Crossing the mountain range

While my uncle Peter was in Norway, I bullied him into coming to Oslo to stay for a few days :-) We drove across in mam's car, and had a few stops along the way, including this one, which is at one of the highest points of the crossing - and I thought it would be a good photo opportunity. Not everyone agreed.. I did get a couple of shots, though:

Jean & Peter

We are family

I've told you before that it's always difficult to get group pictures of my family. This time was no exception. After much pleading and nagging and many, many takes - this is the best we were able to deliver (well, at least we can see that the people looking more or less happy with the situation are my brother, Jan, my mother, Jean, my uncle (and mam's brother), Peter & myself):

Holding babies

...is not a problem when you're obviously used to handling them :-) Uncle Peter and Linnea didn't have any problems making friends.

Uncle Peter

I have an uncle who lives in Australia, and in June I met him for the second time in my life (!). He came to Norway for the first time, and stayed with my mum. Karsten and I also visited one weekend in June:
Uncle Peter on Jan's terrace:

Summer party

Later in June, the annual summer party took place. The party is thrown by the people who live in our cluster of houses - essentially us and our neighbours. The main course is always a whole grilled lamb - and it's always delicious! We bring tables, chairs, plates, cutlery, food and drink to the shared lawn area and enjoy good food, drink and company for a long evening and even longer into the night :-)

Friends

All of Mona's closest class mates from the university years in Trondheim were there, this is Arnhild, Geir and Vilde:

Mona, Elin and Arnhild:

Sigrid and Frode get married!

In June, our friends Sigrid and Frode got married in Brumunddal:

Karsten wore hos new national costume, the "bunad" from the area of Norway he grew up in:
Dressed to the nines and enjoying ourselves!

Proud parents

Linnea's christening

Aina's mother, Marie, was entrusted with carrying the little wonder :-)

Four generations:
Proud parents:

17th of May breakfast

We went to Mona's home to celebrate the 17th of May and Linnea's christening. Mona's mum, Jean, and Karsten are enjoying breakfast:
Karsten with Linnea:
Karsten and Aina (Linnea's mum, Mona's "almost" sister-in-law):

Karsten's birthday 2

Karsten's niece, Dina, with her "other" grandmother (meaning not Karsten's mother), Målfrid:
Karsten enjoying his party, with Dina, Marie and Målfrid.

Karsten's birthday

In May, we combined the celebrations of Karsten's and his dad's birthday. We had lot's of Karsten's family over for dinner and cake - and the birthday boy was happy with the gifts :-)

Our beautiful god daughter Linnea

When these pictures were taken she was almost two months old.

Helsinki 3

Karsten with one of the props at the restaurant "Zetor", which was recommended to us by Mona's friend Rune:

Helsinki 2 - a few pics

At the harbour: The flag and uniform:
Checking out the guide book in front of the cathedral:

Helsinki

The third weekend in April we went to Helsinki. I hadn't been to Finland since I spent around 6 months there at the tender age of two :-) I had happily cleared away most of my winter clothes when the weather forecast for Helsinki indicated I should get some of them back out again. It was coooold... (more pics to be added here)

Moorish influences

Being in Seville was kind of like being back in Morocco - not in general, but in terms of the architecture. We visited some houses that could have been airlifted in from Fes or Marrakech:

Easter

At Easter we spent a week in Spain, in Madrid and Seville. We had a great time, but the weather wasn't the best - it was actually better back home.. But Semana Santa in Seville was quite an experience, and Seville is a wonderful place. It comes highly recommended :-)

....too long

It's been way too long since my last posting. Sorry about that, guys! It started with a few busy weeks.. Then my broadband connection was incorrectly cancelled - and I spent three weeks without Internet access at home. Torture!

Anyway, now I'm back. Will try to upload some pictures for you as well :-)

Hard at work in the garden

Most times we go back to see Mona's family, we end up doing some gardening. Mainly because it's great to get outside and spend some time in the fresh air, but also because it needs doing and we get to see some very clear results (and in our line of work, that's not an everyday experience...). This time we did some tidying up, got rid of a lot of leaves from last autumn and prepared the garden for spring. We also cut down a huge honeysuckle plant (or actually, several of them):

Welcome, Linnea!

On March 10th, at around 7 in the morning, our niece, Linnea, was born! She's Mona's brother Jan's first child. If memory serves, she was 53,5 cm and 3975g. Two weeks after she was born, we went home for the weekend to see her:

Things take time..

The same summer we moved into the house, we bought some lamps for the living room and the bedroom. After 2,5 years we managed to install some of them (see Karsten doing all the work below) - the rest are still on a shelf in the cellar... We have to have something to do the next 2-3 years as well!