Crafternoon

Today is a rainy day here in Bergen. I know, imagine that! Alora and Brittan have been here since Thursday evening. They traveled here from Atlanta via Chicago and Copenhagen. Alora's bag got lost in Copenhagen, so we were waiting a while outside the airport for them while she waited in vain and then filled out the forms to have it delivered to us. Maxwell and Zara came with me to meet them, but Cara was busy at the cytof so she met us at home. The girls were exhausted after their journey, but we kept them up into the evening so they could adjust to this timezone. Alora, on vacation and finally allowing herself to relax, got sick. I haven't ever puke on a plane, but I bet that's a special kind of unfun.

Friday Cara had to go to work, but the kids and I decided to summit Løvstakken. Even Maxwell and Zara hadn't been up there yet. It was an extremely overcast day, but the rain was light so it seemed like a good idea. Alora made it up the street to the trailhead, but her strength petered out pretty quick and she turned back. The rest of us followed the gravel path to the stream trail and then opp! Brittan talked a big talk beforehand, but this was definitely a tougher hike than she expected. Still, she soldiered on while Zara and Maxwell told her all about hiking and their lives i Norge. Brittan noticed how Zara doesn't exactly speak a language anymore, but instead intersperses Norwegian and French into her English without realizing it. It's a perfectly normal thing for her peer group, so why wouldn't she? We took a matpause (snack break) at the top of the stream and then continued up to the tree line. It wasn't long until we were inside a cloud, but we did catch some glimpses down to the Nordåsvann on one side and Fyllingsdalen down on the other. Above the treeline there was a little snow, but mostly it had been rained away. On the summit the kids signed the book and Brittan and I each had a celebratory juløl. Brittan didn't really like hers.

Having realized what good time we'd made I decided to lead us down into the city rather than back toward our place in Bønes. This also gave Brittan a look down into the Bergen city center once we got below the clouds, and Maxwell and Zara could show her the places where they've done partial hikes up Løvstakken before. I still don't have a replacement phone from my fall in the fjord, so Brittan texted Cara to meet us at the Bergen Julemarked for the evening. Cara was headed home already so she grabbed Alora and they rode the bus in to meet us. We enjoyed rødvinsgløgg, smultringer and pølser for dinner before Maxwell and Zara headed home. The rest of us stayed to do a little shopping and enjoy the evening.

Yesterday was pretty low key. Cara and I spent the morning and early afternoon finishing up our Christmas shopping downtown and then the rest of the afternoon wrapping. In the evening we introduced the kids the present game I wrote about in my last blog. Zara, as expected, was super stressed about it but the other kids really enjoyed it.

This afternoon the kids and Cara are crafting away on swag bags I brought back from the AWS conference. Maxwell taped fish to his. The girls are getting a little more intense on theirs. There may be some weaving going on. This is after our morning walk down to Langegården where the kids got to see all the farm animals: horses in the pasture, chickens in their barn, pigs wandering around their muddy sty, and the farm dog Vilma jumping on and licking us all.