Do. All. The. Things. Part. England
[Photos taken 22 – 26 October 2022, posted online 01 July 2023. After a mostly miserable and fall-like June, we might get a week of nice weather starting tomorrow.]
The younger kids got two days of winter-break towards the end of October, so we decided to journey to England and say hi to (grand)dad, Shirley, and Anthony.
I made the unilateral decision that Anna would not be traveling with us, since she was busy at university (they have four 12-week courses, followed by one 3-week group-work-course). Thus this was the first trip abroad with just Emma and Bjarki tagging along.
Saturday 22 October 2022
Do. All. The. Things. Part 3
[Photos taken 15 – 21 October 2022, posted online 24 June 2023. Perpetual clouds covering our area these days. Thankfully it’s fairly warm out.]
By the third week of my in-between-jobs month, I began to run out of Do. All. The. Things. steam.
We did manage to invite my immedate family up to the summer house for an overnight stay, and had a nice time. Getting back to town took longer than anticipated, but all went well.
I kept up failing at interior designing, went on an evening hike, started working my way through our very out-of-date CD pile (not to mention the floppy disks!), windows got cleaned, gym was visited, and Anna occasionally got a little help with her university homework.
Saturday 15 October 2022
Do. All. The. Things. Part. 1.
[Photos taken 01 – 09 October 2022, posted online 11 June 2023. Have just returned from a fantastic whirlwind visit to California.]
I had accepted a new job, that would be starting on 01 November. I therefore had a month to Do. All. The. Things. The first thing on the agenda was getting a new computer (as my old one kept flaking out), and attending a birthday party.
Saturday 01 October 2022
Goodbye Marel!
[Photos taken 24 – 30 September 2022, posted online 27 May 2023. We have clear skies for a bit for the first time in what feels like three weeks or more. May’s been weirdly wet and windy…]
When I resigned at the end of July, I fully expected to keep working there for three months (in Iceland you get three months of salary if you’re fired, and also can be asked to work three months after resigning) but as projects got finished it seemed silly to start doing new things.
So, we came to an agreement that my last day would be Friday 30 September, or about a week after the much-covid-delayed annual ball!
Saturday 24 September 2022
Ok Hiking, Tire Troubles & Autumn Colors
[Photos taken 17 – 23 September 2022, posted online 21 May 2023. It’s wet and windy outside. ]
The hiking group was back in action, and this time the target was Ok, the ex-glacier (aka The canary in the coal mine of our collective doom).
The hike was “demanding” with endless stretches of rocks in all shapes, orientation, sizes, and colors. On the drive back I then somehow managed to bust not one, but two (!!) tires of the car, needing to get rescued by our guide, and then organize a pick-up truck to go fetch it.
The remainder of the week was spent in mild survival mode as I’d come to an agreement with work to end my employment at the end of the month.
Saturday 17 September 2022
End-of-Summer Deck-Building & Biking-to-work
[Photos taken 02 – 16 September 2022, posted online 20 May 2023. Rainy and windy days, but at least it’s rather warm.]
The weather in September was surprisingly nice, almost Indian-summer-like. This prompted us to finally buy an outside couch for the summer-house, as there was no good way to congregate on the deck otherwise.
Back in town, Finnur put this summer’s deck-building-with-his-dad to good use by helping my brother build a deck at their place. Thankfully the weather co-operated, and they could work long into the evening, as the days were still fairly long.
I found biking to work to be a nice thing to do, and began working slightly shorter days as my work was winding down, having resigned a month prior.
Friday 02 September 2022
Naming & Restart of School + Hiking
[Photos taken 20 – 31 August 2022, posted online on 07 May 2023 from Denmark! Yup, Controlant‘s amazing Annual Ball was held yesterday at the Circus building. So. Much. Fun!]
It was time to name the newest member of the family, and it was a lovely event. A few days later, school started up again, and life began settling into a rythm again.
The weather was good enough to do some staining at the house in the country, and at the very end of the month I went on a hike with the hiking group. In between we met with friends, and life started feeling very normal again.
Saturday 20 May 2022
79th Birthday & Active Volcano Visit
[Photos taken 15 – 18 August 2022, posted online on 01 May 2023, yet another gorgeous and cold day.]
After our vacation in the US, the adults returned to work, Emma tried out a nearby tennis camp (wasn’t great), Bjarki roamed free with friends, and Anna began studying biomedical engineering at Reykjavik University.
Later that first week back, I lucked out and got to tag along with some hiking buddies to the active volcano that had started erupting at the beginning of August in Meradalir.
We were just in time, because just the next day the volcano quieted down at lot, and the day after that no fresh lava was visible, and that was the end of that eruption!
USA 2022 – Colorado Lounging, Climbing & Splashing
[Photos taken 07-10 August 2022, posted online 22 April 2023. I’m officially ridiculously far behind on my blogging!]
We flew from Spokane, Washington, to Denver, Colorado, picked up our rental car and made our way to Sarah and Augusto’s place. En route we were given a glimpse of the mad downpour that can happen in the area, with multiple cars simply driving to the side of the road and waiting the rain out rather than continue onwards almost blind.
Our Colorado days were calm in comparison to the first week of our US stay. We literally spent the first whole day lounging, although I did manage to get our travel insurance to OK Anna getting an x-ray of her ankle (not broken). The following day, most of us drove into the mountains to play in an elevated obstacle course, splash in some fresh river water, and check out flood remnants.
The following day we split up, with some of us shopping ’till we dropped, and others doing more relaxing things!
Sunday 07 August 2022
USA 2022 – Upper Glidden Lake & Idaho Departure
[Photos taken 06 – 07 August 2022, posted online 08 April 2023. The storm has come and gone… but more in a few days.]
On our last whole day in Idaho, we drove up the canyon and hiked to Upper Glidden Lake. The lake and surrouding area were gorgeous, but then the mishaps began!
Finnur tripped and scraped his leg, ripping up his pants leg. Then, thankfully pretty close to the car-park on the way back, Anna tripped and twisted her ankle so badly I ended up giving her a piggy-back-ride back to the car. Yay for lots of gym-time!
Just to make the day more colorful, we were met in the parking lot by a guy who was looking for a jack, as one of his tires had fallen off, and he didn’t have a big enough jack to get it back on. His car was of course blocking the road, so we tried helping him, but it wasn’t until some more cars arrived, one of whom had an old-style jack, that the tire got put back on.
The following day began with yet another variation on an amazing breakfast, before we said our goodbyes. We then drove back to Spokane airport, and flew onwards to Denver, Colorado.
Saturday 06 August 2022
