A little of everything

I guess I've been a bad blogger lately, and I'm sorry. I liked your last post though! Makes me jealous that Mom and Dad can come to see you so easily. And Rudy and Sadie. I can imagine little kids loved seeing them. They probably acted like I do every time I see a small dog here.

It's been a pretty calm couple of weeks here, but in an attempt to be a better blogger I've been taking pictures of things along the way. So here are some more picture updates...


A little while back Anders, Jenny, and Ludvig moved from Stockholm to Malmo, which has definitely been a little sad since it was fun having them close. We visited them their last day in Stockholm while they were packing up and I got to hold Ludvig while he slept. I wish you all could have met him when you were here!







A few weeks ago they celebrated midsummer here, which is kind of like a giant outdoor party. Everyone goes out and has a picnic then they raise this green leaf covered pole they all dance around. I'm not making it up. It was fun to see though.

The pole...just trust me, there are people dancing around it.

Overall it's been a really pretty summer so far! Sometimes a little cool for me, but I'm pretty sure Dad would be in heaven. We've been enjoying it by taking some nice walks around the city. We saw this really pretty lookout point on an especially pretty day.

And we've been making "summery" foods:)
Annnd, this was dinner the other night...and artichoke heart. I'm getting more adventurous.

This last weekend we went to this beautiful island in the archipelago named Sandhamn. It's a little over 2 hour boat ride to get there, but the ride itself was part of the fun since it was so pretty.

Camilla and Michel came along too!

An old fortress we saw on the way there

Getting into Sandhamn

The water was so cold I didn't dare to get in. Bjorn, Michel, and Camilla were braver than me...

But they got out pretty quickly:)

We ate dinner at at a restaurant near the dock, and the view was beautiful. So I thought you should see.

On our way home. Not a bad day:)

I've started babysitting a little girl here named Naomi. She's 17 months old, and she has an Australian mom and American dad. She's a really, really sweet baby. This is from a few days ago when she was picking flowers.

I thought I would leave you with a few entertaining pictures of my hubby. This is how I found him cooking the other day...

And this I took as proof. I'm the one who's known for loving sweets and I think there's an idea that he might not be as interested in them as me. Well, that would be wrong. He's squinting because he knows he's caught...:)

Ha... I might be in trouble for posting those....

That was maybe picture overload again, but it gives you an idea of things here. I miss y'all though and I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving. I'm definitely going to have to find a way to go to Birmingham to see your house.

Give me an update soon!

Love you,
Allie

yard crashers to the rescue....(i wish)

Hey Al....I know it's been a while, but man this week was busy. We enjoyed having Mom and Dad come visit us last weekend. They are so fun to have around and we always feel treated when they come up, whether it's a nice dinner or the lovely flowers dad likes to put in a vase for all to see and appreciate.

We had a great dinner on Friday night of last week at Zia Rotisserie Grill in Brookwood Village.

Saturday morning we took M & D to this little Farmer's Market not far from our house and had a good time walking around.

Dad immediately became a celebrity holding little Sadie and had many a munchkin wanting to get their hands on her. Dad was happy to oblige them:)

Saturday, we left the parents to fend for themselves and went to Aaron and Angelia's little wedding party for all the people who couldn't make it to Ohio for the wedding in May....Sam was supposed to be a groomsman, but we were at your wedding celebration instead;) You should feel super special:)

Tuesday we had Austin over for dinner and Sam grilled out....Austin is so fun to hang out with. The older he gets the more I fell like he's the older brother I never got to have, but now that he's so much bigger than us, it kind of feels like he's that "bigger" brother.

Wednesday, Callie and David came through Birmingham on their way back to Texas and spent the night with us. We went to Rojo and had a great time with them and their newest addition:

Meet "Sully" short for Sullivan. He's a Wheaton Terrior and literally looks like a walking Teddy Bear. He was so cute to have a around for the night:) We also enjoyed getting to visit with Callie and David.

As you might be wondering from the title of this post, last weekend Sam, Dad and I watched several episodes of "Yard Crashers" and were blown away by what the host of the show, Ahmed Hassan, can do with yards like ours. Our yard looked good when we bought the house, and then we quickly discovered that under all the pine straw was about 75% black tarp, tree roots, and best of all, a cement drainage ditch (?) that puts a huge dent in our "quickly-level-everything- and-re-sod" plan. So, we decided on a whim to make a quick video and Austin ended up being our camera man/director and I would love to show it to you...(please don't make fun, Al.)

Let me know what you think! I found the guy on facebook and sent him a message with our video....who knows...he might make a special trip for us:) haha!

Hope you are celebrating the 4th of July since you are still an American and lived most of your life in this great country (no offense to Sweden). ha.

Love you!

Whiggle

Happy Late Father's Day

Dad....this one is for you:) Happy late Father's day...you're awesome!

Goose Island Getaway

Hey Whiggle.

Sorry it's been a little while again! Loved the last post with pictures of Nichole, I'm really sad I couldn't be there, it looked like a lot of fun to get to hang out with her. I got to talk to her on Sunday through Skype which was really nice. I hope she's able to come at Thanksgiving, I'd love to really meet her!

Last weekend we went to Gothenburg from Friday to Sunday and it was so much fun! We rented a little car and drove down to visit Bjorn's mom, Margaretha and her Bjorn. Friday night we had great dinner at their beautiful new apartment in Gothenburg and spent the night there. The next day we got up early and left for her Bjorn's summer house on Gåsö (Goose Island). It's about an hour drive away from Gothenburg to get to the small harbor on the west coast where Bjorn has a boat, which is the only way to get to the island. Here are some of the trip...

There are these really pretty flowers alongside the road on the way to Gothenburg...

...his mom loves them so we stopped to pick her a few:)

Bjorn's boat at the harbor

On the way to Goose Island

Margaretha got her boating license recently and drove us over!

One room of the very charming island home

Margaretha and her Bjorn

And old house that's been made into a hotel

Pictures from our walk/hike

View from his house into the garden

Lunch in the garden after the walk!

Bjorn's house

It really was one of the most relaxing weekends...no cars, small numbers of people, almost no noise besides the water. It was pretty perfect.

Last night we went to Uppsala and had a great dinner with a friend of Bjorn's from med school, Anna, her husband Kalle, and their one month old daughter Inez. I don't think I've ever seen a baby that young with so much hair on her head. She was SO cute though, and a such a sweet baby.


Hmmm... that's probably enough pictures for now, right? :)

Hope you had a really good weekend too! I still want pictures of the house now that you're moved in!

Miss youuu Whiggle,
Allie