Spring is on it's way and so are we

Well, it rained today. Really hard. And the snow is melting fast. There's still a lot of snow, but the roads are clear.

So out came the bikes!

We rode up and down the driveway, testing the bikes and ourselves. Everything seems to work okay! Brakes were a little squeaky at first, but that's to be expected.

And in a few days we'll leave our happy cozy Norwegian paradise. We are going to miss the warm, busy, cozy, full home here. Little monsters and elves running everywhere - laughing, crying, shrieking, hugging, smiling.

But the time has come, and our next destination is calling - we'll be house-sitting in Scotland until June 1st or so. Hopefully we'll do our share of small trips while we're there, just a bit west of Glasgow in a very tiny town. Then in June we'll bicycle our way through the UK, visiting our buddy Budge in Newcastle, and at some point we'll take a ferry to The Netherlands. Back to Amsterdam! Yay!

Stowaway

Somebody snuck into the bag before we left Monterey...

another day in the snow (before it started raining)

The snow is about half as tall as it was yesterday, at least at our altitude. I don't know if the scenery has changed up on the mountain, where we were yesterday.





Natalia, kids, Joshua and I made our way up to Fitjadalen, where there's that little hut by the lake... Yeah, it wasn't exactly easy access this time.






Climbed over the snow bank to...






A nice place for a fire...





It was pretty cozy.








Joshua did a lot of rolling around in the snow.









Then we went for a walk...




Jasmin gets towed on the sled. Joshua only ran her into the snow a few times.



Go to sleep little munchkins.

Demonstrating the height of the snow along the road - it's as tall as Joshua!








- rolling post

shoveling/weather report

I keep shoveling but the snow keeps falling!

a few days ago the snow was pretty deep. today we had scattered sunshine and we took a walk up the hill.










aaaaand... the view.


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Enough Snow? No!

The snow situation here is awesome. Joshua and I went on a walk a couple of days ago, up the road, past where the tractor plow does not go.

obligatory icicles photo

Joshua rolled a giant snowball, but wouldn't roll it down the hill. We pushed it to the side.

obligatory moss shot?

The next day Anders took the kids skiing up on the neighboring mountain. There are cross-country loops, but the kids just went up and down a small hill for a while. Good views.

And maybe you're wondering just where our bicycles are? Well. They're here. Upstairs.

yesterday v. today

Yesterday we went out for another snow play day. It even snowed on us for a few minutes! Very exciting.









This morning we woke up to this:




That was hours ago. It's still snowing.







We love snow.

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More Snow Fun

What do you do with a bunch of little kids when it's snowy out for months at a time? Bundle 'em up and put 'em outside. It's raining today, which feels strange when there's about 3 feet of snow on the ground. Yesterday it snowed for a while, and then when the clouds were kind of clearing we went out and had some snowy fun. We made a little snow-woman. The kids used sleds on their backyard to great effect. They get so bundled up they can't see, hear, walk, hold on to hardly anything. Hats, mittens, wool pants over wool leggings, wool sweaters over wool undershirts, huge one-piece snow suits, and boots that are made to be tripped over. But did they have a blast? Of course!

Creepy little snow lady

Help getting out from under the table

Even a picnic table can be an adventure.


And here's a photo from a few days ago when the snow was still nice enough to ski in - Joshua coming up the hill after a wee ski.