Staycation Continues
[Photos from 18 – 22 July 2019, posted online 07 March 2020. I took the kids skiing yesterday!!!!]
The days passed relatively uneventfully during our stay-cation. We hung out in town as Anna kept working, and the other two each spent half a day at horse camp, and stocked up on things needed for house #2.
As Anna finally had a week off, we drove to house #2, and hung out there with friends, managing to finally get the guest house into a usable state!
Oh, and there was also a cat-story! (45-ish images total)
Thursday 18 July 2019
Horse Camp for All & Housing Progress
[Photos taken 13 – 17 July 2019, posted online 29 February 2020. Snow on the ground, and we have our first local Covid-19 case.]
We drove up to house #2 with some friends who live in California for a change of scenery. As they only have young children, we only brought Emma along, leaving the older ones to fend for themselves for a night.
I tried being good about gymming, but hurt my foot assembling a bed (!!?!), and then it was all over for a while. Both Emma and Bjarki began attending horse camp, but not at the same time, so that involved quite a bit of driving. I did also succumb to Emma’s request to go to the farm animal park, where we saw a four day old calf! (40-ish images total)
Saturday 13 July 2019
Summer Vacation Begins/Bjarki’s 12th Birthday Party
[Photos from 10-12 July 2019, posted online 28 February 2020. Lots of snow falling lately, driving Anna to school in the mornings has been a bit adventurous.]
Emma finally truly graduated from daycare, as it shut down for its summer vacation. We were rather stuck-in-town though for the work-week because Anna kept working at horse-camp. Happily we finally managed to celebrate Bjarki’s 12th birthday, and even go out on a date night! (25-ish images)
Wednesday 10 July 2019
Hiking & Kayaking Weekend
[Photos taken 05-07 July 2019, posted online 22 February 2020. The days are getting brighter, finally!]
We spent an active weekend at house #2 on a gorgeous weekend in early July. There was trampolining, hiking (without water or food, silly us!), a water-balloon fight, and kayaking! How lucky we are to have such good friends! (55-ish images)
Friday 05 July 2019
Outdoor Activities as July Began
[Photos taken 01 – 04 July 2019, posted online 15 February 2020. Yesterday saw such high winds that most of the capital area closed down in the morning, and all schools were closed! It’s calmer today.]
We’d made the decision to not travel abroad for our summer vacation for the first time in many years, so this was an unusual July for sure. Horse camp played a big role, with Anna working there, and the other kids attending.
For the first week, the weather was super nice, which meant time spent outdoors. (15-ish images total)
Monday 01 July 2019
Bjarki Turns 12 Years Old, Anna Bakes & Emma Plays
[Photos taken on 28 – 30 June 2019, posted online 24 January 2020. I’ve lost count of the ‘yellow’ weather warnings since December. Tumultuous weather indeed!]
Lo and behold, somehow it was Bjarki’s 12th birthday!! He opened presents in the morning, and then Anna had very kindly baked a cake for him to take to horse camp.
The following weekend was calm-ish, with Anna going all out making macaroons from scratch, and myself and Emma visiting the farm-animal-and-family-park yet again. (20-ish images)
Friday 28 June 2019
House#2 Progress, Endless Walks & Finally RAIN
[Photos taken 16 – 26 June 2019, posted online 20 January 2020. The weather is unstable. Very unstable.]
June was such a strange month. The sun would not stop blaring, and the weather was continually awesome, which seemed to render me unable to sleep, which made me anxious.
Nice progress was nonetheless made at House #2, particularly in getting the guest-house operational, and Finnur volunteered to drive up there to start staining the huge deck (which can only happen with zero children around).
I took a ridiculous amount of walks, as it felt impossible to just sit around at home in the evenings with all that sunlight going on. We bought a new car (!!!) after waiting patiently for a sturdy enough electric car, the kids went to their camps, and practices, and life just sort of stumbled along. (65 images total)
Sunday 16 June 2019
Dinners, Gymnastics, & Staining in the Sun
[Photos taken 06 – 15 June 2019, posted online 12 January 2020. It’s been a over a week of storms, they just keep coming, with wind/rain/snow.]
We kept having crazy fantastic weather, with barely a drop of rain. It was very conductive to walks and staining wood, and there’s So. Much. Wood.
Bjarki competed at a gymnastics meet, dinner was outsourced, we visited the farm animal & family park, the guest-house at house #2 got some attention, and Anna prepared starting her first ever summer job (45-ish images total).
Thursday 06 June 2019
Anna Graduates 10th Grade
[Photos taken 05 June 2019, posted online 27 December 2019. The rain is taking all our snow away. New Year’s Eve fireworks weather is not looking promising. ]
After eight fine years at our local school, it was time for Anna to graduate from 10th grade. Two days prior, the whole graduating group (70-ish kids) had gone on a graduation/team-building trip to the north of Iceland.
The trip was a roaring success, and they arrived sleep-deprived and weepy with emotion a few hours before the formal ceremony. At the graduation ceremony itself, hardly an eye was left dry in the house, as parents and past-and-present teachers talked, gifts were given, hugs were exchanged, lovely words were written in yearbooks, photos were taken, and food was eaten. (35-ish images total)
Wednesday 05 June 2019
The Blazing Sun of June
[Photos taken 01-04 June 2019, posted online 26 December 2019. Happy Holidays to all! Been a month since the last update as yuletide-prep ate my blogging time.]
Being six months behind on blogging means that at the peak of darkness, I’m rediscovering life near the peak of brightness. There could be a worse fate!
Apparently, walks around the neighborhood loomed large in the everlasting sunshine, and ongoing drought. We also managed to visit house #2, where more progress was made on the guest-house, thanks to crafty friends! (35-ish images total)
Saturday 01 June 2019
