some catching up

back in november, we visited old friends in tyler, tx. jesse caught me trying to sneak a nap while the kids were being entertained by the flat screen.



then, jesse had a birthday bash to christen our new apartment in graduate student housing. here's og enjoying some of the hyde park fudge chocolate cake.

then we had a post-thanksgiving photo shoot with am. here she is with her favorite digestive: leaves!



and that brings us up to the browns. patrick, kathryn, ezekiel and zipporah stopped by on their way back to albuquerque from the east coast. it took og and zeke about a nanosecond to get reacquainted. we had hours of fun touring the various playgrounds at our apartment. there was also a running contest to see who could give the other's sister the most kisses. it was nice communal living for the last week.

All Hallows' Eve

Here are a couple shots of our favorite Penguin and Ladybug, along with the following day's candy tally (Mom was trying to explain the concept of the 'candy tithe' that our church is holding).

 
 
 
 

back in Austin!

Here's proof that we're back in Austin. Well, I guess you'd need to be able to recognize Uncle Dave's backyard, but anyway...

We're crashing with Dave while we get acclimated to English-only conversations and knäckebröd-less meals. We'll keep you posted as we figure out what we're going to be up to. Right now, grad school and part-time brewing for Tim is looking promising. We're also busy scoping out the Austin parks for Og and Am.

 

More Scandinavia

Here are some more pics from the trip. Enjoy!

Scanorama update

Well, we are back in Bergen now. We had a great time in Sweden and enjoyed our return to Oslo. We have one week left, and then it's back to the US. Here are some pics:

Oslo

All right. So we are now in Oslo. We had an amazing trip through the fjords and followed that with a lovely week in Geilo. We accomplished mission 1 of our trip which was to return to an out of the way mountain cafe for some traditional cream porridge. It was all we could have hoped it to be. Tomorrow we head to Dalarna to pursue mission 2 which is to retrieve a cheese plane we left there last year.

No pictures this time but I'll post some in late September.

bergen (2)

so we ventured out to the IKEA just outside bergen to pick up some baby monitors to replace the ones we brought from the US, which got fried by an electrical imcompatability. ammie had her first culinary experience dining on norwegian boiled potatoes.





the next day we headed to the bergen aquarium and got to see penguin and seal feedings.




we took advantage of a break in the rain to make the 643 meter trek up ulriken, one of the 7 mounts that surround bergen. we kind of carved our own path, heading mostly up a small stream. the views from the top were just remarkable. ammie was all smiles when i whipped out the camera because she figured we were close to the top, and she could get out of the moby wrap.




we're heading out this weekend to fjord country, followed by a week in geilo. then we're off to olso for a couple days and dalarna, sweden. i won't be able to update during these travels...so we'll see ya again in late september. i'll try to get some good shots along the way!

bergen

we made it safely to bob's place in bergen after roughly 24 hours of traveling, starting in san antonio. once we dropped our bags off, oggie headed straight outside for some frolicking while bob grilled up some pork chops. oggie then met his first norwegian friend, a girl named victoria that lives down the way.



oggie presented bob with homebrew ingredients to make a Fireman's 4 clone. apparently TSA did a full cavity search on the container, but we were still able to make it to norway with most of it. we're all glad to know that our latest beer is fully government-sanctioned!



bergen is such a beautiful town. we're enjoying the walks to the city. everyone stops and stares, though, when they see jesse and me each with a child in a carrier on our backs. it's all good, though...we're gonna be in great shape by the end of these 2 months!

hit the road jack...

all right...we're hitting the friendly skies on tuesday on our way to scandinavia! we're gearing up for 7.5 weeks there. we'll get back to austin just in time to celebrate 4 months of being unemployed and homeless at Austin City Limits Festival. anyway, i wanted to post a couple pics from san antonio before we head out. i'll update as i can as we're making our way through bergen, geilo, oslo and dala-floda.

skål!

 
 
 
 

the next michael phelps?!

look at him go! after a month down here at the beach, oggie developed some sweet swimming skills. everyone is pretty shocked when i tell them he's only 2 and a half.



after the warm-up...

teeth for two

here's am at the beach showing off her pearly whites...

 
 
 
 

pool slide

hooks baseball

free hat night at the corpus christi hooks baseball game. am got in a little snooze after the free hat excitement wore off.

 
 
 

rockport (2)

oggie's been having a great time fishing with cita, cito and uncle paul and feeding the birds with mom. all the fun in the sun has left him, well, a bit tuckered out.

oh, and ammie's got 2 teeth now! (pictures to follow...)

 
 
 
 

rockport

we've made it down to the beach for the month of july. here's a shot from our back door where oggie spends lots of time fishing!

 

nana's new house

after the 4th, we headed to the beach via crane, tx to drop by nana's new place. og and am enjoyed getting in some great-grandma time.