Laugarvatn in October (Aka Enforced Heel Rest)
Anna started complaining of an achy heel a few weeks ago, and it only got progressively worse as time went on. Since it just didn’t seem like it was getting better, and she’d starting limping around, I took her to the health clinic on 1 October, where she was diagnosed with “Sever’s Disease“.
Basically (if the diagnosis is correct), there’s a growth-line in her heel bone which is inflamed (and so are bits of the Achilles tendon). This is apparently pretty common in kids that are growing fast (going through puberty) and practice sports with a lot of jumping and running (such as team handball). It’s supposed to completely go away on its own as the growth line settles down, but until then she was told to take it easy for 2 weeks in the hopes that it would get better.
So we tried that. Having Anna take it easy. And it. Just. Didn’t. Work.
She’d literally come home from school every day (or every other day if we were lucky), and tell us just how she’d somehow managed to re-strain her heel. It was an impressive list of mangling techniques.
In order to save her from herself, we therefore decided to elope to the countryside for the weekend, armed with a ton of Donald Duck comics from the library. And by golly, it worked! She got through the weekend without re-injuring herself, and we got a nice weekend at Laugarvatn for our troubles. (16 images total)
At Finnur’s parent’s summer house by Laugarvatn.
Fall is here.
The Sheep and the Grassy Leeks. Sheep by Þórarinn (Finnur’s dad).
Sheltering the sheep.
Black and brown leaves on greenish grass.
Winter-snack berries ready for the birds.
Bjarki is currently the perfect weight and size to climb trees. And he loves it!
Climbing monkey.
Having a great time!
Talking non-stop, as usual.
Playing with the small branches.
Jumping to and fro.
When it was time for Emma’s post-lunch nap, Finnur took the big kids to the new fancy smancy Fontana spa in Laugarvatn. It’s basically just a collection of hot tubs of varying temperatures, and saunas harnessing the local naturally occurring steam-vents, but it’s vastly overpriced (2800 isk = $23 for adults, kids under 12 are free), which is why we’ve never gone there before. (The tourists think the price is all right though. Darn tourists!)
Apparently it was an ok experience, with the kids enjoying the various hot-tub features, which they proclaimed superior to the plain hot tubs found in the plain old swimming pool literally next door. Which has considerably lower entry fees. And a swimmable pool.
Finnur remains very skeptical he’ll ever return (only one hot tub was ok, the others were all too cold or too warm!!) unless presented with a very juicy discount offer.
Sunday 13 October 2013
Emma was teething both nights we stayed, so I didn’t sleep much at all (at least for any length of time at a stretch). She never veered into the “I’m in abject pain” zone though, so no painkillers for her. She did sport two new teeth after the weekend though. But it meant the days were extra low energy.
Randomly, there was a reindeer’s head by the summer house. I’m guessing it’s being cleaned by nature until it’s ready to be be hung somewhere?
One of the cooler things about staying at the summer house is playing with (contained) fire. This time I was reminded that the long-term-storage milk containers are actually a mixture of paper and aluminum. Oops.
Finnur’s the real expert on getting a good fire going. I’m still a novice.
Emma chewing on a rice-cracker while the other three work on getting a good fire going.
After a (mostly) relaxing weekend we took off back towards the city in the late afternoon, stopping first by the fancy restaurant Lindin for a dinner. Since it was October, and the tourists were gone, the restaurant had scaled back operations and was no longer offering the bistro-menu it had this past summer.
The kids were bummed not to get the icelandic meat soup, but made do with a gourmet fish-soup instead. Poor sods.