Lexi and Lillian's World....

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Girls Weekend 2010!

Riga here we come! Girls Weekend 2010 was in snowy Riga, Latvia (as if we haven't had enough snow here in Stavanger). 6 of us gathered at Sola airport at 0445 last Friday morning for an 0545 flight to Bergen and then onwards to Riga. We had a great weekend of sightseeing, shopping, spa treatments and plenty of café visits with coffee, tea and pastries. Yum, yum. We got home Sunday evening at 2130; so, it was a full three days of fun. Thanks to all of our hubbies who stayed home and watched the kiddos! Here are some pics from my camera. Unfortunately, the group pic was taken on another camera. I don't seem to have any pics of Siri and Carrie, but plenty of Nikki, Scottie and Maria.

Maria, Scottie and Nikki

Dome Cathedral Brandee & Maria
Our hotel which had a Skyline Bar on the 26th floor with awesome views
Scottie and Brandee posing with one of three giant snowmen in the park Maria and Nikki Scottie and Brandee
Scottie and Nikki in front of an art museum Scottie and Brandee with the same art museum
View of Riga Old Town from the Skyline Bar View of Riga Orthodox Cathedral

Monday, February 8, 2010

Boathouse update

Yes, it is 2010, and yes, we are still slaving (er, um, I mean working) away at "the boathouse project". We are definitely making progress and it is more and more measureable, but there are just so many "little details" left. Oh well, we'll get there one of these days. :)

Tim surprised me this weekend. He had CONTRACTED a local guy to come in with a huge sanding machine and sand the 1st floor and then oil/varnish it! Did you hear that correctly??? We actually paid someone to do some of this work for us! My "do it yourself" husband decided that it would be worth it and consequently, we got to spend Saturday at the local water park. Woo hoo! (ref blog entry below)

Well, the floor looks amazing! It is awesome and gave us all a feeling of measurable progress. Here is a pic of the 1st floor looking towards the river. Check out the floor! No Tønnessen elbow grease required :). You may remember that the 1st floor of the boathouse is not insultated. In other words...through the cracks in the wooden floor beams, you see the river.

Here is a view towards the corner where we will (eventually) have a little sofa/sitting area around the fireplace.

Here is our "old" masterbed from Stavanger that we brought to Feda. I stained it mahogany brown Saturday evening. So, the pic was taken while it was drying on the 1st floor. It will soon claim its place in the master bedroom on the second floor. (PS...did you get the gist? The masterbed from Stavanger? That means that all of the masterbedroom furniture from Stavanger came to Feda. That means that we are 95% complete on a master bedroom re-model in Stavanger. You know, just the usual... new laminate flooring, new paint, newly painted window trimwork, newly stained baseboards, new blinds, new furniture, etc., etc. That has been our "evening hobby" during the weekday nights in January. Will have to take pictures of it when I get the energy :)

Here is a pictures of the freshly oiled kitchen countertops (this was my Sunday afternoon project)

Here is the new family bunkbed that is in one of the guest bedrooms

Here is the new Ikea dresser that is in the same bedroom as the bunkbed above. (This was Tim and Lexi's Saturday evening project while I got high on the mahogany brown paint smell while staining the bed on the 1st floor.)

Here is the sink/mirror in the 2nd floor bathroom

Here is the bathtub in the 2nd floor bathroom. Lexi can't wait to take her first bath in it. (We've not officially "moved in" to the boathouse yet.)

Here is the shower in the 2nd floor bathroom.

See the newly hung ship's steering wheel above the window in the living room. This belonged to Tim's maternal grandfather. He was a seaman and it came from one of the ship's that he sailed around the world on.

Pics from the weekend

Here are some random pics from the weekend. We went to Feda and enjoyed a bit of "work", a bit of fun and some fresh air.

Here is our backyard in Stavanger...

Lexi absolutely LOVES her hot pink jogging suit that Aunt Brenda, Cousins Jonathan and Jennifer and Great Granny gave her as part of her birthday present. (The hat is a new Sleeping Beauty hat from her friend Grace.)

On Saturday, we went to an indoor water park that is only about 30 min from Feda. Our friends from Flekkefjord (Morten, Ann Britt, Sander and Dani) joined us. Although it may not look like it, the three of them get along great. It is mainly Lexi trying to keep up with the boys.

We never seem to take family pics these days; so, why not do it whilst in our swimsuits??? What was I thinking???

Lots of fun!

View over Kvinesdal - from Utsikten

Hanging out at the boathouse

Playing with Sander and Dani outside the boathouse

Dolls and Princess Shoes

This video is from Monday night January 25th...I just downloaded it from the camera and thought it was a fun one to share (albeit, long...).

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Big Number Three!

Lexi turned three on Saturday...where does time go to? As you will see, we still have snow on the ground here in Stavanger; here are a couple of pics of playtime in the snow today as well as pics from her birthday party (Tinkerbell-themed) at home yesterday.

Nothin' fancy for the cake - the all-time favorite - chocolate sheet cake! (Birthday girl removed her party dress and only had on her shirt and tights at this point...)

Tinkerbell fairy costume

Naomi - 5 years old

Lilja - 3-1/2 years old (sister to Naomi)

Trym - almost 5 years old (2 more weeks)

Even - 2-1/2 years old

Even's new brother - Sander - 4 months old

Ingrid - 3 years old

Kristoffer - 1-1/2 years old (brother to Ingrid)

Monday, January 18, 2010

Fresh air on Sunday

Yes, we still have snow on the ground. After we got back from the States, we had a really, really cold week with temps around 5F (-15C), but it has now warmed up to 32F (0C). It's a heat wave!

Jen, this video clip is dedicated to you and I. Lexi has nearly surpassed our level :)

This clip was taken Sunday 17th - Lexi and I were out getting some fresh air while Tim was working inside the boathouse (in background).

Memories of Christmas 2009

Well, it wasn't exactly the Christmas we planned for. In fact, there were times that we just thought...this is NOT supposed to be, but we prevailed and managed to get "home" to Tulsa 4 days after we planned. Yep, you heard it...4 days late! We finally arrived at my parent's house in Tulsa on Christmas Day at around 4pm. Our luggage arrived on Sunday the 27th :)

To make a rather long story very short...our original flight from Stavanger to Amsterdam was cancelled due to weather on Monday morning 21.dec. Since we were flying on two bonus tickets (KLM/Air France) and one purchased ticket, we didn't get "re-booked" until Christmas Eve. Lesson #1: Never fly with bonus points at Christmas time

So, we enjoyed the winter wonderland in Norway until "round 2" of our travels. It was smooth sailing (er, um flying) to Amsterdam and onwards to Memphis, but..... our flight from Memphis to Tulsa was cancelled (Christmas Eve) due to the weather in Oklahoma. We stayed the night in Memphis and headed back to the airport bright and early Christmas morning. After much back and forth between American Airlines and Delta, we managed to get standby on a flight to OK City and rented a car and drove to Tulsa. Whew!
Lesson #2: don't rely on the airlines to get you home, do what you have to do

Lexi was a super traveler and here are a few pics of our more happy Christmas memories :)