[Written 20 August 2014. Just barely.] Emma has officially started attending daycare. Well, she’s started her ‘adjustment’ to daycare – and because we are pros and have done this before, Finnur was the one who took her. (Yes, my maternal heart pretends to be all blue steel and “Pfffft, what’s the biggie?”, but I’m really aRead more
[Written 17 August 2014. Shocking, I know.]
Today was an uber-birthday-party day!
At noon, I took the big kids to Hildur Sif’s and Arnar’s double birthday (10th and 8th, respectively). Emma and Finnur stayed home because a) Emma needed her afternoon nap, and b) she still hadn’t recovered much from her full-body allergic skin outbreak the morning before.
After Emma’s nap, I picked her and Finnur up and drove them to Finnur’s parents’ place, where they were celebrating Finnur’s dad’s 71st birthday!
(Actually, I dropped Finnur and the big kids off and took Emma to the weekend-urgent-care facility, just to be on the safe side. Diagnosis: an allergic reaction (he used the word ‘mixed’?) for sure, source unknown, but the severity possibly linked to the MMR shot she got on Thursday? Who knows?! Treatment: Keep using the same allergy medicine, it can take 3-4 days to clear up, if it doesn’t get her seen again.) (3 images total)
Grand-dad’s birthday cake, decorated by his namesake.
[Written 16 August 2014. Well, sort of. It’s technically the 17th, but I won’t tell if you don’t.]
Today, Pétur and Signý got married! (For those out of the loop, Pétur is my brother.)
They were married in a small ceremony at the Laugardalur botanical garden (Grasagarðurinn í Laugardal) on a sunny afternoon. After the ceremony I took a ‘few’ pictures, and then we all celebrated in a nearby party-hall.
We wish them all the happiness in the world!!
Please CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ENTIRE PHOTO ALBUM (it’s on google+), here are a few snapshots (28 images total):
Signý and Pétur, married!
[This is a walk down memory lane. This happened in August, but is being written on 15 November 2014. I do miss those summery days.]
When we came back from France/Italy, my brother Anthony was already in Iceland. He came and stayed with us for a couple of nights. Dad and Shirley were also in town with some friends, and had time to come visit a bit. (18 images thotal)
Thursday 7 August 2014: Emma the day after we came back home from France/Italy.
[This HAPPENED on 06 August 2014, but was WRITTEN in blogform on 2 November 2014. Read at your own risk.]
As with all vacations, the last day came too soon. There was no arguing with the date on our airplane tickets though, so that was it.
Our flight wasn’t until late in the evening, so to make the most of the day we arranged to return the keys around 10:30, giving us enough time to visit Turin (Torino) for a bit, before driving all the way back to Lyon, France and flying home. (Yes, it would have been smart to finalize our sleeping plans before booking the airplane tickets, because we could have flown home from Milano an hour away instead of from Lyon, some four hours away. Maybe next time?!)
But yes, some pictures from the day. (30 images total)
Time to pack everything in the cars.
[This HAPPENED on Tuesday 05 AUGUST 2014, but I’m WRITING this on 07 OCTOBER 2014. Enter at your own risk.]
Our last full day in Italy was spent lounging about, and cooking and eating a fancy dinner for and with Finnur, who’d turned forty years old the week before. (14 images total.)
Emma playing with a paper roll. She still thinks paper is for eating.
[This HAPPENED on 04 August 2014, but was written 29 SEPTEMBER 2014. Yeah.]
Our destination on this lovely Monday was the small Mediterranean beach-town of Varazze. The plan was to at least stick our toes into the water, but preferably spend the day at the beach. The drive there took a little over an hour on the awesome highway-system. Bizarrely, the road was littered with tunnels of varying lengths. I vaguely recall someone counting over thirty of them on the way back! (39 images total)
Bjarki enjoying life in front of the TV in the early morning. I think his favorite show was Peppa Pig.
[This HAPPENED on 03 August 2014, but was written 24 SEPTEMBER 2014. Take everything with a grain of salt!]
This semi-clouded Sunday, Holla and I ventured out with the kids to visit a near-by water-slide park, which turned out to be CLOSED!! No, there was no notice on their Facebook page, or on their website. All I could find was that they ‘reserved the right to close if the weather wasn’t good enough’. We were so shocked we didn’t even take a photo of the closed-waterpark-at-a-distance-across-an-access-bridge-that-was-closed… but Google Street View did: (49 images total)
This is as close as we got to the Asti-Lido waterpark. Oh, and there were NO SIGNS directing us how to get there. Maybe that was the hint that it was closed?
[This HAPPENED on 02 August 2014, but was written 10 SEPTEMBER 2014. Take everything with a grain of salt!]
After all the driving we did to get to Italy from France the day before, the first full day in Italy was designated quiet! So we just hung out in and by the mini-mansion. It was neither terribly hot nor humid, just somewhat. It was nice! (27 images total)
Ah, wildlife!
[Written 26 August 2014. Yay, same month!]
On this lovely Friday we packed up all our stuff and Finnur took the kids on a RPG-related shopping excursion while I cleaned the house. Cleaning when it’s warm is no fun. Ugh. Really no fun. It did get done though.
We were finally all set to go at 12:30, and drove an hour south-east to Chambery, where we ate a late lunch. We got back on the road without looking into any of the shops I wanted to visit, and continued driving south-east-ish towards Asti in Italy.
Of course, this first Friday in August is a popular travel day, so we had to wait in traffic for almost an hour before we got to enter the tunnel that goes between France and Italy, but aside from that, the drive went relatively smoothly. (I think that was the only traffic jam?)
We met up with our friends, Holla and Óli, at a supermarket in Asti to buy groceries. They’d left their house in Chambery about the time we departed Lyon, so they arrived at the house we’d rented ahead of us, which was great because we were running quite a bit behind schedule, and the lady with the keys had dinner plans.
Anyway, onto pictures! (32 imagest total)
Finnur: “A small shop in Lyon, France, displaying piles and piles of… well, stuff really. Note the chair in the photo. It is probably the only thing not for sale – it’s where the salesperson sits. “