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...)