Dancing to Pippi

This is just a short clip of Samuel and Sofia jamming to the Pippi song. I loved Sofia leg-thing she's doing :)!

Summer Olympics 2008 in Sweden

Two years ago, we organized a mini-olympics for all the cousins complete with different events including "the airplane toss", "name that food" and "draw the tail on the pig". This year, we did it again and it was so much fun. Especially since all the kids were two years older and could do more stuff. We had a total of 14 contestants ranging from the age of 1.5 to 8 years old. This is just a little clip from two of the events: Making silly faces, and tossing the pine-cone. I'll add some pictures when we get them. Per (Chris' dad) was the photographer for the afternoon and we're waiting to get copies of all the pictures he took.

This clip is of Samuel and Sofia doing their silly faces :!

And this one is a pine-cone toss

The sun has found Sweden at last!!!

Swimming out in the ocean at Uncle Daniel and Aunt Eva's summer cabin

Yesterday we had a little family BBQ here at our apt. We have a grill in the middle of the complex that anyone and everyone can use. This is the first time we've taken advantage of it.

Sofia and cousin Hanna enjoying their watermellon!

Enjoying ice cream at the end of an extremely hot day :) YEA!!!

Liseberg!

This week we got to go to Liseberg! It's this huge amusement park (equivalent to Lagoon for those who know) filled with games, rides and food. It's pretty big here in Gothenburg. We went last year and Samuel loved it. We've decided to start a tradition and start going there once every summer. It's a lot of fun and the kids love it. Here are some pictures. 

Sunsets at 10:00

Despite the rain and not so warm weather during the summers one thing that I do love about Swedish summers is how much light there is. During the longest day of the year, the sun rose at 3:30 am and set around 11:00pm. It's awesome! This sunset picture was taken at 10:00 tonight. (The opposite holds though throughout the winter months. Sunrise: 9:00 am. Sunset: 3:00pm. That's awful!)

Pictures

These are some random pictures from the past couple months. Included is mid-summer, the 4th, and Astrid Lindgrens World! Enjoy!

by malmfamily100

Gothia Cup

Each year over 1500 football (soccer) teams from around the world come to Gothenburg as it hosts one of the largest youth football tournaments in the world. It's so fun to take the tram downtown and watch all the games being played from 127 different countries. I always keep my eye open for the American teams and love being able to listen to my mother tongue again spoken by AMERICANS! It's cool seeing so many different nationalities come together to play football! This year Samuel really got into and wanted to be out on the field himself playing. During half-time, we got to run out and he thought it was great! (notice his american football jersey and basketball shorts...:))

 

Samuel in action!

               

  On the tram on our way home:)

Time Flies!

So, it is now mid-July and this is my 3rd post this year. Not so great. I don't know what it is, but I just haven't been able to get into this whole blog-thing. But, as I've been reading and searching around others, I've realized what a great thing blogging can be and I want to try to rededicate myself so that one day maybe I can deem myself a "blogger" as well. 

I liked what my friend Maria did on her blog when she hadn't written in awhile. She wrote up a top 10 list of highlights that had happened since she last wrote. So, here's ours:

1. Chris got a new job!!! He had been working at a little consultancy firm for the past two years, not really enjoying it and has been searching for a new job for quite awhile! It's actually really hard to get a job here in Sweden these days, so he hasn't had much luck until 2 weeks ago! SKF (www.skf.com) is one of the largest international companies. They're very family-oriented and secure. Chris will be working in their global communications group working a lot on their intranet and success stories (amongst other things). This is really exciting for us, not only because it's a new job, but also because it's an international company which could lead to international travels (ie. America) in a couple years! 

2. In May both Chris and I ran the Gothenburg Half Marathon! It's my second time and Chris' 6th. Over 50,000 people register and around 35,000 people actually run. The atmosphere is amazing and so incredibly thrilling! Chris got 1.29 and I 2.03. Both were satisfied. 

3. SUMMER!!! Since it's July, Chris (along with the rest of Sweden) has a 4 week summer vacation. I'm not kidding, I don't know anybody who works during July (besides store people). Swedes are very hard workers, but they're also great at relaxing when the time comes. So, we've been enjoying having dad home this month! Although, the summer's been anything but summer! Which is very frustrating for me who's used to 100F Utah-summers. All month it's been cloudy or rainy and hasn't reached above mid 70's. We're all praying for a couple sunny days so we can prepare for the long, dark winter months ahead. 

4. Mary was recently called to work in the Stake YW. At first I was very scared considering all our teachings are in Swedish and I'd have to speak it constantly. However, since then, I feel much better and am even getting excited about it. (Although, a bit sad that I won't get to work on a ward level with the girls.) But, I've been here for nearly 6 years, and I've got to stop using the language barrier as an excuse. I know Swedish, and it's time for me step up to the plate and use it! 

5. We just got back from Astrid Lindgrens World! Astrid Lindgren is the author of Pippi and about a dozen other Swedish characters that never made it internationally (or at least to Utah). They've built this huge fairy-tale land with all the characters from her books and have opened a park where kids can go and meet all the characters and where "kids can be kids". It was really fun. Not only for the kid, but for the adults too. Every half hour or so, they do little plays where they reenact the books and the kids just love it! Samuel got really into, but was a little sceptical about going up and meeting the actual characters afterwards. His favorites were Pippi, Emil, and Karlsson-på-taket (Karlsson-on-the-roof). It's fun for me that Samuel is growing up with all these Swedish stuff that I never knew that is such a part of Chris. But, it also makes me sad that he doesn't know what the 4th of July is or parades or Thanksgiving or baseball or American football or Dr. Seuss or mac and cheese or any of the American stuff. We're trying to show him both sides, but being in Sweden and having 10 small swedish  cousins close by makes it harder to get that American side in. The other day, we had Jello for the first time though. 

Well, top 5 will have to do for now. Like I said, I'll try to be more faithful and add pictures and movies and updates more often. I hope you all enjoy!