...last photos from sweden...finn's 3rd birthday!

the birthday boy!



One of the favorite new toys..can't get enough of Lego stuff

Beautiful day



Fun lunch

Dinner with the whole family

On our way to enjoy dessert

Celebrating Finn turning 3, Hampus turning 19 and Sam turning 4!

Yum!

Silly birthday boys

Last night in Ystad

Back home and found a package with a firetruck from GiGi and PopPop waiting!



Finally...photos from our Sweden trip! I know...way too many but it is too difficult to cut back further. I had over 700 photos from the trip to begin with...

Leaving the Copenhagen airport in sweet Audi wagon rental car



Driving across the bridge from Denmark to Sweden - fee $65..



Max at beach

Finn with cousin Sam

Max and Sam

Cousin Maj

My (little) brother Fredrik

Inside St Maria's church where both boys were Baptized

Our little golfer

Having a blast!

Digging to China

Morning dip with new friends Gustav and Simon



The boys' table at Marinan restaurant



Me and lovely Pia whom I had not seen since our wedding, 8 years ago!

At Ale's Stenar in Kaseberga

Arrived in Gronskara at Liselotte's place. 

Liselotte and Ella take Max for a ride in the tractor!

...and mommy and Finn too!

Max and Ella at the top of the view tower

So beautiful

Finn amongst the wild flowers



Climbing at a play structure in Gothenburg




With Mark, Oline, Jakob in Varberg, enjoying the largest (and best!) ice-cream cones ever made...



Finn at the canon at Varberg Castle

And Max too

Max and Jakob climbing in the front yard

My beautiful 6-year old

Beach in Ystad

Visiting Copenhagen

At the Lego store!  The Danes invented the Legos you know...

Some of the many street performers at Stroget, the long pedestrian street in Copenhagen

Adorable Nyhamn







Max and Finn at the animal park grounds

Petting the goats

Impromptu grill evening at our hotel





back home

sunday afternoon.  we just returned from our sweden vacation yesterday afternoon and were so exhausted i can't even describe it.  still are.  max didn't sleep a minute on the flight home.  finn got a few hours while brent and i caught perhaps an hour each.  this year's trip was great.  we did quite a bit, saw lots of people and the weather was fantastic - will follow up with a separate blog about the trip.  as always, it sure is nice to be back home after being gone though..  today has been a lazy day.  speaking for myself.  the kids went to bed at 6:30 last night....so they got up at 4:30 this morning..and so did brent and i.  however, we did crawl back in bed while the kids watched a movie.  you got to do what you have to do...in order to survive.  seriously.  we got up early enough.  since then, brent has been rather busy..

what brent did today:

went grocery shopping (with finn)
brought back coffee and breakfast burritos
cut the grass
pulled weeds
trimmed hedge
blew everything clean with lawn blower
took his car to the car wash
took my car to the car wash
played legos with max
played catch with finn


here is what i did:

watered plants outside
trimmed a rose bush and the blackberry bush
played legos with max
wrote check for finn's school for this week
signed up / paid for hot lunch for max this semester
packed finn's lunch for tomorrow
fed the boys
napped with finn
did two loads of laundry
napped again

although we each have ten items on our lists, they don't seem very even.  i'm just so tired.  finn slept for over three hours at nap time but had some dinner and hopefully he will be able to sleep again tonight.  max stayed up all day and i have to admit...spent too much time on the ipad.  he fell asleep around 5:30 and now at 7:30 is still out.  not good.  not sure how the rest of the night will go. i suspect another 4:30 start of the day for max.  and the rest of us.  and guess who is to be back at work tomorrow?  sigh.

max has been out of school for two months now.  so far, i think he has enjoyed his summer.  the first week he was off, he and luke attended a tennis camp arranged by ymca.  they had fun, learned a bit (i think) and enjoyed spending the time together.  the following week was sports camp through santa clara university which was great.  the kids got to try all kinds of sports including the favorites such as baseball, tennis and basketball. the week after that was july 4th week so there were no camps and max spent some time hanging with dad and came with me to work and had a play date or two.  thereafter, he attended two weeks of learning camp held at his school from 9 to 12 every day.  a great time to keep on track with the reading, writing and math while seeing the close buddies.  as of yesterday, we returned home from a two-and a half week vacation in sweden.  just about two more weeks of summer for our guy and then..he will become a 1st grader!  unbelievable.