Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

August Ends With School Starting, Multiple Birthday Parties, Being Outside, and Haircare!

2016-08-22Friends, Us Standard

[Photos from 22 to 31 August 2016, posted on 13 November 2016. I’m stubborn to a fault. Also, Finnur just returned home from a two-week stay in California this morning. He spent a week+ before that in the UK (we came along for the ride for 5 days). It’s been busy. 16 November 2016. My ankle got cut up today to remove all the hardware from the breakage last January. Hello painkillers!]

Finally, school started up again! This year Bjarki’s in 4th grade, but Anna’s up to 8th grade, meaning she now a teenager according to the school system. Emma continues in daycare, and started in the room she’ll be in for the next three years.

The last week-and-a-half of August was apparently spent: Starting school, going to a concert, attending multiple birthdays, going out for walks/jogs/biking, working outside, food procurement, and hair-stuff! (47 images total!)

Monday 22 August 2016

Mr. Bjarki, about to begin 4th grade! I didn’t accompany Anna to school, she’s just too old for that now!

Late August Visit to Laugarvatn

2016-08-20Friends, Us Standard

[Photos from 20-21 August 2016, posted online ~~25-ish October 2016. We had a little bit of snow this morning, a first this winter~~. Haha, very funny! It’s now 6 NOVEMBER. The snow stuck around for 15 minutes, it’s been borderline warm since then!]

Our friends, Holla and Óli, tend to be such busy people in the summertime that the only way to meet up with them is to drag them off to the summer house at Laugarvatn. So we did! (38 images total)

Saturday 20 August 2016

Picking blueberries in the blazing sun!

The Week Before School Started Up

2016-08-14Uncategorized Standard

[Photos from 14-19 August 2016, posted online 18 October 2016. October so far is balmy warm, with intermittent storms.]

The last work-week before school started. The big kids were at horse camp, the little kid was at daycare, and the big folk were at work. A few photos got taken nonetheless. (13 images total)

Sunday 14 August 2016

The adorableness is strong with these. Emma’s out there in front.

Engjabær-Descendants Meet Up

2016-08-13Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos from 13 August 2016, posted online 07 October 2016. This post took two coffee house visits!]

Earlier this year, after a funeral of a member of my mother’s extended family, the idea was floated to have the descendants of my maternal-great-grandparents meet up outside of the funeral context for a change.

My great-grandparents, who lived in Engjabær, which was located where the farm animal/family park in Reykjavik is now, had 12 children (sort of standard for the time), all of which made it to adulthood, but only five of which had children of their own.

One cousin offered up a fishing hut/camping site that he runs at Minnivallalækur. Since the five of us still don’t have the equipment we need to camp overnight, we instead drove there on Saturday morning, spent the day (fake-camped our small tent), and then drove back in the late evening.

A good time was had by all! Also, the whole photoset can be seen here. (32 images below)

Group photo of (most of) the attendees. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Summer Vacation Ends, Real Life Revs Up Again

2016-08-05Friends, Us Standard

[Photos from 05 August – 12 August 2016, posted on 03 OCTOBER 2016. Tried a new cafe this evening. Not bad!]

The last weekend of our summer holiday, and the first working week, went by in a flash of snapshots.

Emma was adorable, we met a new human, we had dinner bracketed by handyman-jobs, I stole quiet moments where I could, the big kids returned to horse camp, and I attended a 40th birthday party! (27 images total)

Friday 05 August 2016

Emma pretending our MiFi gadget is a phone. Photo by Anna.

City Family Park & Fákasel Horse Theater

2016-08-03Friends, Us Standard

[Photos from 03 August 2016, posted on 02 OCTOBER 2016. There’s a storm outside, so let’s pretend it’s still summer!]

I was just done with painting after finishing the outside of the house, so to give Finnur peace to continue the seemingly endless task of staining wood, I took the kids to the farm-animal/family park in downtown Reykjavik.

While we were there, a reminder popped up for a trip to the Fákasel Horse Park with some of our Icelandic friends from California. Finnur wanted to keep on working, so I took the kids, and we had a grand time! (21 images total)

Emma at the end of her circle on horse-back.

Emma at the end of riding in a large circle on horse-back at the farm-animal park.

Painting/Staining the House + Finnur’s 42nd Birthday

2016-07-27Us Standard

[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

2016-07-24Friends, Us Standard

[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

2016-07-21Us Standard

[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, where somebody had left flowers.

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

2016-07-20Sweden, Us Standard

[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!