Painting/Staining the House + Finnur’s 42nd Birthday
[Photos from 27 July to 4 August 2016, posted online 17 September 2016. The crowning achievement of our summer vacation.]
This spring, we made the mutual decision with our neighbors to paint the house and stain all its woodwork this summer. The woodwork up by the roof was dehydrated and getting damaged, and the sun had burned through the paint on the back side of the house.
The original plan was that Finnur and I were going to get quotes from contractors for our half, because it looked like a lot of work, and we didn’t think we could do it. Our neighbors, on the other hand, were fully committed to doing their own side by themselves.
Over the summer, however, we started hearing that getting contractors was becoming very difficult, and the quotes were astronomical. So… after finally deciding on a wall color, we decided to just wash, paint, and stain our half ourselves! Finnur took on all the woodwork, while I did the vast majority of the actual painting. My brother Bjarni also came over to help out when he could.
Here are photos to document the days as they went by… (53 images total)
Wednesday 27 July 2016
Bjarki testing the high-pressure washer. You can see the stripes on the wall after Finnur washed it. Also visible are the numerous paint samples we tried while deciding on a color. It turned out our house wasn’t really blue anymore, but more of a washed-out gray with a blue undertone!
Visiting Laugarvatn, Slakki Petting Zoo, and Thingvellir
[Photos from 24-26 July 2016, posted online 11 September 2016. Baby steps.]
It was “our week” at the summer house Finnur owns with his siblings, so to the summer house by Laugarvatn we went! With us were Adda and Halli, plus kids, and a lovely time was had by all (we hope). We visited a small petting zoo for the first time, there was more jogging, and on the way back, we stopped at various places to hunt Pokemons. (23 images total)
Anna and Finnur at the overlook point by Þingvellir, as they hunted for Pokemons on the way back to town.
Jogs, Jazz, and Jitters
[Photos from 21-23 July 2016, posted online 10 September 2016. Back at the coffee house I like to blog in. Need a coffee house closer to home!]
After we returned from Sweden, we lay low for a little bit. I went out for a couple of slow jogs, a friend dragged us (in a good way) to a jazz concert downtown, and uh, then there was more jogging!
Be warned that the image for Friday 22 has a close up on a small wound on Emma’s face, that she got when she fell face-first on the edge of a table. :/ (18 images total)
p.s. I rearranged the blog posts into the order they happened, as I was getting confused.
Thursday 21 July 2016
Was feeling jittery so I went out for a jog. Warmed up by walking up to the stupa above our house, where somebody had left flowers.
Day #10 in Sweden: Going Back Home
[Photos from Wednesday 20 July 2016, posted online 10 August 2016. In the middle of an allergy test for antibiotics.]
After a lovely time in Sweden, it was time to head back home. Happily, the flight back was in the middle of the afternoon, so it was a relatively low-stress day… if you discount the fact that we managed to mess up getting onto the correct highway, causing a small delay… oh, and due to a misunderstanding, one of the handluggage bags got left behind in the check-in area, and had to be reclaimed from lost and found. (7 images total)
Goodbye pink house!
Day #9 in Sweden: Tom Tits Experiment
[Photos from Tuesday 19 July 2016, posted online 9 August 2016. The adults are back at work. Goodbye summer vacation!]
On our last whole day, we opted to visit something called the Tom Tits Experiment. It’s essentially a science museum, and unfortunately shared a lot of things with the other science museum we’d just visited a few days before, so it felt less special than it could have. But there were also neat new things to see, and do, so it wasn’t a total loss. (24 images total)
When we arrived, there was a show going on. As we sat down (see Finnur and the kids in the middle), he was just finishing juggling regular stuff, and then went on to swinging around things on fire. Like this huge ball!
Day #8 in Sweden: Google Office & Junibacken
[Photos from Monday 18 July 2016, posted online 7 August 2016. House finally painted and woodwork stained. Phew!]
Finnur had some business to attend to at the Stockholm Google office, so we all went there, and ate lunch.
Afterwards we decided to visit the Junibacken, a unique place where locales and characters from Swedish children’s books (many of which we’ve read) have been made real. It’s not big, but packed with stuff. (50 images total, some taken by Finnur)
We parked underneath the Google building, and had a little trouble finding the way out and up and back into it!
Day #7 in Sweden: Visiting Friends & Second Beach Trip
[Photos from Sunday 17 July 2016, posted online 4 August 2016. Two posts in one night? It’s really late…]
On this lovely Sunday, we went and visited our friends, Stina & Tommi. (Yes, this is the same Stina that Anna and I went to watch sing a few night earlier.)
Afterwards, we decided to try the ‘other’ beach in our town, and the kids had fun splashing around for a bit, while Finnur went grocery shopping. (23 images total)
By Stina & Tommi’s dining room table.
Day #6 in Sweden: Relaxation & Mall of Scandinavia
[Photos from Saturday 16 July 2016, posted online 4 August 2016. Sitting on the sofa around midnight, and it’s dark outside, although the sky is still dark blue rather than black.]
After so many days of ‘doing stuff’, we tried to take it easy for one day. Since it was a weekend, I in particular feared crowds in Stockholm proper, so we just hung around the house for the most part.
Towards the end of the day, me and Anna took off to check out the Mall of Scandinavia, which was a 20 minute drive away from us.
Most of the images below are screenshots from Anna going on a snapchatting-spree! (11 images total)
How’s that for luxury? Getting your cup filled with water from a water-gun?
Day #5 in Sweden: National Museum of Science and Technology (Tekniska Museet)
[Photos from Friday 15 July 2016, posted online 23 28 July 2016. At a cafe with the bestest Adda, who lets me be anti-social in peace, while our kids Pokemon! And uh, five days later, at another cafe, while the kids Pokemon.]
Bjarki really really really wanted to go back to the Tivoli, but we wanted to see something different. Evil parents!
After much searching, we found something that was not right next to the Tivoli (which is right next to the Vasa ship Museum), and off we went.
Our destination was the National Museum of Science and Technology, aka the Tekniska Museet. Unfortunately it took us too long to decide what to do, so we arrived really late. We could have stayed there for quite a bit longer, but oh well… (30 images total)
After reading tips about this place, we knew to race through the traditional exhibits in the front of the museum, and go to the back, where they had this fun obstacle course room, and various cool things in the other direction.
Day #4 in Sweden: Tivoli!
[Photos from Thursday 14 July 2016, posted online 22 July 2016. Back at the cafe downtown, while the kids are out walking and playing Pokemon Go!]
[UPDATE on 23 July: Added two photos of Finnur and Bjarki on a roller-coaster towards the bottom of the post.]
The kids began the day with a water battle, and then we drove back to town and visited the local Tivoli (amusement park). We ate a snack beforehand, and had dinner afterwards, which I believe represent the only proper restaurants we visited on the whole trip! (30 images total)
The kids discovered a water-gun, which attached to regular plastic bottles. A water battle ensued!