Texas 2018

We are back from a fun but very hot trip to visit family and friends in Texas! This time we got to feed bison and ostriches, swam with baby alligators, wore a python as a necklace and tried an apple pie hamburger, just to name a few things.

Between the four of us, we made it out with just one sunburn, about 40 mosquito bites and 13 fire ant bites (all on one foot).

San Francisco 2018

Max’s 11th Birthday!

Bracciano, Italy

Måns and I celebrated our 18th anniversary in Bracciano, Italy. We visited the medieval castle that towers over the town, the Italian airforce museum with planes from 1909 – 1960s, and the town of Calcata that hangs over a cliff. The people were friendly and gave us things for free everywhere we went. The food was good, as usual and most important – we saw the sun and it didn’t rain!

Christmas 2017

The month of Christmas has been very busy and fun! From Christmas markets to concerts, making gingerbread houses and robots, and finally food and presents…

Orta San Guilio, Italy

Our fall break trip to Orta San Guilio, Italy on Lake Orta, near Lake Maggiore. Beautiful fall colors, great food, great views.

Italy – Week 3 – Tuscany

Måns’ mom Katarina, sister Malin and her husband Christian with their kids, Clara and Hannes, joined us for the third week of our Italy trip in Tuscany! We rented 2 apartments in a farmhouse that Måns and I stayed in after we were married 17 years ago. We swam most days, the kids jumped on the trampoline, threw pinecones from the treehouse, and we ate dinner outside most evenings.

The kids’ journal entries from Tuscany:

Leo: We went to Lucca and swam at the beach with 5,000,000,000 baby clams on a sandbank.

Max: We went to Löka (?) and went to the beach.

Leo: We went to San Gimignano and looked at 68 bag stores. *sob* (Please save me from this horror!)

 

 

 

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Italy – Week 2 – Cinque Terre

Week 2 in Italy was spent in the town of Levanto next to the Cinque Terre. Levanto was a great little town with a beach where we could walk everywhere. We rented an apartment in the medeival section of town and walked 5 minutes to the beach almost every day. We also took the train to visit the towns in the Cinque Terre. Beautiful!

On one day, even though the weather was nice, the waves were extraordinarily large! No one was allowed to swim because they were so dangerous. There must have been a storm in the Mediterranean, but it never reached us.

And now, some entries from the boy’s journals about the trip:

(Regarding the very large waves one day)

Leo: Today the waves were “ARE YOU KIDDING ME” TALL! For most of the day, we weren’t allowed to swim.

Max: The beach was wavy. It was fun.

(Regarding the towns of Cinque Terre)

Max: We went to 3 different towns. We waited 1 HOUR for the train.

Leo: We took a train and visited a few cities. My favorite was Riomaggiore because we got to drink Powerade there.

 

 

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Italy – Week 1 – Lake Garda

We spent the first week of our 3-week Italy trip in Salò on Lake Garda. After flying into Milan and stopping for lunch in Bergamo, we spent a week on Lake Garda at Conte Brunello (a place we stayed before). We had the top floor apartment with a view over the lake and mountains. Each morning the kids could get fresh eggs from the chickens. We swam every day and ate breakfast outside each morning.

We visted a water park, a lemon farm and went swimming in the lake (cold, clear water). We ate ice cream every day and filled ourselves with pasta.

 

I will now include descriptions of our week from what the boys wrote in our travel journal…

 

Max: We went up a mountain and then down. We swam alot.

Leo: We went to a water park. My favorite slide: Black Hole!

Max: We swam, swam, swam, swam, ate, swam, swam and had fun.

Leo: Ice cream of the day – chocolate mint.

Max: We swam and saw lemons. Not much more.