birthday & labor day fun

My dad turned 65 on September 1st and nothing makes my dad happier than having the whole family get together. So, on Sunday, Jeremy, Espen & I headed up to Yarnell to hang out with the fam, eat delicious food & celebrate my dad's birthday.

Happy birthday Papa!!! We had tons of fun!




It took only minutes for this kid to take his pants off once we got to my parents house...he is always just in his underpants-Espen surveying the land from the big boulder under the porch.


Awww. Bros, a coloring book and a huge niche in the wall to lounge in...what more do you need. Well, turns out you need some comet cleanser and a paint can. The crayons didn't necessarily stay on the page.

So sweet, our son had a good time chasing us around with a toy chainsaw pretending to cut our Achilles tendons.

Rack 'em up Espen, your going down!

'No Dad, you do it like this'-Flings ball across the table with his hands

This is my dad hooking up the trailer to the back of his command car...with a bolt, some duct tape and a piece of wire. Jenny & Joshua obviously have no fear, they actually rode in the trailer while the rest of us opted to stay...in the truck.

Hello Lover

Well Hi Babe.

Just doing a little modeling on the side of the truck, you know, the usual.

Mean Face stare off. These boys are masters of the mean face.

Everybody in? Time for a family portrait...

...and another one. These turned out great! Thanks Jeremy for running to and from the camera about 10 times so we could get a good one. 

Grandma, the baby wrangler.

I want to photo shop them onto a pirate ship, Jen looks like she's sailing the 7 seas.

Whipping Wind.

Espen, the flag boy.

Really Espen? Still no pants, huh. At least we got him in a shirt.

The boys in a Shrek trance.

bicycle

Oh my gosh. How I miss riding my bike. It's been a long summer and I am more than ready for the desert to cool off so I can hop back on my bike and ride around town.

This past Sunday, after we finished dinner, Jeremy & I rode some old bikes (my old bike...that I miss) around Yarnell with Jenny & Joshua.

The sunset was incredible so we stopped to snap a few pictures. This is what transpired...


me: Let's take tough bike guy pictures
jeremy: Ya! Go like this!
me: uh....


me: not gonna happen, I can barely touch the ground let alone toss the front of the bike up in the air
meanwhile, Jeremy's still workin' his cool 'trick'


So, I couldn't do the trick, but I could prop myself up on my tip toes and try to look cute.


How about a normal one... but what the heck happened to the sunset?!


There it is.


note: Seester, we need to get you a new camera. Although mine does a similar thing without a flash, what's with the pixely pics.

i miss you, norway.

I think about Norway often, I think about our trip there, about the people we met and what an amazing time we had. Throughout the day little things here and there will spark a memory, today it was a house.

I'm not sure what the heck happened today but as I was on my way to pick up Espen I realized that it was only 2:30, he doesn't get out till 3:15. If I went back home I would only be there for a few minutes before I'd have to head back out so instead I decided to cruise around the neighborhood near Espen's school and check out the houses. I passed by a house with a rickety old roof and from there my head went spinning. My thoughts instantly went from rickety roof, to grass covered roofs, to shiny black roofs, to Bygdøy and then at last back to our trip to Norway.

While we were there we took a fairy to Bygdøy to see a couple of museums and on our walk I noticed rows of white houses with lacquered black roof tops, I was in love and snapped a picture of one so I'd always remember them. Tonight, for some reason, I got it in my head that I would visit Google maps, travel back to 2007 and retrace our steps from the walk from the fairy to the museums to see if I could find the house...and voila!





View Larger Map

Now, the next time we visit Norge(an we WILL go back again) I'll know that we need to take the Bygdøy fairy from Aker bryyg to Dronningen and walk up Huk Aveny towards Langviksvien and the white house with the shiny black roof will be there to greet us.