Snow and sunshine

As I mentioned in the blog entry below, Lexi and I tagged along to Feda this weekend. As the three of us drove south on Friday evening, we were amazed at the snow that was still on the ground. As we got closer and closer to Feda, we thought "uh oh", we didn't pack for snow. Well, there was a dusting of snow in Feda and it snowed throughout the night Friday night, but it didn't stay cold enough on Saturday or Sunday and by Sunday, most everything had melted in the gorgeous sunshine.


Here is Lexi on Saturday morning with a new hat that her Bestemor (Lajla) knitted for her.

Here she is at the boathouse on Saturday afternoon...

Tim and Lexi in the loft of the boathouse...

Lexi is a great help with the duct tape...

Sunday morning and sunglasses....

Sunday afternoon sunshine...

Boathouse project

Well, We just got back from a weekend in Feda. Lexi and I tagged along this time. Tim has been spending most every weekend recently on the boathouse project. For those that don't know, Tim inherited a boathouse and we have been trying for 5+ years now to get approval to convert it to a "holiday home". Since it is nearly 100 years old, we had a battle to fight with the local government organizations. We finally got approval last year, but it is more of a restoration project which means you can't just tear it down and build new. Of course, there is very little left of the original materials now. The work officially started last Aug/Sept when we poured tons and tons of cement to build a better foundation down in the water. Then, we got connected to the area electricity and sewer and then the construction work started. The walls and roof are now up and they are working on the ceiling and wall paneling inside now. Tim and a colleague planned all of the electrical and have been spending loads of time pulling cable and installing all of the electrical drops, connection boxes, heated flooring, etc. as they try to stay ahead of the carpenters and get it completed before the wall and ceiling paneling is started. Here is a picture of the OLD boathouse last September taken from the opposite side of Feda river. The white boathouse with the red doors is ours. It has now been torn down and replaced with a new one. In the picture, the "little" boathouse that WAS attached to the side of the white boathouse had already been torn away (ref the loose boards, etc. on the side).


Here is a picture of the NEW boathouse taken from the road on Saturday afternoon. It is obviously not painted yet, but the roof and shingles are now in place as is the siding.


We have taken plenty of pictures of the inside, but it really doesn't look like much in photos - just a construction site. The first floor will be an open area and the second floor will be the livable area. It will have three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, living room / dining room area and a loft/playroom. Here is a pic of the loft as it actually resembles something.


Here is a pic looking towards the bathroom. Very recognizable at this point...

Picasso...

Not much new to report here. Life is still fairly busy with work, daycare and everything else in between. Tim and Lexi spent last weekend in Feda. Lexi played hard with her Mormor, Lajla, and Lajla's boyfriend Tom. Tim worked on the boathouse project trying to stay ahead of all of the carpenter's with the electrical drops, etc. I had a great weekend at my church's annual Women's Retreat. As you might be reading between the lines - the camera has not been used much. But, yesterday, little Picasso decided it was time to get the paints out again. So, I snapped a couple of pics. Enjoy!

New Haircut!

Since Lexi won't let me touch her "mop of a head of hair" with a 10 foot pole, I decided it was time for a haircut. So, thanks to the hair salon and their portable DVD player with a Mickey Mouse DVD (why didn't I think to bring my portable DVD player????), Lexi survived her third official haircut with no complaint. Of course, this new "do" can still look a bit rough around the edges, but at least it looks a bit more styled :). I just couldn't stand the ragamuffin look any longer...




Well, I probably could have edited this video clip down a bit, but I'm in a rush today and figured that I would be murdered soon if I didn't upload a new blog entry. So, it's 5 minutes long, but I like it because it shows you a glimpse of Lexi's language development. She's normally a chatterbox, but has inherited the "Tønnessen camera presence" which means that you clam up and don't smile :)

Tim's birthday trip

Ok, so the reason for the "blog silence" is that Tim and I just got home from a 4-day long weekend away without Little Miss Two Year Old. To celebrate Tim's birthday (he's 29 again), I decided that it was time for the two of us to have a weekend away from Lexi. We have both spent nights away from her, but separately - she has always had the other of us around. So, Tim's mom (Bestemor) gladly agreed to come and house-sit / Lexi-sit. Of course, we didn't follow any of the "baby book guidelines" and make our first overnight within a one hour driving radius - we had 7 hours of travel on airplanes, nor did we just have one night away - we had three! Lucky for us, all went well. I told Lexi the night before that Mamma and Pappa were going on an airplane the next day (this is how we explain some of Tim's business trip travel). She looked at me, paused, and said Bye-Bye. So, that was that. I don't think she asked after us at all. Of course, she had Bestemor on the Thurs and Fri and Cousin Luna came to visit for the weekend and there was Aunt Linn and Bestemor's friend Tom and daycare play on Thursday and Friday and pizza on Sunday and the list goes on and on.

So, where did I take Tim to? I bit the bullet, sacrificed my love of big European cities and took him to Svalbard. Haven't heard of it? It is a collection of islands north of Norway that Norway has governmental rights for as per a treaty signed in the 1920s. The main island is called Spitsbergen and the capital city is Longyearbyen (so named by a New York Coal Mining fellow with the last name of Longyear). I digress - it is basically an arctic desert and has some of the most beautiful untouched terrain you will ever see. Of course, it was an average of -20C (-4F) while we were there and we only had daylight from around 9am to 3pm since the sun hasn't fully returned yet, but what an amazing experience.

Here is a pic of us on our 9 hour snowmobile trip...

Here is a pic of me being breathalyzed in Barentsburg (Russian Coal Mining Town). Yes, the Norwegians want to prove that they don't tolerate drinking and driving (any vehicle) - anywhere. We all had a good laugh that we actually got stopped by the local police for a control point.


Here is the only wildlife we saw - a female caribou. We were disappointed not to see a polar bear.

Here is a pic of us in the ice caves beneath the glacier in Longyearbyen

And some scenary (of which our amateur photo skills don't do it justice...)

It's been a while....

Well, it has been a while since my last entry and I can't honestly say where the time has gone. I must confess that I haven't had the camera out much recently to capture any pics of Lexi. So, I decided to upload this video clip because Lexi loves to jump. Tim bought her this jumping castle last summer. It wasn't exactly the coolest thing for her last summer as she had barely started walking solo. We recently pulled it out and dusted it off for her 2nd birthday party. Boy was it a hit at the party - by all! We then loaned it out to a friend for their 4 year old's birthday party. Lexi was one of the birthday guests and had a blast hopping. So, we pulled it out one night a couple of weeks ago and let her hop to her heart's content....