back on swedish soil.

none of us are morning people, but we all managed to make it up and out the door to the airport on time. thanks to tony our wonderful chauffeur. so we flew back to göteborg...

and do not tell tony, but on the way home we stopped by for a visit withe franz and anna and their two adorable little ones.  they had this great outdoor farm/play area nearby.  had a fika, did a bit of playing and enjoying the company...

little inez was just so cute and so little.  not sure i remember that eijla was ever that small.  now she is jsut a bit ball of buse!

they even had some animals there that the girls could pet, including this huge rabbit.

great seeing franz, anna, esikil and meeting inez.  zoe and eijla though inez was just the greatest.

and the two good looking gentlemen of the house...

still a bit of drive ahead of us, we stopped an hour or so from home and bought picnic supplies at ica, and headed to the nearest beach we could find. 

some moments in life are just too perfect for words...

believe it or not. zoe took this picture, she is really turning into a little photographer.  i might have some serious competition soon!

what a great trip.  i tell ya,  traveling with my family is just one of those things i am so grateful for. 

what?!?! last day already!

our last day was spent just enjoying the time with our wonderful hosts before we had to head back to the airport.  tony serenaded the girls and zoe danced for everyone's entertainment.

then we headed out to a local nature reserve for a bit of a wandering and some fresh air.  great way to for the girls to get rid of some energy before being belted into a airplane chair.  though at one point both both girls were fighting over the stroller eijla was using.  good thing they have a super strong pappa!

ellia and tony were all kinds of cute playing in the grass.

she was such a riot.  when tony took her shoes off, she did not want to put her feet on the ground until he put them back on. she literally sat with her feet up in the air so that they would not touch the ground. silly girl, but oh so adorable.

zoe wore herself out running around like the crazy monkey she is. 

and eilja decided it was more fun to ride standing up backwards than sitting down forwards.  go figure.

and it is off to the airport bright and early tomorrow morning.  thank you tony, sep, and ellia for a really great weekend, we had a blast and hope next time we can return the favor.  you guys are gold.

another day in paradise, uh i mean england.

i swear when you are on vacation there is nothing to do but relax and enjoy.  and that is just what we are doing.  and there is nothing like waking up the snuggles of two adorable little girls. think this is probably my favorite shot of the whole trip. 

zoe and ellia really hit it off.  the two had all kinds of fun together.

sep and i got a shopping trip in during the morning, found all kinds of great stuff for zoe's upcoming birthday.  then in the afternoon, while tony and i discussed his future website, zoe kept sep busy with crafts.  that girl is crafty!

dinner was delicious persian food a la sep served up picnic style in the donovans cozy garden.  good food, great company, and...

crazy little monkeys full of wild energy (not to mention some crazy eijla hair), made for another terrific evening at che donovans.

not so dreary england...

so yesterday we headed to the airport and flew to england to visit our good friends the donovans.  we arrived pretty late last night, so we just crashed, but this morning we headed out to cambridge for a bit of fun. love our modern 21st century dads.  they know how to push a stroller and look good doing it!

we walked about, the college and cathedral were closed to to graduation ceremonies, but the market was open. tony was a big hit.

eijla tried to make a run for it, but pappa caught her just in time.  crazy monkey child.

the donovans are just that cute!

of course there was an ice cream stop. 

and we wandered the "back streets" of cambridge. our little gang.

i picked up a new backpack, but found it to be a bit too wiggly!

in the evening we did what we all do best, chilled.  tony and sep have a great garden, and it was a terrific place to hang out.

and bubbles were the perfect end to a really enjoyable day...

finally caught up!

so i have finally made it. the day i publish is the day it happened.  unbelievable. this is the first time i have been caught up since we were in thailand.  yeah, i am a slacker.  but i do get it done eventually.  aside from allergies i am really having a great summer. the weather has been mostly amazing. the garden is growing. the girls are growing. and thomas is thomas (he claims that greatness is described as thomas, so i am using his definition here!).
tomorrow we are flying to london for a few days to catch up with the donovans.  really looking forward to it.  today we made muffins, and we used the yummy sprinkles that auntie zita and uncle fredrik gave zoe.  everyone swears they made the muffins ten times yummier!

cheerio!

pinic!

so i filled the bread maker with all the ingredients, and set the timer, thinking we could have delicious fresh bread for breakfast the next morning.  however i neglected one small item.  i forgot to push start!  so there was no bread for breakfast.  instead when it was finally ready later in the day we had a picnic with "momma bread".  yum!

these are the times to just enjoy.  wish i could remember that more instead of thinking in the back of my head of all the other things i should be doing.  honestly there are no other things i should be doing, than soaking up these moments of being a family.  who knows how long it is going to be until the girls won't have time for us.  so now we need to make the time for them.

midsommars celebrations!

down to furulund we headed for the festivities.  we were late as per usual, but luckily jessica did not mind!  the lunch was crazy good with salmon pie and sill, and gravad lax, with much, much more...

 so we ate, and then there was swimming...

 and the dressing of the middsommars pole...

 the guys were of course very helpful...

 we were so busy eating all day that we had barely time to sing and dance around the midsommars pole, but the girls made sure it happened...

 rebecka and eijla were tied at the hip.  the two were almost never seen apart.  she even taught eijla to ride a bike!

 the four years olds were adorable, and crazy, running around like maniacs and making everyone laugh.

 the festivities went one well into the night, i think we finally ate dinner around 2230!  there was just so much good food, seemed like we never stopped eating!  but we all crashed, and most of us slept in, though there were a few early risers...thank you family annermalm for a wonderful midsommars.  though i must say it was certainly much like christmas, cuz christer disabled the alarm on our car, and all i can say now is i feel so very happy and so very free!  christer is my hero!  and i think rebecka is eijla's.

 after the annermalms we headed to farmor and farfars to pick up bonita.  they had a bunch of cherries growing on their tree, so zoe and i picked them.  zoe claimed she did not like cherries, and then proceeded to eat about a million of them!

eijla was a bit of a grumpy butt, stayed up way too late the night before.  but farfar is just a stubborn and managed to get some food in that grumpy mouth.

 then there was some farmor snuggles...

 which just made someone else jealous so there were even more farmor snuggles...

 and then we enjoyed a spectacular sunset for a good portion of the drive home.  ah, life IS beautiful.

the randomness of june

eijla, my little sweet toothed baby.  if she knows there is ice cream or candy around she goes crazy until she gets some.  a compromise is that i have been freezing yoghurt into little yoghurt pops.  a slightly healthier alternative.  the other day i gave her one and she went out to the garden and sat down and enjoyed.  thought it was so cute.

thomas snapped this shot of zoe last night, she had curled up on a beanbag and fell asleep.  so peaceful they are when they are sleeping...

thomas got beer glasses and an umbrella from svb for midsommars.  the logos were quite witty.  not sure what is more funny/ironic here, the umbrella or thomas' shirt!  happy summer everybody!