Norway Week 4

This week has been a very busy time for us at home and at school. I am now teaching a middle school French class in addition to Learning Support in the primary, which means I participated in the Primary Open House and the Middle School Open House this week. In between those two evenings we got our furniture and Justin had an adventure putting it all together (IKEA we love you!) And Maarit attended full days of preschool which means she had a blast and got exhausted... and we all got our first Norway head-cold. It has been a weekend of just relaxing and naps for us, but of course we got outside to play in the rain, that's what you do in Norway.

This photo is of our yard. Our landlords, literally the sweetest people one could ever imagine as landlords, essentially gave this to Maarit. We are the first people they have ever rented to and they are so nervous wanting us to be happy in our new home that they ask every time we see them. And of course we do love it and the location especially. They had this trampoline for their 4 boys who are now grown (the last 2 are in their last year of high school) and so they moved it to our side of the yard for Maarit to play with. She loves it of course...it's her "Bounce House."

Maarit playing pull-ups on the local playground.

And swinging!

I have really appreciated the beautiful and unique little boat houses along the fjord. This one with the old boat is one of my favorites because the boat is actually full of sand and has sand toys in it for kids.

A stone sided boat house, which is very common along our fjord. Justin really likes these.

A local jelly-fish. These are not too horrible, I have heard. I don't plan to let one sting me, but they do live in the fjord and people have been stung. I am not sure that I will be swimming with them or letting Maarit swim with them, but we may try to catch a few. They are pretty awesome little guys.

Another interesting and beautiful boat house.

Our local swan family. They hang out on the fjord here where a fresh water spout runs into the sea and they only have one baby. We see them every morning on our way to school.

A crab trap at the end of our pier. Maarit has been checking on these guys and more keep getting trapped. Someone is preparing for a very fresh crab dinner.

Today was haircut day. We all, even Nana, got haircuts from Daddy. (Daddy did his own!) We cut about 5 inches off Maarit's hair (we are trying to make it easier to brush before school). She was really proud to have her haircut. This was her first all over haircut, my mom cut her bangs so she could see when she as about 14 months old. She looks so grown up with her new hairdo.

Maarit regularly takes the little camera and takes pictures. Soon we will have a Maarit picture only blog post, but this one was so funny and creative I had to add it.

And she took a picture of Mommy getting her hair cut.

Family picture from a hike in the nearby forest.

Maarit by the big rock beach.

From the big rock beach looking into Sola which is where visitors will fly in when they come to see us.
This week should be much more calm and give us opportunity to explore. We are expecting Papa to arrive tomorrow (I guess he figured if he didn't come to get her Nana wouldn't come home!) and we plan to do some exploring of the area with them over the next week and then they will travel on to Oslo and Sweden from here.