Summer Holidays - Weeks 5 and 6

Well, this concludes our summer holidays. Tim and Lexi started back to work/barnehage this last week while Jen, Lillian and I took my birthday trip to Stockholm. This is a sad blog posting as we will be saying goodbye to Jen in just two days time. What an amazing, awesome, wonderful summer we have had. We have all enjoyed the chance to spend time together and Jen and Lillian have really bonded as Godmother/Goddaughter. I'm not sure what Lillian will think when Jen isn't around to play with her! And I'm not sure what I will do without all of the extra help!

Here are our final pics.... Lexi and Lillian at the boathouse

Lillian and her new cousin Samuel...poor Samuel isn't old enough to defend himself against a rather curious and mobile 9 month old.

The three cousins...just missing Luna (she is at ice skating camp)Lexi's first game of bowling...the shoes were soooo cute on her. Should have got a close-up! Two princesses in Stavanger As said, I treated myself (and Jen and Lillian) to a birthday trip to Stockholm on bonus points. Thanks to Tim, we also got our wonderful hotel on bonus points. We left early on Tuesday morning and came home yesterday (Friday) evening. Here is a pic of Lillian and I on the day we arrived. Here is a pic of Jen and Lillian on our "hop on, hop off" boat ride on the day we arrived. It gave us a good overview of the city and the various points of attraction.
Here is Jen in a local market...those are loads of chanterelle mushrooms to her right Lillian loved her stroller Here we are the the gates to The Royal Palace Here is one of The Palace Guards. Jen wasn't allowed to stand any closer, but the Guard was talking to Lillian
Here I am in Gamla Stan (old town) Stockholm has zillions of museums. We only visited one as we were keen to explore outdoors. We went to the Vasa Musuem to see the Vasa sailship which was built and set sail on its maiden voyage in 1628. It sailed for about 30 minutes (4265 feet - less than a mile) before capsizing with a strong wind as the gun ports filled with water and the ship sank. It was salvaged in 1956 and it took 17 years to conserve the ship before today's Vasa Museum was opened. Definitely a "worth see" on a visit to Stockholm.
One morning, we "pullled a Kristy" (thinking back to our Mediterranean Cruise and the Rick Steves' walking tour of Nice....). We took a 90 minute walking tour (from our guide book) of a local island Djurgården and eventually ended up at a TV tower that had an amazing observatory with great views and even greater desserts at their cafe. :) Well worth the 90+++++ minutes :)
This one's for you Tim... me and an anchor at The Maritime Museum.
A beautiful view of the Nordisk Museum...amazing architecture in Stockholm Jen posing in front of Parliament On our last day, we took a walking tour of another part of the city - Sodermalm. (It turns out that Jen is quite the guide book fiend...remindeded me of Kristy). Anyway, it once again led us to some great look-out points. Here is Jen with City Hall in the background. (This one was 30min +++++)
Check back here soon as Mountain Man Jonathan will be arriving Wednesday and he hasn't shaved or had a haircut in ages. I think I will have a razor and some shaving gel ready for him before he scares my children :) Regardless, we can't wait to hear about his adventures on his Kilimanjaro hike.