Back From the US
This is just to document that last night we returned from a two week vacation in the Washington DC area in the US. We stayed with Elsa and Þráinn (whom we met at Stanford many a moon ago) in the very spacious house they’ve been renting there for the past year. We did a bunchRead more
Tigers and Voyagers
[Photos from Sunday 26 July 2015, text and stuff from 07 September 2015. The autumn wind is howling outside.]
Emma finally dared to put on Anna’s old tiger costume, and looked adooorable. Our friend Elsa brought her three kids over for an afternoon splurge in the hot tub, and a scrumptious dinner. Her oldest daughter then took the younger ones home, while we rounded up Guðrún, and went downtown for an evening coffee house chat.
I’m liking this “child has a drivers licence” thing! (10 images total)
Sisters.
Travel Day: Time to Drive Back Home
[The long drive back happened on Thursday 23 July 2015. It’s being put online on 03 September 2015. In unrelated news: Happy Birthday Nökkvi!]
Our travels about Iceland came to a close on a fairly mild Thursday. We spent the morning packing up, and left our hosts close to noon. We stopped to buy cookies for the road, and then decided to eat lunch at a restaurant before heading off, in the hopes the kids would fall asleep.
Happily, all the kids nodded off for almost two hours, so we didn’t stop again until Staðarskáli for some ice cream. We kept driving south, clearing the Big Bank of Clouds at some point, to arrive in Borgarnes, where we visited the local swimming pool in gorgeous weather.
Our restaurant of choice in Borgarnes was fully booked, so we ended up driving to Akranes to eat dinner there, before driving the last 30 minutes home. All in all it was a successful trip, but we were also glad to be home. (13 images total)
Packing up the car.
Sunny Times in Nauthólsvík Beach
[Hopeless catch up resumes. This is from 15 July, although it’s 26 July 2015 right now.]
We had a Wednesday date with Elsa and her daughter at the Nauthólsvík geothermal beach. The weather forecast was iffy, and there were rain-clouds visible here and there, but as we arrived the sun came out and mostly stayed out.
We were super lucky in that it was low tide, so the ocean “pool” was only getting water from the hot tub by it, so it was unusually warm. As we were leaving a couple of hours later, the sea had risen far enough to start ‘watering’ the pool again, chilling it down. (11 images total)
Awesome! The water was pleasantly not freezing, and the sun was warm. I doubt we’ll ever be so lucky again!
Summer Vacation is ON!
[Photos and text from 13 July 2015.]
As of today, my summer holiday of 5 weeks is ON! Finnur’s holding off for three days, so it’ll be me and the kiddos for a little bit, but then we’ll start the annual family stew.
(Of course, I began the holiday by being bedridden all of Saturday, but thankfully it was mostly a one-day thing.)
Today we decided to spend the time by visiting the house-animal-and-family park, where the annual pass we bought last summer was still valid. The annual pass is great because included is all-day access to all the rides for the whole family, which on low-traffic days (like today) translates to hanging out on the rides, announcing joyfully that yes, we’d like to go again!
Our partners-in-crime were Adda and her kids. Sadly, I only took a few photos, mostly just enough to remind myself we did something today! (9 images total)
Emma insisted on riding her carousel-horse unassisted and that I get on the horse next to her. I obliged!
Beautiful Sunday in June
[Happenings of 14 June 2015 were finally formalized in blog form on 14 July 2015. Where did that month evaporate to?]
Let’s take a time machine and warp back a month to where we woke up to a gooooorgeous Sunday morning, and a newly landed husband (fresh from California) who needed some peace and quiet to sleep for a few hours, before hosting guests for the afternoon and evening.
The easy solution was to visit the domestic-animals-and-family park, of course! (24 images total!)
We arrived at the house-animal-and-family park shortly after it opened at 10 am. The cows were outside, and google suggested the themed edit!
Glorious Weekend!
[Photos from 13 June 2015. Blogged on 15 June. When will it end?]
This weekend we actually had good weather. Both days had clear skies, but the Sunday was noticeably warmer than Saturday. We are fortunate enough to have a patio that is sheltered from most wind directions, so we had a pretty sweet time on both days!
Both days were busy, here are photos from the Saturday, where we put up a tent, attended a birthday, and hosted two of my brothers plus entourage for hot tubbing, and a dinner. Yes, this marked the first time we used the hot tub this year. Golly! (18 images total)
Shortly before lunchtime Anna suggested we put the tent up, so we did!
Post Rearrangement Heads-Up!
[Written and implemented on 09 June 2015.] I just took all the posts written between 01 March 2015 and yesterday and re-dated them so that they’re now organized in the order they happened, and not in the order they were written. (I do try to make the newest posts appear first, even though they’re outRead more
Billy Elliot the Musical
[Show on 06 June 2015, blogged on 08 June 2015. Brilliant!]
In a fit of unusual productivity in early April, I booked tickets for not one, but two (!!) plays with the big kids this spring time. The first was Pippi Longstocking, which Bjarki wanted to see. That had been running for a while, so that was easy to get tickets to, and we went a week or two later. That show was a hoot!
The other was Billy Elliot the Musical, which Anna wanted to see. It started its run late this winter, and has been very popular. We therefore had to wait a couple of months to see a show from good seats. But boy oh boy were they good seats!
The musical was great! The kids did a wonderful job, the main adults were splendidly cast, and there was nary a dull moment. Bjarki did cringe a few times when Billy was dancing through his frustrations, but overall an excellent time was had by all! (5 images total)
We sat down in our seats early.
Gerpla’s Spring Gymnastics Exhibition
[The show was on 05 June 2015, but this is being blogged on 08 June 2015. Close enough.]
The academic year is over now, and one of the final events was the gymnastics spring exhibition. The local club is called Gerpla, and every year they host a series of spring shows. I’m pretty sure the big kids participate in all the shows (five this year) but the little kids only perform in one show, thank goodness.
The show this year was fun, they’d woven the performances to a narrative of the old Norse mythology. I did overhear somebody saying that they’d had to make a decision as to whether they should have good lighting or fancy costumes, and the lights won out. It was probably a good call, as it made for a cool show.
First though, we had to ‘assign’ Emma to somebody else, because I had no desire to try and wrangle her for a solid two hours. Finnur’s parents very kindly offered to take her to their summer house in Laugarvatn, which was great because the next night I had tickets for myself and the big kids to see Billy Elliot the Musical. (Finnur’s still in California.) (10 images and 1 video total)
Emma in the car with her grandparents and one of her cousins, who was also having a summer-house sleepover.