Bjarni Graduates from Keilir’s Health Academy
[Photos from Friday 10 June 2016, posted online Saturday 11 June 2016. My laptop needs a new battery.]
My brother Bjarni has been a fitness enthusiast for a very long time, and even won a fitness title this winter. Last year he decided this is a field he wants to build a professional career in, so he enrolled in the Nordic Personal Trainer Certification program at Keilir’s Health Academy.
Yesterday he graduated with flying colors, after working hard all winter. We threw a small party to celebrate, just with the closest of family, as Finnur was still jetlagged, and I was still recovering from being sick. He then took off for a more party-like party with his buddies.
All the photos are HERE (including a few of a friend of my mother’s who was also graduating), but a selection follows: (24 images total)
Bjarni, Personal Trainer, at your service.
Spring Gymnastics Show & 20 Year Reunion
[Photos from Saturday 4 June 2016, posted on Sunday 12 June 2016. Finnur’s traveling to Munchen for four days.]
My last Finnur-less day, for the time being, was packed to the gills, with Bjarki’s year-end big gymnastics show starting at 1 pm, then driving the kiddos to their respective babysitters, before joining my 20 year Junior College (MR) reunion, which had events beginning at 2 pm and lasting long into the evening.
And of course Emma starting the day by falling ill with a spring cold.
Being a third child, I took her temperature at noon (38.5 C/ 101.3 F), gave her fever-reducing medication, dragged her to see Bjarki’s show (It. Was. Amazing!), dropped Bjarki off at Steinunn’s, and Emma off at her grandparents’, and then reunioned until about 9 pm, at which point drove back to pick Emma up, and took her home. (Phew!)
The final numbers of the evening: 39.4 C/ 102.9 F, followed by another fever-reducer. (19 images total, 1 video playlist)
Bjarki, with the pineapple who wanted to be a dictator/king, and was thwarted by the other fruits in the fruit bowl (aka Ávaxtakarfan).
Haircut, Dresses, and an Idyllic Evening
[Photos from Friday 3 June 2016, posted online 9 June 2016. Sick for the past couple of days.]
This Friday was a weird one, mostly because it stayed warm-ish and idyllic far into the evening.
Most of the happenings happened after work. Finnur’s parents’ picked Emma up from daycare, so I could have 30 minutes to go dress-shopping with Bjarki as my fashion consultant. We then zoomed on over to the hair salon, where Bjarki got a haircut, and then more zooming happened to pick Emma up. I believe we took the easy way out and had store-bought sushi for dinner…
We spent the evening mostly outside, and getting the kids (Emma in particular) to go back into the house, was no easy task. (Finnur was still in California.) (8 images total)
(P.s. Anna had taken off earlier in the day with a friend + her family to go camping out in the country over the weekend!)
Yeah, fast charging degrades the batteries, but they’re so much fun (and free!). This is me and Bjarki outside the mall.
Chocolate, Photos, Books, and Weeds
[Photos from 2 June 2016, posted online 5 June 2016. It’s midnight and still bright outside! ]
Thursday was a busy day. I left work early to take Emma to see the doctor (see below), drove Bjarki to gym practice, nursed Emma’s broken spirit after the doctor accidentally drew blood, picked Bjarki up, took both kids downtown to say hi to Lotta who was opening a new photography show of hers, spent some time fruitlessly looking for a certain book in the library, second hot chocolate run next door, and then finally home! (13 images total)
Emma’s hand sprouted a wart around the time she had chicken pox (the two may be related?) which refused to go away by itself. I’ve been taking her to see a doctor weekly, and that afternoon the doctor accidentally drew blood while clearing away dead skin. This left Emma in such a state that I ended up giving her the Professor Lupin treatment, i.e. copious amounts of chocolate. It worked for the most part.
Finnur’s Flying to California
[Photos from 24 May 2016, posted online 24 May 2016. I should go to bed soon.]
Today, Finnur took off on his twice-yearly work-trip to the mother-ship in Mountain View (Gaaah, don’t look at the pictures, doooon’t! Ack, too late. Now I want to go too!) He’s on the plane to Seattle as I’m typing this.
He’ll only be gone for 12 days this time around, instead of a full two weeks, and then some, because I need my sanity, and because the flight prices/schedules lined up that way. Thankfully, school is winding down, so we should all survive. Knock on wood!
Some media from today (4 images and 1 tiny video):
Anna showing us her artwork from this past school year.
First Day of Summer, Nature, and Jigsaw
[Photos from 21-23 April , posted online 26 May 2016. Backtracking yet again…]
As always, I’m conflicted on whether to post old or new stuff, and tonight old stuff wins out. I find it remarkable how I manage to always lose the plot on this blogging thing!
Anyway! Here we have The First Day of Summer (which is a national holiday, always on a Thursday, go figure) which we marked by opening up, cleaning, and filling the hot tub for the first time this year (I think?). Meanwhile, gardening work commenced, and continued into the next day. Saturday saw us visiting good friends, and walking to a beach and back. We saw a spider weave her web, and I completed a stubborn jigsaw. (24 images total)
First Day of Summer – Thursday 21 April 2016
Emma posing just before going into the hot tub. She’s wearing Anna’s old swimsuit!
Nap-Drive and Emma
[Photos from 17 – 18 April 2016, posted online 27 April 2016. Evening light is upon us.]
We can still trick Emma into napping in the afternoon by driving her around for a bit. We like to do so before we’re having visitors over for dinner, or visiting someone for dinner. Usually she falls asleep in five minutes, but this time she was super wired, and took half an hour to nod off. Therefore I ended up in our back-country, which I found to be surprisingly pretty.
Also, this was the week Emma had chicken pox, and she spent most of it at her grandparents’ place. (7 images total)
Sunday 17 April 2016
Emma took a long time to fall asleep so I ended up in the back-country to our fair city. I’d never been there before! This is the parking lot where you park to go walk up on Helgafell.
First 2016 Trip to Laugarvatn
[Photos taken 09 to 10 April 2016, posted online on 17 April 2016. My laptop battery is dying.]
Finnur and his siblings share access to a summer house his late grandparents built at Laugarvatn. According to The Online Speadsheet, it was our turn, and since the weather forecast was nice, we decided to venture out into the country-side a bit.
Finnur busied himeself with fixing some piping issue under the house, while the kids and I erected the trampoline.
To help ease our loneliness, our friends Guðrún og Snorri (their kids were busy in town!) arrived around dinner time on Saturday, ate dinner, played a fun board game, and then took off after lunch on the Sunday.
Sunday turned out to be really nice weather-wise, a couple of kids ended up in the underwear on the trampoline, while I face-sunbathed, in a jacket, and under a blanket. (11 images total)
Saturday 9 April 2016
Mount Hekla seen from the patio.
Birthday Party at Steinunn’s
[Photos from Sunday 3 April 2016, put online on 5 April 2016. Politics in Iceland are insane right now. The mind boggles.]
It was a mostly quiet weekend. On Saturday I drove for the first time in about three months!!! To celebrate, I took Anna on a slow shopping trip for some outdoor equipment for the school trip she’s on all this week, and we also made a library run. Then we all spent the evening with some good friends.
Sunday was pretty quiet, but we did attend the birthday party of Steinunn and Einar’s one year old boy. (5 images total)
(After the party Iceland’s version of the Panama Papers reveal was broadcast, and the entire nation gasped. It’s been a wild ride since.)
I can drive again!! Freedom!!
Easter Day 2016
[Photos from Easter Sunday 27 March 2016, posted online 31 March 2016. We just finished all the chocolate.]
Easter Sunday began unusually calmly, as the smaller two kids seemed happy to hang out in computer-land for most of the morning, or until the resident teenager woke up around 10 am. The kids then hid our eggs, we hid their eggs, and chocolate bunnies, and then we all overdosed on chocolate.
Around lunchtime we went to Finnur’s parents’ place to eat good food, enjoy good company, and play social whist. Bjarki participated in the whist for the first time, and handled it well, although he joined his grandparents near the bottom of the final score pile. Finnur was victorious though, just like last Easter!
Here, have some photos (33 images total) or if that’s not enough, HERE ARE ALL OF THEM.
The kiddos with their standard issue Icelandic Easter eggs.