Trip to Ireland

I was working in the UK last week, Leeds to be specific, and since I had to be there early in the week, I traveled on Friday night to stay the weekend with my Family in Ireland. It was a short but intensive family catch up.

I travelled to Roscommon where I grew up and managed to see Mum, Dad, my sister Eilish, many aunts and uncles, a few cousins and many more. It was great to see everybody.

One highlight of the weekend was being able to go to a local pub with Eilish my sister to watch the Ireland Rugby Team play the last match of this years Six Nations. A very special year since Ireland had a chance to win the Grand Slam (when a team wins all five of their matches). It is quite a feat and Ireland had not accomplished this in 61 years. This was an extremely special treat for me since I normally have to follow these matches on the BBC website by getting text updates every 5 mins. This match I got to watch live in a pub in Ireland with wall to wall fans screaming at every touch of the ball. It was a very tight game which came down to the final kick of the game, Wales had a chance to win but missed the kick....champions!! You can read a write-up on this historic game here.

More on my trip to Ireland later....

 

Pictures from Skiing

This is a short follow-up from our recent skiing trip to Bittersweet, Michigan. Brad sent over a few photos and I snagged one from Kaisa's blog (Thanks to you both).

 

 

 

 

Relaxed Weekend in the Sun

No, we didn't travel to any far off sun destination, West Lafayette, had very nice weather for a change this weekend. First signs of spring. It spurred us to clean up the garden a little, sprinkle some grass seed, put our first vegetable seeds in and went for a stroll through a local forest trail for a couple of hours, Celery Bog.

Anja was much better today. Let me clarify. She had a visit to urgent care on Friday with a fever of 104F. After an extremely poor doctors visit, he barely examined her, he put her on a course of antibiotics. It was all very mixed, since the swab for strep throat was negative but she had swollen tonsils with white spots and she is feeling much better after two days on drugs. Hopefully she is now on the mend, many of us have had a few broken nights sleep.

Not much happening this week other than I will visit Ireland and spend next weekend with my Mum and Dad. I'm working in the UK next week so I'm going early to spend the weekend in Ireland. Cool!!

A few pictures of the girls playing this week and some reading this weekend!

Enjoy the week!!

 

 

 

I'm Potty Training

We are a long way off yet but Isabel has been doing her business on the potty four or five times a day this last week or more. She still will not let us know but if one asks her if she needs to go every few hours, she very cutely ambles into the bathroom and proceeds to do what she needs to do. I'm sure you all need to know this but we like to document these milestones for future reference!!

 

11 Years

Today Lynne and I celebrate 11 years of married life! Time certainly passes by quickly, seems like only yesterday we got married in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. Our wedding picture can be viewed here.

The picture below was something Anja found in a drawer the other day. It's funny how pictures get "filed" away and seem quite funny when they re-surface. This picture was taken in Sweden in 2000, we were painting the outside of our house, it took us all summer, and one day, Anna, our next door neighbour, popped over with a camera to document the activities. We're glad she did.

Tonight we get to steal away for a while. Randy and Lorraine are going to watch the girls for the night (Many Thanks!) and we are spending the night in Indianapolis. Going to have some dinner and a night at the symphony, they will be playing one of our favourite pieces, Rachmaninoff's piano concerto No. 2.

Have a nice weekend everybody!

 

Our Baby's Growing Up

Anja popped on this new jacket that Lynne bought for the summer and there before stood us a little lady. We obviously still consider Anja to be baby, well a very small girl at least. This picture jumped us into a realization that she is growing up very quickly!!

 

Glad Fettisdagen (kan man saya så?)

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is Fettisdagen or Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday). Whatever your tradition enjoy your pancakes, semlor etc. We actually honored our Irish and English traditions on Sunday morning with pancakes and then yesterday we were invited over to Kaisa's for Semlor. A Semla, or Semlor (plural), are Swedish cakes that are eaten on Fettisdagen. Thanks Kaisa for the treats and for dinner (I had two semlor yesterday, they were very nice). Of course here in the USA, tomorrow is Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday). Hope everyone has a good day.

Shown below are Carina and Björn, with their three children, Oliva, Dorris and Rufus. They are our good friends, also from Sweden. Hope you all also have a Glad Fettisdagen.

 

Not much to report......

We don't really have much to report from this weeks activities. Lynne was away for two nights, an overnight trip to The University of Minnesota at Minneapolis. That was the highlight of the week.

The skiing trip was a big success last weekend. I've no pictures yet, I'm waiting to get some from others. The drive up there was long and necessary. The hotel was great, a very family friendly place and we'd certainly recommend it. The skiing was OK, Anja thoroughly enjoyed it though so mission accomplished. She wants to know when we are going back. The drive back was terrible, snow and screaming kids...

The weather here in West Lafayette has taken a nose dive south again this weekend. We had snow again yesterday and today the temperature is back in the teens. It's currently -10C so we are bundled up inside, reading books, painting, playing dress-up, reading books, watching Disney movies, you get the picture. We are waiting for Spring to save our sanity.....Of course it doesn't help looking at both Jonathan and Davey's blogs, both are down under and cannot seem to stop torturing us with pictures and tales of beach trips...nice!!

Anyhow, enjoy the week everybody.

 

 

 

We are away Skiing......

For the first time in six years, Lynne and I will be going skiing....well maybe. Last time we went it was to The Three Valleys Ski resort in the French Alps for some of the best skiing in the world. This weekend, to get ourselves back into the swing of things and more importantly to introduce Anja and Isabel to skis, we are off to Bittersweet, a small ski resort in Michigan. We are all pretty excited, particularly Anja, who has not stopped talking about it in weeks. Little does she probably realize that after one hour she will be freezing, tired and having fallen several times, she will no longer think it's that entertaining. We'll have to see.....

In total, we are traveling as a group, four families, each with small children skiing for the first time so we're all in the same boat. We are all also staying at Bay Pointe Inn, a small local resort. Don't let the term resort lull you into thinking it's exotic. I'm sure it will be basic but adequate. It has an indoor pool so it will be a hit with many of our party. Anyhow, enjoy the rest of your week and weekend. We leave first thing Friday morning, should be a lot of fun.

 

Sleepy Weekend!

We're having a rather relaxed weekend here on this end!!

Our night out in Indianapolis at the theatre went very well. The show was not the best but the whole night out and away on our own with adult company was perfect. We made a short trip to Trader Joe's on the way home, it's this really cool food shop where one can find all sorts of delights, anyway we picked up lots of goodies. Last night we had Kaisa, Kevin & girls over to dinner for a fun night.

This morning we had a chance to catch up with my brother Clive and Tracey about the plans for their wedding later this year. We will shortly be booking flights.

Today we went to Michah's birthday party, she is Kristina's four year old niece. We got back and all had a little nap, the girls are still asleep.

Shown below are two pictures of the girls that I really like. They are both playing very nice for the camera (Kristina took the picture of Anja). Then there is the picture of what they are like most of the day, a mess, playing with each other and generally having fun!

 

 

 

Night at the Theatre

Tomorrow night we have another night off!! Randy and Lorraine are taking their grandchildren to a children's show at the Lafayette Symphony (Instrument Petting Zoo) and wanted to also take the girls. That includes a sleep over... yippee (Thank You !)

We are taking advantage with an adult night out in Indianapolis. We are going to meet a colleague of mine from work for dinner at a place called The Elements (yum) followed by a show at the Phoenix Theatre called The Seafarer. Here is their synopsis which I thought sounded interesting indeed. Have a nice weekend all...

It’s Christmas Eve in Dublin. In the rundown house where Sharky cares for his blind brother, old acquaintances gather for a card game—joined by an ominous stranger. As the booze flows and the game intensifies, Sharky discovers he is playing for his soul. In this Faustian, darkly humorous tale frought with suspense, celebrated playwright Conor McPherson examines how we face the demons of our past as we struggle to find redemption.

Pictures from Kristina

Kristina recently took a few pictures of the girls which turned out great. She is quite the artist. I've mentioned this previously but you can check out some of her work at her website. She also keeps a blog and recently posted an account of a rather tough day......shivers ran down my spine when I saw the picture of her torn up knee.

Anyhow, a few of my favourite pictures from her recent shoot are shown below.

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Håkan

This Friday, Håkan, our good friend from Sweden turns over another year. Happy Birthday, we'll be thinking of you. Relax and have some fun.

You will remember that we met and knew Håkan when we lived in Sweden but he moved here with us and studied at Purdue under Lynne's direction. He now lives in Sweden again with Eva-Lotta and their daughter, Tindra (shown). Håkan is actually on parental leave right now and as I understand it, loving every moment. Have an enjoyable day.

Your Friends!

 

 

Still Icy Here

It has been bitterly cold here over the last few weeks. Well below freezing and the remains of several inches of snow are still hanging on. We even had some new snow this morning which caught everybody by surprise, particularly in Indianapolis where 4-6 inches fell and sadly some people lost their lives in a traffic accident.

We're all doing well here. Lynne has been away in sunny Puerto Rico since Sunday morning. She returns late tonight. Although she claims that she didn't get to enjoy the 80F weather down there, she did manage a little swim in the sea!! That's nice work in February if you can get it...:) Anyhow, I'm sure she will be exhausted when she returns, not much fun travelling 12 hours each way for a 1.5 day meeting.

The girls are doing great, they have so much energy. I must type for the record that it's simply hysterical to watch them both interact right now. Typically, Anja is buzzing around doing something or other, generally oblivious to Isabel. Isabel on the other hand is in constant eye contact and continually mimicking her, absolutely every action, sound, run, jump, skip and hop....

A few pictures posted below from January....arts and crafts, painting, drawing, scribbling etc is the favored activity these days!

 

 

 

Happy New Year

I know those sentiments are a little late, but I'm guessing one can never be too late with a kind sentiment.

We have all been keeping well over the January period. No major activities to report really. The two girls plus Lynne have each been sick with a nasty stomach bug. I've no idea how I seemed to avoid it. I've been away with work for a few days (New York), just two nights so it was pretty short.

We have all been going to the gym on weekends. This sports club with which we have a membership have a babysitting service. It works great to drop the girls off for about an hour while we do some form of exercise and then we all swim or rather splash around in the pool. The girls love it and we have done this now for each weekend in January. Lets see how long it continues.

We celebrated Brad's birthday, visited with Kaisa and Kevin (after we went sledging), had dinner at Randy and Lorraine's house, in essence all of our usual weekend activities.

Work is work, no real change there!!

We have a busy schedule in February. Lynne leaves on a trip this Sunday for a few days (can't recall where she is off to, Puerto Rico I think), we are having a Friday night off, Feb 6th (more later) so we are staying in Indy and catching a show at the theatre and then we are off skiing for a long weekend the following week (more on that later also).

Anyhow, sorry it's been a while, I trust you are all well, check back for more updates.

We had six inches of snow last night by the way here in West Lafayette.

You can all Thank Ginette for the post. She emailed asking for an update (thanks Ginette, I needed a jolt).

 

 

Christmas Holiday Update

It was all excitement here Christmas morning, albeit much later than we had thought. Anja didn't actually emerge from her bed until 8am, the last one of the house. She wasted no time however in ripping into the plethora of presents that Santa had left together those that were already under the tree.

We had Kasia, Kevin and family over for Christmas dinner which went perfectly. The turkey was cooked to perfection (4 hours), I made a bread sauce from scratch, we had soup, lots of vegetables, gravy, brussels sprouts and roast potatoes of course, fresh baked bread, three types of deserts, homemade truffles and toffees, wine, sparkling wine, port, lots of coffee and lots lots more. We ate all day and were fully laden down by the time the Webb family left in the evening. We had a great day.

We have been taking it very easy since with open fire going since Christmas Eve, lots of movies, leftover food, a little shopping and it seems like we are reading books all the time. Isabel is feeling much better from her ear infection (I had her to the doctor on Christmas Eve) but now Anja has some virus since her temperature is spiking every few hours.

I hope your holiday is going as well as ours :)

 

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody. To our family scattered across, Indonesia, Australia, Ireland, The Netherlands and England, we hope you have a very relaxing holiday and a peaceful New Year. Don't eat to little or drink to much, we are thinking of you all. Speak to you all soon.

Shown below are the two Christmas stockings that Santa will be filling in our house tonight. Lynne has been making these over the last few nights. I need to document for the purpose of all future reading that today, Anja is excited beyond belief. This is her first Christmas to fully realize that Santa will actually be visiting our house tonight (only if she continues to be good of course). She can hardly speak with excitement. She is all ready to go to bed early, leave out some cookies and milk and assures us that she will have no problems sleeping. We are not that convinced so we purposefully avoided any nap this afternoon. She came up to me earlier (1pm) and sighed, "Daddy, this is a really long day, when will it be night time?" You have to love that!

Last night we visited Randy and Lorraine for Delia's birthday, it was a fun evening!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Saturday Before Christmas

We've been taking it easy thus far today, this the last Saturday before Christmas. We spent a short time wrapping presents this morning before we headed down to the Purdue University Memorial Union. Each year they erect quite a large Christmas Tree and this year they also had a gingerbread house, made entirely from real biscuits, icing and sweets. The girls had a great time running around and into this house, continuously trying to pick pieces off for tasting.