Swimming in the ocean in September

While in Halmstad on September 20th, William and I took a dip in the ocean. It was surprisingly warm. I would guesstimate the water temperature was close to 20 degrees Celsius.

 

Summer vacation Part 2

So the summer vacation came and went. Being off for 7 weeks was great, but somehow it went by too fast anyway. Some of the highlights were showing Sini Linköping by bike, visiting Anna-Lisa and Niklas and getting to meet their baby Elise, taking William and niece Ella to Astrid Lindgren's world, running with my big brother Leif, running with my little brother Janne, taking William fishing with my dad and Janne, boat ride to Luleå archipelago, shopping with my mom, kid-free
lunch date with my husband and running along the old railroad tracks in Tornedalen.

  

Happy Sweden Day!

Spent the National day of Sweden in the capital and happened to see the entire royal family when the royal cortege came by. Here is the crown Princess Victoria and her family.

This is my first time ever seeing anyone from our royal family. Live. And the best part was that I got to see my friend Linn (who is a mounted police) escorting them.

Au-pair reunion - we made it happen!

William and I took the train from Linköping to Copenhagen where we met up with Irina and Maja who flew in from Münich. There we rented a car and drove down together to Nykøbing, Falster. Grit and Milo took a 6 hour bus ride from Berlin and Mette drove down with Sebastian and Nicoline from Copenhagen. So there we were, almost 10 years after our last get-together. My totally awesome friends! And now with their really cool kids!

 

We spent 4 nights together in a beautiful house on the Danish country side. We hung out, played, went to the beach, cooked and spent the evenings, after the kids were asleep, catching up over wine. These girls are great! Hanging out with them makes me so happy! And now they are all wonderful moms!

Now that I am back in Europe I hope to make this in to an annual get together. I also plan to visit each one of them. I love traveling in Europe, and William is a great travel partner!

Springtime in Luleå

As luck has it, I was able to score an internship in Luleå, and got to go visit my family at the same time. I brought William along, so he could stay with mormor and morfar while I worked.

Spring and summer are my 2 favorite seasons in northern Sweden. Since we moved to the states, we had only visited Luleå in either the summer or for Christmas. Actually, I don't know when I was last in Luleå in spring, but might be about 10 years ago. This time was exactly as nice as I remember it. Tons of snow. Lots of sun. And plenty warm enough to play outside. I got to go sledding with William and my niece Ella, go "kick-sledding" and have a picnic on the Bay of Bothnia with William and my mom and go cross-country skiing with my dad.

We also had timed it with my little brother's university graduation. Our visit couldn't have been better.

Weekend visit to Copenhagen and Malmö

This post is very late. More than a month late. So I will be brief.

William and I took a trip down to see our friends Mette and Rene and their kids Sebastian and Nicoline in Copenhagen a weekend in March. Mette was my first friend in California, when I was there as an au-pair in 1998. Last time I saw Mette, seven years ago, she was pregnant with Sebastian. It was really cool to see her with her kids, and for them to get to meet William. I love visiting Mette and Rene. The atmosphere in their place is always so calm and welcoming. Breakfast is my favorite part, since they get fresh bread from the bakery for breakfast.

After our short visit in Copenhagen we met up with Chris in Malmö and stayed one night at a hotel. Chris had gone down to Malmö for a skate contest. We did all our travelling by train. I love being back in Europe and being able to use public transportation. It's so easy to take the train places, and William loves it too! Hoping to do a lot more of that in the future!

First time seeing turning torso :)