Norway . . . finally!

It's been two weeks, and we've finally recovered from the trip. Since there are many pictures we'd like to post, but Anja is waking up from her nap right now, I'm going to do things in batches.

Take 1: Take-off and arrival in Norway . . . and our first day in Trysil! Enjoy the forthcoming photos!

Erik and Anja just before take-off to Reykjavik. She did pretty well on this flight . . . thank goodness we bought her own seat and brought her car seat! Lifesavers!


Easter Sunday . . . we skied out and had what I would call hot dogs wrapped in lefsa. (Tasted great after the ski!) Anja got to ride the entire way in a Fjellpulken (a really cool sled).

There was an incredible amount of snow . . . we took this photo from the car. We would've been buried in the snow banks no problem!

The next day brought us back out for another ski. This route had lots of hills and great vistas!


Siv, Morten and Morten charting our route. Our view while we skied . . . we could see forever!

We carved out a bench and stopped for hot chocolate, coffee and some Norwegian chocolate. Yum yum!

Siv waves on the way back! We were on a great big hill!


Erik pulled Anja in the pulke again . . . she kept yelling "fun! fun!" when we skied down hills on the way back. If you look closely, you can see her left dimple! Big smiles!


Look closely and you can see buried cabins . . . there was so much snow!

Back Home

An Easter ski trip up in the mountains

It's always a little bittersweet to come home. On the one hand, it's good to be back. On the other, who wouldn't want to stay in Norway! In either case we had a wonderful trip. It was great to see family and friends, meet some new people, and see some new places. We'll be posting a bit more from our trip in the next few days as we get back into the swing of things. I had to at least put a few pictures up today (in part because I don't want to face the reality of having to get back to work!).

Anja made lots of new friends. Here she is swinging with Elise (above) and sharing some snacks with Kristoffer (below).

Here's Anja and Shana on the boat to Aurland.

The Olympic village in Lillehamar is spectacular. This is also the area where the Norwegian Birkebeiner finishes. We tried to find the cross county ski stadium, but ran out of time.

The ruins of the Cathedral Church (1152/53) or Domkirkeodden in Hamar at dusk. We spendt most of our day in Hamar at Hedmarktoppen, but had to stop in for a quick photo before we left.

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful trip! Check back often for more pictures in the next couple of days. We haven't even gotten the chance to download all of Shana's photos yet.

Hei fra Oslo!

We have been in Norway for over a week now, and are having a great time! We´ve been in Trysil, Oslo, and just got back from a weekend in Ålesund. We are back in Oslo for the night and will head to Flåm and Aurland by train in the morning. 

Stay tuned for lots of pictures . . . we´ll add some when we get home this weekend!

Ha det bra!

Shana, Erik og Anja

Hugs for "Family!"

Antonio gets a "family" hug from Anja.

Anja drove me to tears the other day, hugging me and saying, "family." Sigh. Of course since Antonio is here, he has been a recipient of a few of those "family hugs" as well.

Tono zooms around as Anja watched intently!

On Monday, Tono, Anja, Grandpa and I went to the Science Museum of Minnesota. Everyone found something to enjoy--we could have spent all day there!

Anja learns the word "slippery" (well kind of, she was on ice you know) and stands alongside a dinosaur bone.

Anja explores on "Preschool Mondays" at the Science Museum (free! activities for young children every Monday morning). This was a homemade wind tunnel, where she would watch paper fly up to the sky.

After lunch, we explored a little more!

We're off to Norway tonight--let's hope our flights are on time! We hope to post some photos while we're there! Ha det bra!

Mama! Papa! . . . TONO!

Antonio . . . Anja's favorite new playmate!

We've had the pleasure of spending a lot of time this week with our nephew from Colorado, Antonio. He turns 10! tomorrow and decided to come to Minnesota for his birthday. We're so glad he did! Anja is even more excited that he is here, shouting, "TONO!" whenever she thinks he might be around, or even when he's sitting right next to her. He's her favorite new playmate, favorite person to hug, and favorite person to chase. Here are some pictures from the first night he arrived.

Tono brought some books for Anja . . . here she is opening them.

Tono doing a great job reading to Anja, despite the fact she was a very active participant!

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

The last couple of weeks have picked up rather abruptly, but we're all for it! We've seen a lot of friends and many babies as well. Here are some pictures and recap.

We visited nearly-4 month old Calder and his mom Carly, a couple of weeks ago. He was born on the same day as Anja, only a year later. He's one handsome guy!

We visited newborn Harper and his parents, Erin and Ben last weekend. He's beautiful and so tiny! Anja learned more about what the word "gentle" meant on our visit. (Let's just say she's been poking people's eyes out saying, "Eye!" lately!)

Ironman Wisconsin training officially began last week. Though it was 10 degrees, I opted for a run outdoors rather than succumbing to the awfulness of running on a treadmill or short indoor track. Layers, people, layers!

Anja has a ton of spunk . . . and gets funnier by the day. Check these photos out!

She likes to wear these flannel socks of mine. "On!" she says and we practically pull them up to her butt!

We were at the Walker Art Museum and found this great foam elephant made by a Danish company. She can sit on it, rock on it, sit in it, whatever. She loves it (and her Papa does too)!

Our little lady in her Papa's favorite t-shirt. She found it in the laundry and wanted to wear it. Okay, okay!

We head to Norway in 10 days! So in preparation, Erik has been speaking some Norwegian to Anja lately. Now every time she picks up one of my bras, she says, "Kjempe bra!" which means, "Very good!" in Norwegian. She's a hoot!

Okay, so we're supporting Obama . . .

Check out this YouTube video . . . a good friend of ours shared it with us and we thought we'd pass it on to our readers.

Congrats, Erin & Ben!

We want to wish our sincerest CONGRATULATIONS to Erin & Ben (two of Anja's Godparents pictured in yesterday's post) on the birth of their son, Harper Gene Hoffman. Everyone is healthy and in good spirits! Can't wait to see him!

Anja's Got Quite the Vocab!

Anja wakes Papa on Saturday morning to read one of her Elmo books.

Anja's vocabulary has expanded quite a bit in the last month . . . she picks out words and isn't afraid to repeat, repeat, repeat. Today she surprised us with "heavy" while lifting vegetable broth cartons back onto the shelf. Yesterday she surprised us with "Bucky!" as she pointed to Bucky, the University of Wisconsin's mascot. (Imprinting, imprinting, imprinting! Now, if only she'd say "Cobber!") A few weeks ago it was "shadow" while pointing to her own. She's saying numbers, letters, makes the best animal sounds (she does a mean cock-a, as in cock-a-doodle-doo), and associates like crazy. She's just plain fun.

Here's a smattering of photos from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

She's been interested in putting on her own socks and shoes on lately.

Our little rock star reads with her shades on too!

She's into wearing hats around the house . . . this one from Krista, our favorite dentist living in the DC area!

Anja attempts playing the harmonica . . . after a few tries she got a couple of notes!

Could we have a budding musician in our midst?! She looks like a pro! Here she is with two of her Godparents, Erin in Ben who are expecting any day now! (And with Eva, their Weimaraner, who Anja loved!)

Hey Elmo . . . pass me a fork!

The past few weeks have been really busy, but I'm not sure with what! Our days have been quite uneventful, which explains the lack of posts. Apologies to our loyal readers!

The three of us went to Sesame Street Live a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of Erik's Dad who scored some free tickets. The first half was a little scary for Anja, but by the second, she was able to point out the guy who is on all of her food boxes/cans, and in some of books that my Sister's family bought her for Christmas. Who's what guy? It's everyone's favorite: Elmo.

A couple of tips for anyone out there looking to see the show: 1) Remove your child from the auditorium just before intermission--it will save you lots of cash! $8 for a helium Elmo balloon--come on! (No, Anja didn't get one!) 2) Bring earplugs, or ask the sound guy to cut everyone a break by lowering the volume. That being said, it was fun to get out and offer Anja a completely new experience!

On the home front, Anja has been practicing using a spoon and fork . . . it's going to take her awhile but she's getting the hang of using something other than the her trusty hands! The only problematic time is when she decides it's fun to dip the spoon in something, say, apple sauce and fling her arms up quickly. It gets a laugh, obviously more so on her end! Here she is, trying out both hands to see which one works better.