Mountain Man has come and gone

Well, Mountain Man Jonathan has come and gone and come and gone again. We were lucky to have him come and visit us in Norway after his 6 day trek up Kilimanjaro. He was truly ready for a hot shower, some home-cooked food and a real bed (pretty much in that order). We couldn't exactly top his amazing experience in Africa, but we tried to provide the above three things and show him a bit of Norway - rainy, rainy, rainy Norway. Did I mention the rain? As you might have guessed, we had crap weather and didn't get to do as much as we wanted/planned, but we tried to make the most of it and Jonathan claimed that his expectations of Norway were rain and cold - so, we certainly didn't let him down :)

So, he was here with us about 5 days and then he headed to whiskey and golf country in Scotland for 4 days and then joined us again for his final three days. He is presently on a flight from London to San Fransico and should be landing at 1530 this Monday afternoon SF time.

Here are some pics of our precious time together. Sorry Jen, I don't have a Baby Bjørn pic to share and sorry again as I think Lexi warmed up to him a bit faster :). I do wish I had a pic of them from yesterday in their aprons playing some imaginary game...they were fixing cake for the babies or something like that :). (Sorry Jonathan...couldn't resist).

Here he is on his arrival day - offloading his entire belongings in the laundry room.
After his long lie-in on the first day, we wandered around Stavanger. OK, OK...so, it wasn't all rain. Here he is in front of the Stavanger Cathedral (Domkirke).

Here is a pic of Lillian and I in Old Stavanger (Gamle Stavanger)

We spent our first weekend at the boathouse. Here are Tim and Jonathan out for a paddle trip on Friday night. Good thing they went out on Friday night as it poured down rain the rest of the weekend. No sailboat trip this weekend :(
Jonathan definitely did not exibit the same sealife phobias as Jen :). Here is Jonathan enjoying his first catch of crab.

Due to the incredible amounts of rain on Sunday, we headed to Stavanger early. Here is Tim and the girls at a Chinese restaurant buffet.

Here we are on a walk through our local forrest.

Jonathan with the Three Swords Monument (Sverd i fjell)

We also took a walk on one of our nearby beaches (Hellestøstrand).

Each year, Halliburton hosts a family evening at a local farm - Soma Gård. It has animals and plenty of things to hop and climb on. Tim signed up to bring his wife and 3 kids :) So, we picked up Jonathan from the airport from his Scotland trip and off we went to the farm. Here is the annual tractor pic.

Jonathan got tractor pulling duty

Lillian loves to swing

...and play on the playground

Lexi loves to slide

Lillian got her turn on the tractor

They didn't manage to catch a hen, but notice the nearby sign "Ikke løp etter hønene" (Don't chase after the hens) :)

Since it was supposed to rain in Stavanger (making it not so fun to hike to the waterfall), we went on the Lysefjord cruise instead. It was relatively clear in the fjord and we actually got to see Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) from the fjord level. See the square rock formation that is jutting out above Jonathan's head?

Beautiful Lysefjord

We spent our second weekend with Jonathan in Feda since some good friends had invited us to a party Saturday night. Once again, it poured (really, really pouted) down rain. So, we spent Saturday indoors at Badeland (the nearby indoor water park).

Jonathan is taking a break from the wave pool.

Lillian loved the baby slide in the kiddie pool.

Lexi and Jonathan ran a few laps to get some energy out before our car ride home to Stavanger. Sorry, we forgot our camera at the party, but our friends had set-up a party tent in the garden/yard next to their boathouse and served crab, shrimp, crawfish, fish soup, various salads, and desserts. It was a nice time and I think Jonathan enjoyed our Feda friends. (Yes Jen, he ate shrimp, crab and crawfish and yes, they played plenty of Toby and yes, Tommy was dancing and yes, it poured down rain - glad we were under a tent :) )

So, we had to say goodbye to Jonathan this morning, but we look forward to him visiting again someday when we can do Preikestolen, Månefossen, sailboating, etc. And Jonathan... Lexi said tonight "I wanted to play with Jonathan and I wanted to play with him before he went to the airport" (in her most sad, whiney voice) :)

Thanks for a great visit! Good luck in the real world next Tuesday. Just keep chanting "I love my paycheck, I love my paycheck, I love my paycheck" :)