is Faith, faith like the faith Noah had when he build the ark even though people around him made fun of him. Before the raining started. Noah got a second chance, and so did we - since we all are related to him. Today the church is our ark/boat with Jesus as the captain. Thankfully we don’t need a flooding to start over any more. Now we can turn to Jesus and ask for forgiveness when we need it. How great isn’t that!!?!
We haven’t been to church today since there isn’t any service today (it’s not service more than every third Sunday ). Still I have read and do leave you with a few words from the bible:

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Gen 9

A photo from our vacation and a ferry…. not a perfect circle though.

Finally I’m joining the TT crowd again, sorry for missing it all summer!! This will be a smily and summer remembery one!! And, go figure, I’m early - but thursday will be at my place in 11 minutes, so there!

TT-graphics courtesy Chaotic Home

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I’m visiting my brother and family again, and as you see; I can’t resist using their broadband

We’re having our last days of vacation and will return to our home sometime next week. So by the end of the month things might go back to usual around here in LIME world!!! I soooo miss reading your everyday stories and look forward to read up on them as soon as possible; it might take me some time to read them all, though….

It has been great to spend time away. And we have done so many of the things we wanted to do and met so many of our family and friends. I highly recommend 7 weeks of vacation to anyone, - it really lets you relax and rewind!!!

But now we both really want to go back home. August 21th will MT stat his “life” in kindergarten and a month later I’m back at work full time. I’m so glad to have some time to get everything ready for a busier life and I guess the 3 weeks home alone (with MT at kindergarten most of the day) will go fast like a wind!! Our lazy life’s going to change, but I’m so glad for all the days we’ve spent together, so far, and there is no doubt in my mind that it’s been important days for both of us. We really needed to find this connection and trust; and to grow together as a family. It’s still a work in progress, but we’re ready for the next faze

Anyhow, this is a hug from me; and I’ll be back soon with new stories to tell. Hopefully I get time to write some more about out vacation later, since I really do want to tell!! Jump over to my flikr to look at some of our vacation photos, later I’m going to add descriptions as well.

So I did make you a promise to return, some nights ago, it never happened - sorry!! I kept trying to log on, but the signal from the wireless connection at the camping place was just too weak. Sadly

I so could use some hours online at that time, but after 30 minutes trying I shot the computer off and went to bed!

Now we have spent a couple of days with my brother and family, living in tents and in the water….. MT love to “float” and keep telling us “see, I’m swimming!!” He isn’t, but it’s still cute. Even I got to swim a lot. Haven’t done it for so long, so I’m a bit rusty. But I do love it!!!

Soon we’re back home with my parents, that will be nice after 10 days on the road… Ah, I love this looooong summer vacation!!!

We’re on our second vacation, or how to say it. Since last Friday we’ve been far south in Norway, close to Kristiansand. Most of the time we’ve stayed with some friends of ours, but yesterday we said goodbye and went looking for someplace to try out camping life…

MT slept good and long, even though we didn’t blow up our madras (didn’t have anything to blow it up with - soon we’re going shopping!) One really good thing about this place is that I can buy time on it’s wireless Internet. So that’s why I’m out here!!!

Tonight I plan to tell more about our days and to load up a bunch of photos to flickr. Maybe I even get time to visit some of you, I miss stopping by and reading!!!! I think that’s the only thing I miss by the way, as I said: we’re having a great time!!!

Hugs

I’m on vacation. Spending most of my days without broadband or Internet connection (almost, have a real slow line from time to time….like now).

We’re having a wonderful time and have meet and visited a lot of friends and family. This is our last months before I’m back at work and MT starts kindergarten, and I’ve decided to make the most of it. I’ve written before about our long trip to my parents farm. With stops and visits along the way, and even two days spent with my brother and family. I’m so glad we were able to make that trip, and also happy that MT got to meet and see some of my past and then spend some days away from home with his favorite cousins too.

The last two weeks or so has been spend here at my parents farm. MT has had fun helping Grandpa and following him around. He’s found his very special place in the sand box and even attempted some bathing in his new pool. It’s good to be here with family and to relax a bit.

Last Friday we celebrated my 35th birthday with barbecue and cakes under our big pear tree. It was so great to be together with family and friends on my day once again (last time was my 30th birthday). I’m going to upload photos from that day to flickr soon, so keep an eye on that one. Sadly I’m, at the time being, only able to upload the photos without any descriptions or such. Hope to be able to do some of it before our vacation ends in early August, but can’t make any promise…. It’s a mess I’ll be busy tidying up there undtil next year, I’m afraid…
Today MT’s aunt Helen visited us with her children. And they and we had such a great time together. I’m so glad I got to spend it like that instead of cleaning my house, like I planned, lol.

But one surprising thing happened today, if I should have guessed I never would have guessed this: one really old and dear friend of mine stopped by to say a short hello! (And to bring me a gift I should have given to my brother and SIL for their wedding years and years ago. I should have visited her a long time ago, but have never gotten around to it…) I’m still not quite over it and won’t be for a while. She and her family are staying at a camping place some kilometers from here, but I just can’t run from a sleeping MT to be with them; and also I don’t know her family and can’t just crash their “party”. Even though I really want to!

It’s about 8 years since we had any contact outside our yearly letter for Christmas. I’ve been planning to go see them this summer, so to see her here was just amazing. Off course the trip to see them is cancelled for now, since they are on vacation for the next 3 week or so, but I hope to see more of them some time later this year. Why we lost contact for so long, I’m not sure. But I guess most of it was because we were in different places; she living lots of kilometers away, me starting working as a pastor and her starting family life - and working too. Hopefully this is a new start, and since she has a girl at 7 yr and a boy at 4 yr we have more than past memories to talk about.

It’s time for bed. Hope you all have a wonderful summer. I promise to read up on blogs in August and to leave more comments then, now it takes forever to do that - so mostly I read, sometimes….

Gods blessings and warm hugs to all from me!

So this is almost too late, but I’m releasing it anyhow. Even though the Tuesday in question is two weeks ago today(!) we’re staying at my parents farm with no broadband and only limited and terribly slow internet connection. Hope to be able to share some more about our days later. But this will, at least, give you the rest of our trip in late June and early July

This I wrote a week ago: I’ve been offline for over a week. It’s so strange, but there hasn’t been too much time to spend online, and most of the days I haven’t even had the chance. Today we’re going to my brother and since he have broadband I’m taking my laptop with me My son’s busy watching TV and our friend is asleep, so I’ll tell you a little about our week on vacation.

Tuesday

(So, this is over a week ago, so much for me trying to type about our days regularly..) Since we had have a lot of changes and new people and surroundings to meet and adapt to, we made this day a slow one. Staying at home (at Jorunn’s) licking some sun and eating breakfast for several hours…. MT had fun playing football (soccer) with some children and I had fun reading outside. Nothing much happened and that was kind of that day’s program. In the evening Jorunn had some friends of me over and we had a nice time together catching up and sharing memories. MT headed for bed way to late, but then he slept long in the morning….

Wednesday

This were our big go-and-visit-people-day. First I stayed to late in bed, so we got a bit delayed, but when we finally were on our way we headed for my friends house. The very house that used to be mine, since she’s now the pastor in the area and I used to be. It’s a wonderful house, and now it’s even wonderful inside. They’ve done a bit. Last January she got a son, so now we got to see him too. What a cutie!!

Then we went to the bygdetun to let MT run around a bit and to see if I could find some old friends. We found a few and MT enjoyed a waffel and some saft. After staying there for a while we headed back to our “home” (for the time being). Jorunn had again invited some friends of mine and we had a great dinner (so delicious too!) and afternoon with them. Thankfully I got to put MT to bed a bit earlier than yesterday. So me and Jorunn had a nice evening together, talking over the tea cup. At 1:30 am MT came down to us, he was all smile. And when I asked him how he found his way down to us, he said: ” I followed the voices” LOL! Good thing he didn’t get scared like he sometimes gets. Then we all headed for bed. It was about time!!

Thursday

Our last day at Lesjaverk. Not an early morning. MT got very hungry and demanding before I got out of bed that day My brother and family was in the neighborhood (or almost) so we planned to see them and spend some of our vacation days with them.

But first I had one more person to visit. We worked a lot together back when I lived there and had offices right across for one another. It’s always great to see her, but since it’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other it was great to catch up a bit. And I made a promise to stay longer next time Then we met up with my brother. And MT was so happy to see them all! The children played together for a long time and we adult talked us into the night. It was one of the light nights, so who cares….. Me and MT stayed in a small hut and my brother and family had set up a couple of tent.

Friday

We woke up to another day with sun. So great!!! We planned to drive over a mountain on a famous mountain road. This in one of the biggest setervallyes in Norway with over 50 seters along the road. Many of them still active. Seter is a place farmers took the animals (sheep or cattle) in the summer to give them new and fresh grass to eat when it’s less grass back home at the farm (or should be used as food in the winter). After some playing (the children) and food consuming we headed for the mountain. And the trip was soooo beautiful!!!

I recommend it for anyone traveling in the area. We drove from Dovre and then over the Grimsdalen valley. At the end of the road we headed south and then westward again over the Venabygdsfjellet (mountain) to Ringebu. It took all day at slow pace, with plenty of time to stop along the road. Both the adults and the children had a good time, and we all enjoyed the view. MT even found snow up in the mountain and was so happy; he misses the winter(!) - go figure Between Fåvang and Tretten we all found a hut to stay in (or almost, the hut only took 5 persons, so my brother and wife stayed in the tent one more night). It was an wonderful evening. And so quiet after the children was put to bed

Saturday

Most of the day was spent behind the wheel. Not all that fun for MT, but still a nice day. We stopped in Lillehammer to spend some money… and then we left for Hokksund to pick up L-E, she should stay with us for a while, at the farm. We arrived at the farm around 8 pm, everyone happy to get out of the car. A bit later my parents got home from their trip as well, and MT got even happier!!! So then our vacation trip was kind of over. We’re still on vacation, and we’re still not home, but now we’re staying with my parents for a while and not moving around so much….

Monday

This morning we had to get out of bed earlier because the breakfast was available only until 9 am. So that helped get us out of bed The breakfast at the hostel was delicious, even though it was a simple thing; or maybe just because it was simple…..

The plan was to ride the city train, a train set up for tourists sightseeing most of the town. It even took us up to a hill overlooking the city and surroundings. It was spectacular. The photos just can’t compete with the real thing, anyhow I took a few….

Sadly the first train got full before we even got down town. There was a cruise boat in town and lots of people wanted to have a look around. The boat I’ve seen before, but not so close, it was the really big Queen Elisabeth 2.

MT got so sad when we had to see the train leave without us. But we eventually used the time to go shopping and look around a bit. I’ve been in the city before and shopping with MT is fun only a short while. So when the train got back we stood there waiting for it, eager to go onboard. Thankfully this time there where room for us!

The tour was very “touristy”, I think we were the only one onboard speaking Norwegian - but MT had fun and the view from top of the hill right above the city was so worth it!!

After we ate a bit and then we headed for the car; after MT had his own ride in Pelle Police car. We had quite a bit to drive, so after buying ice cream and coffee we headed out of town and north east.

MT fell quickly asleep, and slept for over an hour. I reckoned it would be late until he could go and sleep tonight so I let him sleep as long as he wanted. Then we stopped for a while to go to the restroom and just be outside for a while. That place also had a play area for kids so MT had lots of fun.

MT fell quickly asleep, and slept for over an hour. I reckoned it would be late until he could go and sleep tonight so I let him sleep as long as he wanted. Then we stopped for a while to go to the restroom and just be outside for a while. That place also had a play area for kids so MT had lots of fun.

Then we got on with our driving. We passed Åndalsnes at around 6:30 pm and then turned for the eastern part of Norway. A few years ago I was pastor in Lesja, and now I wanted to visit some friends there again. We arrived at 7:30 pm at my friend Jorunn’s house and got a nice meal there.

Now MT is put to bed and I think he’s found his sleep while I’ve typed this. So now I’m heading back down to chat a bit with Jorunn before I’m going to bed my self.

The weather hasn’t been to blue; but there is always tomorrow…..

And, sorry, this won’t be posted until I can find an Internet access. Here is no wireless connection, like I found in Ålesund. But then Lesjaverk is a smaller place, to put it mildly….

Good Night friends!

added photos and finally got this uploaded in early July; about time!!!

Since MT’s sleeping in his bed and I have nothing else important to do I want to tell you about the first four days of our summer vacation 2006. Really, I can’t believe it’s been four days already, but anyhow. Ehem, it’s still a bit long….. It all started out on

Thursday

The plan was to leave our house around 2 pm. But as 2 pm drew closer I had to face the fact that no way was it possible to leave so early, sadly enough. I had a lot of things to do in the house, still, and I also had to pack the car. Thankfully MT had a good time playing with E all day! When we finally were ready to move it was almost 7 pm (!). That was the time we planned to arrive in Volda. It was bound to be later….

MT fell asleep right after his first bit of the hot dog we bought at the gas station right by our house. The first hour of the drive were familiar enouhg, so he didn’t miss a thing. When we stopped at a store in Førde for something to eat and such, I woke him up since I didn’t want him to wake up in the car all alone (he would have freaked out, his biggest fear is to be left alone!). So needless to say; he was awake most of the journey from there….

We drove through lots of beautiful sceneries. I didn’t stop to take photo all over (wouldn’t have moved very fast then), but took a few in the Gloppen area, as you can see here:

We had to take two ferries, since I didn’t know their schedule we drove in our own tempo. But when we arrived to the first ferry, only to see it glide out and away from us, I was so frustrated and a little bit angry with my self for not checking the schedule (could have found it on their web site)! We had to wait for one hour - 1 hour - just because we were a few minutes late. Grrrr… But MT had fun though. He was so happy to get out of the car and run around and jump for a while. He had to sing a bit of pure joy as well. Children.

I’ve uploaded quite a few photos from that hour to flickr. That gave us (or rather me) something to do As you can see the sun has set, but only a little bit ago, the nights are light in Norway at this time of the year. We waited from 10:25 pm to 11:20 pm! Walking around we found a monument raised a few years ago as a memory (and a reminder) of those that got burned because they were though of as witches. I don’t know any more about this, though. But it stands right by the ferry on Anda, Norway…

Finally the ferry came, and we could wave Anda goodbye and look for Lote. I love all this funny names

We had about 45 minutes drive to the next ferry and just about enough gas. So I drove right past the gas station with a little bit of worry in my stomach. MT fall asleep again and I had the road to my self. Now it was getting late and I were keen on getting there. Thankfully we reached the ferry and the car didn’t stop. Phu! When I drove of the ferry my phone rang and I was directed to the house where I could find my cousin B (whom we were planning on visiting a few days). Some hours (!!) later I was in bed totally exhausted, MT had thankfully slept for a while by then, so he was not a total mess the next day.

Friday

We got up a bit later than when we planned. But come on, a little bit of sleep is required when you run after a 3 yr old!!

My cousin B wanted to see her horse (it was placed in summer vacation too), so we headed for Sæbø and another ferry, together with her and her brother/my cousin E, to Leknes. The weather wasn’t all that nice, but the day was still a nice one.

After being with B for a while, watching here fetch her horse (not an easy job when the horse rather would be with is friends out in the big green field!) - me and cousin E decided to take the car for a run around the area. I discovered that right behind the farm, at Øye, where the horse was placed, Norway’s narrowest valley, Norangsdalen had it’s place - off course we had to see this for our selves. MT wasn’t all that happy, but he had no choice - poor kid!

It was amazing driving in this valley. The mountain were so close and so steep. We could see several landslides and stones that had fallen down from the hillsides, new and old, and the houses on the summer farm (seter) were build into the terrain so it wouldn’t be badly harmed in case of a landslide. At first they were hard to spot too.

“The wildest alpine valley I ever saw was not in the Alps, it was the valley Norangsdalen at Sunnmøre, Norway.”
- English climber William C. Slingsby

We ended up driving down to the next fjord arm and the little town of Hellesylt. From this area you can go with ferry to the more known Geiranger on the Geiranger fjord.

We setteled for an ice cream and headed back to meet cousin B since we had a ferry to catch back there.
When we rode back to the ferry I took some photos of the area. At the pier I even got to take a photo of the St.Hans fire in making.

Since MT had to sleep some more we didn’t plan to do some celebrating of the day, though. But my cosins headed out later on (or, I drove them in fact, so I could get me some coffee…. MT fall asleep in the car, so I had big trouble getting him to sleep at all later on; so there went mummy’s time to her self!!! Again….)

Oh, man, I almost forgot: When cousin E (poor guy) made dinner, he set of the fire alarm; a few minutes later there were fire trucks and police cars outside. MT had fun. Cousin E was a bit emeressed and cousin B (who rents the place) didn’t care much; we were both a bit angry with her for that, to be honest. She had gone to take a shower and let us handle everything on our own even though we asked her to jump in an do it herself. Even though, it’s just not everyday the house is surrounded with fire trucks and police cars (maybe not surrounded, but bear with me…), so we’ll carish this memory together….
Saturday

This morning we had no rush. It was nice. After some breakfast we headed down town for a bit of an event (dei nynorske festspel). This day they served breakfast for everybody, free of charge. So there I got my coffee, since cousin B doesn’t have it at home. The weather was chill so we only stayed a short while. MT and I had a nice and healty walk up to the house, this western side of the country are all hills….

After stuffing some of cosin B’s stuff into our car (she’s moving Monday and asked for a little bit of help), and eating some ice cream, we headed out of there with Ålesund as our target.

MT fall asleep after a short drive, he kept on sleeping until we got here. After some searching (the hotels were booked full everywhere) we ended up on a good-enough-looking hostel. Much cheeper, and the funny thing is they got the one thing I really wanted: wireless connection to www. Yay!

After booking the room we went out to get something to eat. We ended up at Egon and it was so nice there, MT got his own ballon and food that came on a special kind of plate, with lots of fun drawings on it. He felt so good, and so did I. Since he already had slept a while he got to be up quite late too, but when I finally put him to bed with a strong request for the rest of the night alone…. He refused to sleep. Off course, he did the same the night before, going on vacation with lot’s of new things does that to a kid; I know. But it still got me so frustrated and angry. When he finally caved in and fell asleep I was exchousted and went to sleep my self not long after.

Sunday

We started the day with a real breakfast, even though it was delicious late… Then we went to church and a service held by a studie friend of mine (she didn’t know we were in town, since I don’t know her that good anymore), the service was nice enough, but strange to see that me and the boy where the two youngest one there(!!) After the service I had a good and nice chat with my (former, kind of) friend and MT was busy helping a man blow out the candles and such (he was so happy - and even got payed enough to buy himself and ice cream!)

After church we headed out west of town to the Atlanterhavsparken; one of Europe’s largest aquarium centres. And spent the rest of the day among the fish. I think MT had most fun climbing the rocks inside the center, but he also enjoyed the fish and had great fun fishing crabs and got to both touch sea animals and feed some too. It was a great place to be and some activities to attend, but it seems to me that the tanks and it all was a bit too worn out. Hopefully they also can put in some new stuff and clean it a bit up. And they need some more food, at 4 pm they didn’t even have hot dogs left…. We did buy some great stuffed animals, though!

On the way home we looked at some big boats; Hurtigruten and others. MT find that so funny, I do too Then we headed to our room and MT got to watch Pooh’s Heffalump Movie before he was put to bed. This night he thankfully agreed to behave and get some sleep. So this night is mine - and now I’ve spent it with you

That’s all for now; I’ll be back later to tell you more about our Summer Vacation 2006!!