Summer with Grandma and Grandad

Such a long time since the last blog! Summer is flying by, Joel is back to work, my (Emma's) parents are visiting and have survived 3 weeks of Grandparent Daycare!

We have found the new pace quite busy with both of us working full time. It's the small things that suffer - keeping the washing pile to a managable sized mountain, keeping the fridge stocked, paying the bills, all those small but important things that Joel and I managed to squeeze in when we were home during the day while Cami was sleeping or occupied for a few minutes. But the big things are chugging along as per usual, lots of playing and drawing and cuddles with Cami, catching up with friends, attempting to get/stay fit (Joel is training for the Oslo Marathon, and I have signed up for the 10km in Stavanger).

Ann and Nigel have been here just over 3 weeks now and are doing a wonderful job looking after Cami. They have taken her every weekday, and she loves spending time with her "namma" and "nammad" (Grandma and Grandad)! Her speech is developing so much every day, it's amazing to hear her parotting off little phrases and new words. Some of her latest favourites - donkey, noisy, yummy, mummy (no longer mumma), shoulder. It's really quite adorable and she has us entertained 24/7. Not so adorable is the whingeing and clinginess that seems to peak when I pick her up after work. It's understandable, it's a huge change in her routine to no longer have Joel or I with her every day. We just have to work through it and make sure she feels secure and knows we will be there for her.

We have a wedding in Stockholm to look forward to for our friends Regina and Ulf. We are travelling there on Wednesday and returning on Sunday. Then Monday morning is Cami's first day at barnehage. We were out shopping for all the things on the barnehage's 'list' like waterproof overalls, gumboots, and of course everything has to be labelled. We have 3 days of orientation where we go with her and stay there, gradually starting to go away for a short time then coming back. We hope it will go smoothly but of course have to brace ourselves for a few tears and tantrums (likely mine)!

And last but not least happy birthday to my mum! We are so lucky to have her here to celebrate with.

With Namma and Nammad

Those eyes!!

Tennis?

Grandad in tow

How do parents with twins manage? Cami with her mate Bianca

Fun with Grandma

Swiiiing

Teeth!

Helping Bianca with some gardening

With her buddy Max at the Soma Gård childrens farm

Pat pat

Counting eggs

Bouncy bouncy

Gorgeous lunch at Sola Beach Hotel for Regina's Hens Party

The beautiful bride to be, Regina

Weekend at Laerdal's cabin at Randøy Island

Quiet time with Grandad

Bianca getting to know her little brother, due December this year

Bianca helping clean up the little berry muncher

Mari's Hens Party

As we’re more than half way though July now Mari and Kev’s wedding date approaches (31st July). So while Kev was off to London for his bucks weekend, the girls took Mari out for the day for her hens party. The forecast was terrible actually – heavy rain all day. So we were so happy to start the morning with overcast skies but no rain (at least for a while). We took full advantage motoring down to Grassholmen to jump onto Nordvik (Ryan, Pete and Mitch’s boat – ref earlier post) to kick off the day. Champers and OJ started things off beautifully and a little cruise around Hundvåg and over to vågen (the barbour) in Stavanger. Unfortunately half way through the trip the anticipated rain started, so we finished off the tour in the cabin.

We then headed off on the ferry over to Tau and drove about 40mins to a spa hotel (Spa Hotell Velvære in Hjelmeland). We had booked a table for lunch followed by a spa treatment. It was lovely – we each had a 50 min treatment and spent some time in the general spa/pool area together before/after the treatment. Later in the afternoon we returned to Stavanger and after a short break when Mari and Merete went home to feed their bubs we all reconvened back at our place for a bbq dinner (cooked by me in gumboots and a golf umbrella while it poured with rain!). It was a really lovely evening with some good food, drinks and in keeping with proper hens party tradition – a few games and quizzes to keep everyone laughing. To me it really felt like this was the beginning of the whole wedding period with now less than 2 weeks to go. We’re really looking forward to the big day – it’s amazing it’s almost here and really brings home for Joel and I that our wedding will be here in no time!