Summer Holidays - Week 4 +++

Another week and a half have passed of our "extended" summer holidays and we are still on the go. I write "extended" summer holidays as it really is just the norm in Norway to have 3 consecutive weeks of summer holidays, maybe 4. But, since Tim has some paternity leave, we have taken 5 weeks total. So, after Denmark, we came back to Feda for a few days and then headed to Stavanger for the Tall Ships Festival. After that, it was back to Feda for more R&R.

Tim had ridden his motorcycle to Feda at the onset of our summer holidays. So, he decided to take it back to Stavanger last weekend. Lillian didn't quite know what to think...

Tim tightened the set-screw on her little wooden cart at home in Stavanger and she was so excited to walk by herself!

Here is a pic of Jen and Lillian in Stavanger harbour with one of the Tall Ships (Norway's Statsraad Lehmkuhl) in the background. Here are the Griswalds on one of the many sail ships.

Here is Jen with some of the sail ships in the background. The purpose of Tall Ships Races is for youth to learn more about sailing. Each ship has a crew of youth (from their respective countries). The 2011 race started in Waterford, Ireland, sailed to Greenock, Scotland, sailed to Lerwick in the Shetlands, stopped in Stavanger and ended in Halmstad, Sweden. They started 30.june and finish 8.august. There are around 70 ships of all sizes from many countries. Norway, Sweden, UK, Poland, Russia, The Netherlands, to name a few. This was Stavanger's third time to host the sail ships. Other years were 1997 and 2004.
Here is a picture of Norway's Sørlandet. In 1989, Tim did some of his basic seaman's training onboard Sørlandet. He sailed all over the North Sea (UK, Norway, Shetland, Denmark, etc.) for 3-4 months.

Here are Tim, Lexi and Lillian at the helm of one of the massive Russian ships.
Here I am with my girls

As we crested the hill and caught our first glimpse of Stavanger harbour with all of the sail ships in port, Jen's reaction was "WOW"! If I had to guess, Jen's trip highlights (despite spending time with us Griswalds of course) will probably be Tall Ships, Stockholm (next week) and driving a tractor (see below).
It is always awesome to see Stavanger during a festival. Blue skies and packed with people...a great atmosphere.

On Sunday, we went to an area lighthouse / look-out point and watched the ships sail out to their next destination. Unfortunately, the were headed directly into the wind to get out to sea; so, they couldn't put many sails up. Here are a couple of ships sailing (or motoring) out to sea.

Beautiful sunshine, but a bit cool down by the waterfront.

Back in Feda, Jen resumed her stroller / baby bjørn duties :)

Lexi stopped to admire the flowers on her scooter.

We stopped in a Harley store in Lyngdal one day and Jen was drooling over all of the (well-priced) bikes :)

They had a small Harley ride. For 5kr, Lexi got to hear the vroom, vroom and had lights and motion.

Lexi likes to be paddled around in her little rubber boat

Lillian got a new swimsuit (wetsuit) for our upcoming trip to Spain. She tested it out yesterday and sister took her for a little spin in the boat.

Jen the paddler

Lexi attempted to snorkel

Again, Lexi likes to be paddled around....

Lillian was soooo very tired in this pic and sat quietly on Jen's lap for something like 10 minutes or more.

Morten drove his family's tractor over to help Tim move the old anchor. Tim's dad found the anchor in the fjord years ago and it used to be laying outside the "old" boathouse. We moved it off to the side during our construction project. It has now been re-positioned in front of the boathouse as decor.

Jen got to drive the tractor down to the harbour and back and she was on cloud nine for hours afterward. It definitely ranked high up on her "highlight list" for Norway.