fishing and fika

Today we went fishing on an island in the Kalix river called Vassholmen. We took the ferry over and had fun fishing and finished off with some fika at a café on the island. We had a very nice time together with Elina, Ida and Nils

Basking in the evening sun

Life is pretty sweet right now. Today we took the bus to the library (liam loves the bus and in kalix the buses are nice I might add). After that we walked over for ice cream at a café. Other than that, we're just hanging out playing outside.

fun after the rain

My grandma Elin was asking me if I thought it was hard raising two little kids. I told her that although I love spending time with them they sure keep me busy. She then told me that when she had my uncle Ulf and my dad (mid 40s) they didn't have running water inside the house, so she had to carry the water from a well about a 100 yards away. They used cloth diapers so she had to do laundry every day and boil the diapers. Her story gave me some perspective. Also, she went on to have three more children in four years. pheew...

I asked her how she used to get her kids to sleep. "oh, pretty much like you do, I used to carry them around" she told me. Thought it was cute.

midsummer

Midsummer is one of the biggest holidays in Sweden. Basically, it stems back from before Christianity and it's a celebration for fertility and good harvest. Everybody dances around a maypole (use your imagination to see the symbolism here). We had a full house after the dancing and my mom made a big smörgåsbord which I unfortunately forgot to photograph.

As Jason is busy moving our stuff across the country, on this side of the Atlantic things are going at a much slower pace. Today we met my old friend Joakim for coffee at a local café. Jocke always has a lot of fun things going on. His last adventures include a marathon through the Sahara desert (to raise awareness) and another project in Zimbawe. Other than that, he's finishing up his M.A in library and information science. It was nice seeing him. I feel really bad for Jason who has to do the cross country trekk, but I heard they're planning a pit stop in Las Vegas which should be something to look forward to.

long vacation in sweden

After a nice week with Jason's family in Boston, we headed over to Sweden. The trip went really well, and Liam's first words as we landed in Stockholm were "Where's the snow?"

We're having a great time here. The kids adjusted their schedules in a couple of days and we're now just enjoying ourselves, spending more time outdoors than indoors. We miss Jason and I feel bad that he has to do the move to California all by himself. However, I'm pretty happy that the kids don't have to deal with the moving process. Today, we're going to the shopping center where my father will be signing his new book. Should be fun.