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!








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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.

Walking!

Walking is really cool. I will never take it for granted again that I can use both legs.

So the foot is healing. What a difference two weeks has made. Two weeks ago I was still completely dependent on crutches. Now, I've given them up completely and I even lift up the small children in the house. I'm now in training to be walking into town and back a couple times a day by the end of the month. Not a terribly long walk, maybe 20 minutes downhill, but uphill is a killer, and takes much longer. Not to mention the ice and snow on the way.

Walking is really cool.

Planning Begins Anew

I still can't walk, really. But we are planning anyway. We hope to be in Greece by the end of July. That sounds ambitious, but it's a good way to start. I've learned a lot about aiming high and not feeling devastated when things don't work out exactly as planned. Maybe we will only make it as far as Sweden by July.

After Greece, maybe Turkey. Or Italy. Other places to hit over the summer: Germany, Switzerland, Austria? Or perhaps we will start by going straight over the water to Scotland and working our way south via the UK. That would mean a stop in Amsterdam. Oh, Amsterdam!

We are actively looking for house-sitting gigs, which also might change the direction we travel. If you know of anyone who needs a couple of former chamber-maid/stewards to take care of their place for a few weeks this summer, please send them our way.

And check out our new 'Links to Other Useful Sites' page!
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There's more to add. If we've forgotten something, please just let us know. More new pages are in the works.

If you've been reading our blog for a while, and know how we traveled last summer, it will be obvious to you that everything can change quickly for us. We totally had a plan last year, and only the major elements didn't change over the course of the summer. Something similar will probably happen this year.

And by the way: Thanks for sticking with us.


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