Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Going back the the beginning of summer...

We moved out of the house for the summer on June 18th. Our first stop was to Fiskebäckskil. There we stayed with Lotta and her family. Lotta and Matthew had met once before about 17 years ago when Lotta was an exchange student staying with Matthew's aunt Colleen. They had a nice little guest cabin (stuga) that we stayed in. Lotta and her husband, Tomas, have 3 children; John, Viktor and Elin. They were so nice to us during our stay and we are grateful that they invited us to come and visit. We had a great time!

While we were there we enjoyed the beautiful weather and long, long days. Fiskebäckskil is a beautiful old fishing village on the northern west coast of Sweden. It is an ideal summer spot with lots of opportunities for boating, fishing and beaching. One of the first days we were there we got to celebrate Midsummer with the family. Other days we went site-seeing in and around Fiskebäckskil, to the beach a couple of times, to an aquarium, to an island with a castle, and of course we did some hiking.

The Ericksons at Midsommar Fest

Sonja hanging out at the boat house

Linnea doing her "Alex the Lion" from Madagascar impersonations at the beach

Swinging at a lovely park on Marstrand

Shopping on Marstrand

The next bunch of pictures are from the castle on Marstrand


A view on our way to church on Sunday morning...

Sonja strutting to church

We did a couple of little hikes during our stay. This first pictures is from an evening hike Matt took with the girls.


A walk in the woods

Pictures from our day trip to Lysekil

Sonja at the Aquarium in Lysekil

And here is the group shot just before we left.

What a great way to start the summer!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Before Moving Day

So before we officially moved out for the summer, there were a few exciting events that we'd like to share. One was that Linnea started school. She goes 15 hours a week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 AM until 2 PM and she loves it. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they spend the entire day outside away from the school, either at a playground in the woods or a playground down by the beach. The even have their lunch at the playground, usually it's a hot soup or hot dogs/hamburgers. On these outing days Linnea is especially tired and sometimes falls asleep before we get home! She obviously wasn't in school for the summer. She just started up again last week and usually doesn't want to leave when it's time for her to go home.

The week Linnea started school was also when my mom arrived for a visit. It was so nice to have my mom around and the girls really loved it too. With my mom we did lots of walking around the city of Lund enjoying the beautiful weather. We had a great day visiting Helsingborg as well.

In Lund



Helsingborg

My mom and I also made the long bus ride to Norway for a short visit with our distant relatives there. It was a very short visit, but very nice one. The area that the family lives in is really beautiful and my mom and I just can't get enough of the scenery. Later in the summer, Matt and I go back with the girls so stay tuned for more pictures!




My mom also gave us a night out which meant for the first time in months Matt and I were able to go out to dinner alone while Mom stayed home with the girls.

Ready for mom and dad's night out

Saying goodbye at the Copenhagen airport. Can't wait to see her again in December!

We also did a little last minute sightseeing in Skåne (the region we live in) before we left. On this day we visited many different burial tombs and standing stones.

Climbing out of a burial tomb

Sitting in front of a tomb

At the coast

Inside a burial mound

On top of the burial mound

Around the mound


Standing stones forming a boat shape

Taking a ride

Sonja working around the house with sister's underwear on.

Moving out for the summer was a lot of work. We had to decide what to pack to bring with us and well as pack up everything we were leaving behind. Then we had to clean the house and get the yard ready for the owner of the house to move back in for the summer. Needless to say, by the time we moved out we were exhausted! But don't worry we had a 10 week "vacation" ahead of us! Yeah right!